> I believe all the horrible things that people have been saying about
> WWP/IAC, but I have to say that the latter have a better slant on A20
> than their more wholesome peers.
How does this fare on the Sawicky Mush Factor Test???
mark
For Immediate Release April 10, 2002
Activists Vow Continued Resistance to IMF, World Bank April Protests To Link Struggles for Global Justice
(Washington, DC) Calling for people from all walks of life to converge on the streets of Washington, DC two weeks from today, the Mobilization For Global Justice is planning protests against the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the institutions' annual spring meetings. The protests will take place in solidarity and cooperation with the mass mobilization against US Intervention in Colombia and the School of the Americas (SOA) as well as the April 20 March on Washington to Stop the War at Home and Abroad where militarism's critical part in perpetuating global injustice - the denial of economic and human rights - will be exposed.
Saturday: Rally in front of IMF/World Bank buildings, followed by feeder march to join the A20 Stop the War at Home and Abroad Mobilization April 20th 2002 11 am, IMF/WB Headquarters (18 St./19 St. & H St.)
Sunday: Meet & Greet the IMF/WB Delegates followed by a march to the Washington Monument (Sylvan Theatre) to join up with the Colombia Mobilization April 21st 2002 8:30am - 10:30am, IMF/WB headquarters (18 St./19 St. & H St.)
IMF and World Bank executives will meet this year in the wake of the economic crisis in Argentina, where neo-liberal policies supported enthusiastically by the IMF unraveled into joblessness, poverty and suffering. There, as in so many other communities across the globe, people united in democratic resistance to the privatizations and economic austerity measures pushed by the World Bank and IMF. In a now familiar response, the demands of Argentina's people were pushed aside by un-elected officials in Washington demanding unwanted "reforms" that only promise more pain and suffering.
The meetings also come after the collapse of Enron. Since 1992, the World Bank approved $761 million for 13 Enron projects. The IMF and World Bank played a key role in Enron's business by issuing loans for privatization of energy and power sectors in developing countries where the company operated. Like those of Enron, the 2002 Spring Meetings of the IMF/World Bank will be off limits to regulators, members of the public, and the media.
The Mobilization for Global Justice, and over 240 other organizations around the world, demand that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund:
* Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and the public.
* Cancel all impoverished country debt to the World Bank and IMF, using the institutions' own resources.
* End all World Bank and IMF policies that hinder people's access to food, clean water, shelter, health care, education, and right to organize.(Such "structural adjustment" policies include user fees, privatization, and economic austerity programs.)
* Stop all World Bank support for socially and environmentally destructive projects such as oil, gas, and mining activities, and all support for projects such as dams that include forced relocation of people.
The Mobilization for Global Justice is a Washington, DC based organization of groups and individuals focused on the growing problem of corporate globalization in today's world. It sponsors educational events, rallies and demonstrations that serve to highlight the harmful neo-liberal economic policies carried out by unaccountable, undemocratic international financial institutions. Visit our web site at <www.globalizethis.org>.
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