By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 8 --
After Evo
Morales of
Bolivia took
the gavel of
the Group of
77 from Fiji
on January 8,
Inner City
Press asked
him what he
and the G77
could do about
the
International
Monetary Fund,
ostensibly a
part of the UN
system.
Morales began
his response
with a
story: "When
I got to the
presidency,
the IMF had an
office inside
the Bolivian
central bank.
The IMF would
say, we'll
lend you $30
million in
exchange for
the
privatization
of services,
and giving
resources to
the
transnationals."
He then made a
mutli-lingual
joke, that
Bolivia had
bee run by "los
Chicago boys ahora
son
Boliviano Boys."
There was
laughter.
On the
question of layoffs
at the UN,
Morales seemed
to conflate
them with term
limits in
countries'
foreign
services. But
those getting
termination
notices at the
UN are
workers, in
the Publishing
section. We'll
have more on
this.
Two
months ago,
that Bolivia
would come to
head the Group
of 77 was first
reported on
November 6
by Inner City
Press. Today,
Evo Morales was
in New York to
accept the
hand-over from
Fiji's foreign
minister.
In the
interim,
between
Christmas and
New Years, a
UN budget deal
was concluded
which resulted
in UN staff
getting "notices
of
termination"
-- layoff
letters --
handed to them
on January 6.
(The UN
spokesperson on January 7 refused to confirm the
layoff
letters,
referring
instead to a
Town Hall
meeting
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon will
have on
January 9 at
9:30 am, 24
hours after
meeting Evo
Morales. But
Inner City
Press has now
published
one of the
layoff
letters, here.)
While the
Group of 77
works on a
number of
issues within
the UN system,
it is a major
player in UN
budget
negotiations,
as evidenced
by Fiji's
omni-presence
in the UN's
North Lawn
building
throughout
December, and
Algeria's the
year before.
Closing
speeches in
December made
much of Ban
Ki-moon in
March 2014
"getting his
way" on a
mobility plan
not fully
accepted by
staff, and on
a corporate
partnership
scheme headed
by long-time
American UN
official
Robert Orr (a
sample
partner, here,
at UN January
7 with no
read-out yet.)
What positions
will
Bolivia-led
G77 take on
these? On the
current
layoffs, and
those to come?
We will be
covering
this.
"Game
on," one G77
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press
back in
November. The
G-77 sources
said the
timing is
propitious,
including
given
Bolivia's
standing up on
issues like
the searching
of Evo
Morales'
plane.
(On the night
of January 7,
amid frigid
temperature,
Morales' plane
landed without
incident, as
tweeted by
Bolivia's
Permanent
Representative
Sacha
Llorenti.)
They said,
again speaking
exclusively to
Inner City
Press, that
while in the
past the UN
Secretariat's
budget
proposals were
closer to the
side of the
developing
world, and
then richer
countries
tried to scale
them back, now
"Ban Ki-moon
has sided in
advance with
the rich."
Similar
cuts are
proposed in
the UN
Development
Program and
also UNICEF,
with talk of
"nodes," under
Anthony Lake,
outsourcing
and
off-shoring
jobs from New
York. These
were denounced
by many
speakers at an
October 31
meeting of the
Staff Union. Click here
for that.
Y
ahora de
verdad,
Bolivia. Watch
this site.
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