Thanks for the input! I found some of these books at the IU library! And I
own a copy of the Gaard book.
Peace,
Mary
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Oct 1 17:15:09 1998
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 07:17:42 +0800
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: bunny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Alert! United Nations sold out to MAI and the TNCs?
Alert! United Nations sold out to MAI and the TNCs?
Since taking office, Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan has repeatedly made himself an
outspoken partisan of "free" trade and neo-liberalism. His meeting with the
International Chamber of Commerce in February is described by Helmut Maucher
of Nestl� (President of ICC) as "a turning point in the attitude of the
United Nations with regard to international business". In May, the United
Nations was "occupied" by the WTO summit (although WTO is not part of the
United Nations system). Now Kofi Annan (people are calling him "Nes"Kofi)
has lent his prestige to the ICC conference, "Geneva Business Dialogue"
(Sept. 23-24), just as MAI talks are due to start again! Despite the
resistance of the Subcommission on Human Rights, the United Nations is being
co-opted into the neo-liberal, totalitarian "consensus". To protest against
this development, the Geneva Co-ordination against MAI organised
demonstrations in front of the United Nations and in front of the "Geneva
Business Dialogue" on the 23rd and 24th of September.
With People�s Global Action, they also planned to send world-wide the appeal
below. However, they had underestimated the fear and the authoritarian
reactions that our international mobilisations against WTO and MAI have
already generated in the world�s ruling class.
Two days after the press conference announcing our actions against the CCI
conference, a seminar on globalisation being held in Geneva was raided. All
the people present were arrested and questioned and several foreigners
expelled without justification. The police openly admitted that their action
was "preventive" with respect to the CCI conference! Then on Tuesday Sept.
8, just before the international appeal was to be sent out, several dozen
police raided three homes and the Geneva press office of PGA, interrogated
six persons and seized eight computers, more than a hundred diskettes and
practically all documents concerning PGA. Three weeks later, most of this
material has not been returned. The police pretended (without the slightest
justification) that they were looking for evidence of links between PGA and
the authors of "violence" in during the protestations against WTO in May,
but the objective was obviously to intimidate and criminalise the opposition
to MAI in Geneva and sabotage our appeal. The police also thus seized
hundreds of names of PGA contacts and sympathisers world over. This is
particularly serious in view of the fact that we already have proof that the
people whose identity was controlled in May are now in the federal police
computer as "participating in violent demonstrations against WTO". How much
further will those names go?
The declarations of Helmut Maucher and others during the "Geneva Business
Dialogue" left little doubt about who had inspired this unprecedented - for
Geneva - repression of democratic rights. The final declaration of the
conference included frightening recommendations concerning the role of
States according to the corporate "Big Brother":
Markets need "strong and efficient (i.e. lean) government." Among the four
functions of the State outlined by the declaration is the control of
"activist pressure groups", whose "proliferation" "risks weakening the
effectiveness of public rules, legitimate institutions and democratic
processes." The declaration even has the nerve to accuse activist groups of
lacking "internal democracy, transparency and accountability" (The pot
calling the kettle black!) It goes on to say that "They should assume full
responsibility for the consequences of their activities. Where this does not
take place, rules establishing their rights and responsibilities should be
considered." The menace to popular rights is thinly veiled, and is totally
coherent with the responsibility of States with respect to "civil
disturbances" foreseen by the MAI. That it should be expressed and acted
upon so crudely at the first sign of opposition is really quite frightening.
Our "Internet guerrilla", as the Financial Times calls it, is already taken
deadly seriously. In many countries the reaction may rapidly be literally
lethal. Activists, be prudent!
According to journalists present, most of the conference was devoted to
"backlash" against globalisation and rather anxious discussion of the Asian
and increasingly global crisis. (The Geneva Business Declaration begins by
saying "We must not lose our nerve...") Suddenly, TNC spokesmen have started
distinguishing between "responsible" and "irresponsible" globalisation.
However, they still call to press ahead with yet more deregulation, many of
them preferring to temporarily abandon MAI, rather than to accept any kind
of social or environmental clause. They try to appear concerned by the
social effects of the world crisis, but are incapable of even imagining what
it means to the people. Thus Ruggiero of WTO sympathises with all those
whose "assets" have lost value, but forgets to talk of those who are going
hungry! As Marie-Antoinette said in 1789, "If they have no bread, let them
eat cake!" (...and buy bonds next time.)
Despite the intimidation, the protest campaign continues well. A benefit
concert and a film projection were very successful. More than 80 Swiss
organisations participate in our co-ordination, which aims to collect 50 000
signatures against MAI. About 700 people occupied the square in front of the
UN from 18H to 23 H on the 23rd. Speakers included the general secretary of
the Federation of International Civil Servants Associations; the secretary
of the UPS, the small farmers union; the head of the Swiss civil servants
union; and representatives of NGOs active at the UN, WWF-Switzerland, and
the Observatoire de la Mondialisation of Paris. Musicians and artists
offered their talents, the farmers brought food, a non-Hollywood film was
projected. The very varied sectors of society opposed to MAI and
globalisation met and were glad to be together. At midday on the 24th,
activists were waiting when Maucher and his complices emerged from their
conference. We looked them straight in the eye, yelling "To those who wish
to dominate the world, the world replies: RESISTANCE!" Maucher was furious.
To protest against MAI and the CCI�s takeover bid on the UN, we ask you to
sign the statement below. We are confident that the reason for its getting
out late will motivate many more people to sign it and send it around the world!
Olivier de Marcellus,
for the Coordination Genevoise contre l�A.M.I.
***********************************************
United Nations selling out to TNCs
For human rights, against the MAI!
On the eve of new negotiations concerning the Multilateral Accord on
Investment (MAI), the International Chamber of Commerce, is organising a
conference ("The Geneva Business Dialogue", 23-25 September) well timed to
enlist the principal international organisations, and particularly the UN,
in their campaign for MAI and neoliberal trade policies in general. (As the
lobby organisation of the 200 most powerful transnational corporations
(TNCs), ICC boasts that it inspired some of the most extremist provisions of
MAI, among others the possibility for TNCs themselves to attack national
States and legislations in the court of their choice... such as the ICC's
"tribunal"!)
Amazingly, the ICC is publicising its conference as the result of an
"agreement" with U.N. Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan, quoting his approval of this
"timely... means of consultation between the United Nations and the business
community". Since taking office, Kofi Annan has repeatedly expressed
personal and unilateral opinions on the supposed benefits of "free" trade,
privatisation and neo-liberal economic policies for the developing
countries. By what kind of rhetoric can Mr. Annan reconcile these positions
with the United Nations Charter on economic rights and duties (1974), which
proclaims "Each nation has the inalienable right to regulate foreign
investment and to exercise its control on investment", precisely the right
that MAI would alienate for a period of at least 20 years?
In sharp contrast, the experts of the U.N. Subcommission on Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities have for the second time just
called upon all member States of the United Nations to develop mechanisms to
defend economic, cultural and social rights, violated in total impunity by
the current trend of globalisation, characterised by ever-increasing
inequality, the weakening of popular sovereignty and the increasing
concentration of power by giant TNCs. In August 1998, the UN Subcommission
unanimously adopted a resolution calling for close scrutiny of MAI, "which
might limit the capacity of States to take proactive steps to ensure the
enjoyment of economic, cultural and social rights by all people, creating
benefits for a small, privileged minority at the expense of an increasingly
disenfranchised majority."
The undersigned persons and organisations hereby express their opposition to
MAI and to the "buyout" of the United Nations by TNCs.
Convenors committee of People's Global Action
Coordination Genevoise contre l'A.M.I.
Return to: AMP c/o IAS, 5 Rue Samuel Constant, Ge 1201 - Tel/Fax 4122 3444731
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
===========================================================================
/`\ /`\ RABBIT INFORMATION SERVICE: _ _
(/\ \-/ /\) P.O.Box 30, Riverton, Western Australia 6148 (.\_/.)
)6 6( http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm \6 6/
>{= Y =}< VEGETARIAN PAGE =\ /=
/'-^-'\ http://www.geocities/RainForest/4620 /O\ /
(_) (_) / \ (
| . | U U )
| |} Pity the human race its illusion of permanence (| |)/
\_/^\_/ w'-'w
===========================================================================
