[mgj-discuss] MGJ Rejects Wolfowitz's nomination to head World Bank!

[mgj at riseup.net]

The Mobilization for Global Justice

For Immediate Release

March 16th, 2005
Contact: mgj at riseup.net

Paul Wolfowitz as Head of the World Bank! Say it ain’t So!

The Mobilization for Global Justice is shocked and awed at the audacity of the
Bush administration in nominating Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to
head the World Bank. Mr. Wolfowitz is a proven enemy of justice and peace
worldwide. Our stomachs turn and our hands wring at the thought of the World
Bank under the leadership of Paul Wolfowitz.  As a US-based activist group, we
reaffirm our commitment to continued acts of resistance to the World Bank
through demonstrations, direct action and popular education.

This move by the Bush Administration makes the MGJ’s planned actions at the
World Bank and IMF spring meetings, April 16-17, even more important.  The MGJ
urges everyone who cares about the economic fate of the world to be in
Washington, DC on those dates.

Jon Scolnik, an organizer with MGJ, summed it up when he said “The nomination of
Wolfowitz casts aside all doubt as to the true imperialistic and destructive
nature of the World Bank.”

MGJ expects that under the leadership of Wolfowitz, the World Bank will not only
be driven by an ideology of the supremacy of capital and the free market over
the lives and dignity of people, but also by the ideology that all out war is
an acceptable way to enforce that vision.

Althea Swett with MGJ added that “Over the past twenty-plus years, Wolfowitz has
supported and orchestrated US military actions throughout the world.  You can
not work to end poverty while advocating for increased militarization and war.”

The Mobilization for Global Justice stands firmly by its demands of the World
Bank and IMF:
• Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and the public.
• Cancel all impoverished country debt to the World Bank and IMF, using the
institutions' own resources.
• End all World Bank and IMF policies that hinder people's access to food, clean
water, shelter, health care, education, and right to organize. (Such "structural
adjustment" policies include user fees, privatization, and economic austerity
programs.)
• 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 the forced relocation of people.

Given the impending doom that is the World Bank headed by Mr. Wolfowitz, the
Mobilization for Global Justice calls the people of the US to continue to
resistance to the policies of the World Bank.  It is a scary and tragic thought
that under the helm of Wolfowitz the bond between economic and military
suppression will grow even stronger.


####