The 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference on 22 July 2024 was marked by increasing opposition to the institutions which that conference gave birth to – namely, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). People demonstrated against these institutions in Washington DC and in many parts of the globe. Hundreds of organisations signed petitions calling for disbanding of these institutions.

The stated purpose of creating the World Bank and IMF in 1944 was to rebuild war-torn economies and countries newly liberated from colonialism, through international economic cooperation. However, the real purpose was to preserve the imperialist domination of the countries which were on the verge of becoming independent from colonial rule.
The strategy of imperialism, headed by the United States, was to replace colonialism by neo-colonialism, as a system of imperialist domination of the newly independent states. The US imperialists presented themselves as being against colonialism and the monopoly which Britain and other imperial powers had enjoyed in conducting trade with their colonies. In place of open colonial enslavement, they promoted a mechanism of economic and financial relations that would ensure that the former colonies remain dependent on imperialist countries for imported machinery and technology, and on foreign loans and credits to pay for those imports.

The Bretton Woods conference took place when the revolutionary changes in the Soviet Union had already demonstrated the superiority of the socialist economic system over the crisis-ridden capitalist imperialist system. Many countries in Eastern Europe had broken out of the imperialist system and taken up the mission of constructing socialism. This presented a serious challenge to the capitalist class and the world imperialist system. The market available for the imperialist countries to exploit had considerably shrunk, resulting in the intensification of the economic crises in these countries. There was a danger of the market available to the imperialists shrinking even further if both India and China were to break out of the imperialist system. In such conditions, the American bourgeoisie marketed the neo-colonial strategy, to be implemented through the World Bank and IMF, as something that would bring order in the world by encouraging economic cooperation amongst different countries.
The 44 countries represented at the Bretton-Woods conference included the major imperialist powers as well as many of their colonies around the world, including India. The strategy of US imperialism was to weaken the positions of the European colonial powers, particularly the British, and to replace the British Pound with the US Dollar as the reserve currency for international transactions. This was achieved at Bretton Woods, by the US declaring that it would henceforth readily exchange 35 US Dollars for one Troy Ounce of gold.
Over the years, the World Bank and the IMF have revealed themselves as instruments of imperialist countries to continue the loot and plunder of the land and labour of the weaker countries. The policies of these institutions have been to offer loans at lower than market rates of interest, but with conditions that the borrowing state had to accept. These conditions included policies to open up the national economy for capital inflows and imports of goods and services from monopoly companies of the imperialist countries.
By now the World Bank and IMF each have about 190 countries as members, but the fact remains that most of these countries do not have the power to influence any policy decision. The voting rights in the World Bank and IMF are in proportion to the funds contributed by each member country. Only the big imperialist powers have some influence on the policies of these financial institutions. The US holds virtual veto power to overrule any of the decisions of the Board of Directors of these institutions.
The Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and austerity measures imposed by the World Bank and IMF include privatisation of essential public services including water, electricity, education, healthcare and transportation, steep cuts in spending on social security and welfare programmes. They also call for drastic wage cuts and labour contractualisation, as well as the reduction / elimination of subsidies in food and agriculture, resulting in hunger and malnutrition in large part of the population of the country.
Projects funded by the World Bank such as big dams, mines, ports, and other large infrastructure projects have displaced entire communities and villages, caused deforestation, and accelerated ecological destruction and degradation. Countless peoples have been dispossessed of their means to dignified livelihoods and lives.
After 80 years of existence, there are now demands by member countries for reforms in the Bretton Woods institutions. The clamour for reforms is coming largely from the emerging powers such as China and India, which want a greater say in the running of these institutions. Their aim is not to change the basic character of these institutions but to find ways to accommodate their own imperialist interests within them.
As far as the working people are concerned, the issue is not to reform the World Bank and IMF. The exploited and oppressed peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America are demanding that these institutions be disbanded, because they are in the service of intensifying the imperialist exploitation and plunder of the land and labour of poorer countries.