Tag: imf

3 days of resistance to World Bank/IMF feature hundreds of activists, mobile DJ booth, bike blockade, and more.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | October 12, 2022

Washington, DC, October 12 – Beginning today and through Friday, a global coalition of activists will demonstrate at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings to demand that these institutions end their investment in fossil fuels, cancel the debt they claim Global South countries owe, and pay climate reparations.

Three days of resistance to World Bank/IMF feature hundreds of activists, mobile DJ booth, bike blockade, and more.

WHAT: Over 400 activists from around the world are planning three days of demonstrations with large-scale props and amplified sound, including a bike blockade, a mock trial, educational events, and a massive noise demonstration. On Friday, the week of action comes to an end with a festival of resistance envisioning the world we deserve, and a march featuring representations of international financial institutions in a literal bed with Big Oil. These demonstrations follow weeks of action by climate activists to remove World Bank president David Malpass, who refused to acknowledge climate change.

WHO: ShutDownDC, Arm in Arm For Climate (Washington, DC), The Big Shift Global, CODEPINK, Debt for Climate, Democratic Socialists of America International Committee, Extinction Rebellion (Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York City), Glasgow Actions Team, GreenFaith, Justice is Global, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, others.

WHEN:

  • Wednesday, October 12, 5:00 PM, Edward R. Murrow Park (H St. and 18th St. NW): Bike blockade of the G20 dinner featuring 100 cyclists and a mobile DJ booth
  • 8:00 PM, Murrow Park: Teach-in: “How neoliberalism conquered the world and how the world is fighting back”
  • Thursday, October 13, 10:00 AM – noon, Murrow Park (rain location: George Washington University, Rome Hall Room 204, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington, DC 20052): Mock trial of the IMF and World Bank
  • 1:00 PM, Murrow Park: Soccer-themed noise demonstration outside the G20 press conference
  • Friday, October 14, 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM, Murrow Park: Festival of Resistance celebrating and welcoming the world we want to live in
  • Noon, Murrow Park: The Big Shift Global march – featuring international financial institutions in a literal bed with Big Oil – and rally calling on the IMF and World Bank to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

 

Detailed schedule available at https://www.forpeopleforplanet.earth/calendar/

WHY: The week of October 10th, the World Bank and IMF are holding their annual meetings in Washington, DC.* Drawing on decades of resistance to these institutions and following the leadership of organizations and individuals representing this global fight, activists are demanding that they cancel all debt, pay climate and colonial reparations to countries in the Global South, and stop funding fossil fuel projects.

The people making decisions at the IMF and World Bank meetings have historically chosen to advance colonialism, contribute to climate change, and make it harder for everyday people to survive events like natural disasters and pandemics. At this year’s meetings, they will continue to prioritize extractive energy markets over Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice, and profits for transnational corporations over the economic futures of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

The decisions made at these meetings will most directly affect those who have contributed the least to the climate catastrophe and yet are the most indebted to the IMF and World Bank – like the tens of millions of people displaced last month as a result of flooding in Pakistan. The creative direct actions occurring this week are a powerful tool allowing activists to uplift the experiences and demands of our neighbors in the Global South.

HOW: For press inquiries please contact Basav Sen with ShutDownDC at media@shutdowndc.org or 513-262-2750.

*Washington DC is unceded territory of the Piscataway Conoy people. Learn more about The Cedarville Band of Piscataways and paying land tax, their collective choice for reparations here: CBPI, Inc. | Instagram, YouTube | Linktree

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#ShutDownDC is an organizing space where individuals and groups can come together to organize direct action in the fight for justice.

Oct 12-14: Disrupt the IMF/World Bank #ForPeopleForPlanet

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cross-posted from For People For Planet

This October, the decision-makers at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will be in Washington, DC for a week of closed-door meetings.

Inside the meetings, the Boards of Governors of these institutions will continue their nearly 80-year tradition of a small group of people from the most privileged countries in the world making decisions that affect every single person and every single place on this planet, most devastatingly the Global South.

Outside, a global coalition of activists, organizations and the everyday people impacted by the World Bank and IMF’s decisions will gather to make our voices heard, disrupt the meetings, and reject the idea that the choices these institutions are making are what’s best for humanity and the planet we call home.

Demands:

  1. Debt Cancellation. We demand the unconditional cancellation of all debts owed to the IMF and World Bank
  2. Climate and Colonial Reparations. Global North countries must pay reparations for their past and ongoing wrongs.
  3. End destruction of people and Planet. We demand the end of support for all new oil, gas, and coal extraction, transport, and use projects

Actions:

Oct 12: Bike Bloc – Let’s Crash their Party!  Join us at 5pm at Edward R. Murrow Park (H St. and 18th St NW) for a bike bloc to disrupt business as usual for the G-20 finance ministers. We’ll snake through the streets of Foggy Bottom during rush hour traffic, as the finance ministers work to make their way to their dinner. Then we’ll end the ride outside the dinner where we’ll shine a light on the shady backroom deals that are being made over caviar and brandy.

Oct 13: The People vs the IMF and World Bank. We are hereby putting the IMF and World Bank on trial for their crimes against life on earth. Operating on behalf of the predatory financial vultures, these institutions have imposed policies in our countries that have enriched a few elites while subjecting vast numbers of our people to a life of perpetual misery. Today, they are making a shameful bid to capitalize on the climate disasters, economic crisis and war-induced shocks to ensure exorbitant profits for the rich. We, the People of the World, affirm that life and dignity of all people is sacred. We reject the notion that life can be banked on and hedged, or that we owe debt to those who have exploited our people and plundered our lands.

Oct 13: Drown Them Out! Noise Demonstration at the G-20 Press Conference. On Thursday, October 13, after a day-and-a-half of backroom plotting and planning the G-20 finance ministers will emerge from their closed door meeting for a press conference where they’ll try to explain how continuing to rig the economy to benefit rich fossil fuel companies is going to somehow address the climate crisis. We’ve heard enough of their lies and excuses so we’re going to drown them out! Join us for a noise demonstration outside of the World Bank Headquarters to drown them out! Bring noise makers, megaphones, pots and pans, and air horns! We’re meeting at 1pm at Edward R Murrow Park so we can be ready to GET LOUD when the press conference starts at 1:45pm.

Oct 14: Another World is Possible! Disrupt the IMF & World Bank and Create the Future We Need.  The morning of October 14th, delegates to the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank will make their way to DAR Constitution Hall for their plenary session. Inside the meeting they’ll double down on their failed system of economic imperialism that created the climate crisis. Outside, we’ll take the streets to envision a new world, where we decarbonize and decolonize our global economy and create a new system that works for people and for our planet. We’ll hold a festival of resistance right in the middle of the streets surrounding the hall with music, food, art and culture as a way to embody the world we are trying to create.

 

 

Shutdown DC Spoofs IMF Debt Cancellation Announcement

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repost from Shutdown DC

Earlier today we sent around an email with an almost unbelievable announcement: the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions were canceling ALL of debt for 111 countries that were experiencing a moderate or high risk of debt distress. Payments on these debts take essential resources out of the budgets of many of the world’s poorest countries. The structural adjustment policies that accompany these loans act as a tool of colonial domination, allowing rich countries to mandate that the world’s poorest nations make painful cuts to vital social programs.

Throughout the day, dozens of people reached out to ask if we had been duped. Some even asked if this was the work of the notorious laughtavist pranksters, “The Yes Men.”

The truth is, this is not real. The IMF did not cancel all debt. #ShutDownDC activists created the IMF2020.org website and announcement (but we’re humbled to be compared to the Yes Men). But it is also true that canceling all debts for low and moderate income countries is not only the right thing to do, it’s essential at this moment.

The IMF and other financial institutions did announce some small debt relief measures at around the same time as we sent out the email. But these measures are disgustingly inadequate. The IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), for instance, provided less assistance than the US Federal Government provided to large corporations in the most recent bailout package.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and the world’s poorest countries need to be able to mobilize every available resource to provide for the health and wellbeing of people who have been made vulnerable to this virus. And when we emerge from the pandemic, there is no going back to the old normal. We need to build to a new normal where we’ve dismantled the interlocking systems of oppression that created this incessant stream of climate, public health and economic crises.

So the IMF has not canceled all debt yet. But they are responding to the pressure and we need to keep up the pressure! Our friends at Jubilee USA are campaigning for much needed reforms among the international financial institutions like the IMF. Sign their petition and support their work!

And today’s action also shows that we CAN take disruptive action during the global pandemic both online AND in person. Over the next several months, physical distancing and wearing face covering is going to be essential to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep our communities safe. We all have a responsibility to act responsibly. But we also can’t afford to sit on the sidelines while people die, the corporations line up to fill their pockets and the government quietly rolls back protections. We need to be responsible and keep each other safe and healthy, but we also need to continue to fight a just and sustainable future.

Between Earth Day and May Day, we’re going to take bold action (both online AND in person) to take aim at the interlocking systems that are creating the crises our communities are suffering from and build a collaborative framework for a healthier, more just and more sustainable world.

We’re working on some exciting action plans for those 10 days–imagine using lots of eco-friendly paint to paint a mutual on a side street in front of an evil billionaire’s home, or hanging massive banners in iconic locations around the district, or using bicycles to haul solar powered PA system around town bring the voices of front line communities to the institutions that are facilitating the destruction of their communities.

Join our next organizing conference call– the last weekly call before Earth Day to find out what the plans are and how YOU can plug in! Thursday, April 16 at 7pm eastern.

Talk real soon!

#ShutDownDC