We have been searching the earth for a regular working
person who has benifited from IMF interfearence of
elected national governments and structural adjustment
programs.
Nothing yet !

The IMF wasn't trying to improve the lives of regular working people in the first place - Argentina might be in economic freefall but many international and Argentinian firms are doing very nicely thanks to the free reign they have over the country...

I don't know just how many people involved in the IMF believe the official line that trade liberalisation helps the poor but given the opportunity to discuss it with them, backed up with a few case studies and a modest understanding of economics, there's no way they could possibly defend themselves, yet bankers, diplomats, businesspeople and anyone else who are the minority of people who benefit from trade liberalisation tend naturally to cling to whichever ideology justifies their activity - they're not all cunning evil bastards.

Anyone up for trying to convert some unanalytical yet friendly pro-capitalists should head for the discussion boards on the wto website:

 http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/chat_e/chat_e.htm

(one of the more interesting forums I have seen on the internet !!!!)

sEE YOU AT THE tRADE fAIR, dOCKLANDS: tIDAL bASIN rD e16 AT 12 NOON ON tUESDAY 11TH OF sEPTEMBER !