[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 63 (Friday, May 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E773-E774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          WORLD BANK PROTESTS

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                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 18, 2000

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues this 
recent editorial in the Star Tribune regarding the protests of the 
spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington, D.C. This 
intriguing perspective is an insightful analysis of the scope of the 
debt relief issue and role of the World Bank in combating this 
humanitarian challenge. Congress must move forward and address the 
growing problem of third world debt and follow a policy path that seeks 
to break the chains of debt for the world's most impoverished nations.

                        [From the Star Tribune]

           World Bank Protests: What, Exactly, Is the Point?

       Anyone who has marched for justice or signed a petition can 
     find some sympathy for the demonstrators who have swarmed 
     into Washington, D.C., to disrupt spring meetings of the 
     World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The question is: 
     Why aren't they on the other side?
       The World Bank, whose Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters has 
     become an emblem of evil and conspiracy, is arguably the 
     biggest antipoverty agency in the world today. In 1998 it 
     made loans of $28.6 billion--mostly to very poor countries 
     and mostly to build schools, improve roads, buy fertilizer, 
     equip medical clinics and promote population planning.
       Has the World Bank sponsored some destructive and ill-
     conceived projects? Certainly. But Americans who want less 
     poverty in the world, more schools, cleaner water and better 
     nutrition should be in the streets seeking more money for the 
     World Bank, not less.
       Some protesters would say their target is not the World 
     Bank, per se, but the trend it represents--a process known as 
     globalization, variously defined as the sweatshop production 
     of Gap clothing or the ceaseless expansion of McDonald's.
       But this is a narrow and shabby definition of what has 
     happened in the world's since 1970. Three decades of rapid 
     economic integration and massive capital flows have been 
     accompanied not by the immiseration of the world's workers, 
     but by the most rapid reduction in world poverty in a 
     century. In Asia alone, 1 billion people have been lifted out 
     of poverty since 1980, and the world's overall poverty rate 
     has been cut in half, from 34 percent to 17 percent.
       Global capitalism can't take all the credit for these 
     developments. But it has played an important role, according 
     to a new report by the consulting firm A.T. Kearney. Kearney 
     studied 34 countries representing three-fourths of the 
     World's economic output. It found that countries that opened 
     themselves to world trade most rapidly--countries such as 
     China, Poland, Chile, Portugal and the Philippines--also 
     posted the fastest economic growth and, despite widening 
     income gaps, also made the best progress in reducing poverty 
     and increasing government spending on social ills.
       Some share of the demonstrators would say they are not 
     trying to halt world trade or shut down the World Bank, but 
     steer both toward a path of social and environmental 
     sustainability. That message makes for demonstrations 
     genuinely useful. Of course, it's not terribly different from 
     the message coming from inside the targeted buildings. The

[[Page E774]]

     International Monetary Fund is now a leading advocate for 
     debt relief in poor nations, while the World Bank 
     incorporates environmental and labor groups into about half 
     of its lending projects.
       Now that they have the world's attention, the demonstrators 
     should say, specifically, how they would improve upon those 
     useful developments.

     

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