ifda dossier 74 - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

which analysed the disintegrating condi-
tion of the economy of almost every
African country, IFAA, in collaboration with
Zed Books, presents two volumes of
essays examining the role and contribu-
tion of international financial institutions to
the starkest statistical evidence of that
crisis - the debt burden. Debt now poses
the gravest threat to the incomes and
general welfare of the countless people
throughout the Third World. To date, most
regional analyses have concentrated on
Latin America, with little attention paid to
Africa. These two volumes redress the
balance. They originate from IFAA's 1987
conference on the African debt, where
African scholars confronted IMF and World
Bank officials with the grim evidence of
their failed programmes. Collectively, the
volumes represent an African challenge to
the assumptions and theories of the
international monetary system upon which
IMF and World Bank policies are based.
Through sectoral studies, and case studies
drawn from both Anglo- and Francophone
Africa, they expose the brutally devastat-
ing effects of these policies on the lives
of African children, workers, women and
peasants. They present radical alternative
proposals including collective repudiation
of foreign debts, the formation of an
African debtors' cartel under the OAU, and
the democratisation of the IMF and World
Bank. The contributors include: Caleb
Fundanga, Haroub Othman, Cheryl Payer,
Reg Green, Fantu Cheru, Lawrence Harris,
Yusuf Bangura, Abdoulaye Bathily, Vali
Jama, Bonnie Campbell, Dianne Elson.
Hugues de Jouvenel, Europe's Ageing
Population: Trends and Challenges to
2025 (Guildford: Butterworth Scientific Ltd,
1989) 54pp.
CEDRI, Le GAL ou Ie terrorisme d8Etat
dans /'Europe des dernocraties (Bale,
1989) 168pp. Annee apres annee, les
pratiques des institutions espagnoles -
police, justice, arm& - ont ete etudiees
dans Ie cadre socio-politique de I'epoque.
Le Comite a deliberement choisi de ne
decrire en detail que les activites criminel-
les des "antiterroristes"; aussi ne trouvera-
t-on pas ici d'etude des activites de I'ETA.
Encore une fois, il ne s'agit pas de recon-
naTtre une quelconque legitimite a la
violence armee. Mais lorsque I'Etat espag-
no1 derape dans la criminalite, ce sent
non seulement tous les citoyens espag-
nols qui sont concernes, mais aussi leurs
voisins europeens. Vivons-nous dans des
Etats de droit? Que nous prepare I'inte-
gration europeenne? Ce sont ces simples
questions qui motivent la creation et les
actions du Comite d'Enqu6te sur les
Violations des Droits de I'Homme en
Europe
Global space
Louis Emmerij (ed), One World or
Several? (Paris: OECD, 1989) 318pp. As
regional economic blocs evolve, the
world's economies are increasingly diverg-
ing, widening the rift between rapidly
growing economies and those that are
stagnant or declining. On the occasion of
the 25th anniversary of the OECD Devel-
opment Centre, leaders from various fields
assessed the likely future of world devel-
opment in a two track and multipolar, yet
interdependent global environment. This
report brings together their reflections and
presents policy options for the 1990s
based on growth, sustainability and soli-
darity. The fundamental issue addressed
at the Conference was the dual-track
world economy and the fate of the poor
countries, especially those of Africa, within
it. Throughout the conference, it was
repeatedly stressed that a global vision of
development was required which would
include Third World countries from all
parts of the world, though the discussion
of the dual-track issue emphasized Africa.
Among the newly industrialising econo-
mies. Latin America debt and East Asian