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Bankbuster Event October 10 2000 |
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In October 2000, BankBusters and allied groups in BGAN hosted the Boston leg of the World Bank Bond Boycott-organized tour of the important new documentary film, Two Trevors go to Washington. The film, directed by Ben Cashdan, a former economic advisor to President Mandela and currently a documentary filmmaker, is about people's opposition to corporate globalization, specifically to the World Bank and IMF development models. The film uses two colorful characters and the stark inequality of post-Apartheid South Africa to bring to life the issues raised by the recent protests in Washington and Seattle. The Film South Africa is implementing a World Bank structural adjustment programme. Expenditure on social services has been cut along with corporate taxation, whilst poverty accelerates (South Africa just overtook Brazil to become the most unequal society on the planet). Unemployment has shot up to 40% as international competitiveness policies have destroyed half a million jobs since the ANC came into power. Privatisation looks set to ensure that millions will continue to have no access to basic services. Meanwhile Southern Africa is servicing an international debt of $70bn enough to build and furnish a house for everyone in the region. The film follows two South Africans to the World Bank meetings in Washington DC in April 2000. Trevor Manuel is the South African finance minister, and presently the chair of the board of governors of the Bank/IMF, and Trevor Ngwane, a local government councillor and grassroots community activist from Soweto. The film illustrates the anger and suffering of ordinary Africans and the irony of African government ministers supporting Washington's approach, convinced that there is no alternative. In the words of Trevor Ngwane, "They want to be the big boys in the big boys club. But at the expense of the poor." The film also includes explanations by US activists of the injustice of the present trajectory of globalisation and officially-sanctioned development approaches. Perhaps the most poignant is Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange, who explains how the World Bank leadership fought against the unionisation of low-wage janitors at their DC headquarters whilst proclaiming their vision of a world free of poverty. The Forum In Boston, Ben Cashdan and Dennis Brutus, a reknowned South African poet and longtime activist on anti-apartheid and economic justice issues, accompanied the film and engaged in a lively discussion with more than 60 viewers and participants. Brutus, who had recently returned from Prague, spoke at length about the growing global justice movement, and how, even after the end of apartheid, the struggle for the future of South Africa and the world has continued. His call to globalize resistance against globalized capital was well received, and concrete steps like sustaining a World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign were suggested. |
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© 2000 |