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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Police Protect Secret "Privatized Government" FTAA Agreement |
Current rating: 0 |
by Commandante Lucas
(No verified email address) |
03 Apr 2001
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While the public is not allowed to see the text of the FTAA agreement, it was secretly negotiated between government and transnational corporations. Government itself appears to be in line to be "privatized" under the FTAA, turning it into simply one more tool to impose corporate control. Anything treated in this manner is doubtless something that has to be rammed through in secret to in order to avoid public scruntiny of its numerous repressive and illegitimate provisions. |
Published on Monday, April 2, 2001 by the Canadian Press
Ottawa Police Arrest Trade Summit Protesters
Demonstrators rally to demand release of summit draft text
OTTAWA - Social activists emphasized the \'\'civil\'\' in civil disobedience at a meticulously
staged, almost polite, protest Monday against a proposed hemispheric free trade deal.
Still, about 70 of the 500 protesters outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade were arrested during a \'\'search and rescue mission\'\' to retrieve a working draft of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Two by two, and then in larger groups, activists approached police barricades to read a lengthy manifesto condemning the government for keeping the FTAA negotiations secret.
\'\'Do not become accomplices of the secrecy and manipulations of this government,\'\' they told police. \'\'If you refuse to seek and retrieve the FTAA draft texts on our behalf, we will have no option but to attempt to retrieve them ourselves.\'\'
A line of about 30 RCMP and Ottawa city police officers met the protesters as they calmly scaled the barricades. Some were dragged away when they sat on the muddy grass.
Others, including one pregnant woman, walked away with police.
\'\'Well, I hope my parents will understand,\'\' Patrick Shory, 16, said anxiously as he
prepared to mount the metal barricades.
As he spoke, hundreds of protesters milled about under bright sunshine, waving signs and
beating drums. An organizer with a megaphone directed the protest, pointing out areas
where people could gather without fear of arrest and other areas where they could attempt
to enter the building.
Nearby, a giant paper-mache float depicted a business executive with a black padlocked
briefcase with the slogan: FTAA Top Secret.
Protesters included local students, activists, the Raging Grannies and a few notables,
including Maude Barlow, director of the Council of Canadians.
RCMP Cpl. Louise Lafrance said not all those arrested would necessarily face charges.
The protest was partly a practice run for the massive demonstration scheduled for the
Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, April 20-22.
There, leaders of 34 countries will discuss multilateral issues, including the FTAA.
\'\'Everything being done about trade agreements is in secrecy and we want to hear what\'s
going on,\'\' said Sabrina Salhia, a University of Ottawa student.
\'\'In a true democracy we\'d know . . . the environment, human rights and social justice, all
these thing are coming second to trade and capitalism.\'\'
Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew has said he will try to convince his pan-American counterparts to agree to release details of their negotiations during a meeting in Argentina
this week.
But Canadian officials have said it\'s doubtful they\'ll reach that consensus. The Bloc Quebecois and NDP have also clamoured for greater transparency in the process.
Activist groups have been trying to emphasize that they are a peaceful lot that comes to
collective decisions about how to protest. Areas are designated for those who don\'t intend
on participating in civil disobedience.
Employees at the federal building, within sight of the Prime Minister\'s residence, were given the day off Monday.
Many in the diverse movement that has sprung up to protest the summit say they are
worried about the massive police presence planned for Quebec City.
Officials have assigned up to 6,000 officers around a 4.5 kilometre fence encircling the old city.
\'\'I have to tell you on the personal level I\'m worried about Quebec City,\'\' said Catherine Louli, a spokeswoman with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
\'\'I think Quebec City is a highly volatile situation.
\'\'If the police are doing this (Quebec City) as intimidation that\'s one thing, but fear breeds
irrationality and people don\'t think when they\'re afraid.\'\'
Copyright © 2001 The Canadian Press (CP)
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See also:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0402-03.htm
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More Damning Evidence |
by Commandante Lucas
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Apr 2001
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Further evidence of the corrupt nature of NAFTA and, coming soon unless it's stopped, FTAA. I clipped out some of the "balancing phrases" in the artilce, which are mainly there for the NYT to demonstrate that it is doing its best to advance the interests of its advertisers, while being forced to admit that there really is no justice in the capitalist cause.
From the NY Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/business/11TRIB.html
Nafta's Powerful Little Secret
By ANTHONY DePALMA
Their meetings are secret. Their members are generally unknown. The decisions they reach
need not be fully disclosed. Yet the way a small group of international tribunals handles
disputes between investors and foreign governments has led to national laws being revoked,
justice systems questioned and environmental regulations challenged. And it is all in the name of
protecting the rights of foreign investors under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
SNIP
"What we're talking about here is secret government," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public
Citizen, a consumer watchdog group in Washington that has been critical of Nafta and other trade
agreements. Ms. Claybrook said the 16 Nafta cases that have been filed so far in the United
States, Canada and Mexico showed how corporations were using Nafta not to defend trade but
to challenge the functioning of government. "This is not the way to do the public's business," she
said.
SNIP
It is clear that investors have gained a shield far more powerful than almost anyone had imagined
when Nafta was written in the early 1990's. "There is no doubt that these measures represent an
expansion of the rights of private enterprises vis- à-vis government," said Prof. Andreas F.
Lowenfeld, an international trade expert at the New York University School of Law. "The
question is: Is that a good thing?"
>>>>>>
And then they begin to talk about why the corporations need confidentiality. Give me a break, if you are doing business on the public's dime by getting involved with government, you DO NOT DESERVE CONFIDENTIALITY!
We have a RIGHTTO KNOW what is going on under the cover of government action.
One more good reason to revoke the status as human beings that the corproations have acquired under US law. Corporations are not people and they don't deserve the rights of human beings. |
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Your Rights: Gone In A "Compromise" |
by Commandante Lucas
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Apr 2001
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And finally, from tonight's News-Gazette, buried in the last apge before the classifieds:
Worker rights and enviromental protections have been eliminated as fit subjects for discussions at the FTAA. It is said that this is a result of a "compromise." It is always interesting who's intersts get compromised in these affairs. It sure isn't the intersts of big investors and transnational corporations, whpo are always at the head of the line.
This is the sort of compromise that kills people, but where are the cops? Locking up protestors against the murderers. |
