WASHINGTON, D.C. — Protests are to be held here outside meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 16 and the World Bank on April 17 as part of a campaign to demand a world economy managed for people, not corporate profit.
Other events in the days surrounding the meetings include a protest as part of the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel Third World debt, a teach-in organised by Campaign for Labor Rights and co-sponsored by United Students Against Sweatshops and Global Exchange, an international forum on globalisation and a Latin America solidarity conference.
The 50 Years is Enough Network, which is supporting the protest, is demanding:
1. That the IMF and World Bank cancel all debts owed to them. Any funds required for this purpose should come from positive net capital and assets held by those institutions.
2. That the IMF and World Bank immediately cease imposing the economic austerity measures known as structural adjustment and/or other macroeconomic "reform", which have exacerbated poverty and inequality, as conditions of loans, credits, or debt relief. This requires both the suspension of those conditions in existing programs and an abandonment of any version of the "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries" initiative, which is founded on the concept of debt relief for policy reform.
3. That the IMF and World Bank accept responsibility for the disastrous impact of structural adjustment policies by paying reparations to the peoples and communities who have borne that impact. These funds should come from the institutions' positive net capital and assets, and should be distributed through democratically determined mechanisms.
4. That the World Bank group pay reparations to peoples relocated and otherwise harmed by its large projects (such as dams) and compensate governments for repayments made on projects which World Bank evaluations rank as economic failures. A further evaluation should determine which World Bank projects have failed on social, cultural, and environmental grounds, and appropriate compensation paid. The funds for these payments should come from the institutions' positive net capital and assets, and should be distributed through democratically determined mechanisms.
5. That the World Bank group immediately cease providing advice and resources through its division* devoted to private-sector investments to advance the goals associated with corporate globalisation, such as privatisation and liberalisation, and that private-sector investments currently held be liquidated to provide funds for the reparations demanded above.
6. That the agencies and individuals within the World Bank group and IMF complicit in abetting corruption, as well as their accomplices in borrowing countries, be prosecuted, and that those responsible, including the institutions involved, provide compensation for resources stolen and damage done.
7. That the future existence, structure, and policies of international institutions such as the World Bank group and the IMF be determined through a democratic, participatory and transparent process. The process must accord full consideration of the interests of the peoples most affected by the policies and practices of the institutions, and include a significant role for all parts of civil society.
[For more information, visit the web site set up for the demonstrations at <www.a16.org> or the Campaign for Labor Rights web site at <www.summersault.com/~agj/clr>.]