[stop-imf] WORLD BANK CRITICS DENOUNCE CONFIRMATION OF WOLFOWITZ

[Robert Weissman]

=95 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice =95
ActionAid International USA =95 Essential Action =95 Mobilization for Globa=
l
Justice =95

For Immediate Release: March 31, 2005
Contact: Soren Ambrose (50 Years) 202-285-5836; soren@igc.org
Robert Weissman (Essential Action) 202-360-1844; rob@essential.org
Morrigan Phillips (MGJ) 202-258-1822; phipco@riseup.net
Stay informed on-line: www.nowaywolfowitz.org;
www.worldbankpresident.org; www.globalizethis.org

WORLD BANK CRITICS DENOUNCE CONFIRMATION OF WOLFOWITZ
Iraq War Planner Will Add to Deceit and Incompetence as Bank President

WASHINGTON =96 Critics of the World Bank expressed their disgust today
after its board approved Paul Wolfowitz as the organization=92s next
President. His five-year term begins June 1st.

Activists gathered at the Bank=92s Washington headquarters as the Board
met to stage a =93one-horse race=94 that illustrated the anti-democratic wa=
y
the Bank=92s president is selected. The U.S. government=92s candidate never
faces competition and always wins. European officials, who at first
expressed shock at the nomination, put their money on Wolfowitz when
horse-trading reportedly yielded the European Union the right to name
his deputy, and very likely U.S. endorsement of the French candidate for
leadership of the World Trade Organization.

Mobilization for Global Justice, lead organizer of the one-horse race,
is also organizing demonstrations at the IMF/World Bank spring meetings
in two weeks=92 time, from April 15-17.

Robert Weissman, Director of Essential Action and the actor who
portrayed the horse=92s ass in the staged race to enthusiastic cheers,
said: =93Even the lamest pony can win a one-horse race. And so now the
developing world has to live with Paul Wolfowitz, a man with no relevant
experience but for his oversight of the reconstruction of Iraq -- a
project beset by corruption, cronyism and incompetence, and which has
failed miserably at delivering water, health, security and other basic
services promised to the Iraqi people.

=93If Wolfowitz does indeed care about poverty reduction, as he has so
devoutly asserted over the last two weeks, he will begin his term by
committing to cancel the debts claimed from impoverished countries *this
year,* without harmful economic conditions.=94

Atila Roque, Executive Director of ActionAid International USA, whose
colleague was the horse=92s head, said: =93The United States government and
other major World Bank shareholders have been sharply critical of the
lack of transparency and accountability in many developing countries. In
this context, this secretive leadership selection process is
breathtakingly hypocritical.=94

Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, said:
=93As the cheerleader-in-chief for the Iraq war, Wolfowitz demonstrated a
remarkable capacity for deceit -- or sheer incompetence. The radical
disconnect between rhetoric and practice is also familiar to the World
Bank. The Bank has spent 60 years spouting lofty promises =96 development,
realizing human potential, environmental sustainability, and so on =96
while undermining those very goals by insisting on =91sound economic
policies=92 that work chiefly for foreign business interests. It sounds a
lot like Wolfowitz=92s strategy at the Pentagon: promise salvation,
deliver crisis, pay off your supporters.=94

Race announcer Morrigan Phillips of Mobilization for Global Justice,
told the crowd outside the Bank, =93Wolfowitz may be a one-trick pony, but
we=92re not! We=92ll be back here on April 16, when our demonstrations will
show that a better world is possible, and is being constructed right now.=
=94