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No Seattle repeat just yet
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April 13, 2000: 6:14 p.m. ET
IMF acting chief, others dismiss critics; D.C. police erect more barricades
By Staff Writer M. Corey Goldman
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WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - So far, it's nothing like Seattle.
People went about their normal business in the nation's capital Thursday, despite the ongoing threat of demonstrations and disruptions from a host of groups aiming to shut down the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and ministers of the Group of Seven countries.
At the IMF headquarters just two blocks away from the White House, workers and reporters filed through a small entrance cordoned off by the Washington police department and IMF security personnel to make their way into the massive '60s-style structure that dominates an entire city block.
Inside the IMF, where metal detectors and high-level security are the norm on any given day, officials were even more concerned than usual about who got in, where they came from and what kind of credentials they had. "It's the usual routine, heightened by about 1000," commented one IMF staffer as she surveyed the menu in the government subsidized cafeteria.
Indeed, the usual navy suit-wearing crowd at the IMF and World Bank dominated the landscape Thursday, with nary a sandal-wearing, bandana-sporting protester to be seen. Even at Starbucks just a block away - a favorite target among the anti-globalization set - a small afternoon group sipped lattes and chatted about the cooler-than-normal weather.
The day's lone disturbance actually did involve Starbucks as a group of around 50 peacefully demonstrated against the coffee company's support of cheap labor. The demonstrators were a little late, however, as Starbucks announced this week that it will now purchase coffee from groups that support better pay for plantation workers.
The cavalry are coming
That's not to say the cavalry aren't coming. Officials are predicting some 30,000 demonstrators will converge on the town this coming Sunday - the height of the Group of Seven ministers' meetings and the conclusion of the IMF-World Bank powwow. They are expected to converge in the usual hot Washington protest spots - the Mall, the White House and the IMF.
 For their part, both the IMF and World Bank want to bring as many countries together to provide aid, debt relief, trade and education to help the world's poorer nations create a better standard of living for themselves, and participate in the riches that have showered the so-called First World and left more than two-thirds of the rest of the globe in the dust.
From the demonstrators' point of view, the meetings are a closed-door assembly of highbrow politicians trying to figure out how to maintain the current world structure of supporting wealthy, multinational corporations and the political elite at the expense of poor people, labor unions and the environment.
IMF acting managing director Stanley Fischer addressed that issue Thursday, scoffing at critics who claim the fund's mandate to encourage open trade between countries and its lending practices are aimed only at rich nations and leave behind the world's poorer countries.
Trade is the way
Fischer, like most other officials at this week's meetings, denied that the IMF's goal of encouraging more open trade policies among developing nations is forcing them to open their economies before they're ready, giving Western companies such as Starbucks and Nike Inc. - two favorite targets of protesters - a red carpet to stampede in without aiding the local economy.
 "All the evidence is that the best way to grow is to integrate into the global economy," Fischer said. "We are not trying to keep poor countries down. What we are trying to do is help people in poorer countries have the same opportunities as people in richer countries.
"The policies we are supporting are policies which have been shown to work," he added. "We have not been given any alternatives. We (and the activists) have the same goal. We will have to talk to these people and persuade of them of our policies. The agenda we are dealing with hasn't changed."
"The words were right, but the tone was not," commented one reporter after Fischer's press briefing. "I wouldn't call it defiance so much as I would call it arrogance. Fischer is not the type of individual to admit that the fund's approach may need a little bit of what the protesters are suggesting."
My way or the highway
Indeed, many of the IMF and World Bank's top brass hold the unshakeable belief that that their way is the right way to boost growth around the world and give all nations the same riches that have helped usher in a record era of prosperity in the United States.
Their way includes a trustworthy central bank, a proper method for balancing the country's books, an ability for people to borrow money cheaply, the right to stable prices for goods and services and a liquid and enticing stock market - things that have so far worked exceptionally well for the U.S.
But, as some analysts on Wall Street have begun to wonder, with U.S. stock markets doing the meringue and with the economy running at more than double the acceptable rate of growth, what if the U.S. model of capitalism that the IMF is so bent on imposing doesn't actually work?
"That, and not a rock through a Starbucks window, would be a victory for the protesters," said another reporter who opted to remain anonymous. "Unfortunately, it would also be a failure for the people that everyone - the IMF, the World Bank and the protestors -- are trying to help." 
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