[Nasional-m] LATIN AMERICA: MOVEMENTS DEFY PRIVATIZATION POLICIES

[Ambon]

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

LATIN AMERICA:
MOVEMENTS DEFY PRIVATIZATION POLICIES

By Alicia Jrapko

Despite all of the U.S. corporate media's efforts to conceal 
the deepening economic and social crisis in Latin America, 
they can no longer hide it. Articles in major newspapers now 
cry out for a "clearer" U.S. policy toward the region, 
reflecting a split in the ruling class here over how to 
respond to the crisis engulfing the entire continent.

Although some economists still claim the region needs more 
"free-market" economic policies, others now admit that U.S. 
neoliberal policies--privatization, cutbacks, throwing open 
the market for U.S. products, prioritizing debt service to 
the banks--have worsened Latin America's huge gap between 
rich and poor.

After almost 30 years of neoliberal policies in the region, 
a small elite enjoys enormous wealth, while poverty across 
Latin America stands at over 40 percent.

The crisis that first erupted in Argentina has spread 
throughout the region, particularly in the Southern Cone. 
But the U.S. government and big business's main concern is 
to stem the growing tide of popular resistance and 
uprisings.

That's why Washington abruptly changed its "no loans" policy 
for struggling economies in the region and says it is now 
willing to permit some International Monetary Fund loans.

On Aug. 7, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill urged a 
speedy IMF pact for aid to Argentina. Just 10 days earlier, 
O'Neill had publicly suggested that aid to the region could 
"end up in Swiss bank accounts."

The same day O'Neill made his about-face, the IMF announced 
a $30 billion loan to Brazil. Before that, Washington 
granted Uruguay a $1.5 billion emergency loan to keep its 
banks afloat.

RESISTANCE TO PIRVATIZATION

U.S.-backed privatization policies face enormous challenges 
from peoples' movements throughout the region.

After five days of rebellion against plans to privatize two 
power plants in Arequipa, Peruvian President Alejandro 
Toledo was forced to declare a state of emergency and agree 
to suspend the sell-off.

In Paraguay, rebellions opposed to free-market policies 
forced President Luis Macchi to declare a state of 
emergency.

In Mexico, poor peasants mobilized and stopped President 
Vicente Fox's plan to build a new airport on their lands 
outside Mexico City.

In Uruguay, people responded to the banking crisis by 
expropriating goods from supermarkets. Unions protested the 
government's decision to close the banks for a week.

Meanwhile in Brazil, the region's largest economy, the 
currency's value continues to drop. Will rebellion spread 
there next?

For the most vulnerable people of Latin America, the 
gigantic amount of foreign debt in the region amounts to 
super-exploitation. The austerity plans imposed on local 
governments by the IMF and World Bank in exchange for more 
loans means cutting jobs and basic benefits like health 
care, education, retirement and social security.

More loans are not the answer for economic recovery in these 
countries. It's a Band-Aid solution that will only put them 
further in debt and produce more austerity for the great 
majority of people.

There is a growing movement in Latin America to cancel the 
entire foreign debt. After all, the Latin American countries 
really owe nothing to foreign banks, which have profited 
from centuries of imperialist plunder of the region.

Just as U.S. big business and the government should pay 
reparations to the families of former slaves, imperialism 
should also be held responsible for paying reparations to 
the Latin American working people for all the stolen natural 
resources and labor.

- END -

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