chriscd@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu; Mon, 09 Feb 1998 17:56:51 -0400 (EDT)
09 Feb 1998 17:56:39 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 17:55:00 -0500
From: Barbara Larcom <larcom@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us>
Subject: [Fwd: Request to call Senators toll-free @ MAI tomorrow!]
To: Bill Harvey <bharvey@smart.net>,
Campaign for Labor Rights <clr@igc.apc.org>,
Chris Chase-Dunn <chriscd@jhu.edu>, Chuck Johnson <Johnsonc@wou.edu>,
Howard Ehrlich <HJEhrlich@aol.com>, Jon Kerr <editor@oldmanriver.com>,
Mark Bevis <mbevis@pacifica.org>, Mike Bardoff <abolition@juno.com>,
Nan McCurdy <Nan@nicarao.org.ni>, Peter Grimes <p34d3611@jhu.edu>,
Richard Ochs <rochs@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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(207-172-129-72.s9.as6.col.erols.com [207.172.129.72])
9 Feb 1998 16:35:41 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 16:31:00 -0500
From: lynn yellott <lyellott@erols.com>
Subject: Request to call Senators toll-free @ MAI tomorrow!
To: LIZVH@annap.infi.net, dsnyder@goucher.edu, 110274.1012@compuserve.com,
dschott@igc.apc.org, schneide@umbc.edu, iholas@mail.gwumc.edu,
acmills@igc.org, larcom@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us, AB91@CATMUS.CAT.CC.MD.US,
Reply-to: lyellott@erols.com
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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Greetings!
Please call our Senators tomorrow, 2/10. Details and toll-free number
are in attached message.
Thanks for your help!
Lynn
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9 Feb 1998 10:45:57 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 10:45:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Mike Dolan <mdolan@citizen.org>
Subject: FWD: Reuters MAI story
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REMINDER!!!!
TOMORROW, TUESDAY 2/10, IS *ALL-CALL DAY* TO THE SENATE!!! ASK FOR THE
STAFF MEMBER WHO WORKS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE ISSUES AND SEND A CLEAR
MESSAGE: THE U.S. IS RUSHING INTO A DANGEROUS NEW INVESTMENT TREATY. WE
DEMAND THAT THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION WITHDRAW FROM THE NEGOTIATIONS!
EDUCATE THE SENATE!
1-800-522-6721 ---> TOLL FREE TO THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD
*****************
Meanwhile, in case you missed this
[Posted at 7:46 p.m. PST Friday, February 6, 1998]
Groups to protest
international investment
treaty
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Environmental and consumer
groups, worried that an international investment treaty under
negotiation will undermine national laws and give too
much power to investors, Friday announced a week of protests.
``This is a dagger in the heart of democracy and
should be resisted,'' Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends
of the Earth, told reporters.
His environmental group and others, together with
consumer advocate Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, plan a series
of protests next week to draw public attention to the agreement
being negotiated by the 29 members of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
They argue that the OECD's Multilateral Agreement on
Investment gives investors too much power and
protection for their investments at the expense of taxpayers while
curbing governments' ability to regulate investments and
protect the environment.
Of particular concern, said Lori Wallach, director of
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, is an expropriation and
compensation provision that could allow investors to
sue governments when new regulations or laws affected
their ability to profit from an investment.
``It would allow any company to hold a government
hostage for any action taken in the public interest,'' Wallach
said. The group has posted the latest draft of the MAI and an
analysis on its Internet site, www.citizen.org.
As part of the protest, the groups plan to mail
handcuffs to all 535 members of the House of Representatives and Senate
and selected White House staff members to symbolize their
concern, Friends of the Earth spokeswoman Lisa Baumgartner
said.
They are also planning a national call-in day Tuesday
during which people will be encouraged to call their
congressional representatives to protest against the treaty, which
would have to be approved by the Senate.
A politically activist telephone service company,
Working Assets, said that with its January and February billings, it
was urging its 280,000 customers to call Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright to protest against the treaty. The calls are free,
and the San Francisco company said it expected the State
Department to get some 30,000 calls and letters by the end of February.
The actions are designed to draw attention to the
treaty before a Feb. 16-17 meeting of the OECD at which the grouping
of wealthy nations will decide whether the treaty can be
concluded by an April deadline or whether negotiations should
be allowed to continue.
A source close to the talks said negotiators were
aware of the concerns of citizens' groups and were trying to
respond to some of them in their bargaining. He said participants
agreed that the expropriation and compensation provision needed some
rewording to prevent lawsuits against regulatory actions by
governments.
``We want to make sure the MAI will not give rise to
a lot of cases of that nature,'' the source, who asked not to
be identified, said.
The OECD argues that a comprehensive agreement on
international investment would give impetus to new
investment for economic growth and employment. The organization said
it was also posting progress on the negotiations on its
Internet site, www.oecd.org.
===== Comments by MDOLAN@CITIZEN (Mike Dolan) at 2/09/98 10:03 am
THIS IS PART AND PARCEL OF THE INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST THE MAI
-- 2/9 THROUGH 2/13.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AROUND THE WORLD ARE MOBILIZED TO PROTEST THE
ADVANCED STATE OF NEGOTIATIONS OF THIS DANGEROUS STEALTH TREATY. PLEASE BE
A PART OF THIS MOVEMENT.
Thank you. The same citizens' networks in this country that defeated fast
track last fall are poised to stop the MAI. Tell everybody.
Mike Dolan
****************************************************************************
/s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
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