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IMF & WORLD BANK WANTED FOR FRAUD CAMPAIGN

Explo Nani-Kofi | 05.11.2001 00:43

The original but still the Best - No to the WTO

The next ministerial summit of the World Trade Organisation takes place in
Qatar from the 9 to 13 November 2001. To coincide with this, the IMF &
World Bank Wanted For Fraud Campaign has organised a range of activities.
On the first day of the WTO Ministerial Meeting, Friday 9 November, there
will be a picket of the Qatar Embassy, 1 South Audley Street, London W1,
from 11.30am to 1pm. On the following day, Saturday 10 November, a Public
Meeting will take place from 2pm to 6pm at the University of London Union,
Malet Street, London WC1. The meeting's theme is 'World Trade =
International Finance Fraud, Terrorism and Genocide.' Speakers are Tony
Benn, Pat Budu, John Campbell, Selma James, George Monbiot, Mukhtar Rana
and Maria Vasquez-Aguilar.

The WTO (World Trade Organisation) sets international trade rules. These
rules mean the majority of people in the developing world are enslaved by
multinationals and western financial institutions. The policies which the
IMF and other western institutions perpetrate on the developing world
result in indiscrimate mass killings - that is, terrorism - caused by war
and poverty. For example, 1000 die every day in Angola because the west is
orchestrating a war over diamond and oil profits which are ultimately
deposited in western banks.

At the last WTO Summit in Seattle in November 1999, government delegates
from all over the world witnessed unprecedented resistance and
demonstrations on a scale never seen before at such summits. Qatar is a
country ruled by dictatorship which will be inaccessible to protestors. The
anti-globalisation movement is seen as taking place in the west, but in
fact the most dynamic and massive struggles against globalisation are
happening in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and indigenous lands
worldwide, many led by women.

The IMF & World Bank Wanted For Fraud Campaign (IMFFC) aims to expose the
so-called debt as a fraud. Talk of debt relief legitimises the fraud. The
IMFFC aims to build an international movement against the robbery which is
fraudulently called debt repayment. It also aims to highlight women's and
girls' work - amounting to two thirds of the world's work, most of it
unwaged - in keeping impoverished communities alive.

The IMFFC is calling for a refocus of the anti-globalisation movement so
that it will strengthen the struggle and answer to the experience of those
who suffer most from globalisation.

Explo Nani-Kofi