WEDNESDAY: Global Day of Protest Against Proposed World Bank Loan for Coal


Activists from U.S. & Africa to Demonstrate at the World Bank in Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 7th, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm 

Monday, April 5th, 2010 (Washington, DC) - The World Bank is scheduled to vote April 8 on whether to approve a highly controversial $3.75 billion loan that would help South African utility company Eskom build one of the largest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the world. The Eskom loan flies in the face of the World Bank’s claims of alleviating poverty and supporting sustainable development. 

A global campaign against the World Bank and Eskom has been endorsed by hundreds of organizations that represent millions of concerned citizens, community, environmental, labor and academic constituencies, in South Africa, the rest of the African continent and the world at large.  

The protest comes just one day after residents located in the Waterberg area of South Africa’s Limpopo Province will have filed a complaint with the World Bank’s independent complaint body, the Inspection Panel.

What: “World Bankers” wearing black suits and flaunting sooty faces and medical masks will converge around large smoke stacks and distribute “coal dollars” to the public and World Bank employees, which will have information about the loan and why the Bank should vote “no.”

More than 10,000 petition signatures from South Africans urging the World Bank to reject this dirty coal loan will also be presented via a giant voided check. 


When: Wednesday, April 7th, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm 

Where: The park across from World Bank headquarters (1818 H Street NW).  

Who: Friends of the Earth-US, Africa Action, Avaaz and 350.org  

For more information, contact Michael Stulman at (mobile) 202-469-9542 or michael.Stulman@africaaction.org 

To learn more about the World Bank’s proposed loan to Eskom, click here.   


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