PRICES UP, LAYOFFS
AHEAD
IMF policies make inroads
in Yugoslavia
By
Pat Chin
It's
been less than a month since the U.S.-funded counter-revolutionary coup by
election in Yugoslavia installed Vojislav Kostunica as the new president of that
Balkan
country.
But
the people of Yugoslavia are already beginning to feel the bite of the
International Monetary
Fund.
No
formal agreement has yet been signed with that predatory financial institution.
But Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition has already started to
implement its deadly
provisions.
Shortly
after Socialist Party of Serbia head Slobodan Milosevic conceded defeat in the
Yugoslav presidential elections, the new regime lifted price controls on basic
consumer goods, fuel and services. Since then, costs have risen sharply. In
Belgrade, for example, the price of one liter of oil has reportedly jumped from
15 to 51 dinars, a kilo of bread from 6 to 14, a liter of sugar from 6 to 45,
and three kilos of detergent from 180 to 220.
Mocked
as "democratic prices" by consumers, the increases have caused deep
dissatisfaction. The removal of price controls is being blamed on the Serbian
Parliament, which is dominated by SPS loyalists. But it was initially praised by
the Western news media and trumpeted by the DOS as a great
achievement
Most
state institutions--including the Central Bank--were forcibly seized by small
groups of CIA-trained counter-revolutionary gangs following the
imperialist-backed coup disguised as a "popular uprising." Their leaders include
the G-17 group of economists who wrote the IMF-approved program adopted by
Kostunica's
coalition.
"Immediately
after taking office," reads G-17's "Program of Radical Economic Reform," "the
new government shall abolish all types of subsidies. This measure must be
implemented without regrets or hesitation, since it will be difficult if not
impossible to apply later, in view of the fact that in the meantime strong
lobbies may appear and do their best to block such
measures....
"This
initial step in economic liberalization," warns the document, "must be
undertaken as a 'shock therapy' as its radical nature does not leave space for
gradualism of any
kind."
When
G-17 seized control of the Central Bank in the name of "democracy," it stopped
the outflow of cash used by the government for price controls on basic consumer
goods. This effectively blocked the financing of state subsidies, and was done
under the guise of "preventing the Socialists from transferring money abroad."
New
managers seek higher
profits
In
addition, reported the Oct. 15 Los Angeles Times, "When Kostunica supporters
forced out most managers in state-owned shops and factories and put their own
people in charge the system of controls collapsed and prices immediately shot
up." Moreover, the new factory directors "are moving quickly to make their
plants more
profitable."
Faced
with simmering resentment over spiraling prices--and with elections for the new
Serbian Parliament set for Dec. 23--G-17 director Mladjan Dinkic has tried to
blame the SPS-dominated governing body. He says he now favors a "return to
regulations of prices for certain basics as well as imports of cheaper
equivalents from abroad to tackle unjustified price hikes." (French Press
Agency, Oct.
16)
Dinkic
is using a potentially explosive situation to feign concern for the "suffering
of the people." But it was this demagogue who agreed to the IMF demand for an
end to price controls and government subsidies. Dinkic's collaboration with NATO
and IMF officials took place secretly in Bulgaria just before the Sept. 24
elections. The IMF plan stipulates "price liberalization" as a precondition for
loan negotiations.
The
consummate opportunist, Dinkic would use the crisis, if allowed, to open
Yugoslavia to a flood of cheap imports, which would destroy local businesses and
farms.
Who's
behind
G-17?
G-17
is funded by the Washington-based Center for International Private Enterprise,
which is linked to the National Endowment for Democracy. The NED was created in
1983 as an "acceptable" front for subversive counter-revolutionary plots hatched
by the CIA.
Three
of G-17's leading members, Dusan Vujovic, Zeliko Bogetic and Branko Milanovic,
are Washington-based staff members of the IMF and World Bank. Others also have
strong ties to these imperialist financial institutions. ("Lethal Medicine" by
Michel Chussodovsky and Jared
Israel)
G-17
coordinator Prof. Veselin Vukotic is also linked to the World Bank. He was the
minister of privatization in 1989 under Yugoslav Premier Ante Markovic. It was
just before--and part and parcel of--the cataclysmic breakup of the Socialist
Federation of Yugoslavia instigated by the United States and
Germany.
Vukotic
helped implement the World Bank Financial Operations Act, which forced many
companies into bankruptcy. From 1989 to 1990 he directed the liquidation of more
than 1,100 Yugoslav industrial firms, according to the World
Bank.
"Over
614,000 industrial workers were laid off out of 2.7 million. The areas hardest
hit were Serbia, including Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Real wages
did a nosedive. Social programs collapsed. Unemployment shot up." (Chussodovsky
&
Israel)
Devastation
of the economy was calculated to create severe hardship and inflame ethnic
rivalry. This set the stage for the breakup of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation
and expansion of the capitalist empire in the post-Soviet
era.
Bringing
in the
Deutschmark
After
NATO marched in and occupied Kosovo-Metohija last June, Vukotic declared that
the southern Serbian province "should also have its own currency." (AP, June 26,
1999) Since then, the German Deutschmark has become legal tender, and Germany's
Commerzbank now controls almost the entire banking system
there.
This
"elder statesman" of G-17 is also reportedly "one of the economic brains behind
Montenegrin secessionism." Vokotic has in fact been put in charge of auctioning
off state property by the puppet Djukanovic regime in Montenegro.
World
Bank Senior Economist Dr. Dusan Vojovic is Washington's link to G-17. In August
he was put in charge of negotiating "one of the world's most deadly economic
packages" for the Ukraine, already blistered by IMF-World Bank reforms.
(Chussodovsky &
Israel)
Then
there's Dr. Zeliko Bogetic. This IMF adviser--also to Djukanovic--holds a senior
position at the financial institution. In 1994-96, he forced the IMF's
structural adjustment program on Bulgaria. All social defenses were stripped in
the onslaught. Price controls, subsidized food, housing and medical care, among
other things, were
devastated.
"This
is not simply a group of economists," explain the authors of "Lethal Medicine."
"It is a network. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are using this
network to impose their policies on Yugoslavia. Meanwhile they tell everyone the
fiction that G-17 is a homegrown alternative."
This
is the reactionary cabal aligned with Kostunica's coalition that claims it will
lead Yugoslavia to
prosperity.
Symbol
of
resistance
The
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been under brutal U.S.-instigated sanctions
for 10 years for its resistance to NATO expansion and IMF plunder. This led to a
steep decline in the standard of living. But the country was kept from total
collapse--unlike Bulgaria--because of price controls and state
subsidies.
Milosevic
and his Socialist Party coalition had become a symbol of resistance. That's why
Washington wants his administration crushed.
In
an arrogant and open display of interference in the affairs of a sovereign
nation--something the U.S. government would never tolerate here--Washington
shamelessly earmarked close to $200 million of the wealth created by the working
class to oust Milosevic. That's money that could have been spent on education,
childcare and health care, housing for the homeless and the poor, food for the
hungry.
"In
Yugoslavia," writes Belgian journalist Michel Collon from Belgrade, "the game is
far from being over. A lot will depend on the capacity of workers to resist.
Some leftist alternative is indispensable, and resistance is being
prepared."
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