World Bank Boycott Speaking Tour Comes to Galway

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 19, 2003 11:10 by Sylvia Pankhurst - Ecology Society

Public Meeting on World Bank in Galway this Wednesday

WORLD BANK BOYCOTT SPEAKING TOUR COMES TO GALWAY

Speaking will be Chelsea Moysen, the co-ordinator of the boycott in Europe.

And Vineeta Gupta, a human rights activist with
INSAAF in India, who’ll be talking about the effects of World Bank policies in India with a particular emphasis on the detrimental effects they have on women's and workers' rights.

There should also be some films.

Wednesday 21st , 8pm in the Hub, NUIG.

To get there go up the little alley way into
the university which is opposite Wards Shop on Newcastle Road, turn right just past the ‘Marine Science’ building and ‘The Hub’ is through the door beside the Students Union bar.

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.

The World Bank Boycott is an international
campaign that demands an end to socially and
environmentally destructive World Bank policies
and projects through grassroots financial and
political power.

The success of this campaign stems from the fact
that the World Bank raises 80 percent of its
money by selling bonds to individual investors.
As a result, normal people around the world have
the power to stop the World Bank in its tracks
just by making simple choices about where they
put their money. Many of the bonds the World
Bank sells are owned by small private investors -
including retirement funds, university
endowments, churches, local governments, and
trade union pension funds.

The boycott of World Bank Bonds was modeled on
the antiapartheid movement and was conceived of
by Haitian, South African, and Ecuadorian groups
angered by the effects of the World Bank in
their own countries. Campaigns in South Africa,
India, Haiti, Canada, the United States, and
Europe are already successfully opposing the
World Bank. Numerous trade unions, universities,
civic groups, local governments, and religious
groups have signed onto the boycott.