No to SPP! Yes to the Rights of All!
• Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights
• Welcome to New Orleans and the People’s Summit!
• Protestors to Drown Out Bush with Cultural Resistance Toronto Rally Demands Binding Referendum on Canada’s Participation in the SPPLetter Calling on Congress to Halt the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) SPP: Stop the Privatization of Public Policy and Our NationBush on NACC Recommendations: “I’m looking forward to implementing them”Statement on the Security and Prosperity Summit in New OrleansExtraordinary ALBA Summit Begins in Venezuela
Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights
President George W. Bush recently addressed the nation concerning the Iraq war and promised to continue the occupation. He made clear that the rich believe their security lies in wars of aggression, occupation and broad repression of the peoples, at home and abroad. He emphasized the rabid national chauvinism of the U.S. imperialists that says the peoples of the world cannot govern themselves without the presence of U.S. troops and the dictate of the U.S. government. The Iraqi resistance continues to give Bush a fitting reply. They have made clear that their security lies in their fight for their right to sovereignty, their to be, to decide their own affairs without foreign interference. Their resistance will not stop until the U.S. is completely out of Iraq. They are supported by the large majority of Americans in the fight to end the occupation now!
It is no accident that Bush did not even mention the Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) in his speech. Indeed, the silence concerning the Summit and the SPP is deafening. Presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain did not say a word before the April 21-21 and have said nothing since. Before the Summit, Bush and the White House also did not discuss it. There were none of the usual White House fact sheets and press conferences. The monopoly media, even in New Orleans, did not report on it until just days before. There were no run-up stories addressing what the SPP is, what it has done, what it means for the peoples of all three countries. How is it that a major summit involving the heads of state of the U.S. Canada and Mexico took place April 21-22 and there was very little news beforehand and almost none afterwards. This total lack of information is characteristic of the “security” the government has in mind.
What was reported was Bush's statement that, "The leaders at the [North American Competitiveness] Council will come forth with specific recommendations, and I’m looking forward to hearing them, and I’m looking forward to implementing them.” The SPP is negotiated entirely at the executive level behind closed doors. The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which includes thirty of the top North American monopolies and is dominated by the U.S. monopolies, provided a report to the Summit, with recommendations. The report was not released to the public until after the summit concluded.
The NACC is dominated by U.S. monopolies, including Exxon, Chevron, GM, Chrysler, Lockheed, GE and others. Essentially, these giants make recommendations, Bush imposes them and the Canadians and Mexicans are forced to accept. Exactly what takes place and what deals are made is kept in the dark. What is made clear, as one of the U.S. CEO’s said, is that action is taken by the executives so that “there is no need for any legislation.” In this manner, SPP is openly being imposed as a far-reaching arrangement with no input from the peoples and no input from the legislative branches of the three governments. It involves not only military arrangements involving all three countries, but also those involving energy, immigration, transportation, communication and more.
Bush's statement, and choice of New Orleans, made clear that government is abandoning all responsibility for meeting the needs of the people, and is also openly making arrangements to hand over all public assets, resources and labor, to the monopolies. These arrangements are being put in place by the executive and backed up through use of force, through militarization of life in North America. The SPP is unconstitutional, undemocratic and an arrangement for fascism and war. Yet the presidential candidates, Congress, the monopoly media, remain silent. This is what the rulers have in mind by “security.”
The peoples vigorously mobilized to Stop the SPP! and continue to demand their right to govern and decide. It is the monopolies that must be restricted, not the peoples. In New Orleans, a People’s Summit with various workshops was organized to inform people and strengthen the resistance. Demonstrations were organized April 20, 21 and 22, with youth marching in the streets. Broad mobilization took place in New Orleans and internationally, as various organizations united to reject the insecurity and poverty that is the SPP. As with the previous SPP Summits, the peoples are together taking action to oppose the SPP, to reject annexation, defend sovereignty and make clear that the path of war and fascism is not a path the peoples will take – not Mexicans, not Canadians, not Americans! The example of New Orleans, like Iraq, like Vietnam before that, all make clear that for the peoples, Our Security Lies in Our Fight for Rights![TOP]
Welcome to New Orleans and the People’s Summit!
The New Orleans organizers of the People’s Summit welcome one and all to our city and to the People’s Summit. The People’s Summit brings together many organizations from New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It represents the fighting unity of all the peoples against President George W. Bush and the Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). As we say, the People’s Summit is our response to expansion of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the threat the SPP represents.
We are coming together for our communities by linking the Gulf Coast struggle to the fight for the survival of communities in Mexico, Canada, Quebec and the rest of the United States. We are organizing and sharing our experience to build collective knowledge and action to transform NAFTA and other unjust economic policies pushed by Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón.
Many people have asked why Bush and the SPP are coming to New Orleans. And why is the SPP Summit such a secret, with almost no news about it? President Bush is coming to New Orleans to showcase it as his model of what prosperity and security look like!
Here are some of the facts to know:
1) The military, brought in at the time of Hurricane Katrina, is still here in New Orleans, backing the local police agencies. Militarization of local police forces is a trend around the country, but New Orleans is one the most blatant examples.
2) New Orleans, and Louisiana have the highest incarceration rates in the country, which means the highest in the world. People can languish in jail for as much as 60 days before seeing a judge. Ninety-nine percent of the people locked up are black. This overtly racist repression breaks communities down, making it difficult to fight unjust policies and practices of state and corporate power. Prisoners, used as a system of slave labor, have been used to clean the city.
3) The federal and local government together have now demolished 4,500 units of public housing in a city where about 1 in 25 are homeless and affordable housing is in great demand. The buildings could have readily been repaired. Given that the government has not guaranteed the funding for people to return and rebuild, as they are required to do by law, thousands of families lost all their belongings to the bulldozers. There are now football-sized fields of people’s crushed belongings — all that many people had left after Katrina — and the rubble of their homes.
4) The public school teachers were fired and their union crushed in the months immediately after Katrina. The state closed many schools and turned most of the ones that re-opened into charter schools (a form of privatization). The few schools still open under state control are notoriously bad. Many people have to drive past their former schools, miles away to the few that are open. Some charter schools require exams to enter, others are terribly overcrowded, leaving many families with no place to send their children to school.
5) The only public hospital, Charity, remains closed. People without money or insurance, including children and the elderly, have no place to go for medical care. The psychological strain people have suffered since Katrina has been great. However, the only option in place to handle mental illness is calling the police.
6) Large numbers of immigrant workers, from Mexico and India have been brought in and face slave-like conditions. They were forced to live in crowded dorms or tents, with guards blocking their efforts to leave. The corporations involved sometimes did not pay them and then organized to have them deported, or forced them to accept low wages.
For Bush, these conditions are what prosperity and security look like. He is coming to New Orleans to say to Americans and the world, this is what we have in store with the SPP. It is the height of arrogance and completely against the peoples of North America and the world.
President Bush forgets that New Orleans has a long history of determined struggle, which characterizes it today. Resistance is the very heart of New Orleans—from the days of the large slave rebellions, united struggle by slaves and native peoples, a general strike by the workers, and a lively culture of subversion that reclaims traditional cultural practices and transforms space. Many battles today are represented by organizations participating in the People’s Summit. A recent meeting celebrating the resistance of the workers had 200 people participate, including Mexican strawberry pickers, Brazilian shipyard workers without work in Mississippi, day laborers and community organizers working in New Orleans. The event was translated into five languages.
They can have their summit and we will have ours. A summit that represents not only what we are against but also what we are for. We are here together to represent the struggle of all the peoples, a struggle for a bright future that favors the peoples. Regional trade and unity, such as that of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America, Bank of the South and the African Union can assist the peoples and we support such developments. Our Summit will inform people about our struggles and experiences, and alert everyone to the dangers of SPP, which harms the peoples of all three countries and the world.
The SPP is a comprehensive plan, being negotiated in secret, completely at the executive level. It does not involve the people or even the legislatures of the three countries. It is being organized by the top monopolies, like ExxonMobil, GM, Lockheed and GE, who, with big corporations from Canada and Mexico, form the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). The NACC makes recommendations, Bush implements them and Canada and Mexico are forced to go along.
The SPP is being used to integrate the military and policing forces of all three countries for use against the peoples of all three countries. Already there is an agreement for U.S. and Canadian troops to be used in both countries in the event of a “civil emergency” like hurricanes or health emergencies. SPP involves arrangements concerning labor, food, transportation, communication, healthcare, energy resources, the environment and more. The workshops we our organizing will provide in-depth information on these issues and also bring to the fore the struggle being waged by the peoples to block the SPP and bring forward alternatives that favor the people.
We are here to say that New Orleans stands as a model of the resistance and determination of all and we welcome all standing together with us.
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Black and Immigrant Residents Reject the “Three Amigos”
Protestors to Drown Out Bush with
Cultural Resistance
On the eve of the arrival of President George W. Bush, President Felipe Calderón and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a major summit in New Orleans April 21, Black and immigrant residents will unite for a demonstration of cultural resistance to shed light on the disastrous policies that have displaced both communities.
Long time New Orleans residents and newly arrived day laborers and migrants will open a three-day “People’s Summit,” hosted by more than 30 local, national and international organizations. The opening event will uncover how these three world leaders have used economic agreements to destroy families and workers’ rights. Street theater features President Bush being deported by Latino Day Laborers.
Where: Ashe Cultural Center
What: Street Theater Press Conference
When: Sunday, April 20 at 2:00 p.m.
Who: Day laborers, homeless residents of New Orleans, Katrina Survivors Congress of Day Laborers, STAND! The Peoples’ Summit and other organizations.[TOP]
Toronto Rally Demands Binding Referendum on Canada’s Participation in the SPP
A march and rally against the SPP was organized in Toronto, in February, starting at the Ontario Court building and marching to Queen’s Park. Hundreds of people participated in the rally demanding an end to Canada’s participation in the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), saying No! to a North American Union and yes to Canadian sovereignty.
Rallies and actions took place the same day in cities across Canada: Victoria, Vancouver, Vernon, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Windsor, Cornwall, Toronto, Ottawa, Moncton and Fredericton.
The specific demand put forward by the rally was for a binding referendum of the Canadian people to decide whether or not Canada would continue to participate in the SPP. The vast majority of the participants in the rally were youth, and a number had participated in the actions against the SPP summit at Montebello in 2007. A large group of youth from Ajax attended, and youth came from as far away as Kitchener and London to take their stand.
Vijay Sarma, a candidate for the Canadian Action Party, MC’ed the rally. He denounced the government for joining the SPP and carrying on its plans for a North American Union (NAU) in secret and without the permission of the Canadian people. This is our country, he stated, so why are we letting them speak for us? We are the majority and we built the country — we are responsible for Canada’s being and as such we are also responsible for the future of the country. If our representatives won’t represent us we will take them out of office, no matter what party they are; and we will represent ourselves, he said.
The Canadian Action Party, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, Green Party and Libertarian Party sent speakers to address the rally. Throughout the rally, in addition to the invited speakers, youth from the crowd addressed the rally expressing their determination to take the future of the country in their hands. Slogans and banners declared: Stop the SPP!; SPP is Part of NAU; SPP= 9/11 in Canada; Stand Up 4 Your Rights!; We Will Win! Kill the SPP! and many others. During the rally a shout out was given to the First Nations of Turtle Island, the indigenous peoples of this land.
A number of speakers gave examples of the way in which trade agreements compromise Canadian sovereignty and put control in the hands of the international financiers. Dian Nicholson from Freedom in Canadian Healthcare pointed out that on questions such as healthcare the government has signed away our sovereignty through trade agreements. This is treason, she stated. Sydney White, a lecturer at the Free University of Toronto presented in some detail the history of the Canadian banking system and the debt which we continue to “pay down” but never pay off; a debt that is used as the reason why we cannot fund social programs.
The callout for the demonstration by the Toronto SPP Protest Committee stated, “Since 2005 Canada’s auto industry, pesticide and health safety standards (among others) have been lowered to match that of the U.S. In the latter instance, the HPV vaccine known as Gardasil — manufactured by Merck & Co. (an American participant in the North American Competitiveness Council) was approved by Health Canada within 4 months of approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Further, our federal government has spent $300 million on the vaccination of 9-13 year old schoolgirls who are not sexually active even though Gardasil only prevents 4 out of 100 strains of HPV, which means infections and the risk of cancer will continue regardless. There are already reports of 3,700 severe adverse reactions and 11 deaths reported by countries administering Gardasil. Merck & Co. had suffered billions of dollars in losses when its arthritis drug Vioxx was pulled because of cardiac-related patient deaths.”
Wendy Forrest, who along with Karen Wittke organized the Toronto action, spoke briefly about the organizing work. She said it had begun with three people in Kelowna, Vernon and Saskatoon and much of it had been organized through a Facebook group that now had over 3,400 members. It was decided to hold the action on the occasion of Flag Day (February 15) — the day on which the Canadian flag was adopted by parliament. She put forward the main demand of the action that is a binding referendum on Canada’s participation in the SPP.
Pierre Chenier spoke on behalf of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. He forcefully stated that Canada must get out of aggressive annexationist treaties such as the SPP, as well as NAFTA and NATO and that these organizations should be dismantled. We make this demand, he stated, because these treaties violate Canada’s sovereignty and are making us a base for aggression against other peoples as an annexed mercenary force for the U.S. He also denounced the arrogance of U.S. President Bush in calling the next SPP meeting in New Orleans. After wrecking New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to parade New Orleans as an example of prosperity and security shows exactly what the ruling elites of the three countries have in store for the people, he said. Our Party will continue to go all out to build the unity in action of Canadians to defeat the SPP and this North American Union, he concluded.
President of the Libertarian Party of Canada Alan Mercer which is against Canada’s participation in the SPP says that his party stands for individual liberty but that this cannot be protected without protecting Canadian sovereignty. He spoke of how his family had not left northern Ireland to come to a security state that defends eternal war and attacks the liberties of its own people as is happening in the U.S. now, and will happen to Canada if it does not protect its sovereignty.
Speaking for the Green Party, Lou Carcasole said that he was a simple guy who wanted to live a simple life but had come to realize he could not and that he had to become involved in politics. He pointed out that a change to how we vote in Ontario was the subject of a referendum with a double 60 percent majority required. When it comes to the SPP no referendum is called. On the contrary, the Harper government gives itself the right to sell off our future in secret behind closed doors, he said.
The rally expressed determination to continue to organize and mobilize and build a movement against the SPP and the annexation of Canada into the North American Union.[TOP]
Letter Calling on Congress to Halt the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)
Dear Member of Congress,
On the occasion of the 4th Leaders Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), to be held in New Orleans on April 21-22, we take this opportunity to call on all members of Congress to educate themselves on the SPP, which was never brought to Congress for debate or vote. Our concerns include the opaque and undemocratic nature of the SPP, its definition of “prosperity” as the expansion of a failed trade model, and its definition of “security” as the expansion of military force and the restricting of civil liberties.
Congress has been entrusted with oversight on such issues of trade and security. It is imperative that they exercise their responsibility on this matter by examining what prosperity and security really mean. Rather than proceeding along the failed path of NAFTA, all efforts should be made to implement a trade agenda that focuses on the needs of communities and people. That agenda should include the voices of those populations most affected, as well as their advocates in civil society.
Therefore, as civil society advocates, we call upon the U.S. Congress to:
• Require the Bush administration to immediately halt SPP implementation and submit the process to Congressional oversight.
• Hold congressional hearings in which the process and goals of the SPP are thoroughly aired and input is invited from a broad cross-section of the public.
• Make subject to congressional vote the decision of whether SPP implementation should proceed.
The SPP is an executive-level, tri-national pact between Mexico, the United States and Canada, agreed to in 2005 by the chief executives of the three countries. According to the official website, the SPP seeks to “provide the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade.” What differentiates the SPP from other security and trade agreements is that it is not subject to Congressional oversight or approval. The SPP establishes a corporate/government bureaucracy for implementation that excludes civil society participation.
As at past SPP summits the New Orleans meetings will be open only to government officials and representatives of the corporate sector. Civil society will be kept on the other side of the fence, their voice silenced. The leaders will hear reports from the various SPP working groups and receive advice and input from the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). The NACC is made up of 30 large corporations, 10 from each of the three countries. Their interest is in maximizing profit and removing all impediments to such profit by lowering or removing “non-tariff barriers to trade.” In common language this includes local and state regulations such as food safety and environmental laws, labor rights and other measures designed to protect and enhance quality of life.
The SPP aims to reach its goal of economic growth by facilitating the flow of goods and capital, while ignoring the needs of people and communities. This translates to a further expansion of the neo-liberal agenda manifested through free trade agreements such as NAFTA and DR-CAFTA, except that approval from Congress is neither sought nor required. These trade agreements, while boosting investment and exports, have failed the vast majority of citizens in participating countries. NAFTA’s impacts have been well documented: the loss of over a million decent US manufacturing jobs to exploitative Mexican factories, the decimation of Mexico’s small-scale agriculture and subsequent rise in migration, the subordination of environmental law to investment rules, and the annulling of consumer protections in the name of corporate protections. After 14 years of such devastating legacy, the SPP now proposes to move even further in the same direction.
Meanwhile, the security side of the agreement seeks to “develop a common security strategy” and to create a common security perimeter for North America. The recent agreement between the U.S. and Canadian militaries (without Congressional approval) to allow cross-border, domestic military action can be viewed as integral to the SPP. In addition, the announcement last fall of the Merida Initiative, a U.S. program to provide $1.4 billion in training, intelligence and military aircraft to Mexico has been linked to SPP by critics of the agreement. Though not officially a part of SPP, it is a manifestation of the “deep integration” that is the core of the SPP strategy. Through implementation of the SPP, the U.S. is also exporting its War on Terror to Canada and Mexico through agreements on the sharing of intelligence, airline passenger lists, border surveillance programs and the further militarization of the border between the U.S. and Mexico-leading to erosion of civil liberties.
As New Orleans prepares to host the SPP summit, recent changes in the city foretell the SPP’s security objectives. In a move that could only be described as opportunistic the disaster resulting from Katrina is being used to alter the character and demographic makeup of New Orleans. The city has been highly militarized, with both National Guard and private military firms providing “security.” Documented cases of abuse and violence directed at residents of the city by these “security” providers show that the interest is not in protecting the residents, but in “securing” the city for developers. In this respect New Orleans is the perfect backdrop for the SPP summit, put forth as a model for the future of North America.
Facing a worrisome pact pushed forward in secrecy, it is time for Congress to halt this undemocratic approach and establish a process based on openness, accountability, and the participation of civil society. While civil society may be kept away from the SPP summit, their voices will still be heard in New Orleans at the People’s Summit. This gathering of residents, activists and other concerned people will link the Gulf Coast struggle to the fight for the survival of communities in Mexico, Canada and the rest of the United States.
[TOP]
Statement on the Tri-national Ministerial Meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico
SPP: Stop the Privatization of
Public Policy and Our Nation
The agenda for the heads of state meeting that will be taking place in New Orleans on April 21-22, 2008, is being scripted in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico, by the wealthy heads of transnational corporations and government bureaucrats whom, it seems, have never read or properly understood the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico. Just before this preparatory meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which begins today in Los Cabos, the Executive Branches of the three governments held a consultation with well-heeled corporate executives belonging to the Competitive Council for North America (CCNA), to receive their input on the points to be addressed in the Ministerial agenda. Incredibly, the Mexican government has continued to present what is a corporatist agenda as if it represented the interests of Mexican society.
As members of the campesino, indigenous, union and civil society organizations that signed the ‘Political Pact for Food and Energy Sovereignty and the Rights of Workers, and Democratic Freedoms’, we reject the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the Merida Initiative (that forms part of this alliance) because they promote militarization and a state of exception in our country.
The citizens of the United States and Canada have also been speaking out against the SPP as well as its precursor, NAFTA. The Mexican bureaucrats that are scripting the agreements in Los Cabos should realize that beyond just being campaign promises, the anti-NAFTA and SPP positions being expressed by the presidential pre-candidates in the United States are driven by a profound discontent among U.S. citizens against the irresponsible economic policies coming from the neo-liberal politicians and the dominant interests in all three countries.
The five key points for the April heads-of-state SPP agenda being currently scripted in the meeting in Los Cabos are: 1) “Tri-national energy security”; 2) The so-called “integration of smart and safe borders”; 3) Technological cooperation; 4) Management of emergencies in the region, and avian influenza; 5) Human influenza pandemic.
The first three points on this agenda do not respond to the demands for political and economic change coming from the societies in the three North American countries. Rather, they represent priorities being pushed by the business elite: it’s all about promoting private enterprise while using public resources. And of course, this does not favor Mexico, or the North American region, and even less, the citizenry directly affected.
The Mexican government representatives cannot ignore the public clamor coming from citizens, experts and legislators who have all recently demonstrated against the Mexican portion of the repressive transnational security component built into the SPP.
Mexican security should not to be equated with the Pentagon’s security, nor should it be held hostage to the narrow and egotistical interests of transnational companies and the Mexican corporate elite. When talking about a policy of global and regional security, we should be addressing sustainable human security. We need to confront the real threats to our existence that are being generated by climate change, profound social inequality, the destruction of decent jobs and livelihoods, and the eradication of the cultural and spiritual heritage of the indigenous peoples.
Instead of spending multi million amounts on constructing pseudo “smart borders” to criminalize and detain thousands and thousands of citizens who desperately seek elsewhere what retrograde government and transnational policies deny them in our country, it is now an urgent priority to invest in human security, and in the building of national capacity.
The Mexican delegation currently meeting in Los Cabos cannot continue offering up ‘energy integration’ which equates to forms of privatization of PEMEX (Mexican Petroleum company), CFE (Federal Electricity Commission), CLyFC (Central Light and Power Commission) - which beyond the question of whether or not shares get sold, will privatize the earnings that would be generated by resources that belong to all Mexicans — when those officials know well that more than 69 percent of Mexicans reject this policy that comes from a corrupt, greedy, insatiable minority.
The State policy and public policy that the government should be defending and promoting with our Northern neighbors cannot be substituted by the private agenda of the real promoters of the SPP - the corporatist North American Competitive Council (NACC). Public policy is being hijacked by private interests that represent a minuscule transnational elite and a complicit government that has renounced its responsibilities, and has abandoned its defense of the interests of Mexico as a nation.
We call on organizations and progressive legislators to add their voices to this denunciation of the privatization of public policy, and to the handing over of this country to private interests.
RMALC, Mexico City, February 28, 2008[TOP]
Bush on NACC Recommendations: “I’m looking forward to implementing them.”
Oh what a depressing summit this was for the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). Like last August, the all-corporate advisory body to the SPP has just tabled a “report to leaders” outlining its hopes and dreams for continental integration in 2008. Unlike last year, there is nothing new in this one beyond a sense of desperation that, for all the CEOs have achieved in public policy setting, the SPP’s days are numbered. [In large part because of the broad opposition to SPP among the peoples.]
“Unless we work together to turn around public misperceptions, other specific recommendations to improve North American competitiveness will become largely irrelevant,” complain the CEOs, who received the undivided attention of President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, for an hour or so on April 22. “To the extent that the NAFTA itself continues to be a target, efforts to “deepen the NAFTA” will be largely unsuccessful.”
Well, crack out the champagne. Because it will take a lot of brainwashing to convince us that deepening the NAFTA relationship should be a priority. Poll results prove that Canadians [and Mexicans and Americans] are opposed to the idea of deep integration and the policies it has entailed so far: energy integration, regulatory harmonization, and the possibility of bulk water exports to the U.S.
Unfortunately, listening to the peoples of North America still is not a priority for the NACC or the executive branches of government they now frequently consult on dozens of policy areas.
“Some of the most effective paths toward a more competitive and prosperous North America will require discussion of measures that will generate controversy,” admits the NACC in its 2008 report. [Emphasizing the militarization characteristic of the SPP, the CEO’s report said], “Security-related issues, in particular, can be complex and controversial. This should not impede progress, however, toward finding reasonable and effective solutions.”
The NACC report recommends expediting the creation of “Enhanced Driver’s Licenses” (EDLs) across Canada which would be compatible with Homeland Security’s harmonized state driver’s licence system. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner is opposed to the EDLs because of how much personal Canadian information will necessarily be shared with U.S. officials and stored for who knows what purposes. [Many U.S. states are also rejecting federal control, while those in border regions, like New York and Washington State are forcing people to secure the new biometric licenses.]
The corporate reps also recommend (go figure) giving the private sector more control over the continental energy market. But according to poll results, Canadians would rather put limits on exports and foreign ownership, even if it means reduced trading opportunities with the U.S.
As if Bush, Calderón and Harper are listening...
“One of the challenges for the North American Competitiveness Council is to find unnecessary regulations that prohibit the free flow of trade,” Bush told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce April 20. “And so tomorrow the leaders at the Council will come forth with specific recommendations, and I’m looking forward to hearing them, and I’m looking forward to implementing them.”
Mexican President Calderón also expressed his fondness for the NACC: “the business leaders of the three countries gave us a very specific agenda that records the progress we’ve made, and also establishes how much more quickly we need to work within the North American Competitiveness Council, where the three leaders agreed we fully need to support the work of this Competitiveness Council.”
Once again, the relationship between the corporate sector and the SPP is laid out in plain view: CEOs recommend, Bush and gang implement.
And yet there are tremors under the surface. NAFTA is coming under attack in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. While some chalk it up to “protectionist sentiment” among U.S. Democrats, the truth is that most North Americans would probably agree that environmental standards and strong labor policies should trump the ability of corporations to make a profit. [The strengthening of bilateral relations is also being explored.]
“While the ultimate goal for regulatory cooperation should be to aim for North American or global standards, this should not prevent the negotiation of bilateral accords in the interim. The idea that ‘three can talk and two can do’ has been ingrained in the SPP from its beginning, but will become even more important in the context of discussions on more controversial and asymmetric issues.”
“We strongly urge the new United States administration to continue to seek progress on SPP priorities,” says the NACC report. “On behalf of the private sectors of our three countries, we offer our full support and stand ready to help in any way possible. This could include the direct engagement of interested NACC members with advice on pragmatic, short-term action plans to address in full the remaining NACC recommendations and to deepen cooperation in the five priority areas established by the Leaders at Montebello.”
The membership of the NACC includes 10 monopolies from each country, commonly represented by their CEO’s. The composition varies from year to year. The 2008 NACC monopolies are:
United States
* Campbell Soup Company * Chevron * Chrysler LLC * Con-way Inc. * ExxonMobil * FedEx Corporation * General Motors Corporation * Kansas City Southern * Lockheed Martin Corporation * MetLife * NBCU/General Electric * Procter & Gamble * UPS * Whirlpool Corporation
Canada
Manulife Financial * Brookfield Asset Management Inc. * Ganong Bros. Limited * Suncor Energy Inc. * Linamar Corporation * SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. * Royal Bank of Canada * ATCO Group * Yellow Pages Group Co. * The Home Depot Canada and Asia
Mexico
* Consejo Coordinador Empresarial * MABE * Confederación de Cámaras Industriales (CONCAMIN) * Kimberly- Clark de México, S.A. de C.V. * Consejo Nacional Agropecuario (CNA) * XIGNUX, S.A. de C.V. * Grupo BIMBO, S.A.B. de C.V. * Aeroméxico * Avicar de Occidente * Tubos de Acero de México (TAMSA) whose CEO is also Chairman, North American Steel Council
[TOP]
Statement on the Security and Prosperity Summit in New Orleans
The people of our three countries deserve a strategy for genuine prosperity and human security in North America. President George W. Bush met this week with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts for the fourth summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Rather than tackle problems that have roots in the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model — including growing income gaps and worker insecurity in all three countries, as well as dramatically accelerated migration from Mexico to the United States — these leaders hope to quietly extend its reach. Rather than conferring with corporate CEOs about their needs, our leaders should be crafting more rational and humane immigration policies, fair trade policies that put workers and the environment first and security policies that focus on the root causes of drug related violence.
Fact Check: NAFTA & Immigration
One of the main promises of NAFTA was that it would create enough jobs to prevent Mexicans from seeking work across the border in the U.S. In NAFTA’s first decade an average of 450,000 undocumented Mexicans crossed the border into the U.S each year, an increase of 160 percent over the previous decade. Just last Friday the Washington Post reported, “400,000 to 650,000 Mexicans — three-quarters of whom are undocumented — cross the border each year to look for work in the United States, according to Mexican government estimates.”
The opportunity gap that has pushed Mexico’s out-migration to historic highs under NAFTA helps explain why these summits are being conducted entirely out of public view. Opening the process might force Presidents Bush and Calderón to acknowledge that by artificially divorcing continental trade and investment policy from labor and immigration policy, they are feeding the forces that drive the immigration dilemma.
Fact Check: NAFTA & Food Security
In recent weeks, food riots in Haiti and elsewhere have drawn the world’s attention to the food price crisis in poor countries. According to a 2003 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, while the price paid to Mexican corn farmers fell by about half following NAFTA, the price of tortillas has shot up 738 percent — in sharp contrast to promises by NAFTA’s boosters that Mexican consumers would benefit from the pact. Earlier this year, tariffs were ended on white corn and beans exported from the United States to Mexico, a move expected to deepen Mexico’s rural crisis and further accelerate migration trends.
Presidents Bush and Calderón should move quickly to protect Mexico’s most vulnerable small farmers, the very people who make up a substantial portion of the migrants to the United States. Investing in Mexico’s communities will provide opportunities for Mexicans to stay at home and reduce the pressures currently overwhelming the U.S. immigration system.
Fact Check: Plan Merida
In the coming months, President Bush is expected to ask Congress to act on his $1.4 billion military and police aid package for Mexico and Central America. We know that arming foreign militaries will not solve our drug problem — a fact now painfully obvious in Colombia. After eight years and over six billion dollars of Plan Colombia, there is as much coca growing in Colombia, as there was the year Plan Colombia began, and the flow of illegal drugs to the U.S. continues unabated.
There is no reason to believe that a new “war on drugs” centered on interdiction and enforcement will work any better in Mexico. But the long-term potential damage of a policy that militarizes Mexican society, increases drug-related violence, and creates a climate for violation of human rights and civil liberties is evident.
It is time for the United States to take our role as neighbor seriously, accept the challenge of reducing the demand for illegal narcotics in our country that is the lynchpin in Mexico’s drug violence.[TOP]
Hurricane Katrina Reconstruction in 2008
A Bush “Showcase” or a U.S. Gulf Coast Tragedy?
Hurricane Katrina crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast in August of 2005. It precipitated one of the greatest episodes of internal displacement of U.S. residents in that country’s history with over a million people forced from their homes and communities. The U.S. government failed to adequately protect the rights of Gulf Coast residents during displacement – particularly the poor, immigrants and people of color, children, the elderly, disabled persons and other vulnerable populations. Almost three years have passed since Katrina, and the U.S. government has not upheld the rights of the displaced by failing to address the need for affordable housing, health care access, and adequate employment that would enable displaced persons to come home.
In his State of the Union address in Washington last February, U.S. President George Bush announced that he would be ‘showcasing’ his government’s Katrina reconstruction efforts while hosting in New Orleans the IV Security and Prosperity (SPP) Summit between the leaders of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The dates for this SPP Summit are April 21st & 22nd.
Grassroots organizations in New Orleans are calling on people from Chiapas to Alaska to attend The People’s Summit to be held in New Orleans, April 21-23. The organizers’ plan is to link the Gulf Coast struggle to the fight for survival in other North American communities where people are working to overcome predatory economic policies and unjust trade agreements.
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Latin America’s Alternative to SPP
Extraordinary ALBA Summit Organized in Venezuela
On Wednesday April 23, in Caracas, Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez convened an Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) to discuss the dangers and threats to the government of President Evo Morales in Bolivia and the food crisis in the region.
During the reception of Bolivian President Evo Morales at Miraflores Palace, Chávez said to Venezolana de Televisión, “After the Pope’s visit (to the United States) Fidel’s final sentence in his reflection on that visit affirms: the peoples of Latin America are at the point of witnessing another tragedy: Bolivia.”
“So it occurred to me to convene an extraordinary meeting of the ALBA and we have been talking with Brazil, with Argentina, with Ecuador. Bolivia is at the point of exploding and it is the empire that wants Bolivia to explode, and it is the fascist right that wants war, that wants to bring down President Morales,” he emphasized.
He underlined the dangers of the food crisis for countries in the region and condemned the fact that more than 800 million people are experiencing hunger in the world due to the unjust social and economic model, which is in crisis, because almost double the volume of food needed for the world population is actually produced.
The previous evening, the Bolivarian leader received in Miraflores Palace the Cuban delegation to the Summit, made up of Esteban Lazo, representing the Communist Party of Cuba, and Carlos Lage, representing the government, both of whom are members of the Political Bureau and vice presidents of the Council of State, as well as the Cuban ambassador to Caracas, Germán Sánchez.
“The challenges are great but our capacity to win is greater,” emphasized Lage, who reaffirmed the integrationist strategy devised to confront problems in a united way.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also attended the Summit.
ALBA is responding to the present food crisis with an accord on sovereignty and food. The accord, signed by Presidents Evo Morales (Bolivia), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), Hugo Chávez and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, at the ongoing extraordinary ALBA Summit in Caracas, covers programs for agribusiness, particularly grains (rice and corn), beans, oil seeds, meat, milk, water and other food at risk.
It also calls to set up a $100 million network of ALBA food markets to implement plans and programs.
President Ortega termed food crucial “for the future of our peoples, especially the impoverished,” and reaffirmed the decision of ALBA members to address the issue, including at regional levels. He said there will be meetings of agriculture ministers in Managua.
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