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Posted 11:56 PM by Mary

** Urgent action required **

There have been alarming, if perhaps not surprising, developments in the discussions on the governance of the World Bank and IMF and we urge you to take a short time to take action on this by the end of this week. Below is an action alert which I hope you can respond to and circulate far and wide. Best wishes, Alex
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Action Alert on World Bank governance reforms

THE ISSUES We have just been tipped off by an official that the US government is attempting to block any progress on structural reforms to the World Bank governance. The US Executive Director Carol Brookings has circulated a statement ahead of next Monday's informal Board meeting aiming to kill off any negotiations about structural reforms to the Bank and Fund's Boards, voting shares, etc.

Two weeks ago the World Bank produced a paper outlining some feasible proposals for structural reform. This argued that: "political will does exist" as reflected in the Development Committee?s communique and the statements of many Ministers? at the Spring Meetings. The US government seems to be trying to dampen down any such political will and dissuade other countries from coming out in support of the proposals in the Bank's new paper. These, whilst clearly insufficient from a civil society perspective, include: The key measures outlined in the Bank paper are: - Raising the voting shares of developing countries, potentially to a combined total of 44.3 per cent of IBRD votes (compared to 39% at present). - Adding an additional Executive Director for African countries. Currently just two EDs have the almost impossible task of representing 46 Sub-Saharan African countries between them.

Bretton Woods Project has obtained a leaked copy of this paper and will scan it in the next few hours for posting to our site and for easy transmission by e-mail.

THE ACTIONS
1) Bretton Woods Project is drafting a press release which we plan to issue today. We think that adverse press coverage may be the best way to bounce the US government. We will be happy for you either to help transmit the release to journalist contacts that they have or to use this release as a basis for one of their own which they could issue from their organisation. We will circulate this by 2PM UK time and suggest we aim for coverage tomorrow or Friday.

2) We are also in touch with UK officials on this, aiming to firm up their line and persuade them to issue a strong statement in opposition to the US one. This looks likely. We urge you also to contact officials in your country or in Washington, to clarify their line for next Monday's informal Board meeting and to urge them to take a strong line. If sufficient countries do so the US will not alone be able to kill off these discussions, as its veto does not apply to the measures suggested in the Bank's recent paper. If you can persuade parliamentarians to write to or call ministers this may also help. Please let us know if you do discover your government's position on this. Contact details for officials representing your country in the World Bank can be found at: http://www.bicusa.org/mdbs/wbg/execdir.htm

Posted 1:06 PM by Mary

Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor is the latest extremist candidate nominated by the Bush Administration for a federal judgeship. An appointee to the US Court of Appeals, Pryor has called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history." He's compared homosexuality to necrophilia and incest. He's argued that "the challenge of the next millennium will be to preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian perspective." And there's much more...

See the ActNow weblog for groups fighting Pryor's nomination:
THe Nationa

To send a letter opposing Pryor to your reps:
www.capwiz.com