This October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WB) will hold their Annual Meetings in Washington, DC. The Annual Meetings bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, media and academics to discuss issues of concern to the world’s financial elite. 

For decades, bankers from these institutions have used debt as a weapon to force developing countries to open their lands for fossil fuel extraction. Now they’re going further by pressuring countries to force indigenous people off their lands as part of carbon trading schemes that allow rich countries to burn more and more fossil fuels.  

Annual meetings of these international financial institutions present a unique opportunity to highlight and challenge the actions of these shadowy and anti-democratic organizations and present an alternative view for a more just and sustainable global economic system. While the meetings of the IMF and World Bank were targets of massive protests at the height of the global justice movement (1999-2001), in recent years demonstrations at the IMF and World Bank have been much more modest. 

This fall, against the backdrop of the worsening climate crisis, a looming economic recession and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, a range of social movement organizations formations, notably The Big Shift Global and Debt For Climate are making plans for protests at the IMF and World Bank meetings. The meetings are scheduled to take place on October 14-16 – halfway between the next major round of youth climate strikes (September 23rd) and the UNFCCC COP 27 conference (November 6-18). 

Watch this space for updates on action plans!