Thai Protesters Rally Against IMF and World Bank Meetings

More than 1,000 people marched through Bangkok on Thursday, October 15, in a protest organised by the People’s Network Against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The group accused the government and both institutions of backing development policies that favour a wealthy minority while burdening communities with debt, pollution and reduced influence over their future.

Protesters gathered at Customs Intersection and began walking towards the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center at 8am. The venue is hosting the World Bank and IMF annual meetings from October 12 to 18, with police stationed along the procession’s route.

Network representative Lertsak Kamkongsak delivered a declaration challenging the government’s ambition to move Thailand beyond the middle-income trap and achieve high-income status.

“But for whose benefit?” the network asked in the declaration dated October 15 and signed by the NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD). It argued that the strategy would enable the richest 1% to expand their wealth through the continued exploitation of the other 99%.

The statement cited household indebtedness, deepening poverty, environmental decline and increasingly severe climate disasters among Thailand’s problems.

It also raised concerns about contamination of the air, soil, water and food chain, alongside restrictions on rights and freedoms and weakening democracy.

The network accused the World Bank and IMF of exercising “financial, fiscal, investment and development colonialism”.

It claimed that lending arrangements and policies devised by technical and academic specialists had created state dependence while denying communities a meaningful role in decisions affecting their lives.

Referring to the government as the “Blue Regime” and a “criminal state”, the declaration alleged direct and indirect connections to corruption, money laundering and criminal operations within Thailand and across its borders.

Lertsak also read allegations that the institutions’ return to Thailand would repeat actions the network characterised as crimes dating back to 1997. The statement rejected the authority of both organisations and the government over its members.

Protesters Demand a Greater Say in Development

The network called for communities to control their development priorities and recover land it alleged had been taken through abuses involving the government and financial institutions. It further accused the institutions of exploiting present and future generations.

“We will not surrender a single square inch of our people’s land to green colonialism,” the network declared.

Organisers committed to a peaceful, unarmed procession, saying participants had only “our bare hands”. Addressing police as fellow members of local communities, the declaration urged officers to support the march and safeguard demonstrators’ rights and security.

The organisers demanded access to the area outside the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center without interference. They also called on police to refrain from intimidation, provocation, violence or attempts to disperse the gathering.

Any obstruction or violence by officers, the network argued, would demonstrate that the government and Royal Thai Police were serving as “servants and lackeys” of the World Bank and IMF.

“As long as we continue to struggle, we shall never be defeated,” the declaration stated, calling on protesters to have confidence in ordinary people’s ability to achieve social change.

Human rights defenders joined representatives from more than 29 networks across Thailand at the demonstration. Participants said their communities had experienced harm from the institutions’ economic policies, development schemes and influence over development decisions.

Groups represented included the Northern Peasant Federation, Women Human Rights Defenders Movement, Patani Activists Network, Northeastern Land Reform Network, Eastern Human Rights Defenders Network, Khon Kaen Railway-side Community Council Network and People’s Mineral Ownership Network.

Others included the Four Regions Slum Network, People’s Movement for Democracy in Thailand (PDMT), Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand, People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), Service Workers’ Network, Mun River Basin Villagers’ Committee for the Restoration of Livelihoods and Communities, and additional human rights organisations.

Oversized receipts formed part of the protest, highlighting what organisers described as the unequal distribution of corporate profits and public costs. Demonstrators wearing masks depicting capitalists held receipts illustrating benefits they alleged businesses had obtained directly from the two institutions.

Among the procession’s props was a large pig puppet, portrayed as having fattened itself on wealth and natural resources. A trail of receipts formed its tail.

Another puppet depicted an octopus with 10 tentacles, representing what protesters described as corporate attempts to capture resources and harm the planet. Each tentacle also corresponded to one of the network’s 10 previously announced demands.

Newspapers handed out during the march outlined the history of the World Bank and IMF and examined their effects on communities.

A banner carried by demonstrators read: “Stop capital from destroying the world. People determine their own future. No World Bank No IMF.” Balloons displayed the message: “No World Bank No IMF We are the 99%.”

Organisers planned to conclude the protest by placing sandalwood funeral flowers in a symbolic mourning ceremony for the two institutions.

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