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Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF: 70th anniversary (Part 3)

Early conflicts between the UN and the World Bank/IMF tandem
6 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint
The World Bank and the IMF are specialized institutions of the UN, comparable in theory to the International Labour Organization (ILA) or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As such, they are supposed to cooperate closely with the various UN bodies and the other specialized institutions to achieve the objectives set out in the Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Series : 70 years since Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF (Part 2)

The World Bank assists the powerful witch-hunters
28 July 2014, by Éric Toussaint
Contrary to common belief, the mission of the World Bank is not to reduce poverty in developing countries. The Bank’s mission, as originally conceived by the victors of the Second World War, the United States and Great Britain in particular, was to help rebuild Europe, and secondarily to promote the economic growth of the countries in the South, many of which were still under colonial rule. It was this second mission that went by the name of “development” and which constantly increased in scope. The World Bank lent money first of all to the colonial powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium) to help them more effectively exploit their colonies. Then, when these colonies became independent, the Bank made them liable for the debt that had only been contracted by their former metropolis in order to better exploit their natural resources and their population.
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Series : 70 years since Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF (Part 1)

Concerning the founding of the Bretton Woods’ Institutions
28 July 2014, by Éric Toussaint
70 years ago, July 22 1944, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, better known as the Bretton Woods [1] Conference, that had lasted for three weeks, reached a conclusion.}} It was attended by representatives from 44 countries [2].

In order to prevent a recurrence of economic crises like the crash of 1929, but also to ensure world leadership in the post-war era, the United States government began to plan for the creation of international financial institutions as early as 1941. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund saw the light of day at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Initially, the Roosevelt administration was in favour of creating strong institutions capable of imposing rules on the private financial sector, including Wall Street. But noticing the hostility of the banking world Roosevelt backed down. Indeed, the distribution of votes within the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund clearly illustrates the will of certain major powers to exert domination over the rest of the world.
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Our history

Women and the Early Years of Japanese Communism
15 July 2014
Shomi Yoon gave this talk as part of Marxism 2014 in Melbourne.
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Civil Rights movement

Freedom Summer, 1964: An Overview
9 July 2014, by Marty Oppenheimer
Just two weeks after the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, four girls aged 11-14 — Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair — died in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
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France

“We are the heirs of May 68”
1 July 2014, by Alain Krivine, Daniel Bensaïd
This chapter from the book Mai Si! Rebelles et repentis by Daniel Bensaïd and Alain Krivine was first published in English in International Marxist Review Volume 3 number 2, Autumn 1988.
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 Literature and feminism

The personal and the political
22 May 2014, by Megan Behrent
It is no longer possible to ignore that voice, to dismiss the desperation of so many American women. This is not what being a woman means, no matter what the experts say. For human suffering there is a reason; perhaps the reason has not been found because the right questions have not been asked, or pressed far enough. . . . The women who suffer this problem have a hunger that food cannot fill. . . . We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: “I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.”

—Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963 [3]
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Spanish State:

Economic Crisis, and the New Enclosure of the Reproductive Commons
22 May 2014, by Sandra Ezquerra
In the past few years numerous authors have examined how the current economic crisis in Spain has differential impacts on women and men
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The roots and grassroots of the Syrian revolution
26 April 2014, by Joseph Daher
In a series commemorating the uprising’s third anniversary, Syrian revolutionary activist Joseph Daher answers key questions still circulating in the western digital commons. In this first part he offers us a short history of the socio-economic causes behind the protests that sprang up across Syria in March 2011.
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Feminism

Feminism, Capitalism, and Nature
27 March 2014, by Cinzia Arruzza
This interview first appeared in Italian on Asinus Novus. It was translated from French by Patrick King.
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Footnotes

[1] Bretton Woods is located in the mountains of New Hampshire.

[2] This text has been first edited in French by Eric Toussaint, Banque Mondiale: Le Coup d’État permanent, CADTM-Syllepse-Cetim, Liège-Paris-Genève, 2006, chapter one. The book has been edited in English, The World Bank : A critical Primer. Pluto Press, 2007.

[3] Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell, 1974), 21–27.

Articles in this section

Early conflicts between the UN and the World Bank/IMF tandem

The World Bank assists the powerful witch-hunters

Concerning the founding of the Bretton Woods’ Institutions

Women and the Early Years of Japanese Communism

Freedom Summer, 1964: An Overview

“We are the heirs of May 68”

The personal and the political

Economic Crisis, and the New Enclosure of the Reproductive Commons

The roots and grassroots of the Syrian revolution

Feminism, Capitalism, and Nature

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