Investments

Bank Of America Investment For Immediate Release
Contact: Neil Watkins,
Tel: 202-393-6665, Cell: 202-421-1023

The boycott was launched because, while the World Bank has adopted new rhetoric, - - 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.

Investment Opportunity WASHINGTON (April 18, 2002) -- As the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings approach and protesters prepare demonstrations for April 20-21 in Washington, campaigners today announced growth of the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign.

These institutions', American Development Bank, World Bank, U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, U.S. Import Bank, $352 million in approved financing for 18 projects; thus, fossil fuel financing in the Americas outpaces clean energy by a ratio of 63 to 1. Most of this investment in fossil fuels has come from US taxpayers, who are unwitting underwriters of loans, guarantees and subsidies to Big Oil. Although the Americas have obtained over $22 billion in public support for fossil fuels since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, most of this oil and gas has been exported to the U.S.

Banc Of America Investment Africa Action, a merger of three leading Africa advocacy groups active in the anti-Apartheid movement, released a position paper today, "Hazardous to Health: The World Bank and IMF in Africa," and announced plans to work with its networks to get boycott resolutions in city councils and religious communities across the country as part of its campaign for Africa's right to health.

The scary thing is that even if a country doesn' World Bank can potentially scare away foreign investments.

Banking Investment "While the World Bank boasts of providing new loans for Africa's health and other social sectors, its demands for debt repayment are suffocating the continent. The World Bank gives with one hand and takes away with the other," said Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action.

Central banks create money either by printing it or by buying bonds in the treasury market. When central banks buy bonds, they usually buy their own country's treasury bonds, and their purchases are made from banks that own bonds. The money from the central banks goes to the bank vaults, making capital.

Investment Solution Strategic Next week, organizers will publicly launch an effort to get the city of Cambridge, Ma. to become the seventh U.S. city to adopt the boycott. On Monday, April 22, BankBusters/Boston Global Action Network, a Boston-area economic justice coalition, will hold a rally at Cambridge city hall to announce the campaign. This development follows two major advancements in the boycott campaign last month, including the launch of a continent-wide European World Bank Boycott network with members from citizen groups in 13 countries, and the decision by city council in Milwaukee, Wis. to adopt the boycott.

Investment Banking Services "With the passage of the World Bank Bonds Boycott here we have begun to shed light on what the World Bank's policies of corporate globalization are doing not only around the world but also in Milwaukee," said Milwaukee Alderman Don Richards. "We are asking that the World Bank be scrutinized and fundamentally reformed before any more Wisconsin State Investment funds be entrusted to it."

Bank Investment Camille Chalmers, a member of the World Bank Bonds Boycott international coordinating committee, and Executive Secretary of PAPDA, an alternative development coalition in Haiti, said, "The policies of the World Bank and IMF have contributed to the destabilization of the Haitian agricultural sector, with a consequence of increased hunger and dependence in Haiti. Social movements worldwide are realizing that the World Bank must be replaced by more democratic structures. The World Bank Bonds Boycott gives citizens an opportunity to challenge one of the most destructive institutions in the world."

Alternative Investment The World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign is based on the fact that the World Bank raises a majority of funds by selling bonds. It is a growing global initiative which puts pressure on the World Bank to make fundamental changes. Since its launch by civil society groups from more than 30 global South countries and the U.S. in April 2000, the campaign has gotten more than four dozen institutional investors to commit not to buy World Bank bonds, including city councils in Boulder, San Francisco, and Oakland, and dozens of religious institutions and labor unions. Ten of the largest socially responsible investment funds in the US, controlling more than US$16 billion in assets, have also adopted the boycott.

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