[Praha] PRAGUE DECLARATION - 28 Sep 2000

[Per I. Mathisen]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Soren <Soren at afgj.org>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 06:17:07 -0400

PRAGUE DECLARATION
28 September 2000

We, the members of non-governmental and community-based organizations from
different parts of the world, gathered in Prague and signing this statement,
note the unprecedented early suspension of the 2000 annual general meeting
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Given the
number of scheduled sessions, including meetings with non-governmental
organizations, that will evidently be canceled, the claim that they have
simply finished their business rings hollow.

We believe that the cancellation of the final day of meetings reflects the
institutions' recognition of their own lack of credibility.  Confronted with
vigorous protests from organizations like ours and a refusal to accept the
empty rhetoric of "poverty reduction" and "debt relief" offered in response
to assertions of their responsibility for decades of economic malfeasance,
they have, at last, wisely chosen silence over more lies.

Our challenge to the right of these institutions and those who control them
to dictate economic policy, largely through the leverage gained through
illegitimate debts, has gone unanswered.  Our call for a wholly new global
economic structure, one which mandates not a single model but many choices
for the many peoples of the world, is one that these institutions cannot
accept, or even comprehend.

We gathered in Prague for an exceptionally broad, inclusive, international
protest against the discriminatory and unjust policies of the IMF and the
World Bank.  We oppose the undemocratic and elitist character of both the
institutions and the meetings they hold.

Our numbers include a great many young activists as well as people from
Central and Eastern Europe who have now inaugurated the movement against
corporate globalization in this region.  Our numbers also include protesters
in over 30 other countries, including Bangladesh, South Africa, Argentina,
the United States, France, and India, who staged solidarity actions this
week.

We came to Prague to act in solidarity with the millions who could not be in
Prague: the impoverished women farmers of Africa, the workers laid off in
Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean islanders denied credit for their
livelihoods, the young women working in Latin American sweatshops.

We have spent our time in Prague not only protesting, but also discussing
positive, people-centered alternatives to the debt crisis, structural
adjustment programs, corrupt and environmentally devastating infrastructure
projects, and the economic philosophy of development through exploitation of
both the ecology and large majorities of the people in the South and in the
East.

At the same time we denounce the psychological terror and physical
repression executed by the Czech police forces before and during the
conference of the IMF and World Bank.  Their actions, notwithstanding
instances of provocative behavior by a few protesters, have injured dozens
of innocent people and resulted in hundreds of unjustified arrests during
and after the essentially peaceful demonstrations.  We express our
solidarity with the hundreds who remain imprisoned, and call for humane
treatment and speedy release of all those detained.  We particularly express
our grave concern over reports of brutalization of those held in Czech
prisons.

We note that the World Bank itself has acknowledged this month that its
policies are failing.  Its World Development Report, although subjected to
censorship within the institution, offers a revealing critique of the
growth-centered development philosophy that has long been the Bank's adamant
answer to every question.  And its report on the transition economies of the
former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has revealed a tenfold increase in
poverty, from 2% to 21%, a clear indication that the neo-liberal recipe
peddled by the IMF and World Bank has failed yet another entire region of
the globe.

Given the evidence supplied by the World Bank itself, we would suggest that
it and the IMF, and the commentators who continue to support them, consider
that their calls for more of the same medicine, more of the same
conditionalities, are inadequate.  A revolution in economics is called for,
one that returns control of economies to the people who live in them.  The
time has come to put economics at the service of the people, rather than
entire societies at the service of economic models that have failed for over
20 years.

Our protests in Prague, following those in Melbourne, Okinawa, Geneva,
Chiang Mai, Washington, Seattle, and countless other cities, have again
exposed to the world the contradictions and inadequacies of corporate
globalization, and of the IMF and World Bank.  Our protests also echo the
struggles going on today in Bolivia, one of the many places where people
from many sectors have risen up against the local manifestations of the
globalized economy.  So long as that model continues to be imposed by the
rich and the powerful, organizations like ours shall continue to protest and
to do everything in our power to expose the plain failures of the system.
Wherever those who have taken upon themselves the power to make decisions
for the global economy will gather, we will be there to witness, to expose,
and to protest.

Signed*:

Focus on the Global South - Thailand (Nicola Bullard)
Initiative Against Economic Globalization (INPEG) - Czech Republic (Alice
Dvorska)
50 Years Is Enough Network - USA (Soren Ambrose)
EuroMarches Against Unemployment - Austria (Leo Gabriel)
ATTAC France (Christophe Aguiton)
Jubilee 2000 South Africa/Jubilee South - South Africa (Dennis Brutus)
Center for Economic & Policy Research - USA (Mark Weisbrot)
Rights Action - USA (Annie Bird)
National Free Union of Students - Germany (Stefan Bienefeld)
Zashita Trade Union / Alternativy Association - Russia (Boris Kagarlitsky)




*Because of the pressures of time and distance, not all organizations listed
could complete their approval process before issuance of this statement.
Although final approval is expected, the individual(s) present in Prague and
taking part in drafting the statement are listed as provisional signatories.
This statement has been issued rapidly because of its importance and will
remain open to additional endorsements for several days.