[Intl-tobacco] Tobacco Privatization Kills! - Essential Action report & demo

[Robert Weissman]

From: Anna White <awhite@essential.org>

Dear Friends,

The global Merchants of Death, a.k.a Philip Morris British American
Tobacco, have a good friend in the International Monetary Fund. The IMF
doesn't think twice about forcing low-income nations to sell their
inefficient tobacco monopolies to multinational tobacco corporations
that are true masters of killing for profit. Yesterday, Essential Action
released a report detailing how the IMF pushes policies that undermine
public health and help Big Tobacco. We also held a demonstration in
front of the IMF headquarters to expose the IMF's "pack of lies"!

ESSENTIAL ACTION REPORT: NEEDLESS HARM
International Monetary Fund Support for Tobacco Privatization and for
Tobacco Tax and Tariff Reduction, and the Cost to Public Health
To access the report, go to:
HTML - http://www.essentialaction.org/needlessharm/
PDF - http://www.essentialaction.org/needlessharm.pdf

In particular, Essential Action's investigation found that the IMF has
pushed for tobacco privatization in: Bulgaria, Korea, Mali, Moldova,
Thailand, Turkey. Essential Action also found that the IMF has supported
excise tax or tariff reductions in: Djibouti, The Gambia, Macedonia,
Peru, and Uganda.


"TOBACCO PRIVATIZATION KILLS" DEMO A SUCCESS!
Our gigantic, 10-foot high "IMF Pack of Lies" prop succeeded in
garnering tremendous media coverage.  The prop featured four huge
removable cigarettes labelled "IMF hurts Turkey," "IMF hurts Moldova,"
"IMF hurts Thailand" and "IMF hurts Mali" -- all countries where the IMF
has aggressively pushed for tobacco privatization.

The media, eager to report on "actions" leading up to the large
demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank this coming weekend,
billed the event as "the first demonstration of the week" and came out
en masse. All the local television stations covered the demonstration
during the evening news. Fox News included a short interview with an IMF
spokesperson (who unconvincingly argued that tobacco privatization is
"good" for people in other countries). Several photos ran in newspapers
and national newswires:

     Washington Post
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/event/imfdemo/wpwoodall.jpg

     Reuters
     http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/020923/170/2b4k4.html&e=5&ncid=705

     Associated Press
     http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020924/168/2b5hh.html

About 25 people participated in the demo, including a number of tobacco
control advocates from around the country (who conveniently happened to
be in town for the Advocacy Institute's fellowship program). At the
beginning, the reporters outnumbered the demonstrators, so we turned the
event into an impromptu press conference. Robert Weissman, Co-Director
of Essential Action, announced the release of the "NEEDLESS HARM" report
and gave an overview of the IMF's harmful policies related to tobacco.
Anna White, Coordinator of Essential Action's Global Partnerships for
Tobacco Control program, briefly described three examples of the IMF
pressuring countries to privatize their tobacco monopolies (Turkey,
Moldova, Thailand).

     View a photo of press conference
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/imfdemo/imfanna.jpg

After the press conference, demonstrators marched in a circle chanting
slogans like "Hey hey, ho ho! Tobacco privatization's got to go!", "IMF
pushes smoking - We're not joking!", and "IMF, what do you say? How many
kids have you hooked today?" and holding signs such as:

     "IMF, whose side are you on -- Public Health or Big Tobacco?"
     (with picture of IMF managing director)
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/imfdemo/imfside.jpg

     A Big Tobacco/IMF grim reaper carrying a scythe with the words
     "tobacco privatization"
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/imfdemo/imfgrim.jpg

     "IMF to low-income countries: We'll give you a loan if you
     smoke more Marlboros"
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/imfdemo/imfloan.jpg

     "Tobacco Privatization KILLS!" (with pictures of skulls)
     http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/photos/imfdemo/imfkills.jpg

In a moment we will forward you a press release about the report, and
some brief background on the issue. Feel free to use them to garner
additional media coverage in your respective countries.

Best wishes,
Anna

Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030
Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: awhite@essential.org
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco