Call to Action :: April 15-16, 2005 :: Washington, DC

It’s true: Paul Wolfowitz, the mastermind of the Iraq war, looks set to be the next President of the World Bank! How much clearer can it be that the aggressive military policy of the Bush Administration is part of the same system as the economic policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)? After bombing Iraq and occupying it with soldiers, Wolfowitz is now entrusted with the task of dropping economic bombs on the rest of the Global South, and occupying their governments with economic “advisers.”

In a world where for many impoverished countries wasteful spending on arms is a serious problem, the nomination of one of the US’s most notorious advocates for those misplaced priorities sends exactly the wrong message. For over twenty years, Wolfowitz has promoted militarism and US influence around the world. His ascension to the presidency of the World Bank promises an even balder version of economic imperialism in the Global South.

The World Bank and the IMF hold the countries of the Global South in their thrall with the mechanism of debt, much of it incurred by dictatorships and spent on arms or spirited away to offshore accounts. These institutions use the debt to impose structural adjustment policies on borrowing countries – policies that create sweatshop conditions for workers; open up agricultural markets to the dumping of subsidized goods from the US and EU; deny women, children and the poor access to essential services and a dignified livelihood; devastate the environment through mining, oil, and gas projects; and encourage corporate globalization and the continued economic imperialism of the Global North.

In the decades since their policies were first implemented on a wide scale, countries in the Global South -- and in Africa and Latin America in particular -- have experienced a drop in rates of economic growth; decreasing life expectancy; and increases in the number of people living below the poverty level.

If you've ever protested against the Administration’s Iraq war policy – or the World Bank and IMF – you need to be in Washington in April. Show that we understand the next step in the process of brutalizing and dominating the Global South (and beyond). The World Bank and IMF's economic policy is war by different means!

This April, when the World Bank and the IMF meet, join the 50 Years Is Enough Network and its partners in demanding 100% debt cancellation, the end of structural adjustment, and the cessation of economic violence against the Global South!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS