Disrupt business as usual at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank
OCTOBER 12-14
Washington, DC
This October, the decision-makers at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will be in Washington, DC for a week of closed-door meetings.
Inside the meetings, the Boards of Governors of these institutions will continue their nearly 80-year tradition of a small group of people from the most privileged countries in the world making decisions that affect every single person and every single place on this planet, most devastatingly the Global South.
Outside, a global coalition of activists, organizations and the everyday people impacted by the World Bank and IMF’s decisions will gather to make our voices heard, disrupt the meetings, and reject the idea that the choices these institutions are making are what’s best for humanity and the planet we call home.
JOIN US IN THE STREETS
OCTOBER 12-14
Get Involved!
Debt Cancellation
We demand the unconditional cancellation of all debts owed to the IMF and World Bank
Climate and Colonial Reparations
Global North countries must pay reparations for their past and ongoing wrongs.
End destruction of people and Planet
We demand the end of support for all new oil, gas, and coal extraction, transport, and use projects
OUR DEMANDS!
Join us in the streets
We are taking action because we have to live with the decisions the World Bank and IMF make. In deciding to challenge what the IMF and World Bank are doing, we are following both the lead of social movements from the Global South and the values that have guided decades of resistance to these institutions.
The people making decisions at the IMF and World Bank meetings have historically chosen to advance colonialism, contribute to climate change and make it harder for everyday people to survive events like natural disasters and pandemics. At this year’s meetings, it seems likely that they will continue to prioritize extractive energy markets over Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice, big pharma payouts over the health of millions, and profits for transnational corporations over the economic futures of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There are steps the World Bank and IMF could take that would immediately improve conditions globally and could help reduce emissions that contribute to climate change.
The WB and IMF must cancel all debts. Debt is a constructed financial burden imposed by a powerful minority of countries in the Global North on countries in the Global South. Relieving the pressure of debt makes it harder to justify continued extraction of resources like timber and fossil fuels and opens the door to start the critical process of financing a just transition. More directly, The World Bank must stop funding fossil fuel projects. The science is clear that whether it is fracking, offshore drilling, transport via pipeline or burning them for daily use, the extraction and use of fossil fuels is damaging to the planet and dangerous for the people that live on it. Dangerous heat, weather patterns and air quality threaten everyone, starting with the people in the most marginalized global communities, and production endangers the traditions and lives of people living on land that is targeted for extraction.
Until and unless the World Bank and IMF radically change their ways and decide to do what is right, we are invested in contributing to the conversation and rising up for the people we love and the planet we call home.
Want to get involved? Sign up here and join our weekly organizing calls every Wednesday night at 7pm eastern!
