Trade

During the week of July 11-15, 2011, members of La Via Campesina will participate in the United Nations Committee on World Food Security negotiations on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests that are taking place at the FAO headquarters in Rome. La Via Campesina is part of the broader Civil Society Mechanism which has recently been included as participants in the Committee on World Food Security along with FAO member states, international institutions as well as the private sector. These are the final negotiations of the guidelines which are expected to be adopted by the CFS in October. The guidelines cover issues of land tenure, reform and redistribution, as well as markets and investment which all have serious impacts for peasants, small farmers, rural and indigenous peoples worldwide.

CUPE-Quebec and Eau Secours! produced a report and recommendations on the implications of the Canadian - European Union Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations on water.

The report explains and speaks against the inclusion of public services markets, including municipal water services in the negotiations. Lobbying from large European corporations, including large water services companies, seems to have played a role in putting these public services on the agenda for the CETA talks that are slated to come to a close by the end of the year. We must not let this pass.

This report also refers to a 2010 Council of Canadians and CUPE report on how CETA opens up our water services to privatization to the detriment of the citizens. You can read it here.

Polaris Institute's Executitve Director Tony Clarke has been in South Korea this week to protest the latest G20 summit.

Follow this link to watch a Euronews interview with Tony Clarke at the mass mobilization that took place today in Seoul: Tony Clarke Interview

For Immediate Release

Polaris Institute Director Tony Clarke in Seoul for G20 Summit

November 9, 2010 – This week, Polaris Institute Director Tony Clarke will be in South Korea as part of the global resistance to the latest G20 summit in Seoul. Clarke will be in South Korea to participate in alternative actions to the G20 along with a growing network of organizations, activists and social movements who are organizing to confront the illegitimate and undemocratic summit process.

While the G20 meetings do not begin until November 11th, The Peoples’ Week of Action in Seoul is bringing together people to discuss another way for the world to move forward that is apart from the dominant neoliberal model that has caused so much inequality and injustice. This alternative forum will be hosting workshops and roundtables on subjects dealing with alternatives to the global economy, agriculture and trade, gender justice and the climate crisis.

This week, The Polaris Institute will be participating in the People's Week of Collective Actions to confront the G20 Summit in Seoul.

This call to action is from the the 'Our World is Not for Sale' (OWINFS) network. The Polaris Institute is an active participant in this worldwide grouping of organizations, activists and social movements fighting the current model of corporate globalization embodied in global trading system. Click here to see OWINFS' program of activities for the G20 summit in Seoul.

A CALL TO SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS AROUND THE WORLD
to PROTEST the G20 Summit in Seoul

20 COUNTRIES ALONE CANNOT DEFINE THE DESTINY OF THE ENTIRE WORLD
For System Change and an End to Business as usual, Let's build another world!

Gerard Aziakou, June 24, 2009, Agence France Presse - The UN General Assembly kicks off a three-day high-level conference Wednesday to weigh measures to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries weather the global financial and economic crisis.

Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, the organizer, said the event aimed to "identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations.

The conference will also "initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all member states."

Developing countries, which make up the vast majority of the 192-member assembly, argue that they are paying the price for a crisis that was created by the developed world.

Linda Diebel, Toronto Star, May 01, 2009 – Sewage-filled lagoons at a pig farm in eastern Mexico – a product of the North American free trade deal – are suspected of creating ground zero conditions for swine flu in this country.

Environmentalists argue lax regulations in the factory farming that boomed in Mexico right after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and the U.S. are making people sick – and not just with swine flu.

"You might call this the `NAFTA flu,'" said Rick Arnold, co-ordinator of Common Frontiers, a Canadian coalition focusing on Latin America and issues of economic integration.

He argues multinationals are getting away with dire conditions not allowed north of the border.

Environmental groups three years ago began protesting against operations at the Carroll Farms in Veracruz, jointly operated by U.S. pork giant Smithfield Farms.

John W. Miller/The Wall Street Journal - At about half speed, fuel consumption drops to 100-150 tons of fuel a day from 350 tons, saving as much as $5,000 an hour. "The strategy now is to slow steam as much as possible," said Christian Hagart, the Eugen's chief officer.

That strategy is a key element in plans by AP Moeller-Maersk AS to cut $1 billion in costs this year, scaling back on everything from fuel to paper napkins. Analysts say the cuts should keep the whole company out of the red in 2009, since Maersk's container unit is expected to lose between $1 billion and $2 billion.

Toronto, ON - On March 26, 2009, the Government of Canada introduced legislation (Bill C23) in the House of Commons that could lead in short order to the implementation of a Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. This move calls into question why this government would be providing legitimacy to what the UN has called the worst humanitarian disaster in the Western hemisphere.

There are now some 4 million displaced people in Colombia mainly due to paramilitary violence. Extra judicial killings by the country’s military have been on the rise in the 2007-2008 time period, with the latest “false positives” scandal implicating members of the armed forces in killing civilians and then dressing them up as guerillas in order to receive a reward.

Click here to write a letter to your MP http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/Single_Page_Docs/SinglePage_1col_docs/Apr0...

Published in SUNS #6676 dated 7 April 2009

Bonn, 5 Apr (Martin Khor*) -- The G20 Summit in London last Thursday was
projected by the organisers and the Western leaders as having agreed to a
US$1.1 trillion package of measures to boost the sagging world economy, and
especially to help developing countries.

The trillion dollar figure was what caught the headlines. But as serious
analysis shows, this figure purporting to be new money was more hype than
reality. Some of it had already been decided long before the Summit, and
some of it reflected only an intention rather than concrete pledges.

As an incisive Financial Times article by Chris Giles commented caustically:
"Figures at the end of any international summit need to be examined closely,
particularly those presented by the UK prime minister. His reputation for
numerical inflation, repeat announcements and double-counting precedes him.