For five days, Jordanians took to the streets to protests measures by the government to increase taxes. Demonstrators also demanded access and improvements to city services, the lack of which compounds the high rate of unemployment to which Jordan’s population is subjected. In the largest protests the country has seen since 2011, Jordanians unseated prime minister Hani Mulki in a matter of days due to popular discontent with staggering austerity, issues with affordability, and poverty.
The protests launched after May 30, following the announcement of International Monetary Fund measures which included a new income-based tax draft law that also saw a sharp tax increase that aggravated the widely unemployed and underemployed country.
In 2016, the IMF put $723 million into the country to lower debt and enhance equitable growth, yet the inflows have only supported the country’s staggering debt austerity, toppling at 35 billion. Jordan joined five other Arab countries in August of 2016 approving IMF loans, with Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen also taking on the loans, austerity agreements with impacts detrimental to social programs, and especially antagonistic to populations already suffering from the devastation wrought by imperialist warfare, high unemployment, and rampant corruption.
Jordan joins its Arab neighbors in being beholden to the debt trap of finance capital, where capitalism and cronyism by governments and institutions prove themselves accountable…