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Network Platform & Demands to the IMF
and World Bank
These
demands have been formulated by the 50 Years Is Enough Network
through consultations over 15 months with the members of its
South Council (representing economic justice organizations in 13
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean) and
others.
The first version of these demands was prepared for the April
2000 spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank; more
comprehensive consultations resulted in this version, which was
finalized in August 2001. In August 2002 the Steering Committee
of the 50 Years Is Enough Network decided to adopt them as
Network’s platform, thereby replacing the
original platform
written at the founding of the organization in 1994.
We call for the
immediate suspension of the policies and practices of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group which
have caused widespread poverty, inequality, and suffering among
the world’s peoples and damage to the world’s environment.
Substantial responsibility for the unjust world economic system
lies with those institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
We note that these institutions are anti-democratic, controlled
by the G-7 governments, and that their policies have benefited
international private sector financiers, transnational
corporations, and corrupt officials and politicians.
We further call
for the creation of a neutral and credible “Truth Commission,”
composed of individuals with a demonstrated commitment to
poverty eradication and the health of the world’s ecosystems, to
investigate the actions and impacts of the IMF and the World
Bank. The Truth Commission’s findings must be respected and
acted on by the governments, institutional officials, and civil
society organizations concerned with economic development and
international financial policies.
We issue this
call in the name of global justice, in solidarity with the
peoples of the Global South and the former “Soviet bloc”
countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia who struggle for
survival and dignity in the face of unjust, imperialistic
economic policies. We stand in solidarity too with the millions
in the countries of the Global North who have borne the burden
of “globalization” policies that mirror those imposed on the
Global South.
Only when the
coercive powers of the international financial institutions are
eliminated shall governments be accountable first and foremost
to the will of their peoples. Only when a system that allocates
power chiefly to the wealthiest nations for the purpose of
dictating policies to the weaker and impoverished ones is
reversed shall peoples be able to forge bonds — economic and
otherwise — based on mutual respect and the common needs of the
planet and its inhabitants. Only when integrity is restored to
economic development, and both the corrupter and the corrupted
held accountable, shall the people begin to have confidence in
the decisions that have impacts on their livelihoods and their
communities. Only when the well-being of all, including the most
vulnerable peoples and ecosystems, is given priority over
corporate profits can we achieve genuine sustainable development
and create a world of justice, equality, peace, and ecological
values, where fundamental human rights, including
internationally-recognized social, cultural, environmental, and
economic rights, are respected.
With these ends
in mind, we make the following demands of the management,
executive directors, and Governors of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund:
1. DEBT
CANCELLATION: We demand that the IMF and World Bank
cancel 100% of all claimed debts without imposing any form of
external conditionalities. We concur with the position of
Jubilee South that holds these debts to be illegitimate. Any
funds required for this purpose should come from positive net
capital and assets held by those institutions. Should other
institutions, such as the African Development Bank, require
assistance to write off the debts owed them, we call on the
World Bank and IMF to make such funds available. We believe that
civil society in the indebted countries should take the lead in
determining how savings realized through cancellation are
utilized.
2. END
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: We demand that the IMF and World
Bank immediately cease imposing the economic austerity measures
known as structural adjustment and/or any other macroeconomic
“reform” as conditions of loans, credits, or debt relief. This
requires both the suspension of those conditions in existing
programs and an abandonment of “poverty reduction strategy
papers” (PRSPs) and any version of the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which conditions debt relief on
policy reforms.
3.
TRANSPARENCY: We demand that the IMF and World Bank
Group make all board meetings public and all documents in its
possession freely available to the public (with exceptions to
protect confidentiality to be decided on by a neutral body).
This includes all project and program agreements, board meeting
minutes, evaluations of program failures and successes, etc. All
documents must be made available in the local languages of
project- and policy- affected peoples.
4.
REPARATIONS FOR STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: We demand that
the IMF and World Bank accept responsibility for the disastrous
impact of structural adjustment policies, as determined by a
neutral and credible Truth Commission, by paying reparations to
the peoples and communities who have borne the consequences.
These funds should come from the institutions’ positive net
capital and assets, and should be distributed through
democratically-determined mechanisms.
5.
REPARATIONS FOR SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL DEVASTATION: We
demand that the World Bank Group pay reparations to peoples
relocated and otherwise harmed by its large projects (such as
dams) and compensate governments for loan repayments made on
projects which World Bank evaluations rank as economic failures.
A further evaluation by a neutral and credible Truth Commission
should determine which World Bank projects have failed on
economic, social, cultural, and environmental grounds, and see
that appropriate compensation is made. The funds for these
payments should come from the institutions’ positive net capital
and assets, and should be distributed through
democratically-determined mechanisms.
6. STOP
AID TO PRIVATE SECTOR: (a) We demand that the World
Bank Group immediately cease providing advice and resources to
advance the goals associated with corporate globalization, such
as privatization and liberalization; (b) We demand that the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral
Investment Guaranty Agency (MIGA) be closed, and that
private-sector investments currently held by these World Bank
agencies be liquidated to provide funds for the reparations
demanded above.
7.
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CORRUPTION: We demand that the
agencies and individuals within the World Bank Group and IMF
complicit in abetting corruption, as well as their accomplices
in borrowing countries and in private banks, be prosecuted, with
full cooperation from the institutions, and that those
responsible, including the institutions, recover and return
stolen wealth and provide compensation for unrecoverable stolen
resources. We call for a neutral and credible Truth Commission
to assess the culpability of the various parties to corruption
and stolen wealth.
8.
ASSESSMENT OF INSTITUTIONS’ FUTURE: We demand that the
future existence, structure, and policies of multilateral
institutions such as the World Bank Group and the IMF be
submitted to a re-evaluation conducted through a democratic,
participatory and transparent process, building on the findings
of a neutral and credible Truth Commission. The process must
accord full participation to the peoples most affected by the
policies and practices of the institutions, and include a
significant and influential role for all parts of civil society,
including farmers’ associations, trade unions, women’s
organizations, non-governmental organizations, faith-based
groups, and student/youth organizations.
The accession to
these demands would require the institutions’ directors to
accept and act on the need for fundamental transformation. It is
possible that the elimination of these institutions will be
required for the realization of global economic and political
justice.
We commit to
work towards the defunding of the IMF and World Bank by opposing
further government allocations to them (in the form of either
direct contributions or the designation of collateral) and
supporting campaigns such as a boycott of World Bank bonds until
these demands have been met.
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