YOUNG TURKS

As sure as night follows day, angry mobs follow IMF conventions. A joint session of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met in Istanbul this week to plan their nefarious scheme for world domination / response to the global financial crisis. In response, thousands of protesters converged on central Istanbul to focus their anger at the global elites’ loan shark.  

A crowd of assorted (mainly Turkish) protesters; students, trades unionists, and the full spectrum of lefty groups from Stalinist parties to the anarchist block (including the rather brilliantly named Resistanbul) gathered at Taksim Square. A peaceful start soon turned to full scale rioting when the police intervened to stop the demonstrators from marching on their planned route to the Harbiye Congress Center (where the bankers were meeting). Police tear-gas and water cannons were met with Molotov cocktails and catapults: running battles were fought as protesters weaved in and out of side streets dodging the cops. Over 100 people were arrested and several banks were damaged during the rioting.

Turkish people know the IMF only too well. Back in 2001, during the country’s last crisis, the organisation arm-twisted the country’s then government into accepting huge loans (it’s only just managed to pay them off). Tayip Erdogan, the current leader, has refused further IMF advice, and the country’s economy has gone back into the black ever since.

The IMF’s blurb speaks of how a “fiscal stimulus amounting to nearly 2 percent of world gross domestic product ($1 trillion)” has really helped turn things around for the global economy. They have been promising “a virtuous cycle of peace and prosperity” (actual quote), once this current crisis has passed. For those who haven’t noticed, capitalism is always in crisis. Crises serve as the excuse to fleece money from the people that make it and stuff it into the back pockets of those in charge of the global economy. Given that it cost $300 million in today’s money to totally eradicate smallpox from the globe, thinking of the benefits that a clean trillion bucks invested in water, food, shelter and medicine could bring makes you want to take aim with that Molotov.

* See http://resistanbul.wordpress.com