IMF/World Bank 75th anniv Fall Meetings draw climate protesters

Video: rally at Murrow Park,march on IFC and IMF entry checkpoint 3 min

On the 18th of October, at least three different groups of protesters descended on the Fall Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The largest was a climate protest, demanding that the IMF, World Bank, and IFC entirely stop funding coal, oil, and gas.

The climate protest began with a rally at Murrow Park, opened by a speaker from the Piscataway Nation on whose stolen land the IMF and World Bank sit. During the rally, one speaker from a group which has met with the World Bank over fossil fuel funding reported the "gasped" when asked to entirely stop funding coal, oil, and gas projects.

The rally was followed by a march to the IFC, a major funder of fossil fuel projects globally. That in turn was followed by a protest at the IMF"s entry checkpoint, where delegates were returning from what appeared to be a very long lunch.

In addition to the climate protest, there was a protest for Ghana against IMF and World Bank support for their unpopular president, and the Friday Student Strike marched onto the scene and joined into the protest at the IMF checkpoint. All of this comes just after Indigenous activists in Ecuador nearly shut their country down in response to an IMF austerity program, forcing the government there to negotiate and putting the IMF "loans" in question.