FINANCE: World Bank, IMF Brace For Seattle-like Storm

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 11 2000 (IPS) - Downtown Washington commuters got an early taste of what could be an exciting week here when a six-metre-long lorry parked itself across busy Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the global headquarters of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at rush- hour peak Monday morning.

“World Bank Plunders the Planet – No More Dollars For Oil, Gas and Mining,” read the huge banners which stretched across the trailer, as leaders of two major US environmental groups, presented a campaign platform signed by 200 groups from 41 countries demanding that the Bank end its support for destructive projects in poor countries.

The two, Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth and John Passacantando of Ozone Action, were arrested along with Beka Economopolous from Ecopledge.com by Washington police after refusing to dismount from atop the lorry. So were two other activists who had chained themselves to the rear of the truck, and two more who tried to scale the Bank’s entrance.

The demonstration, which tied up traffic for more than one hour, was the first act of civil disobedience in what is expected to be quite a number directed against both the Bank and the IMF over the next seven days, timed to coincide with the annual spring meetings of the two agencies’ governing boards.

The protests are expected to accelerate as the week goes on, reaching their highest point next Sunday and Monday when activists have vowed to disrupt or even prevent the final meetings from taking place.

While the vast majority of the 15,000 to 30,000 anticipated demonstrators are committed to non-violence, several self- described “anarchist” groups are expected to converge on the city with less peaceful intent.

The latter groups were responsible for millions of dollars in property damage during the turmoil which engulfed downtown Seattle during the World Trade Organisation meeting there last Nov. 30-Dec. 4 and put resistance to capitalist-led globalisation firmly on the international news agenda.

This time, however, the IMF and the Bank – created in the waning days of World War Two to ensure international monetary stability and economic development – are the main targets of demonstrators’ wrath. “Their policies make the rich richer and the poor poorer,” Trevor Ngwane, a Municipal Councillor for the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, told a press conference Monday morning.

Already, various groups, including those whose leaders were arrested by police Monday, are making themselves heard.

On Sunday, about 6,000 people linked arms to form a human chain around the US Capitol building to demand that western nations cancel the debt owed by the world’s 41 poorest nations, most of them in Africa. Part of the international Jubilee 2000 campaign, the event, to which US President Clinton himself sent a message of support, drew the participation of labour-union, human-rights, church, and environmental activists.

On Monday, just as the police finally removed the lorry from Pennsylvania Avenue, a more-radical coalition of activists held a press

conference at the National Press Building to launch a boycott against World Bank bonds which are sold on private capital markets.

The Bank raises roughly 80 percent of the almost 30 billion dollars it lends to developing countries each year through the world’s capital markets, and the campaign hopes to persuade many of the buyers of these Triple-A-rated bonds that they’re a poor investment.

“We need to break the power of the World Bank over developing countries, as the divestment movement helped break the power of the apartheid regime over South Africa,” said Dennis Brutus, a well-known poet, former political prisoner, and patron of Jubilee 2000 in his home country of South Africa.

These activists, who intend to press their campaign in 11 countries, hope other local governments, trade union pension funds, and universities – which control trillions of dollars in investment funds in the United States alone – will follow the example of the city of Berkeley, California and a California local of the Communications Workers of America, in boycotting World Bank bonds. Several socially responsible US investment firms also have pledged not to buy the Bank’s bonds.

“Berkeley was the first city to boycott companies which did business in South Africa, and we led the way in going after corporations which are doing business in Nigeria and Burma,” said Pratap Chatterjee, a member of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Commission. “Today we are proud to speak out against environmental degradation and other destruction caused by the World Bank with a similar action,” he added.

While the boycott group said they wanted to abolish the Bank altogether, those who stopped rush-hour traffic have a more modest aim – to phase out Bank lending for oil, gas and mining projects.

“The World Bank’s oil, gas, and mining projects have left a trail of environmental devastation, increased poverty, and severe social disruption in their wake in poor countries,” said Andrea Durbin of FOE. “The record shows that these projects do little or nothing to foster poverty alleviation, and instead mainly benefit multinational corporations.”

Monday’s events, however, were just the opener. On Tuesday, for example, a coalition of religious groups will mark “stations of the cross” on the Capitol steps to dramatise economic oppression caused by the debt burden.

On Wednesday, many activists will spend time on Capitol Hill lobbying US lawmakers to condition continued support for the IMF and the Bank on far-reaching reforms or abolish them altogether.

More demonstrations and civil disobedience are expected through the rest of the week, until “A-16,” the protestors’ code for Apr. 16, which will see a six-hour rally at the Ellipse behind the White House, to be followed by “direct action” against the two agencies only a few blocks away. “Direct action” will also take place on Monday, when the Bank-Fund meetings are supposed to wind up.

Publicly, the Bank and the IMF are taking all of this protest in stride. “Generally, we want to be sure we get some explanation of the Bank’s good work out there,” said Merrell Tuck, a Bank spokesperson.

Bank President James Wolfensohn is sounding especially conciliatory, insisting that he hopes to meet with many of the protestors. In a circular to all Bank staff last week, he noted that the Bank had sent out 300 invitations to representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to participate in discussions during the official meetings.

“We have much to gain from serious debate,” he wrote, “and nothing to gain from closing down discussion, particularly since the (Bank’s policy-making) Development Committee agenda contains many of the subjects …. which civil society leaders themselves have helped to put on the agenda.”

The IMF, whose newly-elected managing director, Horst Koehler, will take the helm only next month, is also making conciliatory noises. On Monday, it announced the creation of an “independent evaluation office” to monitor its work. The move is seen as a bid to counter criticism – particularly from the US Congress – that it operates with little or no public scrutiny and transparency.

But, behind the scenes, both institutions are clearly worried about the week’s events. The Bank informed its staff last week that no employees, apart from those working directly for the boards’ meetings, will be expected at work from Saturday through Monday.

In his circular, Wolfensohn also advised staff not to “go out on the streets and argue back. … The next week will be a trying time for all of us,” he wrote.

The Washington police, which have far more experience in dealing with both demonstrations and civil disobedience than their Seattle counterparts, also intend to seal off several square blocks around the two agencies beginning Tuesday. Only people with authorised passes will be permitted to approach the buildings.

“We have full faith in the local authorities to handle this professionally and make sure we have peaceful meetings,” said Tuck.

“This is state of siege time,” said one Bank employee Monday, adding that security precautions will be the tightest ever.

FINANCE: World Bank, IMF Brace For Seattle-like Storm

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 11 2000 (IPS) - Downtown Washington commuters got an early taste of what could be an exciting week here when a six-metre-long lorry parked itself across busy Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the global headquarters of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at rush- hour peak Monday morning.
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