U.S. Supports Postponing IMF-World Bank Meetings

Washington Post Staff Writers

September 14, 2001

By Manny Fernandez and Paul Blustein

The Bush administration agrees with top officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that the two institutions' annual meetings planned for downtown Washington later this month should not take place as scheduled, a U.S. government source said yesterday. A formal decision has not been made.Because the United States is the host of the meetings, the administration is viewed as having the final say on the matter.

IMF and World Bank officials, who strongly prefer putting off the meetings because of the strain they would impose on police in the aftermath of this week's terrorist attacks, had been awaiting the return to Washington of Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill. O'Neill, who returned from a trip to Asia on Wednesday, did not comment yesterday on the meetings."We are still pressing Treasury extremely vigorously to postpone," said a World Bank source who asked not to be named. "The bank and the fund want to come out with this decision as soon as possible.

"Police have said the gathering of the world's finance ministers and central bankers -- scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30 -- could draw up to 100,000 protesters to the capital. Law enforcement authorities have planned unprecedented security precautions, including recruiting out-of-town police officers and possibly installing a two-mile fence around parts of downtown. Activists from a variety of causes -- from anti-capitalist to pro-environment -- planned to use the meetings as a backdrop to voice grievances over corporate control of the world's economic system and the stifling debt of the world's poor countries.The meetings were thrown into doubt after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, with the D.C. police chief, city officials and sources at the two economic bodies saying that canceling or postponing the sessions is inevitable. It remains unclear whether the meetings would be held a few weeks later, or possibly under other auspices, such as a computerized hookup.

The World Bank source said that no legal obstacles prevent the two institutions from postponing or canceling the sessions, adding that the formal business to be conducted -- such as electing the chairman and deputy chairman of the Board of Governors -- does not have to be completed until the next fiscal year, which ends in June 2002.The developments pose new problems for the anti-globalization movement, the informal worldwide network of activists and radical progressives who gained momentum in the United States after street protests in Seattle in 1999 that shut down a summit of the World Trade Organization.

Demonstrations that have been months in the making now might be scrapped, as many activists worry that protesting the IMF and World Bank as the nation reels from the worst terrorist attack in its history would yield more opponents than converts. Some organizers, however, said they still plan to protest in Washington whether the meetings are held or not, refocusing their message with a more pro-peace, antiwar tone.Added one organizer: "The pain and suffering those institutions caused have not changed. The organizing has already taken place for months . . . so why stop the organizing just because the meetings are called off?"Protesters with the Mobilization for Global Justice, one of the main D.C.-based coalitions planning demonstrations, said the group has not come to a decision about what to do if the meetings are not held. Other groups echoed those sentiments.

A meeting for activists to voice their thoughts on the attacks and the possible impact on protests was held last night at a Mount Pleasant church.On the Mobilization for Global Justice's Web site, www.globalizethis.org, visitors posted a range of thoughts and emotions, with some arguing that the anti-globalization protest should be turned into a peace march and others advocating for no demonstrations. One D.C. resident wrote to protesters: "Come back in six months, a year, but not now. Leave us be for a while."