International Women's Week: Days of Action Against the IMF (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Dear Friends and Activists All,

Join the the Days of Action Against the IMF (March 7-13).

Please read on regarding efforts in the U.S. to show how the Department of
Treasury and IMF make policies that are bad for women.  Focusing on cities
that have Federal Reserve Banks (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland,
Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, San
Francisco, St. Louis), but not limited to only those, we already have half a
dozen events in the making in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, DC,
New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco -- WE NEED MORE.

This is a request to each of you to support, organize, and/or join with
others to help make an event happen in your city. By the end of the day I
will post the names and contact numbers of 50 Years Is Enough activists
coordinating with DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) activists to
organize these important actions.  

Please let me know if you want to be listed as an organizer/contact person
in your city.

We have a sample flyer that folks can modify by putting the details of their
local event -- I will be happy to fax or email it as an attachment.

In Peace & Solidarity,

Njoki Njoroge Njehu
Public Outreach Coordinator
202/IMF-BANK

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S WEEK (MARCH 7-13): 
DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
 

When the IMF tells Korea to fire its workers, who is being targeted for
layoffs? 
      Women.
When the IMF imposes economic austerity, who is on the front lines dealing
with the social and economic fall-out? 
     Women.
When the IMF forces countries to build export industries at the expense of
workers and local production, who is hurt most?
      Women.  
When the IMF designs these policies, who is at the table? 
       Men. 
 
The time has come to hold the IMF and the Clinton Administration accountable
for the fact that they exclude women from global economic decision-making
and actively promote economic policies that both exacerbates women's poverty
and increase the exploitation of women. 
 
Join or organize events for International Women's Week: Days of Action
Against the IMF at the US Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Banks
around the United States.
 
Dates: Saturday, March 7 - Friday, March 13, 1998
Time: Check for time at local events
Place: US Treasury Department in Washington, DC (15th and Pennsylvania NW) 

Federal Reserve Banks around the country: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia,
Richmond, San Francisco, St. Louis
 
Why the IMF NOW?
 
Characterized  as an institution that is more secretive than the CIA, the
IMF has always preferred  to carry out its work behind closed doors, under a
shroud of jargon and obfuscation.  
 
Two events have catapulted the IMF into the limelight.  The first is its
role in the Asian financial crisis.  Together with the U.S. Treasury, within
a few short months the IMF put together over $100 billion in short-term
loans for South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia.  The terms of the loans,
however, ensure that the poor and middle classes bear the brunt of a crisis
they had no role in creating.  The IMF program is forcing layoffs of
millions of workers, while increasing the taxes workers and the poor pay on
items such as kerosene and cooking fuel, fueling inflation through forced
devaluations, and making credit unaffordable by hiking interest rates.  In
South Korea, the IMF expressly states that the loans can only be used to
bailout foreign -- not domestic – investors.  Economists from across the
political spectrum argue that IMF policies will unnecessarily drive Asia
into a depression.
 
The second event is the attempt by the Clinton Administration to use the
Asia crisis as leverage to get Congress to appropriate US$ 18 billion to
expand the power and scope of the IMF, and to provide additional funds for
future bailouts.  In other words, the Clinton Administration wants US
taxpayer dollars to bail out foreign investors, enforce trade policies that
hurt U.S. workers, and impose economic austerity on foreign countries that
causes widespread and unnecessary suffering. 
 
The primary beneficiaries of the recent bailouts will be banks -- European,
U.S., Japanese banks that made bad loans in Asia, not working families in
those countries, who will be forced to accept harsh austerity.  Women in
Asia will be hard hit.  They, like women workers around the world, are the
lowest paid workers, and are typically concentrated in domestic industries
not eligible for any financial assistance.  Their role as household managers
will be made difficult by increase food and fuel prices, decreased access to
government resources, and drops in personal and family income due to
layoffs.  
 
Why International Women's Day?
 
One hundred years ago women workers in the US first demonstrated against the
sweatshop  conditions in which they were forced to work. Their struggle is
commemorated each March 8 as International Women's Day.
 
In 1998, not only do sweatshops still exist both in the United States and
around the world, but the  economic policies of the Clinton Administration
and the IMF and their refusal to support 
labor standards and human rights in borrower countries actually encourage
the development of sweatshops.  
 
What's our message to Congress and the Clinton Administration?
 
Until the U.S. Treasury and the global financial institutions support the
full range of women's economic, cultural, social and human rights, they will
not get the support of women.  We are mobilizing women around the country to
oppose the US$ 18 billion appropriations to the IMF.  
 
Who Should Join In?
 
All people concerned about women's rights, worker's rights and global
economic justice are  invited to organize and/or join the demonstrations
against the bankers who set the policies that block women's equality.
 
Organize or become a co-sponsor of the International Women's Week: Days of
Action Against the International Monetary  Fund.
 
Join us, Just Say No to Funding for the IMF!




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______________________________________________________________

Lynn Fredriksson, Washington Representative		
East Timor Action Network
110 Maryland Avenue NE #30
Washington, DC 20002	
202-544-6911; 202-546-5103 (fax)
etandc@igc.apc.org

"I am in the world to change the world." --Muriel Rukeyser