[stop-imf] Sign on against Wolfowitz

[robert weissman]

- Please forward -

sign-ons to: signon@nowaywolfowitz.org

March 23, 2005

Friends & Colleagues =96

Below is a sign-on letter from U.S. civil society objecting to the
nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to become the next President of the World
Bank. While it is not clear whether the European governments =96 the only
ones with the voting power at the institution=92s board to stop the
nomination =96 will take any substantial action in opposition, the
decision is not final until the board votes on it. That vote is expected
on Thursday, March 31.

With this sign-on letter we want to signal to the public, to the IFIs,
to the Bush Administration, and to European activists and
decision-makers that U.S. civil society opposes Bush=92s nomination and
believes it must be fought. While it is unlikely that any Bush appointee
would make constructive changes at the deeply-flawed institution,
Wolfowitz threatens to make the World Bank little more than a pawn of
U.S. commercial and strategic interests. His record of deceit,
incompetence, war-mongering, and ideological obsession suggest his
presidency will almost certainly aggravate the plight of people
countries that borrow from the World Bank and reduce, rather than
increase, transparency and democracy within the institution.

SIGNERS: This letter is from U.S. ORGANIZATIONS
DEADLINE: Monday, March 28 =96 2 pm Eastern (11 am Pacific)
TO SIGN ON: Send your name, organization name, and location to
signon@nowaywolfowitz.org.


March, 2005

Dear President Bush,

We are writing to ask that you withdraw the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz
to lead the World Bank.

We believe that the World Bank requires serious reform. We believe
however that reform must make it a more multilateral institution, one
that balances the interests of donors and borrowers so that development
can become a shared vision of a better and more sustainable world.
Today=92s World Bank, unfortunately, is part of a development bureaucracy
viewed in the Global South as a tool for imposing policies that help
foreign interests and harm local initiatives for sustainable development.

For development to succeed, we must eliminate that perception, and more
important, the realities that generate that perception. We must
democratize development.

The installation of Mr. Wolfowitz would send precisely the opposite
signal: it would convince the people in countries that borrow from the
World Bank that the loans and programs it promotes are designed to serve
U.S. interests.

Paul Wolfowitz=92s background offers no suggestion that he could easily
reverse this perception. The signal accomplishment of his career, one to
which he has devoted 15 years, is the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Paul Wolfowitz helped sell the war to the American public on deceptive
and misleading grounds.(1) Wolfowitz's disdain for truthfulness in
public policymaking is incompatible with the need for increased
transparency at the Bank and honest assessments of institutional failure.

Mr. Wolfowitz's war has taken a terrible toll. One hundred thousand or
more Iraqi civilians have been killed in the Iraq war, according to the
best available estimates, and more than 1,500 U.S. personnel have been
killed and 11,000 wounded, according to the Pentagon. According to the
CIA, Iraq -- which had no ties to al-Qaeda prior to the war -- is now a
terrorist breeding ground.

Perhaps Mr. Wolfowitz's most relevant experience for the Bank position
involves the U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq. But by all accounts,
the reconstruction effort has been a disaster -- worse than the World
Bank=92s most notorious boondoggles. Iraqi reconstruction has been plagued
by crony contracting, billions of dollars unaccounted for, and a total
failure to deliver the health, water and security services promised to
the Iraqi people.

The U.S. provisional authorities also imposed destructive multinational
corporate-friendly policies (2) that will, if maintained, tie the hands
of Iraqi policymakers and open up the economy -- if it ever gets back on
track -- to such domination by foreign corporate interests that
equitable development will be impossible. If those policies reflect Mr.
Wolfowitz=92s economic orientation, we could see a disastrous collision
between a demand for blanket privatization and the realities of the
world's impoverished nations.

President Bush, there is no question that major changes are required at
the World Bank.

It is past time for cancellation of the debts owed by impoverished
countries to the Bank.

The Bank's lending in support of destructive market-based proposals --
featuring such policies as privatization of public water systems, the
imposition of charges for access to healthcare, removal of worker
protections, and emphasis on exports and trade liberalization at the
expense of production for domestic needs -- has left countries poorer
and deprived tens of millions of basic rights to healthcare, clean
water, adequate nutrition and other necessities of life.

Independent commissions with which the World Bank has participated have
concluded that the Bank's long-time support for mega- projects such as
large dams and oil, mining and gas projects has seriously damaged the
environment and undermined development goals. Yet the Bank has failed to
alter its lending policy in the face of this evidence, and it continues
to undermine ecological sustainability around the world.

And governance at the Bank remains profoundly undemocratic -- most
prominently in the manner by which the institution's president is
selected. Developing countries must be accorded a stronger role in
selection of the institution's leadership and self-determination with
regard to their economic policies.

But while fundamental change is needed at the World Bank, there is no
evidence that Mr. Wolfowitz has the expertise or experience to
facilitate such moves. To the contrary, his record suggests he will make
matters worse.

We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

INITIAL SIGNERS:
Robert Weissman
Essential Action
Washington, DC

Njoki Njoroge Njehu
50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice
Washington, DC

Deborah James
Global Exchange
San Francisco, CA

Nadia Martinez
Sustainable Energy & Economy Network / Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, DC

Fred Azcarate
Jobs with Justice
Washington, DC

Emira Woods
Foreign Policy in Focus / Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, DC


(1) In 2003, he acknowledged to Vanity Fair that he and others in the
administration made weapons of mass destruction the primary public
rationalization for the Iraqi war not because of fear of actual threat
to the United States or other countries, but for "bureaucratic reasons."

(2) Examples include sweeping privatization, immunity for foreign
contractors from Iraqi law, suspension of all tariffs.


SIGNERS: This letter is from U.S. ORGANIZATIONS
DEADLINE: Monday, March 28 =96 2 pm Eastern (11 am Pacific)
TO SIGN ON: Send your name, organization name, and location to
signon@nowaywolfowitz.org.