San Francisco vota contro l'acquisto dei titoli di Bankenstein (4 ottobre)

Nota: in America Latina hanno privatizzato le aziende di Stato per pagare il finto debito estero dieci anni fa, oggi il debito invece che estinto si è miracolosamente raddoppiato. Lo stesso accade in Italia con la privatizzazione delle aziende di Stato, cioè dei cittadini. E' come se fossimo tutti in amministrazione controllata [sia politicamente che economicamente]. Ci hanno espropriato dei nostri soldi [Vedi: BandItalia] per arricchire gli amici di Alfio Marchini.



World Bank Bonds Boycott
 
"We need to break the power of the World Bank over developing countries, as the divestment movement helped break the power of the Apartheid regime over South Africa; this is why we support the boycott of World Bank bonds."
-Dennis Brutus, Patron, Jubilee 2000 South Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       Contact: Rosalyn Fay/Laura Livoti
510-251-1332
October 4, 2000                                           Neil Watkins
202-299-0020

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Votes Unanimously to Boycott World Bank Bonds

City Joins Oakland, Communications Workers of America, Citizens Funds in Growing Grassroots Campaign

Washington, DC – On Monday, October 2, 2000, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution which commits the city not to purchase bonds issued by the World Bank.  By joining the international boycott of World Bank-issued bonds, the City of San Francisco is continuing its legacy of supporting social and environmental justice – including its support for selective purchase campaigns against Apartheid South Africa and the military junta in Burma.

The President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Tom Ammiano, stated, “Passage of this resolution and the recent protests against the WTO and the World Bank go to show that when people in local communities take a stand they can have a positive effect of impacting policies with these institutions.”

The San Francisco resolution is part of an international campaign against the World Bank and its sister organization the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose projects and policies have caused enormous environmental destruction and displaced and impoverished upwards of ten million poor and indigenous people. It is also part of a growing, nationwide grassroots movement of activists seeking to encourage their local and state governments to use their purchasing and investment power to advance a more just global economy.

Sponsor of the resolution Supervisor Michael Yaki stated, “We, the City of San Francisco, should not invest in development banks that do not support sustainable economic development models.”

“This is an important and exciting initial step in halting global, economic institutions such as the World Bank whose claims of ‘development’ and poverty alleviation have, in reality, meant increased poverty and desperation for millions of people worldwide,” states Rosalyn Fay, a member of Economic Justice for Africa Now, a Bay Area economic justice advocacy group which generated support for the resolution.

The Cities of Oakland and Berkeley, California; the Communications Workers of America; the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America  (UE); Citizens Funds; and the Sisters of Loretto have also committed – through resolution or statement of policy – not to purchase bonds issued by the World Bank.  Coalitions of human rights and social justice groups in cities and on university campuses across the country are organizing additional boycott resolutions.

  The boycott was launched because, while the World Bank has adopted new rhetoric, its policies on debt and structural adjustment -- austerity programs imposed on indebted countries -- have remained largely unchanged, plundering environments and economies of poor countries. The campaign demands that the World Bank halt its devastating structural adjustment lending and cancel debt claims it has on countries in the Global South.  The World Bank gets 80% of its financing through bond sales on private financial markets to institutional investors and others. The World Bank Bonds Boycott was launched in April at the time of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. Human rights, environmental, labor and development groups in over 35 countries support the campaign.