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For Immediate Release: October 1st, 2004 3:30 PM EST Basav Sen, World Bank Bonds Boycott: 202-232-0200 Cell: 617-645-3028 eBay Censors Online Auction of World Bank! Still trying to get rid of World Bank, People of the World post bank for sale on ³Craig¹s List²: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/for/44210389.html
See original ebay post at: http://www.econjustice.net/wbbb/global/global%20news/ebayadd.htm
Washington DC ‹ As Reuters reported earlier today, the online auction house eBay.com yanked a posting by ³G6billion² selling the ³world bank.² In an attempt to get rid of the antiquated bank, the people of the world have now offered the World Bank for sale on the virtual flea-market site Craigslist.org.
³It¹s funny that we should have such a hard time selling this bank on eBay. The World Bank has been for sale to the highest bidder for 60 years,² said Katrina Abarcar at the Center for Economic Justice. The post by ³G6Billion² on ebay.com this morning was only live for a few hours before being taken down by eBay. ³Perhaps the officials at the World Bank meetings were embarrassed about their institution¹s decreasing bond value in the wake of defaulting nations, and the World Bank Bonds Boycott, which is gaining more and more traction to move institutional investors away from financing global apartheid.²
Citing 60 years of failed polices and a track record of bankrolling projects that erode human rights and environmental standards, ³G6Billion² is attempting to find a buyer for the Bank as the G7 meeting of the leaders of the seven richest countries gets underway to start the World Bank¹s fall meetings. The post advertising the sale warns that the World Bank ³does not work² and encourages potential purchasers by saying ³the Bank will do a lot less harm to the world gathering dust in your attic.² The bank should fetch at least thirty US cents, the hourly minimum wage that Haitian workers receive under the World Bank/IMF structural adjustment
Many long time World Bank watchdog groups are not surprised by the low estimate of the Bank¹s worth ($0.30) due to the looming crisis of defaulting debtor nations and the growing movement to Boycott World Bank Bonds. The Bank has lost over $20 billion in potential investments since the launch of the World Bank Bonds Boycott in 2000. More and more financial institutions, including the nation¹s largest private pension system, TIAA-CREF, are dropping World Bank bonds from their portfolio, citing insufficient returns and heightened financial risk.
As the World Bank Group meets in Washington this weekend, a wave of protests against the Bank will ripple across the globe, from South Africa to Argentina to the Philippines. Mass protests in recent years have helped make the Bank a symbol of global poverty and corporate greed. These days, criticism of the Bank¹s policies are taking the form not only of street protests but also of divestment from World Bank Bonds by major institutional investors, such as labor unions, municipalities, and churches.
³The more people learn about the agenda of the World Bank the more people are joining the Boycott,² said Basav Sen, at the World Bank Bonds Boycott. ³Hopefully there is someone out there who will get this bank out of our lives and let it gather dust in an attic somewhere where it can no longer threaten human rights and our environment.²
The Center for Economic Justice along with civil society organizations from over 35 countries launched the World Bank Bonds Boycott in 2000 as a new strategy to confront the destructive policies of the Bank, and has worked with grassroots groups across the country to help institutional investors pull over $20 billion out of bankrolling global apartheid. For more info: www.worldbankboycott.org
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