Life and Debt | A Film By Stephanie Black

Life and Debt - Recently watched this documentary which clearly chronicles the havoc wrought by IMF 'Structural Adjustment' programs imposed (or rammed down their throats) on Jamaica since the 70s. The relentless and demented logic of the IMF inexorably and in deadly slow motion leads Jamaica into into its current desperate situation that is many times more desperate than when it had to accept the stringent IMF conditions in the 70s.

Roughly speaking, the 'tricks' of the IMF are elucidated via the specific Jamaican example, the main points of which are outlined below.

1. Make sure the country that approaches the IMF is already very desperate (say due to sudden increases in oil prices)
2. Being desperate and/or naive, the country is likely to accept the most stringent terms on the loan.
3. The money loaned can only be used in very specific ways (it cannot be used for local infrastructure development, education, health care etc.). This prevents the country from becoming self-sufficient eventually (which anyone who has any sense would agree should be the primary goal of the loans ... but not in the IMFs book)
4. Expose and destroy local industry to foreign competition (such as cheap potatoes from Idaho etc.) (i.e advocate free market for Jamaica by removing tariffs etc.). However, note that the potatoes produced in America are heavily subsidized by the government, hence America is able to export them and sell them to Jamaica cheaply, hence undermining the local industry. So, the IMFs strategy: powerful government to protect the rich, and market discipline and tough love for everyone else.
5. Use the loans to build free trade zones where workers slave under horrid conditions. The purported reason being to provide employment and manufacture goods using LOCAL raw materials. In practice, the free trade zone avoids local taxes and uses only imported materials thereby undermining the local economy. And the working conditions, less said about that, the better.
6. To service the interest on the loans, take on further debt, and so on, ad nauseum.