[wordup] Voting and the World Bank

[Adam Shand]

I did some more reading after that last FTAA message and thought I'd
pass on some useful information about the US resources.

Not sure who your representatives are?  Not sure how they voted on
issues you care about?  You can look it up online here (enter your zip
code and then click on the representative's name and then on their
"Voting Record")

 http://www.vote-smart.org/

Then if you find out that they don't vote the way you like (like mine
don't) send them a letter, email, fax and remember to tell them your a
registered voter in your area!

----

Now onto the World Bank.  I have a lot of sympathy (duh) for the
anti-capitalist movement, however I have issues with a lot of their
demands.  Things like this leave me confused:

  We demand that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund:

  Stop all World Bank support for socially and environmentally
  destructive projects such as oil, gas, and mining activities, and all
  support for projects such as dams that include forced relocation of
  people. 

So what are we saying here?  That 3rd world countries should stay 3rd
world countries and not be allowed to develop energy sources which are
critical to building a modern, sustainable society (some one please
prove me wrong).  That they should rely on energy sources from other
countries (which is bad for sustainability and is just passing the buck
to some one/where else)?  That they should rely on clean,
non-environmentally and non-socially impacting energy sources that only
partially exist and are *much* more expensive to deploy?

It's really easy to point at something and say "Thats bad!", but it's
only useful to raise awareness of a problem.  After that the only thing
that counts is better solutions and I'm not seeing a whole lot of
realistic solutions.

As much as I'd personally like to see the 3rd world stay this quaint
place where my money is worth ten-fold, corporate America isn't spewing
crap at me 24x7 and I can visit on backpacking trips ... I don't see
that being particularly in the best interests of the people live there. 
You could argue that there is value in their culture, that it's tragic
to destroy it and we should keep their culture alive as long as
possible, but again I don't see any of us clamoring to go back to the
Medieval Ages.

The whole world *will* be modernized and as that happens and barriers
are broken down, it will also be homogenized ... as sad as that is.  The
only path I can see that makes any sense is to allow local cultures and
communities the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, to supply
resources (especially informational resources) that they can use to
build on, try and steer them away from the most environmentally and
socially devastating courses and to keep American (and other) corporate
interests as far away from them as possible.  Hopefully if we allow them
to develop their culture with their own technology we won't end up with
a world wide McDonalds/Microsoft/Disney mono-culture.

Hrm, sorry ... I think I like the sound of my own voice too much.  I'll
shut up now.

From: http://www.abolishthebank.org/en/issues.html
More: http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=444
More: http://www.worldbank.com/

Why Protest the World Bank and IMF?

The Anti-capitalist Convergence is organizing against the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund (Bank and Fund) because of their roles
in enforcing and expanding global capitalism and imperialism. In return
for much needed money from the Bank and Fund, developing countries must
follow prescribed economic and social programs. Through the undemocratic
one dollar-one vote system, the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, France,
Canada, and Italy -- the "Group of 7," hold over 40% of the power in
these institutions, allowing them to dictate the policies of the Global
South. These policies often directly contradict local laws and the
express will of the public. This has led to massive protests and general
strikes, which we hear little about in the US.

Under the rubric of cutting government spending, Bank and Fund policies
mandate cuts in social programs, such as transportation and health care,
cutting subsidies, like those that keep food affordable, and privatizing
national industries such as electricity or water services. These
policies put and keep people in developing countries in poverty. Women
in particular are affected when social services are cut because they
must find ways to provide health care, education and healthy food and
water for their families.

In order to make countries "business friendly" the institutions tell
countries that they must keep their environmental, labor and health and
safety standards minimal. These lowered barriers create what is known as
a "global race to the bottom" where companies move around the world
looking for the place they can make the biggest profit by exploiting the
environment and people the most.

The Bank and Fund promote export-oriented policies which transfer money
and economic activity away from sustainable farming and production of
goods and services needed by the society to support export crops such as
flowers and luxury items (which can't be eaten!). The policies mandate
the importation of cheap crops from agribusinesses (located primarily in
the US) undermining local farming. In effect these polices force people
- primarily people of color and indigenous people - to move from the
rural to urban sector allowing corporations to take land and natural
resources. As sustainable farming is made unviable people are pushed
into the wage economy where, because of their position in the South,
their labor is undervalued and exploited.

This oppression and exploitation of people and the environment is a
built-in part of the capitalist system which relies on global
hierarchies on gender, race and nationality to keep those in power, in
power. These hierarchies lead to increased wealth for those at the top
at the expense of the lives of those at the bottom.

Not only do these policies hurt people and the environment but THEY DO
NOT WORK TO PROMOTE GROWTH. Rather than generate money for local
economies these policies generate money for transnational corporations.
Think about it! The Bank and Fund mandate that government funds be taken
away from education, infrastructure and community and social development
and instead put towards paying off old loans.

The loans which countries are paying off now are secondary loans,
meaning they were taken out to pay off previous loans because the
policies did not produce growth the first time around. In fact, most
countries now have much more debt than when they first accepted Bank and
Fund "assistance." The backwards policies which the institutions enforce
create a vicious cycle of dependence on them and by association on
developed countries.

With their increasing power in the US political system, corporations are
now pushing these policies on communities, in particular communities of
color, in the United States. For decades the Bank and Fund have mandated
the privatization of public health care in developing countries - this
same push is now occurring in the US. Here in Washington DC, the
federally appointed control board privatized our only hospital against
the unanimous opposition of the elected City Council and general public.
Not surprisingly, the primary backers of privatization in the US and
developing countries are the same, the corporate controlled US federal
government.

Members of the Anti-capitalist Convergence have united to organize
against the Bank and Fund with the belief that the simple reform or even
abolishment of these institutions is not sufficient. Rather, we are
working to abolish the capitalist system. Though we have various
alternative visions we see that the present system is driven by an
exploitative logic that sees human beings as capital, ecosystems as
resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject the idea that
the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and
efficiency. Within the varying visions for a new society autonomy,
non-hierarchical structures and cooperation are the ideal.

- DC Anti-Capitalist Convergence