We, the members of non-gov- World Bank. Their actions, ernmental and community- notwithstanding instances of based organisations from dif- provocative behaviour by a ferent parts of the world, few protesters, have injured gathered in Prague and signing dozens of innocent people and this statement, note the resulted in hundreds of unjusunprecedented early suspen- tified arrests during and after sion of the 2000 Annual the essentially peaceful General meeting of the demonstrations. We express International Monetary Fund our solidarity with the hun(IMF) and the World Bank. dreds who remain imprisoned, Given the number of sched- and call for humane treatment uled sessions, including meet- and speedy release of all those ings with non-governmental detained. organisations, that will evi- We particularly express our dently be cancelled, the claim grave concern over reports of that they have simply finished brutalisation of those held in their business rings hollow. Czech prisons.
We believe that the cancella- We note that the World tion of the final day of meet- Bank itself has acknowledged ings reflects the institutions' this month that its policies are recognition of their own lack failing. Its World of credibility. Confronted with Development Report, vigorous protests from organi- although subjected to censorsations like ours and a refusal ship within the institution, to accept the empty rhetoric offers a revealing critique of of "poverty reduction" and the growth-centred develop"debt relief" offered in ment philosophy that has long response to assertions of their been the Bank's adamant responsibility for decades of answer to every cueston economic malfeasance, they And its report on the transihave, at last, wisely chosen tion economies of the former Silence over more lies. Soviet Union and Eastern Our challenge to the right of Europe has revealed a tenfold these institutions and those increase in poverty, from 2% who control them to dictate to 21%, a clear indication that economic policy, largely the neo-liberal recipe peddled through the leverage gained by the IMF and World Bank through illegitimate debts, has has failed yet another entire gone unanswered. Our call region of the globe. for a wholly new global eco- Given the evidence supplied by the World Bank itself, we nomic strucure one which mandates not a single model would suggest thatet and the but many choices for the many IMF, and the commentators peoples of the world, is one who continue to support that these institutions cannot them, consider that their calls accept, or even comprehend. for more of the same We gathered in Prague for an medicine, more of the same exceptionally broad, inclusive, conditionalities, are inadeinternational protest against quate. A revolution in ecothe discriminatory and unjust nomics is called for, one that policies of the IMF and the returns control of economies World Bank. We oppose the to the people who live in undemocratic and elitist char- them. The time has come to acter of both the institutions put economics at the service and the meetings they hold. of the people, rather than Our numbers include a great entire societies at the service many young activists as well as of economic models that have people from Central and failed for over 20 years. Eastern Europe who have Our protests in Prague, folnow inaugurated the move- lowing those in Melbourne, ment against corporate global- Okinawa, Geneva, Chiang Mai, isation in this region. Our Washington, Seattle, and numbers also include countless other cities, have protesters in over 30 other again exposed to the world countries, including ine contreicions and inade. Bangladesh, South Africa, quacies of corporate globalisaArgentina, the United States, tion, and of the IMF and World France, and India, who staged Bank. solidarity actions this week. Our protests also echo the We came to Prague to act in struggles going on today in solidarity with the millions Bolivia, one of the many places who could not be in Prague: where people from many secthe impoverished women tors have risen up against the farmers of Africa, the workers local manitestations of the laid off in Asia, the Pacific and globalised economy. Caribbean islanders denied So long as that model contincredit for their livelihoods, the ues to be imposed by the rich young women working in and the powerful, organisaLatin American sweatshops. tions like ours shall continue to We have spent our time in protest and to do everything Prague not only protesting, in our power to expose the but also discussing positive, plain failures of the system. people-centred alternatives to Wherever those who have the debt crisis, structural taken upon themselves the adjustment programs, corrupt power to make decisions for and environmentally devastat- the global economy will ing infrastructure projects, and gather, we will be there to the economic philosophy of witness to exnose and to development through protest. exploitation of both the ecol-ocus on the Global Southogy and large majorities of the Thailand, (INPEG) - Czech Republic, people in the South and in the 50 Years Is Enough Network - USA, East.
At the same time we South denounce the psychological Certer lor economic a rot terror and physical repression lesearch _ USA Riohts Artion - USA executed by the Czech police vatara hree bron di Snidents _ Rosa oro inno forces before and during the iterari isncesor - Russia conference of the IMF and Sarcelaser of the Welcome to the free market of neo-liberalism: Czech riot cops put on a display for the anti-capitalist protestors