Re: [OPE-L] Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

Jerry,

        

Your
description of the independent reaction of Patrick and me to the petition
calling for a protest of Wolfowitz's selection because it 'risks the Bank
becoming seen as a tool of the current controversial US foreign policy,
with aid flows becoming more dependent on strict adherence to US
Administration priorities'  as
similar to the idiocy of the 'after Hitler, us' comment is way off base.
Consider the following from today's Krugman column in the NYT:

The Ugly American Bank 

You can say this about Paul Wolfowitz's qualifications to lead the 
World Bank: He has been closely associated with America's largest 
foreign aid and economic development project since the Marshall Plan.
 I'm talking, of course, about reconstruction in Iraq.
Unfortunately, 
what happened there is likely to make countries distrust any economic
advice Mr. Wolfowitz might give. ... 

Moisés Naím, editor of Foreign Policy, says that the Wolfowitz 
nomination turns the World Bank into the American Bank. Make that 
ugly American bank: rightly or not, developing countries will see Mr.
Wolfowitz's selection as a sign that we're still trying to impose 
policies they believe have failed.

        

Maybe
Patrick and I responded the way we did because we're in South Africa and
Venezuela and see the importance of that sign and of (as Patrick said)
linking 'our critique of neoliberalism to that of imperialism' and having
' the anti-war and global-justice movements unite in increasingly
militant protests'. I think Patrick's closing note to the petition
circulator was worth quoting:

> (And please, my old friend,
> don't tell us all what our 'duty' is if it 
> involves giving the WB bogus legitimacy. Your statement b) is especially
> nauseating, given the WB's ongoing role in financing imperialism, as if
> you 
> can't see that.)

        

So, Jerry,
is that what you are proposing--- we need to fight for a 'good' head of
the WB?

        

        

in
solidarity,

        

        

michael

At 09:36 18/03/2005, Jerry Levy wrote:
> Alejandro:
>  
> See
>
> http://www.worldbankpresident.org for some other related stories
> on this topic.
>  
> Over on PEN-L, Patrick Bond wrote:
>  
> >  [...] what about those of us -- I'm
> surely not the only one -- who consider this
> > appointment a delightful turn of events?
> > There are plenty of us:
> > * who would delegitimize the World Bank and will have a much easier
> time of it now;
>  
> Patrick even went on to claim that Wolfowitz
> was an "excellent choice for WB 
> president."
>  
> Easier time of it now?  This strikes me as
> fanciful thinking reminiscent of the 
> "Nach Hitler, Uns!" ("After Hitler, Us") 1932 
> KPD policy.  The idea is that the 
> selection of Wolfowitz allows for  greater "transparency"
> and therefore helps to 
> build resistance to the WB and Neo-Liberalism.  This was similar to
> the KPD 
> policy which thought that after people were exposed to fascism and see
> its
> iron fist in practice then this will lead to increased resistance to
> fascism and 
> the KPD will be elected into power. It didn't work in Germany.  Why
> should we 
> think it will work now?  (NB: Of course there are differences and
> thus this
> analogy is not entirely accurate: e.g. bourgeois democracy nowhere
> directly 
> enters into the picture in the WB or the selection of its
> president.)
>  
> But Mike L agreed with Patrick:
>  
> > Exactly, Patrick! Now, what about the ILO
> being headed up by someone
> > from Coca-Cola or Walmart?  Not quite the same, of course
> [...]
>  
> If the WB now actively and publicly supports
> "regime change" in Cuba and
> Venezuela will that also be an excellent development since more
> people
> will see the "transparency" of WB policies?  I doubt that
> the Cuban and
> Venezuelan masses or their leadership would view it in such a
> positive
> light.
>  
> What do you and others on the list think? 
> Is it a good thing for the working-
> class that the Neo-Con Wolfowitz was selected to lead the WB?
>  
> In solidarity, Jerry
>

Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at

Residencias Anauco Suites

Departamento 601

Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1

Caracas, Venezuela

(58-212) 573-4111

fax: (58-212) 573-7724