International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Trade Wars: The Decline Of America

May 1, 2025 Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Consortium News. Strategize! China, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Multipolar World, Trade Wars

Not a day goes by without a new shock to Americans and our neighbors around the world from the Trump administration. On April 22, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its forecasts for global growth in 2025 from 3.3 percent to 2.8 percent and warned that no country will feel the pain more than the United States. Trump’s policies are expected to drag U.S. growth down from 2.7 percent to 1.8 percent. It’s now clear to the whole world that China is the main target of Trump’s trade wars. The U.S. has slapped massive tariffs — up to 245 percent — on Chinese goods. China hit back with 125 percent tariffs of its own and refuses even to negotiate until U.S. tariffs are lifted.

European Decoupling From US Imperialism Is A Matter Of Global Security

April 19, 2025 Lama El Horr, Orinoco Tribune. Strategize! Donald Trump, European Union (EU), International Law, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Joe Biden, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Trump Administration, U.S. Imperialism, US Empire, Wars and Militarism, World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO)

At the end of a four-year term, the Blinken-Sullivan-Austin trio, showcase of the Biden administration, will have distinguished itself by multiplying hotbeds of tension all around China, a NATO-Russia hybrid war, two genocidal wars, one televised in Gaza, the other covert, in Eastern Congo, a bloody conflict in Sudan, with millions of refugees, and the umpteenth attempt to kill Haiti – all topped off by mass mutilation in Lebanon and the devastating fall of Syria. As for extraterritorial sanctions and regime-change operations, from Georgia to Venezuela, via Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh, they have either been maintained or intensified.

Lebanon: Victims Of Israeli Strikes Say They Won’t Bow To US Pressure

March 26, 2025 Sabah Haider, Mondoweiss. Resist! Hezbollah, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Israel, Lebanon, World Bank

Since February 2025, the United States has intensified its efforts to facilitate normalization between Lebanon and Israel. U.S. Deputy Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus was reported to have delivered an ultimatum to Lebanese leaders, urging the quick formation of civilian committees for negotiations with Israel. Failure to comply could result in Washington withdrawing from the oversight committee, potentially granting Israel greater operational freedom in South Lebanon. This initiative builds upon previous U.S.-mediated agreements, including the 2022 maritime border deal and the 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Will Pakistan Remain A US Proxy Or Become A Regional Partner?

March 10, 2025 People's Dispatch. Strategize! Anti-Imperialism, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Capitalism, China, Cold War, History, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan, Sovereignty, US Imperialism

Pakistan is one of the largest countries in South Asia. Ever since its formation in 1947, it has been politically dominated by a coalition of landed and military elites who rule over millions of impoverished citizens mainly by force. Attempts to break this dominance and establish a truly popular government independent of the military establishment have mostly failed. Meanwhile, the ruling classes in Pakistan have been unable to industrialize and democratize the state. Their deep dependence on rent and the interests of the imperialists are in complete opposition to the popular aspirations and sentiments of the people.

Global North Has Nine Times More Voting Power At The International Monetary Fund Than Global South

March 7, 2025 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Brazil, BRICS, China, Global North, Global South, History, International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations (UN), US Imperialism, Venezuela

As far as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is concerned, each person in the Global North is worth nine people in the Global South. We get that calculation from IMF data on voting power in the organisation relative to the population of the Global North and Global South states. Each country, based on its ‘relative economic position’, as the IMF suggests, is given voting rights to elect delegates to the IMF’s executive board, which makes all of the organisation’s important decisions. A brief glance at the board shows that the Global North is vastly overrepresented in this crucial multilateral institution for indebted countries.

Students Say IMF Is Responsible For Privatization Of Education

December 27, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Organize! Democracy, Education, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan, Privatization

On Sunday, December 22, the Progressive Students Federation (PrSF) in Pakistan organized a Student Action Conference in Islamabad. The Conference brought together hundreds of students from the capital city and nearby areas for a series of panel discussions, political theater presentations, and revolutionary music. Several student leaders from provinces such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan addressed the gathering of the students talking about the exploitation and oppression their regions are facing under the present government led by Shahwaz Sharif.

Nigerian President Enforced Violent Crackdown On Hunger Protests

December 3, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. Educate! Austerity, Bola Tinubu, Hunger Strikes, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigeria, Police, police brutality, Repression, State Violence

Extrajudicial executions, mass arrests, custodial torture and charges of treason were among the methods used by the Nigerian government to crack down on protests this August against rising hunger and economic hardships. Nigerian civil society, demanding a reversal of President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive implementation of IMF policies that brought about this cost of living crisis on Africa’s largest population, led these protests for 10 days at the beginning of August. In a report released on November 28, titled “Bloody August,” Amnesty International (AI) documented 24 killings, while “scores of additional cases reported by activists and journalists” are yet to be verified.

The Left Wins Presidential Election In Sri Lanka

September 23, 2024 Atul Chandra and Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. Educate! Austerity, Elections, Finance and the Economy, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Marxism, Sri Lanka

On September 22, 2024, the Sri Lankan election authority announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the presidential election. Dissanayake, who has been the leader of the left-wing JVP since 2014, defeated thirty-seven other candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) and his closest challenger Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegava. The traditional parties that dominated Sri Lankan politics – such as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the UNP – are now on the backfoot, although they dominate the Sri Lankan parliament (the SLPP has 105 out of 225 seats, while the UNP has 3 seats).

How Kenya’s Youth, Middle Classes And Working Poor Joined Forces

July 10, 2024 Caroline Kimeu, Portside. Strategize! Austerity, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Ruto, Youth Activism

I remember Kenya’s June 25 protests like they were yesterday. The energy on the streets of Nairobi was frenetic, filled with the sound of whistles, motorcycle honks, vuvuzelas (long horns used to cheer in soccer games) and loud blasts of teargas. “We are tired,” chanted the thousands of demonstrators who had turned out to oppose government plans to introduce wide-ranging tax hikes, on what would become the bloodiest day of the protests. Hoisting up Kenyan flags, they marched through one of the city’s main avenues, which was colored pink from water cannon spray, dodging rounds of rubber bullets and teargas.

IMF-Driven Policies Spark Deadly Protests In Kenya

June 27, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Resist! Debt, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Mass Action, State Violence, Taxes

At least 23 Kenyan protesters were killed on Tuesday after hundreds stormed the nation’s parliament in response to a proposed tax-hike bill, which threatens to deepen the country’s cost of living crisis. The IMF’s pressure on Nairobi to balance its budget is central to the issue. Videos of bodies strewn across the concrete and protesters storming the parliament went viral on social media. This follows protests the previous week that brought the nation to a standstill. President William Ruto, elected to address the cost of living crisis, is now seen attempting to combat dissent with force, having failed to improve conditions.

Violence In Ecuador Is Result Of Deliberate Dismantling Of The State

January 12, 2024 Ricardo Perez, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! criminal gangs, Drug Trafficking, Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Neoliberalism, Poverty, Violence

The systematic violence which has immersed Ecuador is the product of a process of deliberate destructuring of the rule of law derived from policies implemented by the last three neoliberal governments, warned Jorge Paladines, an academic at the Central University of Ecuador and a professor of law and political science, in an interview with Sputnik. That, today, Ecuador is in a situation of internal armed conflict, that the country has been plunged into a state of emergency, and that a live television program was interrupted by armed men, is not the result of spontaneity or chance.

Ecuador In Crisis: A Country Broken By Neoliberalism

January 11, 2024 Gerardo Szalkowicz, People's Dispatch. Educate! Ecuador, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Narcotrafficking, Neoliberalism, Violence

People across the world were shocked to see a drug gang waving rifles and grenades in the TC Television studios in Guayaquil, and the scene was perhaps the cinematic peak of successive days of explosions, riots, lootings, shootings, car explosions, and widespread panic that has paralyzed the country. However, the shocking and unprecedented episode on the public channel in Guayaquil—and the events that preceded and followed it—are just the latest chapter in a spiral of organized violence that has lasted for about five years and that has metastasized in the last two. It is the sad metamorphosis of a country that went from being the second safest in Latin America to becoming the most violent, with a homicide rate that has grown almost 800% since 2019.

Thousands Take To The Streets In Argentina

December 21, 2023 Gabriel Vera Lopes, People's Dispatch. Resist! Argentina, Austerity, Inflation, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Javier Milei, Mass Action, Repression

Thousands of Argentines demonstrated, this Wednesday December 20, “against the economic austerity measures” implemented by Javier Milei’s government. The day was marked by high tension early on, following a major police operation carried out at the main entrances to the city of Buenos Aires. The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, announced that she would debut her “anti-picketing protocol”, presented last Friday December 15, and threatened that they would not allow the demonstration to take place. However, the call to mobilization managed to overcome the fear that the government tried to install.

US Helped Pakistan Get IMF Bailout With Secret Arms Deal For Ukraine

September 20, 2023 Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Imran Khan, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan, Ukraine, US Imperialism, weapons

Secret Pakistani arms sales to the U.S. helped to facilitate a controversial bailout from the International Monetary Fund earlier this year, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement, with confirmation from internal Pakistani and American government documents. The arms sales were made for the purpose of supplying the Ukrainian military — marking Pakistani involvement in a conflict it had faced U.S. pressure to take sides on. The revelation is a window into the kind of behind-the-scenes maneuvering between financial and political elites that rarely is exposed to the public, even as the public pays the price.

Economy Must Be ‘At Service Of Life’

May 28, 2023 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. Create! Africa, Capitalism, Colonialism, Debt crisis, Ghana, History, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Neocolonialism

On May 19, Ghana received the first tranche of a $3 billion, three-year bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Accra had approached the lending agency in 2022 amid a severe cost of living crisis as food prices surged by 122% and the inflation rate breached 50%—the highest in two decades. With its currency cedi having lost over half of its value against the US dollar, and a debt burden that was draining between 70-100% of government revenues, Ghana reached a loan agreement with the IMF in December. This is Ghana’s seventeenth arrangement with the IMF since independence, with each engagement marked by similar policies of austerity which worked to erode the revolutionary vision of the country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

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