Cutting
Down the Pines:
Why We're
Taking Action Against
the World Bank and IMF
By
Starhawk
For the native tribes of
California, pine nuts have always been an important
delicacy. Not so long ago, their ripening was an
occasion of celebration. Young men of the tribe would
earn great honor and praise for their skill and daring
by climbing to the top of the tall trees and shaking
the branches to knock the cones down.
During the Gold Rush, it often
happened that a European-American man would marry a
Native woman. When pine nut season came around, she
might ask her husband to gather some. Let's say that
he was a kind and thoughtful husband, who loved her
and wanted to please her, but that he was ignorant of
the ways of her people and no longer young, daring,
nor patient enough to climb the trees and shake the
branches. Instead, he would simply cut down a pine
tree.
When pines were plentiful and
settlers were few, this might seem like a rational
thing to do. At first, in fact, it might create an
enormous sense of abundance and prosperity. The woman
might have more pine nuts than she'd ever had
before&emdash;for a while.
But in time, if this practice
continued, the pines would be gone and the pine nuts
would be no more.
We are going to Washington DC
this week because we see the globalized, corporatized
economy cutting down the pines all around us. In the
United States, we are surrounded by an illusory
abundance that creates great wealth for a few, but it
is the economy of the clearcut, that destroys the
resources we should be cherishing. Globally, poverty
and hunger deepen as corporate profits rise. Almost
two billion people worldwide live in abject poverty.
The lives, the cultures, and the lands of indigenous
people are being destroyed in the name of development
as surely as the pine trees were cut by the
settlers.
The World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund are major architects of
this situation. In the 70's, they loaned money to
Third World countries for massive projects that
enriched political elites and multinational
corporations while providing little for the less
privileged. In the 80's, when many countries could not
repay those loans, the World Bank and IMF pushed them
deeper into the cycle of debt with "Structural
Adjustment" programs that forced countries to refocus
their economies on exports and debt repayment instead
of food and goods to meet their own needs. Poor
countries were made to reduce spending on education
and health care in order to continue paying billions
and billions of dollars in interest to wealthy
countries. UNICEF and UN Economic Commission for
Africa figures show that six million children under
the age of five die each year as a result of these
policies.
In the developed world, we
feast among the fallen pines with a growing sense of
uneasiness. We have seen the health of our own
communities and economies compromised as job after job
is lost to lands where pay is negligible and health
and environmental standards unenforced. We see family
farms lost, ancient forests cut down, wild lands and
open spaces paved. The interests of trans-national
corporations undermine our democracy and widen the
chasms of wealth and power that more and more divide
us. We are going to Washington this week to say that
this system is wrong. It is unjust, unbalanced,
unsustainable, and it causes untold suffering. We
cannot challenge these institutions through our
government because our democratic institutions are
corrupted by the interests of corporate wealth. We
have no recourse but the streets, no alternative but
action. The World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund, the World Trade Organization and the system they
represent will not change from any one action. But
they will and must transform or go down in the face of
the rising social movement these actions represent.
They will change when we all begin to ask dangerous
questions.
Some of us will ask these
questions loudly in the streets of Washington, DC. But
all of us can begin to ask these questions in our
workplaces, our offices, the places where we buy the
goods we need and shop for the things we
enjoy:
Are the people who produce the
tools of my trade, my food, clothing and luxuries paid
a living wage? Are their health and safety protected?
Are their children well educated? Can they afford to
buy the products they produce?
What is the true cost of this
work, this product, this toy to the soil? The waters?
The air? The complex and irreplaceable habitats of
this earth? The health of our communities? Who pays
that cost, and in what coin? Money? Cancer?
Extinction? Who profits?
If we face these questions, we
can begin to build an economy of true abundance. The
sustainability and stability of our increasingly
global economy can only come from wealth widely and
fairly shared. An economy of true abundance will favor
the small and diverse over the monolithic, hold
corporations and individuals accountable for the true
costs of what they produce, favor renewable energy and
insist on the preservation and recycling of resources.
The health of that system will be measured in the
health of our communities, our soil, our waters, our
air, of the habitats of the earth's diverse creatures.
It will be seen in the pride of workers who can afford
to buy what they produce, whose children are free to
learn, whose lives include leisure and beauty and
freedom. And it will be the source of a global
creativity that may enrich all of our lives in ways we
cannot foresee.
If we cherish the pines, they
will produce nuts that we can enjoy now and in future
generations. If we continue to cut them down, we will
soon have no more.
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The
World March of Women in the Year 2000
Supports the
Mobilization for Global Justice in
Washington
Montreal, Canada, April, 13,
2000 - The World March of Women announces its support
for the Days of Action organized by the Mobilization
for Global Justice in Washington from April 9-17. The
goal of the Days of Action, a parallel event to the
Spring Meeting in the American capital of the World
Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
is to ensure that the international community make a
commitment to cancel the debt of the world's poorest
countries. Organizers are also demanding that the WB
and the IMF abolish the structural adjustment programs
(SAPs) that have been devastating the economies of
Third World countries.
These demands for global
justice are being raised by a huge international
coalition of 504 organizations* The coalition was born
out of the events surrounding the November 1999
conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
Seattle.
The main demands of the
coalition correspond directly to two of the seventeen
demands of the World March of Women: cancellation of
the debt of the 53 poorest countries on the planet,
taking into account the principles of responsibility,
transparency of information, and accountability; and
the elimination of the structural adjustment programs
imposed by the WB and the IMF on developing countries
as a way of obtaining debt repayment.
As the demands of the
coalition are so closely linked with the demands of
the World March of Women, our support is automatic and
wholehearted. We believe, as do the organizers of the
Washington Mobilization, that it is essential to
cancel the debt of the poorest countries and that
structural adjustment programs must be ended. "What we
want are real structural changes so that humankind can
finally be free of the poverty that is ravaging the
lives of billions, especially women," declared
Françoise David, president of the
Fédération des femmes du
Québec.
* among them the 50 Years is
Not Enough Network (U.S.), Alternative Information
& Development Centre (South Africa), Anti Debt
Coalition (Indonesia), Ecumenical Support Services
(Zimbabwe), Focus on the Global South (Thailand), Food
First (U.S.), Institute for Policy Studies, Global
Economy Project (U.S.), Jubilee 2000 Afrika Campaign
(Great Britain, U.S., South Africa), Kenya Human
Rights Commission (Kenya), Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt
& Development (Zimbabwe), Diverse Women for
Diversity (India), Canadian Students Federation
(Canada), Food Not Bombs, ATTAC and Observatoire de la
mondialisation (France).
Information: Elsa Galerand
World March of Women
Phone: 1 (514) 395-1196, ext. 21; Fax: 1 (514)
395-1224
<mailto:Communication@ffq.qc.ca>Communication@ffq.qc.ca
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Keeping
the Fire Going
by Annwyn One
River
To let everyone know, for what
it's worth, the fire is still lit (barely)...but
going.
It rained much of the night
and it was thundering and lightening when I went out
for the 4 am check...I found embers mostly and could
not get a full blaze started again but got enough
going to light a candle. I propped up a large canning
pot to protect that fire at least until I can get a
larger one going again this morning...and I'm changing
out the candle as needed.
My youngest and I lit the main
fire at 6 am yesterday morning. I had laid a log cabin
style fire the night before with a bit of variation so
that it looked a bit like it was "woven" to go along
the weaving energy theme. The quarters were called,
Brighid, Oya, Chango, Cerridwen and Cernnunos...yep
quite a strange gathering...but wanted to include
those honored by the other support rituals and get my
own in there...the circle was walked over and over
honoring and thanking the ancestors who had come
before and those who were to come after...and we sang
a non-traditional song..as best I could remember the
words:
The Earth
is our Mother just spinning around
With trees in the forest and roots underground
Our Father above us whose sigh is the wind
Paint us a rainbow without any end.
As the River runs
freely
The Mountain does rise
Let me touch with my fingers
and see with my eyes
In the heart's of the Children a pure love still
grows.
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way
home.
Like a flower that shattered the song.
Later in the day a second
ritual was held to reinforce the energy and as I and
the lovely ladies joining me were finishing planning
we found ourselves in the middle of a thunder storm
and just went for it...we created the space so that
all those supporting the effort were standing with us
on the wet grass...imaging all our hands linked...we
brought the images of the four directions as they
applied to our nation - it's geography and the
strengths that each part of our country brings to the
whole of our country...we made herbal infusions from
well water in pots set at the base of the fire and
sprinkling the infusions around the space...lavender
for balance and healing, sweet grass for fresh new
vision, sage for wise choices, wormwood to cleanse and
clear that which blocked change etc...with the circle
of the many we built energy and directed it to the
central fire forming a swirling wheel from the out
circle and strands of energy like spokes connecting to
the fire...we did the same sending spokes deep into
the earth meeting at a center and again and swirling
wheel..maintaining the center one...and again to the
sky with the spokes again meeting at a center/apex and
all the wheels spinning and building the woven ideas
of connection, protection, and change for the good of
the whole....
Mother answered our words many
times with rumbles of thunder and the rain and storm
seemed to end at the same time as we were
complete...and the fire remained lit through the
rain...and WE were not fried to little crispy witches
by the lightening.
The thought that came to all
of us was that nothing would be the same after this
day.
The flag will be complete
today and I'll place the ribbons along the fence. The
fabric (dyed with logwood) came out a really deep
purple and will grace the gate once I finish the
stitching.
Blessings and safety to all in
DC and around the country/world who are loving and
caring enough to give of themselves so freely. Be wise
in your choices.
Annwyn OneRiver|
Linda Mansfield
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Global
Justice is Not a "Nebulous Thing"
by Leon
Galindo (leongalindo@msn.com)
Tuesday 18 Apr 2000
Independent Media Center, Washington, DC
http://dc.indymedia.org
On Saturday, April 15 I was
illegally arrested and imprisoned for 23 hours,
together with hundreds of peaceful protesters and at
least a dozen innocent bystanders of which I was one.
As a consultant to the World Bank, a citizen of a
developing country, and a person who has committed his
life to the work of development I was appalled by the
conduct of the police and by the way the "system"
works. As a consequence, I am now far more sympathetic
with the demands of the protesters and just a tad more
cynical about the "establishment."
I was arrested with no
explanation, no prior warning, and for no legitimate
reason. I was standing close to the protesters because
I disagreed with much of what I had heard them say in
the media prior to coming to Washington D.C.. I wanted
to hear in person what they had to say in order to
decide for myself whether their arguments were
reasonable or not and to summarize conclusions in a
note for the World Bank's daily internal newsletter. I
was not the only one, Magali Laguerre, a Haitian
colleague at the World Bank, had the same purposes and
was also arrested. So were several tourists and local
residents who were literally just passing by.
I had been there for less than
five minutes when the police closed both sides of the
street and did not allow anyone to pass even though
nothing except a peaceful march was taking place. No
warning was given. No explanation was made. When I
asked to pass or for an explanation on what was
happening, no response was given. After an hour in
which dozens of additional police arrived, police
started handcuffing people one by one and marching
them onto school buses. Not one protester was violent
or in any way unreasonable.
My experience was similar to
that of hundreds of others, including women and many
teenagers. I was roughly handcuffed for over 17 hours
(my arms and shoulders are still sore), repeatedly
lied to, and denied an explanation of any kind or
access to a telephone or to any means of informing my
wife what was happening until 5:00 am the next day, 12
hours later. A demonstrator who had come from Texas
with his son was not able to receive any information
from the police on the status of his teenage son who
had no money, no contacts in Washington D.C., and who
had done nothing except protest peacefully. Several
were looking for their girlfriends and also were not
given any information, and Jim, a biologist with a
health problem, was repeatedly told by police that
they could do nothing to help him retrieve his
medication. I could not help but think that it was
through illegitimate and unjust arrests such as this
one that the terrible nightmares of political
prisoners from around the world had begun. I could not
believe that this was happening in the United States
of America. Contrary to declarations in the press
today by Chief Ramsey, I did not see much
professionalism among the police on the inside, where
there was no media to ensure accountability. Instead,
I witnessed harsh threats, incompetence, and
injustice, very worrying to see in the police force of
a democratic and powerful nation.
Fortunately, we were in the
United States, and it only took 19 hours before a
lawyer appeared, and 5 more before a mock trial took
place, and so we did not "disappear" as common people,
similar to us, may have had this occurred in a
different country. The way they handled us, it
certainly felt like they could do so if they chose to.
I was released after 23 hours on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.
with no charges, because it was neither in the
interest of the court nor in mine to keep the record.
For me, this open letter is the record.
The group I was with was
transported to three different facilities, all heavily
guarded. The first was a detention center for mentally
ill patients. We spent three hours in an overcrowded
room in which it was so hot that it became difficult
to breathe and all were sweating. Only when the more
than 50 people in the room started to really get angry
did they allow us to use the bathroom or have a drink
of water, some five to six hours after being detained.
In almost 24 hours the only food provided was one
sandwich with baloney that was almost green.
For all practical purposes,
the police proved to be the greatest allies of the
protesters in this demonstration because they
perfectly proved the point the protesters were trying
to make in this march: poverty and suppression of
liberty go hand in hand and lead to further social
injustice. In my own case, this first-hand experience
of American police and prisons was an enlightening,
life-changing event that helped me to fully understand
the sometimes incoherently expressed, but otherwise
perfectly legitimate and profound arguments that I now
firmly believe the majority of the protesters were out
to make.
In this particular
demonstration, protesters had centered their diverse
arguments on the relationship between the
"Prison-Industrial Complex" and the Structural
Adjustment Programs enforced by the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank in developing countries.
As a passerby earlier in the day I had
scoffed&emdash;I know the World Bank, respect its work
enormously, and agree with someone who said that
blaming the World Bank for causing world poverty is
like blaming the Red Cross for beginning World Wars I
and II. I did and still do believe that many of the
protesters have not bothered to educate themselves on
what these institutions do. If they had they would
have greater respect for these institutions and would
perhaps even seek ways to coordinate efforts with the
World Bank to achieve their goals, as many other
non-profit and other organizations already do.
On the other hand, after a day
in prison listening to, and speaking with a number of
the protesters, many of them highly educated and
decent people with coherent arguments, I understood
their point and it is a simple and valid one. In
essence, they argue that too many powerful
institutions and individuals, both in the United
States and in developing countries, are ignoring the
fundamental principles and liberties that are the sine
qua non foundations for a free society and an open
economy. I agree, especially after having been
imprisoned and being subject to the ruthlessness with
which people with power can treat those who have no
power.
As Noble Laureate Amartya Sen
recently argued in Development as Freedom, political
freedom and economic development must go hand in hand.
As Joseph Stiglitz and others have repeatedly pointed
out, the World Bank and particularly the IMF and
especially governments of their client countries still
have much to do be more accountable to the common
citizen. And as the protesters in this march against
the "Prison-Industrial Complex" argue, and direct
experience this weekend confirmed, there are
institutions in the United States that would like to
believe they are beyond accountability, beginning with
the police force which is supposed to uphold and not
repress freedom of expression. It is an unfortunate
day when the image of great institutions is tarnished,
especially when their mission is precisely to serve
the public, reduce poverty, and build free and fair
societies. And yet the World Bank, the IMF and the
governments of both developed and developing nations
are not helping their own cause or serving their
citizens when illegal arrests take place, especially
when it results from dissent of opinion.
I refer not only to the
arrests that took place this weekend but to others
that take place around the world all the time. I have
witnessed demonstrations since I was a child in my own
nation, Bolivia (where six people were killed last
week in demonstrations). The IMF and World Bank are
identified, rightly or wrongly, as symbols of global
capitalism. As a consultant to the World Bank and
someone who firmly believes in its mission and
integrity, I believe it is a big mistake to further
substantiate the claims of radicals who throw the
World Bank and IMF in the same bag as the
"Prison-Industrial Complex" and "greedy corporations."
And yet that is exactly what happened this weekend. By
ignoring the demonstrators, freezing communication,
and delegating intermediation to the police the World
Bank and the IMF did not deal with difference of
opinion, and this is precisely, in my view, the
severest critique made by demonstrators. If this is
how they dealt with dissent in Washington D.C., who is
to argue that it is not possible at least indirectly,
that the Bank and the IMF would turn a blind eye to
similar tactics used by governments and their police
forces in developing nations.
As things turned out, a few
radicals that explicitly advocated extreme positions
set the tone of the demonstrations. As a result, there
are now more people who are convinced that the World
Bank and IMF might in some way be linked to injustice
in developing nations. Constructive alternatives, such
as an open forum in which representatives of these
groups could express their concerns and in turn learn
more about the work of the IMF and the World Bank,
would have had the opposite effect, nurturing allies
for the war on poverty instead of misinformed and
disgruntled opponents.
The significance of this
weekend's events lie not so much in whether one side
or the other is ultimately right in its arguments.
Rather, it is that there are people who have
legitimate concerns to share publicly, that these
people have to take to the streets in order to be
heard, and that for better or worse the image and
legitimacy of good institutions were damaged.
If the World Bank, the IMF,
and governments refuse to listen to well-educated and
caring people who come all the way to their doorsteps,
and if street protests, prisons, and the use of police
force are the preferred tools to avoid engaging in
dialogue, we are all headed down a dangerous path. The
protesters of course are not all innocent or correct
&emdash;among them there are clearly ignorant,
misinformed, and downright dangerous types who do
believe in violence and do not respect or even care
about the rights that many of their fellow protesters
do believe in.
Nonetheless, as poorly
expressed and incoherent as the arguments of the
protesters may seem their fundamental cause is correct
and noble. And, it is completely in tune with what
thousands of people at the World Bank and IMF work
hard for every day: ensuring that human beings
everywhere have the chance to live a decent life. To
allow the police of any nation to intimidate and
suppress voices through such illegal and totally
stupid procedures as those used in Washington D.C.
this weekend&emdash;methods that sometimes have far
worse consequences in developing countries&emdash;is
for these institutions, the United States Police, the
World Bank, and the IMF, to agree or at least condone
what a U.S. Marshall screamed in my ear as he
violently slammed me into a wall when reminded that he
was violating my fundamental rights: "Down here there
is no democracy. This place is a dictatorship and I am
God. If you open your mouth again I will kick your ass
till you are sorry."
To cite the front page of this
weeks, The Economist, this is a "testing time for the
world economy," and unless the IMF, the World Bank,
and governments around the world fully embrace the
classical principles upon which free societies are
build and which Amartya Sen reminds us of--political
freedom and economic development must go hand in
hand--old and "forgotten dangers "will come back to
haunt us. After being illegally arrested for 23 hours,
handcuffed for 17 of those hours, and seriously
threatened and intimidated for a crime I had not
committed, I clearly understood what the protesters
are after. "Global justice" is not a "nebulous thing",
as The Economists' April 15th article on the
protesters puts it. Very simply stated, global justice
is the call for institutions and individuals worldwide
to respect and seriously uphold the basic principles
upon which free, civilized, humane, and prosperous
societies are built.
Leon Galindo
Vienna, Virginia
April 17, 2000
leongalindo@msn.com
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Evergreen's
Report from DC
We did a ritual on Saturday
night that I thought was going to be for mostly
Reclaiming types, but it was for hundreds, as it
turned out. The theme was "weaving Justice" and at the
end of it we gave out magically charged balls of yarn
to everyone. The spiral dance at the end of the ritual
was one of the most energetically charged ones I have
ever been part of. The next day, when we arrived at
our area for blockading, the intersection was already
woven with yarn, from lamp posts to mailboxes, to
signs...I guess many other of the blocked
intersections were woven also. What a wonderful site
and knowledge, to know the magic was at work. My
daughter said that she heard announcers say on t.v.
that there was yarn at the intersections, but they
couldn't figure out what good it would do to
help...those Muggles, what do they know?
We were staying quite a ways
from where we met and from where we did the actions,
and it turned out that sharing taxis was actually the
most economic and certainly, easiest way to get
around. I was really interested in what people were
thinking about us being there and what we were doing,
so I asked every driver what they felt about it. We
had drivers from DC, and others who had come here from
Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ethiopia, India and maybe
some other African countries. Every single one of them
was incredibly supportive and also quite knowledgeable
about what we were doing. Sometimes they wanted to
reduce our fares, or even not pay a fare at all. I was
so moved by their support and hope in future actions
we can find a way to reach out to more
people.
I have waited many years,
while raising babies and other stuff, to be able to do
do direct action, always supporting those I saw on the
tube and those I read about. So I felt completely
exhilarated walking with Culebra, Starhawk and Lea
during the illegal street march in the pouring rain on
Monday. There is not another place in the world I
wanted to be, except in solidarity with all those
committed people, willing to risk arrest for their
beliefs. The singing, drumming, chanting, waving to
those on the side, and the windy rain will live in my
heart for a long time. It has given Lea and I the
energy and commitment to bring this energy back to our
community in some way. We were talking about ideas on
how to do this on the train ride home. This action and
Seattle's are only beginnings.
Enough for now, although I
could go on and on. Thanks to everyone for their
loving support from afar...we could feel the magical
energy at all times. Love, Evergreen
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A
Short Reading List On Global Economics
Danaher, Kevin, ed. Fifty
Years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund Boston: South End
Press, 1994
Jacobs, Jane. The Nature of
Economies.
Korten, David. When
Corporations Rule the World.
Mander, Jerry, ed. The Case
Against the Global Economy.
Shiva, Vandana. Stolen
Harvest.
Websites And
Resources:
For information on the
upcoming actions against the World Bank/IMF in
Washington DC on April 16:
www.a16.org
www.50years.org
Public Citizen, 1600
20th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009-1001 (800)
289-3787 www.citizen.org
Global Exchange
415-558-9486 ext. 254. www.globalexchange.org
Jubilee 2000, 222 East
Capitol St. N.E., Washington, DC 20003 (202) 783-3566
www.j2000usa.org
(Primarily religious groups mobilized worldwide to
cancel the debt to the poorest countries in the world
by the end of the year 2000.)
Independent Media
Center www.indymedia.org
(These folks were at the heart
of the WTO demonstrations, putting movies, photos,
interviews and stories out on the web as they
happened, and will also cover the A16
action)
Bioneers
Conference
A great gathering of people
exploring alternative technologies and economic
strategies held in year in the SF Bay Area. Tapes
available.
826 Camino De Monte Rey, A6, Santa Fe, NM 87505,
505-986-0366, www.bioneers.org
Interhemispheric Resource
Center,
PO Box 4506, Albuquerque, NM 87196-4506 (505) 842-8288
(These folks publish many wonderful books such as:
Global Focus: A New Foreign Policy Agenda by Tom Barry
and Martha Honey) infocus@irc-online.org
Abya Yala Fund for Indigenous
Self-Development 678-13th Street, Suite 100, Oakland,
CA 94612 (510) 763-6553
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