A report recently published in PLoS Medicine reveals an undeniable correlation between receipt of financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and dramatic rises in tuberculosis rates in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Soviet republics.
Conducted by Cambridge University and Yale University researchers, the PLoS Medicine report stated, “After correcting for confounding variables, as well as potential detection, selection, and ecological biases, we observed that participating in an IMF program was associated with increased tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates by 13.9%, 13.2%, and 16.6%, respectively.”
As expected, the IMF has come out against the findings. Its arguments criticize the study on false accusations of faulty process and were categorically refuted by study researcher Sanjay Bansu in a July 24 interview published by the Huffington Post.
The IMF was created following World War II to be an instrument of economic domination in the new U.S.-centric world order. The IMF decimates the social and economic well-being of countries by imposing severe “structural adjustments” before releasing much-needed financial assistance. IMF-imposed fiscal and monetary policies are not designed to combat poverty or bring economic development; they are meant to create a welcoming environment for foreign investment so that wealth can be siphoned off by imperialist countries.
To meet IMF demands and obtain desperately needed funds, national governments must cut spending in key social needs areas, such as education and health care. Not surprisingly, when Eastern Europe began receiving IMF assistance—with plenty of strings attached—the incidences of tuberculosis and death rose to appalling rates. Study researchers indicate that the closing of hospitals would have an immediate impact on tuberculosis death rates.
Under the leadership of communist parties, the governments of the socialist republics in Eastern Europe provided free access to health care for all. Since the overthrow of socialism in the region, however, profits have replaced people’s needs as the dominant priority.
The undeniable correlation between IMF “assistance” and the drastic rise in tuberculosis rates is only one example—though an appalling one—of the devastating effects that incorporation into the world capitalist system, dominated by oppressor imperialist nations, has had on the formerly socialist region.
Large sectors of the U.S. left preferred to blast the Soviet Union for its shortcomings rather than acknowledge its gains and defend it against U.S.-sponsored counterrevolution; the manifold disastrous consequences continue to surface today.
The findings of the PLoS Medicine study serve as a reminder of the absolute necessity of the struggle for socialism. Capitalism cannot and will not prioritize the needs of the workers over the fattening of the wallets for a tiny elite. Militancy and diligence are needed in the revolutionary struggle ahead.
