Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980213150340.19206A-100000@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 15:04:55 -0500 From: "Overseas Dev. Network" <mailto:odn@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU> Subject: MAI Week of Action Update! To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
From: Mike Dolan <mailto:mdolan@citizen.org> Sender: Mike Dolan <mailto:mdolan@citizen.org> Organization: Public Citizen To: mailto:mdolan@citizen.org (Mike Dolan) Subject: Multi Lateral Agreement on Investment Week of Action Update! >
>
>The international week of action against the MAI has been successful all
>around
>world!
>
>In the US, Senate offices were flooded with constituent phone calls
>demanding that the US withdrawal from negotiations immediately!
>
>Today a rowdy crowd of citizens and activists rallied on the steps of the
>capitol wearing handcuffs symbolizing the MAI "handcuffing democracy."
>Speakers included: Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR); Brent Blackwelder,
>President of
>Friends of the Earth; Mike McCloskey, Chairman of the Sierra Club; Lori
>Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
>
>The speakers released the joint NGO statement against the MAI (which reached
>a whopping
>600 organizational from 67 different countries!) and then dumped a box of
>handcuffs onto the capitol steps while the crowd chanted:
>
>OECD - gutting our democracy!
>and
>NAFTA, GATT, M-A-I: Big Corporations versus you and I!
>and
>The MAI's Corporate Courts/ Kick Democracy in the shorts!
>and
>USCIB - you don't speak for me!*
>and
>HO HO, HI HI, We don't like the MAI!
>and
>HO HO, HEY, HEY, Stop negotiations, s'il vous plait!
>and
>WE have our eye, our eye, our eye on the MAI!
>until we couldn't shout anymore...
>(*the USCIB is the United States Council on International Business - the
>main corporate lobby pushing the MAI in the US.)
>For photos of the rally check out the Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
>web site: http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/maiphotos.htm
>Behold the press release:
>
>For Immediate Release: Contact:
>February 12, 1998 Public Citizen, Chris McGinn (202) 546-4996 x305
> FOE, Mark Vallianatos (202) 783-7400 x231
> Sierra Club, Dan Seligman (202) 675-2387
>
>International Coalition Launches Campaign Against the MAI -- A New Stealth
>Investment Agreement
>
>More than 600 Citizens Groups Call Draft Multilateral Agreement on
>Investment "Unacceptable," Demand Negotiations Be Halted Until Concerns Are
>Addressed
>
>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than 600 organizations from 67 countries released a
>joint statement today calling for the suspension of negotiations on the
>Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) until substantive and procedural
>concerns are met. The draft MAI "elevates the rights of investors far above
>those of governments, local communities, citizens, workers and the
>environment," the statement declares.
>
> "Citizens from all over the world are united against this stealth MAI,"
>said Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
>"Citizens will not allow the MAI to handcuff their democracies. It is no
>wonder that opposition to the MAI is the fastest growing international
>citizens' movement."
>
> "The MAI would give corporations unprecedented power to directly challenge
>governments' environmental, health, labor and other safeguards," said Brent
>Blackwelder, President of Friends of the Earth. "The MAI would be a dagger
>through the heart of democracy."
>
> "Few issues have ever galvanized such diverse citizen opposition," said
>Michael McCloskey, chairman of the Sierra Club. "The MAI is all corporate
>rights and no responsibilities."
>
> The groups also unveiled an international advertising campaign against the
>MAI beginning with a print ad to run in the New York Times, International
>Herald Tribune, and other newspapers worldwide.
>
> The MAI is being negotiated at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and
>Development (OECD). The investment treaty would establish new limits on how
>governments can regulate portfolio and direct foreign investment and
>currency speculation. The MAI, under negotiation since spring 1995, is due
>to be completed by April 1998.
>
> The joint statement calls on the OECD and the national governments to
>eliminate provisions allowing foreign investors and corporations to directly
>sue governments for any action they claim undermines their planned profits.
>As well, the groups oppose provisions that remove government authority to
>stabilize currency speculation and portfolio investment flows.
>
> "In the aftermath of Mexican and Asian speculative meltdowns, how could we
>consider eviscerating our country's capacity to deal with these growing
>problems," said Wallach.
>
> The statement also calls for suspension of MAI negotiations and extension
>of the 1998 deadline to allow meaningful public input and participation;
>increased transparency in the negotiations by releasing drafts to the public
>and holding open public meetings and hearings; expansion of the active
>participation to include a broader range of governmental bodies; and
>renegotiation of terms that now forbid countries from withdrawing from the
>MAI for the first 20 years time.
>
> The "Joint NGO Statement on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment" [see
>attached] is signed by more than 600 non-governmental organizations from 67
>countries, including Greenpeace International, World Wildlife Fund for
>Nature International (WWWF-I), Third World Network, the Canadian Labour
>Congress, Mexico's Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), Pacific Asia Resource
>Center, Pakistan's Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment
>(SCOPE), South African Municipal Workers Union, Ecoropa, Australians for
>Animals, Catholic Fund for Oversees Development, World Economy, Ecology and
>Development Association and Women's International League for Peace and
>Freedom.
>
> More than 150 citizens groups from the United States signed on to the Joint
>NGO Statement including the Presbyterian Church, International Brotherhood
>of Teamsters, National Wildlife Federation, National Farmers Union, Witness
>for Peace, Community Nutrition Institute, Washington Office on Latin
>America, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, International
>Labor Rights Fund, Animal Welfare Institute, Reform Party of Texas, and the
>Association of State Green Parties.
>
># # #
>===== Comments by mailto:MDOLAN@CITIZEN (Mike Dolan) at 2/12/98 8:15 pm
>
>Congratulations to All.
>
>Mike Dolan
>Field Director
>Global Trade Watch
>Public Citizen
>
>
Witness for Peace 110 Maryland Avenue, NE #304 Washington, DC 20002 202/544-0781 202/544-1187 fax mailto:witness@w4peace.org http://www.w4peace.org/WFP