Boycott the World Bank

national | miscellaneous | news report

Friday May 16, 2003 18:52

by Aisling - World Bank Boycott Europe

aislingw at care2 dot com

WB Boycott Speakers' tour in Ireland

*The World Bank Boycott speakers tour is coming to Ireland next week. They will be speaking in the following places: Tuesday 20th May- Hall Ide, Thomas St. Limerick. 7:30 pm Wednesday 21st May-The HUB, NUI Galway 8pm Thursday 22nd May- Metropole hotel, Cork 8pm (Note Change of Venue) *

The World Bank Boycott is an international
coalition of grassroots
groups
from the Global South, North America and
Europe, which seek to
increase
financial and political pressure on the World
Bank by discouraging
local
institutions from investing in its bonds, from
which it raises 80% of
its
money. Much in the spirit of the anti-apartheid
divestment movement,
institutions and civic organisations are
encouraged to pass a
resolution publicly stating their refusal to buy
the bonds. There are
three
core demands of the World Bank Boycott:

1) To put an end to structural adjustment, and
related policies of
privatisation and austerity;

2) 100% debt cancellation for impoverished
nations and illegitimate
debt;

3) To end support for environmentally
destructive projects,
especially oil, gas, mining, and dam projects.

Since its launch in April 2000, over 80
institutional investors have
joined the Boycott, including trade unions such
as The International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, local governments such
as the City of San
Francisco, student groups such as the Wadham
College JCR at Oxford
University, religious groups such as Pax Christi
(USA), banks such as
the Co-operative Bank UK, and SRI firms such as
the Calvert Group.
The longer the list of objectors grows, the more
senior World Bank
staff begin to get nervous, and financial market
analysts to sit up
and
take note.

Highlighted on the tour will be Vineeta Gupta, a
human rights and
women's rights activist from India.She will
address the impact of
international financial institutions on India
and other developing
countries, the struggle to challenge them and
alternative development
in India. Additionally we will discuss the
World Bank Boycott as a
tool to work locally, especially from Europe, to
effectively
challenge the Bank.