Forty students gathered Tuesday night to hear guest lecturers speak about the effects of and the resistance to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Dominican Republic and the World Bank in South Africa.
The lecture, given by Victor Geronimo and Virginia Setshedi, was part of a tour of colleges and was sponsored by 50 Years is Not Enough, a Non-Government Organization (NGO) formed in 1994 to resist actions by the IMF and World Bank.
Geronimo, whose native language is Spanish, lectured with the aid of translator Patti Skillin ’04. Geronimo, a journalist, lawyer and, and activist, works with Conversions of Movements and People in America (COMPA), an NGO responsible for two of the most powerful general strikes in the Dominican Republic.
Geronimo lectured about what he said is the violence and poverty associated with the implementation of structured loans from the IMF and World Bank. He began with video footage taken during a general strike in the Dominican Republic last January.
“It’s important to look at the images because the images speak more than words,” he said.
The video showed the parts of the two-day strike, which emptied the city streets and showed soldiers firing on students, who were off-camera.
According to Geronimo, 27,000 military personnel were dispatched throughout the country. During this strike eight people died and hundreds were wounded.
“This isn’t Iraq. It’s the D.R.,” Geronimo said. “The country was completely militarized.”
The video shown by Geronimo also showed military men dragging a man with a disfigured face and mangled body through the street.
According to Geronimo, six additional people died in such a manner during this strike and at least one or two people die at each protest.
Geronimo then spoke at length about IMF and World Bank policies, what effects they have on the quality of life of the people living in these countries and forms of local resistance against them.
“What is their interest with our countries and our towns?” he said. “Who really gains from their politics and their actions? It’s easy to realize what’s going on. They say they would help our countries by fixing our budget and dealing with the internal financial situations of countries. Today they say it isn’t as bad as it was. I say it’s worse.”
Specifically, Geronimo criticized the conditions on which the IMF and World Bank will lend funds to nations in financial crisis.
Geronimo indicted the United States for dominating the international arena and faulted the United Nations for deferring to the United States’ dominance.
“The United States controls everything, and not just money, but resources,” he said. “The IMF and World Bank don’t do what the UN says. They do what the United States says.”
In addition, Geronimo faulted the leaders of the Dominican Republic and other countries for submitting to this political pressure. He frequently cited the international military presence in Iraq as evidence of the political pressure the Bush Administration has placed on less developed nations.
“The President of the Dominican Republic said, ‘George Bush is my friend and I’m going to follow him,’” Geronimo said.
Geronimo said he did, however, understand the difficulty of resisting pressure from the United States. He spoke specifically about nations being compelled to accommodate the interests of foreign investors.
Geronimo concluded his lecture with the idea that gatherings such as the one he showed are vital to the resistance movement against the IMF and World Bank.
“Besides just arming protests and marches, we need to arm people’s consciences,” he said. “That’s why these kinds of meetings are what we need. They create consciousness, give people perspective about what’s going on.”
Virginia Setshedi, a Johannesburg-based activist, spoke about her work in the resistance against the privatization of electricity in South Africa.
According to Setshedi, restrictions in water use have affected not only cooking but plumbing, basic hygiene, and the maintenance of medical supplies, including oxygen tanks and the refrigeration of insulin for the nation’s large number of diabetes patients.
Setshedi told the story of a woman who turned to prostitution because she had no money for food and later contracted the HIV virus.
“She wanted treatment but they told her, ‘You can’t get treatment on an empty stomach,’” Setshedi said.
Setshedi argued that if conditions are poor before privatization, they will only become worse when there is a monopoly because standards will go down. She cited the privatization of housing as an example.
“We used to have four-room ‘matchboxes,’” she said. “We demanded a house that would accommodate a family. Now, we have ‘toilets.’ One politician said, ‘If you stretch your legs they’ll fall out of the house.’”
Setshedi said that she still advocates direct action, including boycotts, pickets, and protests.
“We are fighting,” she said. “It’s not easy.”
The audience, which included many seasoned activists, lauded the guests’ approach to the issues.
“These kinds of lectures are important in a place like Wes,” said Max Mishler ’04. “Regardless of our backgrounds, we’re all in this place of privilege and we need to know how our lives contribute to the poverty in these countries. We can’t just talk about these things and think of them as abstract ideas.”
“I wish more students showed interest, and not just students from the Dominican Republic or who have been to Africa,” Ortiz said.
Other students were most struck by the similarities between the plights of the two countries.
“[I liked to hear] about connections between two countries,” said Renée-Lauren Ellis ’04. “It’s cool to see that the beginnings of a global struggle against the IMF.”
“What’s happening in South Africa is happening in the Dominican Republic, Iraq, and all over the world,” said Emma Ruby-Sachs ’04, the organizer of the evening’s lecture.
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