The World Bank Bonds Boycott marked its one-year anniversary in April with an announcement that nearly 30 entities throughout the U.S., including city governments, trade unions, churches and investment firms, have committed not to buy World Bank bonds. Officials at the World Bank are getting the jitters.

Among the new institutions that have made the commitment in just the past few months are: the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, Harrington Investments, L.L. Blake and Associates, United University Professions (an AFT affiliate with 24,000 members), the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the Alameda County Central Labor Council, the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council, SEIU local 250, the New York Province of the Marianist Brothers and Priests, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Also this spring, the student governments at Clark University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) passed resolutions encouraging their administrations to adopt the boycott.

Said Takoma Park city council member Marc Elridge, "If we’re spending our money, we ought to have something to say about how it’s used. And it should not be used to support policies that we wouldn’t support in our own country."

The World Bank is becoming increasingly concerned about the growing campaign. Calvert Group’s statement of policy against buying Bank bonds caused the Bank to be concerned that the growing campaign might endanger its ‘AAA’ bond rating. High-level Bank staff have lobbied city councils against passage of a resolution in Madison, Boulder, and Los Angeles. Moreover, we have heard that the boycott is encouraging liberal Bank staff to move the Bank in a more sustainable direction on some issues, out of fear that the challenge presented by the boycott will grow. Bank staff have referenced the boycott as a reason to develop quickly, for example, a more "green" procurement policy.

As the campaign grows in the U.S., so it is growing around the world. Social movements in Pakistan, Honduras, and Senegal have recently joined others in Asia, the Americas, and Africa which are already working on the boycott. The group Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Democracy (ASEED) is planning a Europe-wide launch of the boycott this summer.

The World Bank Bonds Boycott demands an end to structural adjustment programs and similarly harmful lending practices; 100% cancellation of debts owed to the World Bank without using citizens’ tax dollars; and an end to environmentally destructive project lending, such as for oil, mining, and gas projects.

The campaign works this way: the World Bank gets about 80% of its money through the sale of bonds (listed under the name ‘International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’). Large institutional investors, including unions and their pension funds, city and state governments, universities, churches, and mutual fund investors, are potential buyers of World Bank bonds. The campaign works to get these types of investors to adopt resolutions against buying the bonds in the future. The boycott hits the Bank at its twin Achilles’ heels: its public image and its financing.

The World Bank is trying to repaint itself as an institution that promotes social welfare. But the reality is that the Bank continues to push policies like user fees on health care, privatization of essential services like water provision, and policies that suppress workers’ abilities to organize and raise their standard of living. The boycott demands an end to these policies, which place corporate rights over human rights.

Acting Locally: Global Justice and the Fall Mobilization

People across the U.S. and the world are making plans to come to Washington for the mobilization that is being planned from September 28 – October 4, 2001 at the time of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Simultaneously, people’s initiatives for economic justice in communities around the world, which are increasingly reeling under the effects of growing corporate globalization, are burgeoning. The World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign is one valuable tool for making the connections between the local and the global. The boycott is an important way to build greater democracy over how investment decisions are made in our own communities and institutions.

You can organize in your community against the cut-off of social services and welfare there, while protesting that your tax dollars may be used to cause the same harm to low-income people elsewhere through the World Bank. Ask your city council, church, union, or college to pass a resolution or ordinance that it will not invest in World Bank bonds in the future, until the World Bank makes fundamental changes. It doesn’t matter whether your institution already holds these bonds or not – the political pressure on the Bank is the same. Then, bring this resolution with you to Washington, DC this fall, where we will get more publicity for the new resolutions.

For more information about how to get started in your community, or to get connected with activists working on the boycott in your area, contact the World Bank Bonds Boycott office at (202) 299-0020, via e-mail at <bankboycott@econjustice.net>, or check out the campaign’s website at: <www. worldbankboycott.org>.