[stop-imf] Group Statement Against Wolfowitz

[Robert Weissman]

CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO THE NOMINATION OF
PAUL WOLFOWITZ AT PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK

March 30, 2005

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC
=3D=3D BY FAX =3D=3D

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. 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, such as sweeping privatization, immunity
for foreign contractors from Iraqi law, and suspension of all tariffs.
These 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,

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

Salih Booker
Africa Action
Washington, DC

Tim Jeffries
Bend-Condega Friendship Project
Bend, OR

Michael Casaus
Center for Economic Justice
Albuquerque, NM

Maria Elena Letona
Centro Presente
Cambridge, MA

Elena Day
Charlottesville Latin America Solidarity Committee
Charlottesville, VA

Meaghan Sheehan
Committee on US-Latin American Relations
Ithaca, NY

Wenonah Hauter
Critical Mass Energy and Environment Project
Public Citizen
Washington, DC

Lloyd Hart
Dadapop.com
Martha=92s Vineyard, MA

Kara Martinez
Denver Justice & Peace Committee
Denver, Colorado

Doug Hellinger
The Development GAP
Washington, DC

John M. Miller
East Timor Action Network
Brooklyn, NY

Bob Schwartz
Gay Liberation Network
Chicago, IL

Orin Langelle
Global Justice Ecology Project
Hinesburg, VT

Paula Palmer
Global Response
Boulder, CO

Tom McCormack
United Students Against Sweatshops - Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI

Alan Muller
Green Delaware
Port Penn, DE

Charlie Hinton
Haiti Action Committee
San Francisco, CA

Mary Turgi CSC
Holy Cross International Justice Office
Notre Dame, IN

Mayer H. Segal
HOPE Coalition
Bayside, CA

Brian Hill
Institute for Cultural Ecology
San Francisco, CA

Mark Ritchie and Kristin Dawkins
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Minneapolis, MN

Peter Bosshard
International Rivers Network
Berkeley, CA

Jean O'Leary
Jubilee USA/C.R.O.P. -Church World Service
Encinitas, California

Cheryl Duckworth
Jubilee National Capital Area
Washington, DC

Neil Watkins
Jubilee USA Network
Washington, DC

Frederic Hicks
Kentucky Interfaith Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
Louisville, KY

Kathie Sherman
Latin American Action Team
Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery
St. Louis, MO
Marie Dennis
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Washington, DC

Gabriel Camacho
Massachusetts Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Watertown, MA

Dale Sorensen
Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas
Mill Valley, CA

Matthew Kennis
The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
Washington, DC

Taleigh Smith
NY CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)
New York, NY

David Radcliff
New Community Project
Elgin, IL

Diana Bohn
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
Berkeley, CA

Robert Abplanalp
Nicaragua Medical Alliance
Chicago, IL

Anuradha Mittal
The Oakland Institute
Oakland, CA

Steve Kretzmann
Oil Change
Washington DC

Nancy S. Lovejoy
Peace For All Forever
Wilbraham, MA
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
San Francisco, CA

Tom Ricker
Quixote Center
Brentwood, MD

David Worthington
Salem Committee on Latin America (SCOLA)
Salem, OR

Susan Saudek
SHARE Foundation
Baltimore, MD

Brooke Slick
Shepherd University - Student Global Aids Campaign
Shepherdstown, WV

Ann Oestreich
Sisters of the Holy Cross
Congregation Justice Committee
Notre Dame, Indiana

Karen M. Donahue, RSM
West Midwest Justice Committee
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Detroit, Michigan

Dr. Kenneth A. Gould
Sociologists Without Borders
Canton, NY

Paul Kesler
Suburban Philadelphia Greens
Bridgeport, PA

Jill Davies
Sustainable Living Systems
Corvallis, MT

Karin Mak
Sweatshop Watch
Los Angeles, CA
George S. Johnson
Third World Opportunities
San Marcos, CA

Rev. Douglas B. Hunt
United Church of Christ Network for Environmental and Economic
Responsibility
Washington, DC

Bruce J. Klipple
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
Pittsburgh, PA

Jonathan Kissam
UE Local 221
Burlington, VT

James Haslam
Vermont Workers Center
Underhill, VT

Tanya Snyder
Voices on the Border
Washington, DC

Lonny D. LeFever
West Ohio United Methodist AIDS Ministry
Conover, OH

Aseem Das
World Centric
Palo Alto, CA

Mark Dubois
WorldWise
Sacramento, CA


[Individual Endorsers]

Tim Ashe
Burlington City Council
Burlington, VT

Rene V. Arcilla
New York, NY

David Bensman
New Brunswick, NJ

Lisle Merriman Benson
East Montpelier, VT

Maurita Bernet
Phoenix AZ

Brent Buell
New York, NY

Barbara Bull
Berkeley, CA

Joshua M. Bunting
N Tonawanda, NY

William Burtch
Santa Cruz, CA

Martha Bushnell
Boulder, CO

Margaret Crawford
Jeffersonville, NY

Patricia Dahl
New York, NY

Rebecca Davis
Falls Church, VA

David and Booker Deakyne
Harvey Cedars, NJ

William Demers
Los Angeles, CA

Rev. James E. Flynn
Park City, UT

David Grillo
Allendale, MI

Bartlett Harvey
Exeter, NH

Malissa M. Haslam
Santa Fe, NM

Robert A. Horwitz
New Haven, CT

Raissa Howera
Washington, DC

Moize Hussain
Concord, CA

Kirby Johnson
Sarasota, FL

Ed King
Pittsboro, NC

Laurie and Dave King
Portland, OR

Jennifer Laskin
Watsonville, CA

Larry Lewin
Eugene, OR

Connie Liu
Cleveland, OH

Emily Maloney
Santa Cruz, CA

Farah Nageer
Washington, DC

Grey Osterud
Newton, MA

Salome Phillmann
Chicago, IL

Heather Riemer
Burlington, VT

Patricia Robert
Essex, MA

Leo R. Sandy
Plymouth, NH

Dawn Stanger
Underhill, VT

Mayo Toru=F1o
San Bernardino, CA

Sister Deanna Rose Von Bargen, RSCJ
Lewiston, ID

Evan Weissman
Denver, CO