[mgj-discuss] Pls FWD: send letters in response to TODAY'S WB/IMF Wash Post editorial and op-ed

[David Levy]

PLEASE FORWARD

please take the time to write a letter.  it should only take about 15 mins. or so.  remember, SHORT letters are more likely to be published.  here below is Bob's sample letter opposing the editorial and at bottom is a letter to the editor sent in today in SUPPORT of an op-ed in the Wash Post by our very own Rob Weissman of Essential Action.

email address is <letters at washpost.com>

--david

>Reply-To: "Robert Naiman" <naiman at cepr.net>
>From: "Robert Naiman" <naiman at cepr.net>
>To: <mgj-discuss at lists.mutualaid.org>
>Subject: [mgj-discuss] send letters in response to WPost edit

>
>
>i hope that folks will be inspired to send letters
>to the Washington Post in response to today's
>editorial on debt.
>
>the editorial essentially endorses the existing,
>insufficient and structural-adjustment-linked
>IMF/World Bank debt relief program.
>
>outline of a letter:
>
>"thanks for raising this issue but you fail to
>recognize that existing efforts are insufficient
>and leave many countries in Africa spending more
>on external debt service than on health care,"
>etc.
>
>see the jubilee web site for more info:
>jubileeusa.org
>
>__

To the editor
Robert Weissman’s column (“The Enron of the Developing World”, 9/25) is right on the money. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund do not get it, plain and simple. They fail to understand that their one-size-fits-all market fundamentalism has failed miserably in its stated goal of lifting developing nations out of poverty. The only people who have benefited from the Bank’s policies, it seems, are the executives of multinational 
companies that have landed lucrative contracts as a result of forced privatization.
If the World Bank and the IMF are concerned about the developing world, they will liberalize their policies. They will drop much of the crushing debt that makes it impossible for countries to fund many basic services. The will end the economic austerity or "structural adjustment" programs that that restrict people's access to food, clean water, shelter, health care, and education. And they will stop supporting environmentally destructive oil, 
mining and gas projects.
I believe the human dignity is more important than profit. This is why I will be in the streets on Saturday to protest the policies of the World Bank and the IMF.