Various organizations in many countries launched coordinated protests to marked the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) on July 22. They launched various forms and activities in Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya, and Nepal that day. The campaign was led by the Reclaim our Future Network, with the participation of Ibon International, International League of Peoples’ Struggles and other democratic organizations.

A joint statement by the organizations called for the shutdown of the IMF-WB and to reclaim the future of the people from its neoliberal dictates and false solutions. “We are concerned with the dominant influence of international financial institutions over our economies and development,” the statement said.

The groups emphasized that the IMF-WB should be held accountable for driving and worsening multiple crises worldwide. Thus, the IMF-WB interventions in the global south, from the so-called structural adjustment programs to current policy conditionalities, further liberalized and deregulated their economies for foreign corporate plunder, and decimated public infrastructure and services.

The IMF and WB led austerity measures such as budget cuts to education, health, social protection, public transport, social security and labor reforms, privatization of public services. It passed the burden and crisis to the toiling masses, especially women, workers, peasants and indigenous people.

“All this human suffering is unnecessary, as governments have many financing alternatives to support public services, social security and fulfillment of human rights,” the joint statement stated.

The group said among the IMF-WB’s subjugation in the “global south” is its support for Zionist Israel’s war on the Palestinian people and genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip. They demand “retracting from all forms of financing that are subjugating Palestine and other Global South nations.”

The groups vowed that they will continue, along with many other organizations around the world, to strengthen their demands against the IMF-WB to end its unjust interventions. “We hold them accountable for massive debt, liberalized economies, violence, destruction of our planet, and violations of people’s rights. They must be shut down,” it said.