An Inter Press Service Feature
By Pratap Chatterjee
WASHINGTON, Jun 30 (IPS) - Fifty years ago this weekend some 800
economists, politicians and assorted officials arrived at a hotel
i n a remote forest in the northeastern part of the United States
to plan the world's economic future.
The three-week long meet of the United Nations Monetary and
Financial Conference at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton
Woods, New Hampshire, boasted free Coca-Cola dispensers and
stunning views of the sprawling White Mountains.
Then U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau welcomed the
delegates with the challenge of creating ''a dynamic world econ
omy in which the peoples of every nation will be able to ... enjoy
increasingly, the fruits of material progress on an earth infinit
ely blessed with natural richness.''
The 160 delegates from 44 countries, and their support staff of
640, then set about drawing up agreements to create the two Brett
on Woods institutions -- the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
Today these two institutions lend some 40 billion dollars annually
to help poor countries 'develop' and achieve Morgenthau's vision.
But the reviews of how successful they have been are mixed.
Some maintain that the Bank and the IMF are the paragon of hope
for the poorest in the world, while others say they are the sourc
e of poverty and act as a neo-imperialist force.
Indeed, the Coca-Cola and the one million acres of forest that
were easily accessible to the delegates fifty years ago have become
symbolic of the two views on the success and failure of the
institutions.
Figures released by the U.S. government show that last year
Coca-Cola won 58 million dollars in contracts from the Bank and
one o f its sister institutions, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development.
It would be stretching the imagination to claim that the free
dispensers had any role in promoting the new contracts, but a number
of U.S. companies from Newmont Mining corporation in Colorado
to General Motors of Michigan have won contracts worth hundreds of
millions of dollars from the Bank and its affiliates.
Much of the opposition to the Bank and the IMF often plays on the
awarding of these contracts. Critics say that the material
progress that Morgenthau wanted the Bank to promote has enriched
corporations like the big mining and timber companies but at the
expense of the planet's finite supply of resources.
To coincide with the 50th anniversary, at least seven books are
being released criticising the role of the Bank, such as one co-
authored by Susan George, of the Amsterdam-based Transnational
Institute.
Morgenthau's vision of material progress has become a doctrine
that is above question, she says, and now it threatens the very
natural richness that he spoke of fifty years ago.
''The religion of 'development' cannot be validated or invalidated
... (i)t does not matter whether it 'works' or not, nor how many
unimportant people's lives are damaged or destroyed, nor how much
nature may be abused because of it,'' she says.
In a tongue-in-cheek play written by former Greenpeace staffer
Andre Carothers, loosely based on George's forthcoming book and
performed in this city earlier this month, the Bank's management
is played by two evangelical preachers called Jim and Tammy Pay
Banker, whose missions are to promote development.
''In my dark days of doubt, I questioned the holy word of the
Bank. I questioned development. Can hundreds of different countries
with diverse cultures and values be forced to develop the
American Way? Can the future of these countries be determined by a
co uple hundred bankers living in Washington, D.C.?'' said one of
the main characters.
Lewis Preston, the Bank's current president, challenges the
mounting criticism of the Bretton Woods institutions. He is
scheduled to deliver a paper in three weeks, entitled ''The World
Bank group at the threshold of the twenty first century: Embracing
the Futu re.''
''Just as the world is changing, the Bank group is changing
rapidly ... (T)he momentum for change will help to build an even
mo re efficient, flexible institution,'' he will say, according to
a draft version seen by IPS.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary the Bank released a
special promotion kit Wednesday that quotes many world leaders
praisi ng its achievements, such as Ronald Reagan, the former
president of the United States.
''The World Bank and the IMF have contributed enormously to the
spread of hope
-- to a better life throughout the world community ,'' he is
quoted as saying.(ENDS/IPS/PC/DC/94)