The IMF and Class Struggle in Jamaica, 1977-1980

Abstract

All programs of balance of payments adjustment involve the manipulation of macroeconomic variables and, therefore, implicitly contain a specific strategy of economic development that takes effect during, and continues after, the adjustment period. The International Monetary Fund's strategy of balance of payments adjustment and economic development is derived from its role in the capitalist world economy. The role of the IMF is to maintain an environment that facilitates the accumulation of capital on a world scale. This requires the complete international mobility of capital and commodities. The IMF, using the leverage of lender of last resort in the world capitalist economy, ensures that a country with a balance of payments disequilibrium does not institute measures that constitute national barriers to international mobility of capital and commodities. Such measures include inconvertibility of currency, exchange controls, deferred debt payments, and tariffs and quota restrictions. The problem is that what is good for the accumulation of captial at a world level often impedes development in the underdeveloped countries. The world environment fostered by the IMF is one in which there is open competition between countries at different levels of development. The result is that developed countries and the transnational corporations based there get the better of developing countries and their national firms. Developing countries, in many instances, opt for development stategies that reduce their exposure to and integration with the world capitalist system by implementing measures to reduce the openness of their economies. An expanding role for