World Bank & IMF : OUT!
Via Campesina position on financial crisis
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- Published on Monday, 28 September 2009 09:32
The food price crisis and the financial crisis are the result of years of ultra-liberal deregulation that can be traced back to the crimes against humanity committed against native Americans and Africans to maximise profit. Investors and speculators looking for the highest profits have used “financial engineering” in order to move large amounts of capital between countries and continents. These speculative, so-called "financial products or services" brought in huge profits but nothing was produced. Their value increased as a result of mere expectation that the financial system would continue to overvalue these "products" and "services."
With the de-regulation of the financial system came a disconnection from a "real economy" based upon agriculture, manufacturing, and the hard work of citizens. The system became based upon a speculative bubble that relied upon the irresponsible trade of "products" and "services" on the financial markets. When this bubble burst, it affected the global economy from top to bottom, not just the financial markets and the banks.
Asian Peoples' Movement Against ADB
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 05:06
Bali Declaration
Asian Peoples' Movement Against ADB
Koalisi Anti Utang (KAU), Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI), Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (Walhi), Solidaritas Perempuan, Jaringan Advokasi Tambang (Jatam), Koalisi Rakyat untuk Keadilan Perikanan (Kiara), Aliansi Petani Indonesia (API), WALHI Bali, LIMAS Bali, PBHI Bali, Frontier, Koalisi Rakyat untuk Hak atas Air (KruHA), La Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth, Jubilee South – Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-APMDD), Seafish, Land Research and Action Network (LRAN), Focus on the Global South, Gerakan Rakyat Lawan Neokolonialisme-Imperialisme (GERAK LAWAN)
Denpasar, 05 May 2009
We, representative of peasants, workers, fisherman, women, human rights defenders, environmentalists, students, civil society movements who join the Asian People’s movement against ADB, gathered in Bali concurrently with the Annual Governors' Meeting of ADB which took place on 2-5 may 2009, assure that ADB will not be the answer to the current crises.
For more than 40 years, we have been witnessing and learning that ADB intervention has created food, energy, financial and social crises. We have been witnessing ADB’s full support to private sector as well as full direction to Indonesian government to follow a system that has been proven failed-free market policies. Therefore, ADB debt projects has only increase the number of the poor people in Asia.
People's Movements Can Build Development Funding Alternatives
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- Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2009 05:00
Media Advisory, Denpasar, May 3 2009
The issues raised at the Asian Peoples' Summit against Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Bali, Indonesia, focus on how to build a real alternative development in Asian society. It is very crucial because both ideologically and practically, the ADB programs and loans are not a solution to the current food, energy, climate and financial crises. On the contrary these programs and loans are widening the injustice gap, especially affecting the most vulnerable groups such as peasants, fisher folks, workers, and women.
Asian People's Summit Against the ADB : Strengthening Food Sovereignty and People's Right to Land
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- Published on Tuesday, 28 April 2009 08:35
Bali, May 3, 2009 (Room and exact time are to be announced)
Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a Multilateral Development Bank that aiming to reduce poverty and encourage development in Asia Pacific region. ADB provide financial assistance (through grant and low-interest long term loans) and professional advices to the economic and social development activities for developing countries. The ADB has 67 member countries, 19 of which is a donor countries. Its primary financial backers are United States and Japan.
Via Campesina Declaration On World Bank/IMF Annual Meeting Singapore
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- Published on Tuesday, 18 September 2007 18:27
“World Bank/ IMF Out of Agriculture”
We, members of La Via Campesina, together with other social movements organized a series of activities in Medan, Jakarta (Indonesia), Batam, and Singapore simultaneously on the World Bank (WB)/ International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings on September 15-20, 2006. We as farmer’s representative from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Philippine and Indonesia gathered to share the impact of the WB/IMF policies on our respective countries. We also discussed on how it was possible for social movements develop alternative proposals to struggle for alternative proposals and their implementation.
The conference revealed that peasant’s lives turn into misery when their government starts working with the World Bank. On the other hand, when the IMF enters the country with its promise for economic recovery from economic crisis, a deeper crisis actually occurs and farmers actually become the victims of those policies.
Call to action against World Bank and IMF
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- Published on Wednesday, 27 September 2006 06:00
Freedom of speech and assembly curtailed during World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Singapore
La Via Campesina condemns blacklists, detentions and deportations from Singapore
Over 80 representatives of social movements and civil society organisations planning to attend events in connection with the recent World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings in Singapore were forced to forfeit their participation.
The World Bank is deporting farmers form their farmland
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- Published on Tuesday, 19 September 2006 18:05
PRESS RELEASE
Two Via Campesina activists were detained by the Singapore authorities last night at Changi international airport and were deported this morning to Jakarta. They were interrogated for 14 hours continuously. They were not doing anything criminal and they had come to Singapore without any intention of disturbing the people of Singapore. But the officers kept saying that they were just obeying orders.
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2 Via Campesina representatives detained in Singapore
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- Published on Monday, 18 September 2006 14:18
Press Release
On Sept 17, Achmad Yakub and Irma Yanni of Federasi Serikat Petani Indonesia (FSPI – Federation of Indonesian Peasant Union) flew to Singapore to organize a Via Campesina press conference on the World Bank and the IMF They arrived at Changi Airport at 5 PM local time. When they submitted their passport at the immigration desk, the officer brought them to the office for interview.
They have not been released so far (Sept 18, 6 am) – more than 12 hours after their arrest. They were not doing anything illegal and it is not any clear why the Singapore Authorities are detaining them. At 1 am, they informed us that they were only given water and bread.
Social Movements conference in Jakarta: "We want WB and IMF out of our lands"
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- Published on Monday, 18 September 2006 04:00
Today in Jakarta farmers leaders from the international peasants' movement La Via Campesina concluded a 3-day conference with other Indonesian social movements denouncing the IMF and WB crimes against humanity and proposing people's alternatives.
<Gus Dur, former president of Indonesia and Walden Bello, executive director of the Bangkok based NGO Focus on the Global South, addressed the conference. Gus Dur said that globalization had entered our lives and that people had to find different ways to deal with this. "You have taken the path of resistance and I respect that", he said to the movements' representatives.
The People of Pak Mun Dam and Landless Peasants in Thailand Oppose the WB/IMF meeting
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- Published on Saturday, 16 September 2006 19:38
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