The U.S. government and powerful international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are accelerating corporate globalization in the Global South (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean) by imposing pro-corporate, anti-democratic policies.

These promoters of corporate globalization -- who are intimately connected to the U.S. government -- are restructuring societies around the world to serve transnational capital and powerful corporations. With huge debts being claimed by the IFIs and governments of the North, Latin American governments are forced to sell off or privatize essential human services such as health, education, and water, in a system many refer to as "Pay or Die." This socially and environmentally violent economic model is driven by international lending institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, and the IDB. Along with the WTO these forces are pushing to create a singular Latin American "free trade" zone, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Meanwhile these institutions are failing to respond to or meet the needs of the peoples of the region. When this economically imperialist model is rejected by the peoples of Latin America, as well as other regions, it is accompanied by coercion and force by U.S.-sponsored military plans such as Plan Colombia, the “war on drugs,” and more recently the “war on terrorism,” in the name of protecting U.S. interests.

Corporate globalization and militarization concentrate wealth, power and decision-making in the hands of fewer and fewer people on the planet, threatening and rejecting people-driven initiatives and people-centered alternatives. We condemn and demand an end to the actions of the United States government, World Bank, IMF, WTO, and IDB that increase economic and social inequality, undermine democratic institutions, contribute to police and military violence, and limit self determination and peoples’ ability to meet basic needs such as health, education, shelter, safe water, and food security.

We call on people of conscience around the world to join us from April 10-15, 2003 for the Mobilization against military and economic intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. The weekend will include the Latin America Solidarity Conference III and Teach-In, cultural events, film screenings, a march and rally, meetings with policy and decision makers, and strategy sessions.

The mobilization is organized by the Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC), a coalition of national and local US grassroots groups working in solidarity with civil society, popular movements and progressive forces throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information about LASC, visit http://www.lasolidarity.org.

For more information on the IMF and World Bank and on the mobilization, please call us at 202/IMF-BANK (463-2265).