"USA: Grassroots Campaign Calls on Institutions to Boycott World Bank Bonds"

City of Oakland, Communications Workers of America, Citizens Funds Among New Institutions to Commit Not to Purchase World Bank Bonds
CONTACT :
Neil Watkins 202-299-0020 / 202-421-1023
Soren Ambrose 617-407-0109 (In Prague)

WASHINGTON, DC -- Thousands are descending upon Prague to protest at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, while protestors stage solidarity actions against corporate globalization in 57 U.S. cities and at least 28 other countries. As part of the action call of the September 26 Global Day of Action, numerous new institutions in the United States have joined the boycott against World Bank bonds.

The City of Oakland, California; the Communications Workers of America; the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE); Citizens Funds; and the Sisters of Loretto have all committed - through resolution or statement of policy - not to purchase bonds issued by the World Bank. Coalitions of human rights and social justice groups in San Francisco and Boulder are poised to introduce resolutions before their city councils in October.

The boycott was launched because while the World Bank has adopted new rhetoric, its policies on debt and structural adjustment have remained largely unchanged and continue to plunder environments and economies of poor countries. "The World Bank has devastated countries and communities in the Global South for over 50 years. Its newest promises still include destructive structural adjustment. Now people, North and South, are saying the game is up: either stop structural adjustment programs or lose your lifeline," said Dennis Brutus, the renowned South African poet and anti-Apartheid campaigner.

In many of the actions planned in the U.S., activists will focus on the World Bank Bonds boycott. Protestors in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will highlight Citibank's role in underwriting World Bank bonds. Activists in Durham, NC and Ithaca, NY will target universities and other institutions in their areas to encourage passage of a World Bank Bonds Boycott resolution.

"From Zimbabwe to the India to Bolivia, citizen organizations are signing onto the boycott as a way to fight back against World Bank policies. Many groups in the U.S. are using the boycott as a way to increase their say over how their tax and tuition dollars are being used. This campaign is gaining power fast," said Beverly Bell, director of the Center for Economic Justice, one of the U.S. coordinators of the boycott.

The campaign demands that the World Bank stop its devastating structural adjustment lending and cancel debt claims it has on countries in the Global South. The World Bank gets 80% of its financing through bond sales on private financial markets to institutional investors and others. The World Bank Bonds Boycott was launched in April at the time of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. Human rights, environmental, labor and development groups in over 35 countries support the campaign. Other U.S. coordinators of the boycott include 50 Years is Enough Network, Global Exchange, Transnational Research and Action Center, Rainforest Action Network, United for A Fair Economy, and Essential Action.

WORLD BANK BONDS BOYCOTT
c/o Center for Economic Justice
1830 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: (202)299-0020
Email: bankboycott@econjustice.net
Web: www.worldbankboycott.org

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