I.M.F. Boss’s Rape Arrest Reflects Growing Imperialist Rivalry

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the I.M.F., has a long history of sexual assaults without any repercussions. But when he raped a West African hotel housekeeping worker in New York earlier this month, he was abruptly thrown in jail and charged with seven felony counts—but only because he had recently threatened U.S. monetary and imperial interests.

The racist rape of entire countries has been a chief purpose of the I.M.F since its creation in 1969. The agency imposes harsh, budget-slashing programs to impoverish and starve workers in less powerful capitalist nations and to safeguard profits for the U.S., European, and Asian investors that the I.M.F represents. Strauss-Kahn’s downfall stems from sharpening competition among these imperialists, not from any concern for his victim on the part of U.S. rulers.

Strauss-Kahn’s Biggest Crime: Allying with China

Strauss-Kahn’s indictment, drawn up under Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., a U.S. imperialist blueblood, contains many lurid details. But Strauss-Kahn’s most offensive act, to U.S. bosses, came last year in a speech in Washington. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported (2/10/11), “Strauss-Kahn... has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar.”

In the shadow of the White House and Pentagon, Strauss-Kahn was advancing anti-U.S. heresy. He proposed that world trade be conducted in a revived I.M.F.-sanctioned instrument called Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an interest-bearing international reserve asset created by the I.M.F. to supplement other reserve assets of member countries.

Last year, Strauss-Kahn urged that the I.M.F’s “basket” money — composed of the dollar, the pound sterling, the euro and the yen — be broadened to include others such as the Chinese yuan. To expand SDR in this way would devalue the dollar and enable countries to buy SDR instead of U.S. treasury bonds. More significantly, the proposed use of this basket as the international currency of choice would threaten the dominance of the U.S. ruling class and enhance the influence of its chief economic rival, China.

In February, Strauss-Kahn publicly addressed this proposed change. Later that month, he appointed Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, as his “special advisor.” Two months after that, racist NYPD thugs were parading a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn through the streets.

U.S. Capitalists Capitalize on Strauss-Kahn’s Scandal, Seek Control of I.M.F.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanded that Strauss-Kahn step down at once. He did, behind the prison bars of Rikers Island. Immediately, a former vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, John Lipsky, took over as interim head of the I.M.F.

U.S. rulers, capitalizing on the temporary tenure of pro-U.S. leaders Sarkozy in France and Merkel in Germany, are now in a position to name the next long-term I.M.F chief. The New York Times, the leading mouthpiece of the same dominant, imperialist wing of U.S. capitalists that runs JPMorgan Chase, editorialized (5/21/11) about various pro-U.S. prospects: “Ms. [Christine] Lagarde, who would be the first woman to hold the job, has the experience and many other strong qualities. But there are other talented candidates to consider, including Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s finance minister and chairman of the I.M.F.’s financial committee, and Arminio Fraga Neto, a former head of Brazil’s central bank.”

French finance minister Lagarde, a Sarkozy ally, toiled for decades as a partner in Baker & McKenzie, the top U.S. law firm in the crucial Mideast-North Africa region. The bankers from Singapore and Brazil both belong to the Group of Thirty, a pro-U.S. global monetary policy forum founded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and chaired by ex-Chase Manhattan economist and Obama adviser, Paul Volcker. The Group of Thirty has been a leading advocate of “reform” of the I.M.F.

Obama & Co. believe that they’ve scored a double victory. Disgraced and under armed guard in New York, Strauss-Kahn had until recently led the field opposing Sarkozy in the coming presidential election in France. U.S. imperialists now have a better chance to sustain Sarkozy-style French cooperation in murderous, U.S.-led military action, like NATO’s hellfire in Libya.

Capitalists rape workers by the billions every day. They exploit us with lousy pay, enforced by swelling racist unemployment. They kill and maim us through their police terror and wars. It is indeed high time for change. But we don’t mean reshuffling bosses to suit one imperialist rival over another, as with the booting of Strauss-Kahn. Only communism can destroy the source of all of these assaults, the profit system itself.J