60 years is more than enough of the IMF and the World Bank

October 1 to October 12, 2004

The rich get more power and wealth.
The poor get fewer jobs, crumbling schools, and closing hospitals.

The rich get tax cuts. The poor get budget cuts for badly needed services.

It's the same story all over the world.

Two key institutions forcing this global agenda are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
They trap poor countries in a cycle of unpayable debt.
They use this debt as leverage to impose destructive "free-market" policies that

* privatize water, education, and health care;
* open markets for corporate agribusiness and food imports,
* which threaten farmers' livelihoods and cause even more hunger;
* weaken workers' rights; and
* weaken regulation of mining and other environmentally destructive projects.

In response, more corporations are moving their operations from the United States to countries with lower wages, leaving millions in North America jobless. Workers in these countries benefit little, and local industries are destroyed.

This is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the IMF and World Bank. It's also the year when we, the peoples of the world, must unite to say - ENOUGH!!!

VIGIL AT THE WORLD BANK AND IMF MEETINGS

Friday, Oct. 1, 2:30 pm through Saturday, Oct. 2, 6:00 pm
Location: Outside the World Bank and IMF, 18th and H Streets, NW

If you can't come to Washington, we encourage you to organize speak-outs, demonstrations, street theater in your own communities: cities and towns, union locals, religious congregations, and universities.

Visit http://www.foodfirst.org for background on these and other food and human rights issues.