AfD backs removal of investor protections from FTAs

Alliance for Democracy has signed on to a letter addressed to President Obama calling for the removal of investor protection provisions from the Central American Free Trade Agreement and other FTAs. CISPES, the group organizing support for the letter, hopes to present the letter to Obama during his El Salvador trip next week, and to publish the letter in newspapers in Salvadoran papers.

Investor protection clauses give corporations the right to sue before secret trade tribunals if they feel that a nation's laws or regulations impede their ability to make a profit. David Delk, AfD co-chair, explains more here.

Presentation of the letter also coincides with the next phase of an arbitration hearing between Pacific Rim Mining Company, a Canadian firm, and El Salvador--Pacific Rim is claiming millions of dollars in damages after widespread opposition to a proposed gold mine led them to drop plans for permitting and end exploratory drilling.

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Action Alert: Get investor rights clauses out of US trade pacts

We urge you to ask President Obama to stand by his campaign pledge to remove investor rights clauses from U.S. trade pacts--negotiations for a new one, the Transpacific Partnership, will get underway in San Francisco later this month. Please visit Public Citizen's site for background and to sign on to the call.

Background:
In 2008, the government of El Salvador lawfully denied mining permits to Pacific Rim Mining Company for a massive gold mine in a rural watershed area 40 miles south of San Salvador. To process the expected haul of gold and silver, mining operations would have used an estimated 22 million liters of water and 950 tons of cyanide, and the threat to water resources, agriculture and health spurred resistance to the plan across the nation. Even Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has said, "It's very simple: my government will not authorize any extractive mining project."

But now Pacific Rim has gone to the World Bank, and in a closed-door hearing that started last week, the corporation will claim some $77 million in damages against El Salvador based on the controversial CAFTA investor rights rules. Under these rules, a private company can sue governments based on loss of future expected profits. It's the first time the investor rights clause has been used in an environmental protection case, but it won't be the last as multinational extractive industries go after a growing movement in the Global South for environmental justice, sustainability and rights of nature.

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Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country!

The business of America is business, and that includes overturning democratically elected governments, assassination, and military invasion at a level unmatched in history, all in the name of cake for the elite and crumbs for the rest of us.

Video by William Blum and Charles Mauch, animated by Neema Sky, and based on Rogue State and Killing Hope, both by William Blum.

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No Bretton Woods II without me and you

Alliance for Democracy has joined organizations worldwide in calling for a restructuring of a proposed November summit on the global financial crisis to be more inclusive, comprehensive, and transparent.

The proposed Global Summit, which will start November 15 in Washington, was organized by the Bush administration and currently includes only G20 countries, leaders of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and the Financial Stability Forum. The November meeting is the first in a proposed series.

Critics of the summit say that these "Bretton Woods II" talks need to be opened up to all who want to participate, including the global South, and NGOs, especially if the goal is to change monetary, development and international finance policies.

"We are deeply concerned that the proposed meetings will be carried out in a rushed and non-inclusive manner, and as a result, not address the comprehensive range of changes needed, nor fairly allocate their burden," says the statement. "Though the crisis originated in northern countries, the impacts are likely to be greatest in developing countries. It is therefore critical that all countries have a say in the process to change the international financial architecture."

Rather than the G20 summit, signatories call for a major international conference convened by the UN, but only if the meeting is open to all governments, and includes representatives from civil and citizen's groups, social movements and other stakeholders. Signatories also call for a clear timeline and process for regional consultations. The conference should be "comprehensive in scope, tackling the full array of issues and institutions," and its proposals should be publicly available for discussion in advance of the meeting.

For more information, see www.choike.org.

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