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Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 05:07:35 -0700
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Subject: [AfricaMatters] San Francisco Votes to Boycott World Bank Bonds
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
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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.
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