The western media is quick to claim that Tunisian dictator, General Zine el Abidine Ben Ali is single handedly responsible for the civil and economic unrest that has plagued Tunisia since he was placed in power in November 1987. What is less widely known is that it is actually the IMF and Wall Street that is responsible for the extreme mistreatment of the Tunisian people. It was the IMF who demanded the stringent guidelines which include the “firing of public sector workers, the elimination of price controls over essential consumer goods and the implementation of a sweeping privatization program”. These demands were all made by the IMF and were strictly followed by their puppet, General Ben Ali, whom the IMF and World Bank placed in power when the former president, Habib Bourguiba, refused to comply with the demands.
In 2010 the IMF further demanded, ‘’the removal of remaining subsidies as a means of achieving fiscal balance”. These demands have directly led to high levels of poverty, unemployment and inflation which stem from the dictatorship of the IMF and the manipulation of speculative trade on Wall Street. The removal of the dictator Ben Ali will do nothing to change the problems Tunisia is facing because the interim president, Fouad Mebazza, was handpicked, as were all other possible candidates, by the IMF.
Title: Tunisia and the IMF’s Diktas: How Macro-Economic Policy Triggers Worldwide Poverty and Unemployment
Published: Global Research
Date of Publication: 1/20/2011
Author: Michel Chossudovsky
Faculty Evaluator: Dr. Sheila Katz Sonoma State University
Student: Jordan Hall 3/7/11 Sonoma State University