Please be patient as it takes a few seconds to start streaming the audio
World Bank
©1990 by John Seed
Performed by
John Seed: guitar, vocals
Chris Johnstone; mouth harp, drums, keyboard
Ruth Rosenhek, piano
Kylie Dodd, bass
Redeyed Pete drums
Bodhi Seed, rhythm and lead guitar
Recording Engineers: Cedar Anderson, Bodhi Seed, Chris Johnstone
LYRICS
LINKS TO CURRENT CRITIQUES OF WORLD BANK ETC.
: Ruth Rosenhek and John Seed are presently editing a video clip for this song to be ready for the S11 Melbourne demonstrations against the World Economic Forum (www.S11.org) and S26 demonstrations against the World Bank's annual general meeting in Prague Sept 26 (www.bicusa.org/prague2000.htm)September 3
For a list of organizations mobilizing for Prague 2000, go to
x21.org/s26/participants/index.htm
For a list of electronic discussions groups related to for Prague 2000, go to
x21.org/s26/resources/index.htm
John Seed: This song was written in September 1990 in Finland as I travelled towards the demonstrations which would shadow the World Bank annual meeting in Washington DC the following weekend. There have been cosmetic changes in the organisations satirized in this song but they remain among the main causes for the destruction of nature and indigenous culture in their project areas. We hold no animosity towards the staff of these organisations. Indeed, we wish as Alan Ginsberg notes, to
" ... correct the berserk machine and liberate the inventor's mind from captivity by robot hypnosis" (Tale of the Tribe)
These institutions are literally demonic (see passage from John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", below), beyond reform, and they have swallowed some of the finest souls of our generation. We will free them.
Em
Emanating from expensive business suits, do you notice odours foul and rank?
Am Em
With his ecocide genocide numbers game, here comes the World Bank
B7 Am
Vampire needle drippin dollars, clutching his structural adjustment knife
Em B7
Ecosystem after system is plundered laid to waste as from the Earth he sucks the life
Teeth rip vital organs from the living Earth, spitting out cellulose chips
How generous he greases all his minions palms, his card reads:ecological collapse,
Economists from hell smooth the way, run interference quelling all your fears
Administrators, bureaucrats, "just doin my job", and all those damn engineersWorld Bank's got an evil junky wife, goes by the name of IMF
Shoots up biological diversity, dispenses cultural death
Mumbling bout sustainable development, she plies her vicious trade
If you see her comin' better run for your life, there's an "s" on the end of her aidAsian and African American Development Banks, are World Bank's ugly cronies three
With their friends the scumbag loggers from the FAO, and the mafia from the UNDP
They loot the biological register , with their Tropic Forest Action Plan
Scorched earth, transmigration, chemicals, agribusiness, logging, mines and dams
Propping up corrupt Third World elites choke the rivers with endless dams
Keeping all them foreign experts employed with their paid-for-by-your-taxes scams
Rape the Earth to meet the interest payments, it's that same old shell game
Centuries of exploitation yet they still owe us?, colonialism by another nameThe time has come let's clean up this town, name names, flush out those crooks
Biological fabric in tatters, the World Bank cooks the books
Wake up now won't you hear the cries of this planet of your birth
Expose the lies, no compromise, in defense of mother EarthStop the lies, no compromise, in defense of mother Earth
From John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"
The owners of the land came onto the land, or more often a spokesman for the owners came... Some of the owners' men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves... The owner men explained the workings and the thinkings of the monster that was stronger than they were... You see, a bank or a company ... those creatures dont breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so... When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size... We're sorry. It's not us. It's the monster. The bank isn't like a man.
Yes, but the bank is only made of men [said the tenants.No, you're wrong there - quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.
For current information about the devestation wrought by the World Bank, IMF and associated agencies, see the excellent booklet "False Profits" by Fifty Years is Enough - http://www.50years.org/april16/booklet.html
Also check the following links to organizations who monitor the impacts of multilateral development bank lending.
Asia
Coord Organisation for Rural Development, India, www.geocities.com/cord_in/
Focus on the Global South, Thailand www.focusweb.org
Friends of the Earth, Japan, www.foejapan.org
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Indonesia http://infid.ngonet.be/
Narmada Bachao Andolan, India www.narmada.org
Europe
Berne Declaration, Switzerland www.evb.ch
BothEnds, Netherlands www.bothends.org
Bretton Woods Project, UK www.brettonwoodsproject.org
CEE Bankwatch Network www.bankwatch.org
Friends of the Earth International www.xs4all.nl/~foeint/
Campaign to Reform the World Bank, Italy www.crocevia.org/cbm
World Economy, Ecology & Development, (WEED) Germany www.weedbonn.org/welcengl.htm
Latin America/Caribbean
Amazon Watch, based in California, www.amazonwatch.org
Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Uruguay www.item.org.uy
RedBancos, Latin American Network
http://fp.chasque.apc.org:8081/redbancos/
Rios Vivos Coalition, (based in Brazil) www.riosvivos.org.br
Trasparencia, Mexico www.laneta.apc.org/trasparencia/
United States/Canada
The Bank Information Center, www.bicusa.org
Center for Economic and Social Rights www.cesr.org/
Environmental Defense www.edf.org <http://www.edf.org>
Essential Action/Multinationals Resource Center www.EssentialAction.org
50 Years is Enough www.50years.org <http://www.50years.org>
Friends of the Earth US www.foe.org <http://www.foe.org>
International Rivers Network www.irn.org
Interaction www.interaction.org <http://www.interaction.org>
IUCN, The World Conservation Union www.iucn.org
National Wildlife Federation www.nwf.org
Oxfam America/International www.oxfamamerica.org/
Pacific Environment and Resources Center www.pacificenvironment.org
Pesticide Action Network, North America www.panna.org
Probe International (Canada) www.nextcity.com/ProbeInternational
Rainforest Action Network www.ran.org
Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (SEEN) www.seen.org
World Resources Institute www.wri.org
Contact John Seed at johnseed@ozemail.com.au