/ 17 April 2007

Cosatu on Wolfowitz: ‘Told you so’

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz "not just because of his abuse of his office to promote, and give a huge pay rise to, his girlfriend, but because of his consistently anti-working class and anti-poor policies", it said on Tuesday.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz “not just because of his abuse of his office to promote, and give a huge pay rise to, his girlfriend, but because of his consistently anti-working class and anti-poor policies”, Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Tuesday.

Wolfowitz, who visited South Africa recently, has left it to the World Bank board to consider his position, but he does not wish to resign.

However, Craven said in a statement that Wolfowitz’s corrupt promotion of his partner “typifies the morality of the capitalist system of which he is such an enthusiastic supporter”.

South Africa’s biggest labour federation noted that it had said at the time of Wolfowitz’s appointment in June 2005 that he “embodies all the worst features of the international financial institutions — the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Like them, he has been dedicated to entrenching the power of big business and multinational corporations, at the expense of the workers and the poor.”

It said at the time that Wolfowitz would do nothing to make the World Bank more accountable or responsive to the needs of the world’s poor countries.

Craven said Cosatu endorses the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) call for “proper transparency and democracy at the [World] Bank and the International Monetary Fund”.

He noted that the confederation has said both institutions “are facing a crisis of legitimacy, and must respond by increasing their accountability to member and client countries and the public at large”.

“The international trade union movement believes that the value of the World Bank in the world economy should be to act as a leader in ensuring high labour, social and environmental standards, which are determined and implemented through transparent processes and through close consultations with governments, trade unions, other civil society organisations and the public.”

Craven reported the ITUC’s general secretary, Guy Ryder, as saying: “Both the bank and the fund have declared their commitment to tackling world poverty. They need to live up to this commitment, and governments need to make sure that this happens.”

Craven said in Cosatu’s view this will never happen under Wolfowitz’s leadership. In 2005, the federation endorsed the view of Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, that Wolfowitz’s appointment was “an act of provocation” that could “bring street protests and violence across the developing world”.

Cosatu said that Wolfowitz’s record, as a right-wing “hawk” and architect of the United States-led, illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and his involvement in the “reconstruction” of Iraq, “suggests that he is likely to move the World Bank in an even more pro-capital and anti-poor direction”.

That prediction has come to pass, said Craven. “As we forecast, Wolfowitz continues to advocate more privatisation, tariff removal and trade liberalisation, all of which favour the big Western business monopolies. He opposes moves to protect poor economies from unfair competition from the big powers or to safeguard the environment from further degradation by capitalist companies.” — I-Net Bridge