South African trade unions say Wolfowitz, quit!

From the South African Press Association:

COSATU calls for Wolfowitz‘s removal

CAPE TOWN – The Congress of SA Trade Unions has called for the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, saying he is a supporter of anti-working class policies.

“This is not just because of his abuse of his office to promote, and give a huge pay rise to, his girlfriend, but because of his consistently anti-working class and anti-poor policies,” Cosatu said in a statement on Tuesday.

Wolfowitz’s corrupt promotion of his girlfriend [one of her connections to the Iraq war: here], the trade union federation said, typified the morality of the capitalist system of which he was such an enthusiastic supporter.

“We believe that Mr Wolfowitz embodies all the worst features of the international financial institutions — the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“Like them, he has been dedicated to entrenching the power of big business and multinational corporations, at the expense of the workers.”

The embattled World Bank president would do nothing to make the bank more responsive to the needs of the world’s poor countries, Cosatu said.

Endorsing the International Trade Union Confederation’s call for proper transparency and democracy at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Cosatu said Wolfowitz was a stumbling block to transparency and poverty eradication.

“His record as a right-wing ‘hawk’, architect of the US-led, illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and his involvement in the ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq, suggests that he is likely to move the World Bank in an even more pro-capital and anti-poor direction.

“This conservative, neoliberal and corrupt individual must go,” said Cosatu.

Some media said Wolfowitz still had support not just from the US Bush administration, but also from Africa and Asia.

That may be true for a corrupt dictator like Musharraf in Pakistan.

But certainly not for workers.