October mobilisation against IMF/World Bank
50yearsisenough Network | 24.08.2007 09:48 | Globalisation | Repression
(activists' air miles to travel to mobilisations abroad are justified in this regard as being for the wider good, but you can always take measures to be more carbon neutral such as funding ecologically suitable tree planting somewhere - however, this would all ensure that the cost of flying across the Atlantic would be prohibitive to many of us!) Therefore, maybe "we" should do actions over in the UK?
From: "Ruth Castel-Branco"
Sent to the 50yearsisenough Network email list on Thu, August 23, 2007
Dear Friends,
Two months on from the US Social Forum the energy gained by this unprecedented gathering continues to inspire us! Last week the 50 Years Is Enough Network participated in a USSF follow-up meeting in Washington D.C. where we shared strategies with other grassroots groups on how to continue our movement building work, and it was amazing to see how many new organizations joined us to call for another world, and another U.S.
As a part of building a more just world, this October the 50 Years Is Enough Network and our allies across the U.S. are calling for a National Mobilization in Washington DC against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank during their annual meetings, from October 19-21. This call is in solidarity with the Global Week of Actions Against Debt and the IFI's sponsored by hundreds of grassroots organizations across the globe.
(
![](/img/extlink.gif)
Momentum for this event is building rapidly. Organizations are signing on
to our platform and organizing in their communities to attend, Youtube
videos are being made all across the nation, we have secured mass housing
and fabulous events are being developed. It is time to consolidate our
resistence to injustice and to lift up the alternatives!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? (www.50years.org/action/)
1. Sign on to the Call to Action and help circulate it to other
organizations for signatories. (Below)
2. Attend a national outreach call to find out how you can get plugged in
to the organizing.
3. Host organizing events in your community to let people know about the
upcoming mobilization. You could host a house party or a 50 Years Popular
Education training.
4. Organize people in your community to participate in the day of action.
5. Join a October Mobilization Working Group.
6. Help support the organizing efforts by making a donation.
To find out how you can do this email Ruth Castel-Branco at
![](/img/maillink.gif)
---
(Spanish translation available: www.50years.org/cms/updates/story/414)
CALL TO ACTION: DIGNITY, AUTONOMY AND SOLIDARITY OVER GREED AND CORPORATE
POWER!
Disrupt the IMF and the World Bank meetings: Washington DC, October
19-21,2007
The misery, marginalization, and impoverishment forced on millions by the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank is unacceptable and renders
them illegitimate.
The IMF and World Bank are controlled by wealthy countries in corrupt complicity with national elites all over the world. They claim to lead the fight against poverty, but their role as global loan sharks; their cruel imposition of privatization, cuts to social services, and free trade policies; their funding for environmentally disastrous projects; their secrecy and undemocratic decision making processes, make them an enemy of the people worldwide.
Today, these two institutions are on the defensive. Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador are in open revolt against the IMF and World Bank. South African shantytown dwellers are fighting water privatization; Korean workers are striking against "free trade" agreements; and thousands of people successfully blockaded the G8 meeting in Germany earlier this year.
In the U.S., in the heart of empire, millions are struggling against the oppressive system of capitalism for dignity, autonomy and solidarity. Tens of thousands gathered for the first ever United States Social Forum; millions of immigrants have marched for their rights; and in Washington DC,in the belly of the beast, residents are organizing against the policies of gentrification and displacement.
This year social movements from all over the world gathered at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya to devise the next stage in the assault against the World Bank and IMF. In solidarity with our allies in the Global South, and recognizing the toll corporate capitalism takes on our own lives, Washington DC-based activists and our allies are calling for actions at the IMF/World Bank headquarters in Washington DC, during the
upcoming annual meetings, October 19-21.
Our demands are simple:
§ Cancel all impoverished country debt to the World Bank and IMF, using
the institutions' own resources.
§ End neoliberal structural adjustment policies, which prioritize profit
for the few over the lives of the many.
§ End the social and environmental devastation caused by oil, gas, mining
and big dam projects.
Join us in Washington DC on October 19-21, 2007.
--
Ruth Castel-Branco
Outreach and Communications Coordinator
50 Years Is Enough
3628 12th St NE
Washington, DC 20011
(p) 202.463.2265
(e)
![](/img/maillink.gif)
(w) www.50years.org
50yearsisenough Network
e-mail:
50yearsisenough@lists.riseup.net