[stop-imf] SNAP DEMO AT WORLD BANK TODAY (Thurs. 8/29) at 5:45 pm

[Robert Weissman]

The Mobilization for Global Justice will hold an emergency
demonstration at the World Bank's headquarters at 1818 H St
NW on Thursday.  Please arrive by 5:45 so we reach critical
mass by 6 pm in time for the eve. newscasts and with enough
time to allow for working groups to meet later in the
evening.

Mobilization for Global Justice

Press Statement
For Immediate release
August 30, 2001

contacts:
Robert Weissman (cell) 202-904-4068
David Levy      (cell) 202-669-5929

GLOBAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE WORLD BANK'S SHAM
DISCLOSURE POLICY

DEMONSTRATION TO BE HELD TODAY AT WORLD BANK

Washington - Global justice activists today denounced an
expected new World Bank "Information Disclosure Policy." The
disclosure policy, which is itself still secret, is a sham
attempt to address the demand of critics that World Bank
decision-making be open to the scrutiny of the public and
the news media.

The disclosure policy is expected to be approved by the
World Bank Board of Directors on Thursday - in a meeting
that will be closed to the public and to the news media. The
policy specifies what the public is allowed to know and is
not allowed to know about the operations of the World Bank.

According to World Bank documents leaked to non-governmental
organizations, under the "new" policy, meetings of the Board
of Directors will continue to be closed to the public and
the news media. Neither transcripts nor minutes of the
meetings will be released. Documents on investments in
projects such as dams, roads, oil and mining will only be
released after project approval, thus blocking public input.

Robert Naiman, a member of the Mobilization for Global
Justice, said today, "The World Bank's expected approval of
this policy makes a mockery of its claims to be open to
considering the demands of critics. The meeting where they
will ratify the policy will be secret. The document is
secret. Everything is secret. The World Bank seems to fear
sunlight more than Dracula."

Global justice activists and members of the Mobilization for
Global Justice will hold an emergency demonstration at the
World Bank's headquarters at 1818 H St NW at 6 p.m. on
Thursday, Aug. 30.

The Mobilization for Global Justice has demanded that all
IMF and World Bank meetings should be open to the public and
the news media and broadcast on C-SPAN. The MGJ has also
demanded that the institutions cancel impoverished country
debt, end policies that block access to education, health
care, clean drinking water, and other human needs, and end
support for environmentally and socially destructive
projects, including oil, gas, mining, and dams.

For more information, see www.globalizethis.org or call the
MGJ office at 265-7714.