Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

32
What is the voting power
in the IFIs?
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Voting power:
17.4 % USA. The African blocks of states have
4.5 % of voting rights.
World Bank
Voting power:
16.5 % USA, Japan 7.9 %, Germany 4.5 %, UK 4.3 %,
France 4.3 %. India, with 16 % of the world’s
population has under 3 % votes.
role for civil society to intervene beyond the cosmetic consultations
that are conducted in the mis-named Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers;
• Structural Adjustment Programmes must be eliminated as an
expression of a one-sided creditor-imposed conditionality;
• the Fund and the Bank must use their own resources to resolve the
debt crisis (e.g., IMF gold reserves, WB loan loss reserves and retained
earnings);
• and bail-outs for private creditors must cease so that they can assume
responsibility for giving out high-risk loans.
However, these kinds of reform proposals are not sufficient, and in any
case depend on the good will of the rich and powerful countries who control
the neoliberal economy and its institutions, and who reject them a priori
as they defend their so-called “vital interests”. Countervailing actions that
are driven by people’s own experiences and alternatives are needed,
including actions that:
• break the dominance of international financial institutions and
transnational corporations by calling national governments to regulate
transnational corporations, and for a more active role for transformed
multilateral bodies;
• refuse the payment of interest on odious debts, especially in the form
of joint action by indebted countries;