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International Viewpoint, the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International, is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow.

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  • Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF: 70th anniversary (Part 4)

    SUNFED versus World Bank

    6 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

    From 1950 to 1960, having no Marshall Plan to promote their growth, the developing countries proposed that a new UN body be created, based on a “one country, one vote” system designed to facilitate loans to their industries: SUNFED (Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development). The industrialized countries were fiercely opposed to this move, and successfully imposed a counter-proposal, the International Development Association (IDA), a branch of the World Bank, thus effectively putting an end to SUNFED. [2]

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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 [3] Conference, that had lasted for three weeks, reached a conclusion.}} It was attended by representatives from 44 countries [4].

    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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