[stop-imf] Rally at IMF Saturday

[Robert Weissman]

For Immediate Release:  April 18, 2002

Contact:  Njoki Njoroge Njehu 202/746-4318 / 
Soren Ambrose 202/285-5836
[Ed. note: for MGJ, contact David Levy, 202-714-8864]

EVENT: RALLY & MARCH FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE 
Co-Sponsored by the 50 Years Is Enough Network & the 
Mobilization for Global Justice
SATURDAY  -  APRIL 20, 2002  -  11:00 a.m. 
At the Spring Meetings of the IMF & World Bank 
18th & Pennsylvania, N.W.  Washington

IMF/WORLD BANK PROTEST SET FOR SATURDAY

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank 
again convene the highest-level regular meeting of global 
economic decision-makers, people from around the United 
States and the world will raise their voices in opposition 
to their disastrous policies.

The 50 Years Is Enough Network, which has organized 
protests outside each IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington 
since 1995, joins with the Mobilization for Global Justice 
(its co-organizer in April 2000 and April 2001) in making 
four demands that would begin to address the damage done 
by 
the imposition of a corporate economic agenda by the 
Washington-based institutions:

Together with the Mobilization for Global Justice, the 50 
Years Is Enough Network reiterates it four central demands 
of the World Bank and IMF:

1)  Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and 
the public
2)  Cancel all impoverished country debt to the World Bank 
& IMF, using the institutions' own resources.
3)  End all World Bank & IMF policies that hinder people's 
access to food, clean water, shelter, health care, 
education, and right to organize. (Such "structural 
adjustment" policies include user fees, privatization, and 
economic austerity programs.)
4) Stop all World Bank support for socially & 
environmentally destructive projects such as oil, gas, and 
mining activities, and all support for projects such as 
dams that include forced relocation of people. 

SPEAKERS AT THE RALLY (list subject to change):
Emcess:  Rob Weissman, Essential Action & Crystal Sylvia, 
Mobilization for Global Justice
Nawal el-Saadawi (Egypt): renowned feminist, novelist, and 
political essayist (invited)
Nora Cortiņas (Argentina): Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo 
(may have visa problems)
Godfrey Kanyenze (Zimbabwe): SAPRIN / Zimbabwe 
Confederation of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
Shelley Rao (Fiji): Jubilee South
Ivan Cisneros (Ecuador):  Institute for Ecology and 
Development in Andean Communities 
Vanessa Dixon (Washington, DC): Service Employees Intl. 
Union & Health Care Now
Njoki Njoroge Njehu (Kenya / Washington, DC): 50 Years Is 
Enough Network 

We are deeply concerned, again, by the reaction of the 
Metropolitan Police Department to the demonstrations this 
weekend.  Despite a record of protests free of property 
destruction or violence against people, Chief Ramsey and 
Executive Assistant Chief Gainer have insisted on 
bellicose rhetoric which, together with repeated 
television broadcasts of April 2000 protesters pushing 
against a fence, serves only to frighten the people of 
Washington, and buttress the department's demands for 
millions of dollars from the federal government.  

We know of no reason for the police to expect violence or 
other unusual challenges to public order.  We recommend 
that the media closely examine the reasons for the 
exaggerated response, and in particular the exorbitant 
expenditure of public funds, that has come to accompany 
virtually any large protest in Washington.  A comparison 
to the preparations for and damage done to nearby College 
Park when the University of Maryland won recent NCAA 
basketball tournament might also yield an interesting 
perspective.