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From: [log in to unmask] (MDOLAN)
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To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of list)
Date: 97-04-27 20:50:01 EDT
April 1997
Dear Friend:
We are writing to ask for a small amount of your time to help shed more
light on the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI).
The MAI is is a dangerous new global investment treaty now under
negotiation which is described in the enclosed materials. This has been a
stealth negotiation that has gotten well down the road without public
awareness -- including, until recently, the awareness of your snooping
friends at Public Citizen. We know, we know -- just a couple weeks ago we
wrote to you about NAFTA expansion and the Accountability Act and what you
can do to influence the imminent congressional debate on "fast track".
Please understand that the MAI and the "Campaign of Inquiry" (which we have
designed to quickly raise public awareness about it) are as urgent as
putting the kibosh on Clinton's hemispheric NAFTA expansion plans. In the
short-term, this will take much less time.
Last month, we teamed up with the Preamble Center for Public Policy, a
new, independent research and public education organization based here in
D.C. Our collaboration is designed to find out more about the MAI and the
forum in which it is being negotiated, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), and to alert the public, as well as
policy-makers, about what we have found to be an extreme proposal.
Ultimately, with your help too, we hope to direct enough public and
political scrutiny onto this corporate bill of rights to slow down the
high-speed, secretive OECD negotiations and fire up a debate about the MAI
that includes the many potentially affected communities and constituencies.
Simply put, the MAI will eliminate all remaining mechanisms and powers
federal, state and local governments have to regulate investment, including
foreign investment. It will also effectively forbid laws or local
ordinances which give any favor to local ownership over absentee ownership.
As the enclosed materials explain more fully, the implications are enormous
for a broad range of progressive corporate regulations and community
investment policies. Moreover, the MAI represents a quantum expansion of
corporate power beyond the damage done by NAFTA and GATT; this treaty will
allow corporations to sue countries directly if a corporation thinks the
country isn't giving them all the promised goodies under the treaty. This
startling provision is called "investor to state dispute resolution".
Finally, the whole negotiation process is being conducted in incredible
secrecy. The banks, big corporations and the OECD rich-country club would
prefer to conduct and conclude this outrageous treaty without public
scrutiny or political accountability. Their mania for secrecy is our best
strategic clue -- time for the Dracula strategy because this is one evil
pact that will not survive sunshine.
Thus our challenge is to expose the on-going MAI negotiations to as much
public sunshine and scrutiny as we can collectively help focus. The
premise of the Campaign of Inquiry is that neither our Representatives in
Washington nor the media nor our state officials have any idea of the
trouble in store for them with the MAI. Starting this week, we will begin
to educate ourselves as well as the "grass-tops" opinion leaders by simply
asking the right questions to the right people. To find out more about the
MAI and our Campaign of Inquiry, check out the new section on our web page.
Working together, we can create a lot of resonance around this issue, if
not a movement against this unbelievable corporate power grab.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact
either the Global Trade Watch team here at Public Citizen or our colleagues
at the Preamble Center (202-265-3263). This may be the first you've heard
of the MAI, but it won't be the last.
Sincerely,
Lori Wallach Michael Dolan
Director Field Director
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/s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
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WE EDUCATE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO ORGANIZE THEM.
WE DON'T ORGANIZE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO EDUCATE THEM.
Fred Ross, Sr.
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