IMF Go to Hell
March 19th, 2002By Naomi Klein On Tuesday in Buenos Aires, only a few blocks from where Argentinian President Eduardo Duhalde was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund, a group of residents were going through a negotiation of a different kind. They were trying to save their home. In order to protect themselves from an eviction order, the residents of 335 Ayacucho, including 19 children, barricaded themselves inside and refused to leave. On the concrete façade of the house, a hand printed sign said: "IMF Go To Hell." What does the IMF, in town to set conditions for releasing $9-billion in promised funds, have to do with the fate of the residents of 335 Ayacucho? Well, here in a country where half the population now lives below the poverty line, it's hard to find a single sector of society whose fate does not somehow hinge on the decisions made by the international lender. For example, librarians, teachers and other public sector workers, who have been getting paid in hastily printed provincial currencies (sort of government IOUs) won't get paid at all if the provinces agree to stop printing this money, as the IMF is demanding. And if deeper cuts are made...