Return-Path: <naimanr at preamble.org> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 98 16:13:49 -0500 X-PH: V4.4a at mx1.cso.uiuc.edu From: Robert Naiman <naimanr at preamble.org> Subject: intl sign-on against IMF To: Michael Brun <brun at uiuc.edu>
Please post this on LBO-talk, if it hasn't been. ---------- Essential Action is joining with Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South and a number of other groups throughout the world to circulate the following letter to the U.S. Congress. It urges no increase in the size, power or funding of the IMF.
The letter is open to signatures from groups or individuals, in the United States and especially outside of the USA. If you would like to sign, please send an e-mail message to Robert Naiman of the Preamble Center for Public Policy <naimanr at preamble.org>
Also, please circulate this note and the letter to other appropriate organizations and lists.
We have a good chance of defeating the proposed quota increase in the U.S. Congress. It is important that Members of Congress understand this letter's message that the IMF hurts not helps the world's poor people.
Robert Weissman Essential Information | Internet: rob at essential.org
To: Members of the United States Congress
Re: Why we Oppose the IMF Quota Increase
The undersigned organizations and individuals from around the world are opposed to any increase in the size, power, or funding of the International Monetary Fund [IMF], and in particular are opposed to any increase in the quota of member countries. The disastrous impact of IMF-imposed policies on workers rights, environmental protection, and economic growth and development; the crushing debt repayment burden of poor countries as a result of IMF policies; and the continuing secrecy of IMF operations provide ample justification for denying increased funding to the IMF.
Economic Growth and Development: The IMFs overwhelming preference for high interest rates and fiscal austerity, even in the absence of any economic justification, has caused unnecessary recessions, reduced growth, hindered economic development, and increased poverty throughout the world. There is now a consensus among economists that the IMFs recent intervention in the Asian financial crisis actually worsened its impact. Many believe that the Fund bears the primary responsibility for turning the financial crisis into a major regional depression, with tens of millions of people being thrown into poverty and no end in sight.
Labor: IMF policies undermine the livelihood of working families. IMF policies have mandated mass layoffs and changes in labor law to facilitate or encourage mass layoffs, as happened recently in South Korea. IMF policies regularly force countries to lower wages, or often undermine efforts by governments to raise wages-- as, for example, in Haiti in recent years.
Environment: IMF policies encourage and frequently require the lowering of environmental standards and the reckless exploitation of natural resources in debtor countries. The export of natural resources to earn hard currency to pay foreign debts under IMF mandates damages the environment while providing no benefit to poor and working people in debtor countries.
Debt: IMF and World Bank policies have forced poor countries to make foreign debt service a higher priority than basic human needs. The World Bank claims that it is "sustainable" for countries like Mozambique to pay a quarter of their export earnings on debt service. Yet after World War II, Germany was not required to pay more than 3.5% of its export earnings on debt service. Poor countries today need a ceiling on debt service similar to the one Germany had. According to UN statistics, if Mozambique were allowed to spend half of the money on health care and education which it is now spending on debt service, it would save the lives of 100,000 children per year.
Openness of IMF operations: IMF policies which affect the lives of a billion people are negotiated in secret, with key conditions not released to the public. The people who bear the burden of these policies often do not even have access to the agreements which have been negotiated.
The policies of the IMF have undermined the ability of developing countries to provide for the needs of their own peoples. Such an institution should not be expanded.
Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.
Sincerely,
Initiators:
Walden Bello, Co-director, Focus on the Global South, Bangkok; Professor of Sociology and Public Administration, University of the Philippines Carlos Heredia, Congressman, Mexico Dennis Brutus, Jubilee 2000 Africa Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Organizations-International
Third World Network, Africa Regional Secretariat Public Interest Research Group, India Center for Orang Asli Concerns, Malaysia DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era) Secretariat, Fiji Asociacisn Ecologista Costarricense-Friends of the Earth, Costa Rica Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren (Coalition Against BAYER-Dangers), Duesseldorf, Germany Both ENDS, Amsterdam,The Netherlands Rettet den Regenwald e. V., (Rainforest Rescue) Hamburg, Germany Indigenous Peoples4 Biodiversity Network
Organizations -US
Friends of the Earth 50 Years Is Enough Network Institute for Food and Development Policy -- Food First FoodFirst Information and Action Network -- USA Development Group for Alternative Policies International Labor Rights Fund Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Interhemispheric Resource Center Resource Center of The Americas Overseas Development Network Campaign for Labor Rights California Fair Trade Campaign Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition United Church of Christ Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community - (UUJEC), Pittsburgh, PA Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, IN Alliance for Justice Network, Medical Mission Sisters, USA Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America Campaign for Food Safety (formerly the Pure Food Campaign) Pesticide Action Network North America Arizona Toxics Information, Bisbee, Arizona Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Pittsboro, NC Native Forest Council National Forest Trust Essential Action WorldWise Preamble Center for Public Policy International Society for Gandhian Studies Alternatives In Action!, Atlanta, Georgia Rainforest Relief, Brooklyn, New York Federal Land Action Group, New York, New York
Individuals-International
Patrick Bond, Senior Lecturer in Economic Policy, University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management, Johannesburg, South Africa Francisco Martmnez, Instituto De Promocion Para El Desarrollo Rural, A.C., (Institute for the Promotion of Rural Development) Mixico Herbert Mujica Rojas, journalist, Peru Dr. Maxwell Mwase, School of Veterinary Medicine, Lusaka, Zambia Susi Newborn, Vice Chair, Greenpeace New Zealand Paul Phillips, Professor of Economics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Marie-Josee Massicotte, York University, Toronto, Canada Ute Sprenger, Publicist/Consultant, Berlin, Germany Peter R Wills, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Anita Idel , Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kritische Tiermedizin, Barsbek, Germany Stephen Morey, Department of Linguistics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Mike Zmolek, Dept. of Political Science, York University, Toronto Gregory Schwartz, Dept. of Political Science, York University, Toronto, Canada Floyd Rudmin, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Tromso, Norway
Individuals-US
Romesh Diwan, Professor of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY Michael Perelman, Professor of Economics, California State University, Chico, California David Ranney, Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago Dr. Kimberly Grimes, Director, Made By Hand International Cooperative; Anthropologist, University of Delaware David V. Carruthers, Department of Political Science, San Diego State University Ellen R. Shaffer, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University