Africa Action Press Release
April 30, 2003
Contact:
Nunu Kidane (510) 527-4099
CITY OF RICHMOND Vs GOLIATH
California City takes on the World Bank to Demand Debt Cancellation for Africa
Wednesday, April 30, 2003 (Washington, DC) – A resolution to boycott World Bank Bonds has been passed by the city of Richmond in West Contra Costa County, California. The bonds boycott measure has already been adopted by the neighboring cities of Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. Mayors of the other cities of West Contra Costa County are considering similar resolutions.
Mayor Irma L. Anderson of Richmond worked closely with Africa Action in bringing this resolution to the table. Mayor Anderson said, "We are living in a globalized world and AIDS ravaging Africa is our business. As a former health care professional, I know the consequences Africa's external debt has on the lives of millions of people, and the World Bank bears a responsibility for this crisis."
The City of Richmond decided to adopt the boycott resolution because of the devastating impact of World Bank policies on the lives of people in developing countries, especially in Africa. Each year, African governments are forced to pay $15 billion to the World Bank and other creditors for old, illegitimate debts. This is often more money than these governments can spend on health care or education for their own people, or on the fight against AIDS. Yet, the World Bank has refused to consider the cancellation of African countries' external debts.
The World Bank raises a high percentage of its funds from the sale of World Bank bonds to institutional investors, including city and state government pension funds, union pension funds, universities, and religious institutions.
Africa Action, a Washington-DC based organization, is pursuing the boycott of World Bank bonds as one effective tactic of its Africa's Right to Health Campaign. Nunu Kidane, Africa Action's campaign consultant in the Bay Area, explained, "Africa Action is working with local groups and individual activists in the Bay Area and using measures such as these to pressure local and national policymakers to move on debt cancellation and to increase funding for AIDS in Africa."
The text of the resolution passed by the City of Richmond follows:
World Bank Bonds Boycott Resolution adopted by the City of Richmond (April 2003)
WHEREAS, the World Bank, officially known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is one of the most important financial institutions in the world and the single largest source of development financing for African countries; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank is controlled by the world's richest countries -- the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- and these countries set its agenda, directing that the World Bank act in their interests and promoting a model of economic growth that benefits the wealthiest countries and their private sectors; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank uses the loans it provides to African countries as leverage to prescribe policies and dictate major changes in the economies of these countries; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank has undermined democracy in impoverished countries throughout Africa and the developing world by removing fundamental decisions on economic and social policy from the effective control of democratically elected legislatures; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank's operations in Africa over the past twenty years have resulted in a decline in average incomes and an intensification of poverty and underdevelopment across the continent; and
WHEREAS, Africa is the epicenter of the global AIDS crisis, home to 30 million of the 42 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, and the AIDS pandemic takes the lives of more than 7,000 Africans every day; and
WHEREAS, through its lending, the World Bank, together with its sister institution the International Monetary Fund (IMF), promotes the privatization of social services, including health care and water systems, and these and other conditions of its "structural adjustment" loans undermine the health and human security of people in Africa; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank's promotion of "user fees" for primary health care in African countries has put health care out of reach for millions of Africans and has directly contributed to the current health crisis on the continent; and
WHEREAS, the Directors of the World Bank refuse to cancel the debts of the most impoverished countries, although they can afford to do so without impairing the Bank's credit rating, and they continue to use this debt as leverage to retain external control over the economic and social policies of these countries; and
WHEREAS, the World Bank's insistence that African countries prioritize external debt repayments, even when this cuts into spending on health care, denies African governments desperately needed resources to fight the AIDS pandemic and the wider health emergency it represents; and
WHEREAS, most World Bank funds come from the sale of World Bank bonds to institutional investors, including city and state government pension funds, union pension funds, universities, parishes and religious institutions, and these resources are used to carry out the aforementioned destructive policies;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Richmond pledges not to purchase bonds issued by the World Bank until such time as the World Bank cancels 100% of the past debt claims against impoverished countries, and stops destructive "structural adjustment" lending and similar policies.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Richmond will communicate its support for the boycott of World Bank bonds to its employees and agents who manage or administer any funds held by the City of Richmond, to institutions and groups with which the City of Richmond is affiliated, to Members of the United States Congress, and to the news media.
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