Action alert: ask reps. to sign IMF ltr to Pres. Clinton

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Rep. Bernie Sanders along with Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Tom Campbell are  
circulating the following letter to President Clinton on the IMF. They
are seeking other members of the House of Representatives to sign on. 

List members in the United States: Please call your Representative, ask
for the staff person who deals with the IMF, and urge them to have your
Representative sign on to this letter. If they are seeking more
information, ask staff to contact Dan O'Grady from Rep. Sanders office, at
225-4115.

Thanks.

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org


The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC  20500

Dear Mr. President:

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meets in Washington this week, we
write to urge you to oppose new United States resources for the IMF and
the sale of IMF gold unless the IMF makes fundamental reforms.

For working people in the United States and the poorest people throughout
the world, IMF programs have been a dismal failure.  In countries where
the IMF's policies of "structural adjustment" have been imposed, the
result has been higher unemployment, lower wages, and more human suffering
as governments have been forced to cut funding for food, health, education
and other necessities.  In addition, the IMF has weakened the institutions
of democracy in country after country, where elected officials have been
required to relinquish control over major decisions affecting their
citizens in exchange for IMF loans.  Moreover, the IMF has turned a deaf
ear to the growing calls for debt cancellation for the poorest countries,
even though debt burden and IMF austerity policies have strangled the
economic growth of these countries, and the IMF can easily afford to pay
down these debts from its own resources.

Specifically, we urge you to support the following reforms of the IMF.

First, end United States participation in and support for the IMF's
Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), the program through which
the IMF requires Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) to accept
destructive austerity measures in exchange for debt relief and new IMF
loans.  The creation of ESAF was an unwarranted expansion of the IMF's
original mandate of addressing short-term external trade imbalances, and
ESAF has been responsible for creating economic chaos wherever it has been
implemented.

Second, oppose any proposal to sell or otherwise convert or liquidate gold
held by the IMF, except under strong conditions.  These conditions should
include prior Congressional authorization; cancellation of all IMF debts
owed by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Haiti; the appropriate
publication of the most recent operational budget of the IMF; and the
publication in the budget of the United States Government of the costs of
participation in the IMF.

Third, oppose any new resources for the IMF until it has paid down all
debts owed to it by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Haiti, using
the IMF's existing accounts.

	Fourth, oppose any proposal of a quota increase for the IMF unless
Congress receives prior notice of the proposal and enacts a joint
resolution authorizing the approval of the proposal.

	These basic reforms will go a long way towards returning the IMF
to its original mandate, while reducing the threat of international
economic crises and supporting democracy, economic development, human
rights and environmental sustainability around the world.  These reforms
will also remove the crippling debt burdens on the poorest countries,
which block their economic growth and keep their people in poverty.  
Until these reforms are made, we urge you to oppose the use of one more
penny of U.S. taxpayers' money for the IMF.

Sincerely,



	_______________ _______________ _______________
	Bernard Sanders		    Tom Campbell
Dennis J. Kucinich
	Member of Congress		    Member of Congress
Member of Congress

Co-signers so far are:

Bernard Sanders
Tom Cambell				
Dennis J. Kucinich
Peter A. DeFazio			
Ron Paul
Jack Metcalf				
Paul Ryan				
Cynthia A. McKinney			
Barbara Lee				
Walter B. Jones			
Marcy Kaptur				
Dan Burton				
James A. Barcia				
John Conyers, Jr.			
James A. Traficant, Jr.		
Bob Filner				
Lane Evans				
Collin C. Peterson			
Joseph R. Pitts				
Pat Danner				
George Miller				
Stark					
Jackson-Lee				
Ralph Hall				
Jesse Jackson, Jr.