IMF as “judge and jury”

Fringe protesters at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings are nothing new. But once they could be easily dismissed as Utopians or religious nutters not worth taking seriously. No longer.

Coalition Jubilee 2000, the UK umbrella organization that is calling for a one-off forgiveness of all unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries, has changed all that. Coalition Jubilee 2000 is well-organized, respectable and enjoys the support of senior politicians.

Fresh from victories at the G8 meeting in Cologne in June – when Bono, lead singer of Irish rock band U2, and Thom Yorke, lead singer from Radiohead, joined in the protest – the group is planning to form a human chain around the World Bank headquarters.