$100 million loan for Haiti only ‘buries the country deeper into debt’; Cancel Haiti’s debts to IMF-WB – KMU, Anakpawis

To provide immediate and big-time relief to the people of Haiti who are still reeling from the effects of the intensity 7.0 earthquake that hit the country, Kilusang Mayo Uno and Anakpawis Partylist today pressed for the total cancellation of Haiti’s debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB).

The IMF announced a new debt package of $100 million for Haiti last Thursday, saying this is the financial institution’s help to the country. The recent debt package brings Haiti’s debt to the IMF to $265 million. 

Haiti’s debt to international financial institutions and foreign governments has grown from $302 million in 1980 to $1.13 billion in 2005.

“The people of Haiti did not benefit from the country’s previous foreign debts. Why should they continue to pay for these?” asked Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“One study even says that dictators Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier pocketed 80% of foreign ‘aid’ in their 29-year rule from 1957 to 1986 – in the same way that Ferdinand Marcos plundered ‘aid’ given to the Philippines during his rule,” he added. 

“Is the granting of loans a genuine form of help? Is that what a country devastated by an earthquake need? This ‘help’ will only bury Haiti deeper into debt,” Labog said.

The labor leader also criticized the conditionalities that came with the debts given to Haiti, saying these were responsible for the poverty of the country. 

“These conditionalities made Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. They are responsible for destroying Haiti’s agriculture, promoting sweatshop labor in the country, and bringing almost 80% of the Haitian people to Port-au-Prince, the capital. By causing the death of many people, the earthquake emphasized the disastrous effects of these conditionalities,” Labog said. 

Labog said the Filipino workers and people are familiar with these conditionalities because these have also been imposed on the Philippines by the IMF-WB.

“In the Philippines and other countries, loans and ‘aids’ from the IMF-WB have a pay-off more costly than their actual benefits. They push us to liberalize our economy further, allow foreign monopolies to dominate and exploit our economies even more.

“The freezing of wages amid soaring prices caused by monopoly control of markets and   the promotion of extremely unsecure work are also among the top requisites forced upon us by such loans,” Labog added. #