On "Corporations and Democracy" radio this week, Annie Esposito and Steve Scalmanini will discuss "Funding of Mendocino County’s Employee Pensions: Crisis or Just Another Manageable Problem," with guests John Dickerson of Your Public Money and former State Assemblymember Michael Allen. The show airs live on Tuesday, February 13 at 1 p.m. Pacific on KZYX & Z, 90.7, 91.5, and 88.3 FM in Mendocino County CA. You can also stream the show live at www.kzyx.org, or listen to the archived broadcast after the show airs here.
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![]() Alliance co-chair Nancy Price joined activists from across the world to call for an end to the US's foreign military presence at the inaugural conference of the Coalition against US Foreign Military Bases, held January 12 through 14 in Baltimore. The conference brought together peace, health, community and environmental activists from around the country, as well as from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, Cuba, Congo, South Korea, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Germany. The Alliance was a conference endorser, and Nancy organized the “Environment and Health” plenary specifically to highlight health impacts on military and civilian base personnel and surrounding communities, not just from the better-known threats of nuclear weapons, Agent Orange, depleted uranium and chemical/ biological agents, but from the “alphabet soup” of air, land and water pollution from all military base activities. Plenary speaker Patricia Hynes makes clear in The Polluter Is Not Paying that it’s almost impossible to hold the U.S. military and government responsible and accountable in the US or anywhere else. Marie Cruz on the Navy Base in Vieques, Puerto Rico and Susan Schnall on Vietnam documented the many decades it took to negotiate some clean-up and compensation, noting that as extreme weather pummels U.S. installations, contamination and buried munitions are uncovered and spread. The United States has as many as 1,000 military bases and tens of thousands of troops in more than 170 foreign countries, especially Germany, Japan and South Korea, as well as thirty-four Naval air carriers either operational or planned, each composed of roughly 7,500 personnel and 65 to 70 aircraft—literally floating military bases. We pay more for “defense” at an annual cost of approximately $156 billion—money that could be used to support basic human needs (for instance, heat for the Baltimore public schools, where students endured classroom temperatures in the 30s at the start of January, while parents scrambled to fundraise for space heaters and childrens' coats). The environmental costs include radioactive and chemical contamination of water, destruction of fisheries and farmland, and disruption of climate through massive output of greenhouse gasses. The social costs overseas include disruption of local communities and higher crime rates, including prostitution, rape and sexual abuse. Human rights abuse include using bases for extra-judicial imprisonment and torture. Ultimately, our overseas bases are not bulwarks of national security, but intended to guarantee multinationals access to markets, resources and cheap labor. As the conference unity statement says, “We must all unite to actively oppose the existence of U.S. foreign military bases and call for their immediate closure. We invite all forces of peace, social and environmental justice to join us in our renewed effort to achieve this shared goal.” You can learn more about the conference and watch videos of the conference sessions at http://noforeignbases.org/ or see shorter highlights here. The conference program book is online here, with biographies of the speakers. On February 2, six Democratic US Senators wrote President Trump calling for "fundamentally rewriting NAFTA to eliminate its incentives to outsource American jobs, and to level the playing field by adding strong labor and environmental provisions...." Contact Senators Sanders (VT), Merkley (OR), Gillibrand (NY), Hirono (HA) Markey (MA) and Warren (MA) and thank them for writing this letter in support of the peoples' trade agenda. You can also print a copy of the Senators' letter and mail it to your own US Senators, expressing your support for it and your desire that they sign a copy and mail it to the President as well. Letter here. If you're a Maine resident, please take this opportunity to speak out to protect both water resources and the integrity of your state government.
Maine Governor Paul LePage is in the process of appointing Mark Dubois, an executive with Nestlé/Poland Spring, to the state's Board of Environmental Protection. We join with Maine water protectors in opposing this appointment, which represents a clear conflict of interest between water extraction and exploitation, and the long-term interests of people and environment. We are asking our friends and supporters in Maine to write to the members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and say this appointment is unacceptable; it represents a clear conflict of interest and that the people of Maine need assurance that board members will represent the public good and not private profit. The Environment and Natural Resources Committee will hold a confirmation hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, January 24, so please send your comments as soon as possible. The hearing is open to the public, and starts at 10:00am in the Cross Building, Room 216. Committe members' emails are below: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] In addition, please contact your state legislators to oppose the Dubois appointment. You can find your senator and representative at this link. Our friends at Community Water Justice have highlighted instances of Nestle's influence on state agencies and boards, and at the town level, writing "It's no wonder the Center for Public Integrity gave Maine an "F" rating in a recent report, due to the state’s lax laws upholding ethics and accountability. Conflicts of interest such as the Dubois appointment are a huge obstacle to maintaining the integrity of our government in serving the people of Maine." Maine, its people and its water deserve better. Please take action today! Yesterday, Restore the Delta shared an update on last week's story about California Governor Jerry Brown's plans to scale back the Delta Tunnels (aka CA WaterFix) project.
This massive infrastructure project consists of 40-foot diameter tunnels, running 150 feet under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta and transferring water from the Sacramento River south to to users. The estimated cost of the project runs as high as $60 billion, in addition to environmental and agricultural impacts from diverting massive amounts of fresh water from the river/delta ecosystems. Opposition to the project has been broad, including community groups, taxpayers and rate payers, and farming, fishing, and environmental organizations. With the Governor facing both opposition to the project and tight funding, it seemed that the Delta project could be scaled back, from two tunnels to one. But yesterday, Associated Press reporter Ellen Knickmeyer reported that the state is leaving the possibility of a second tunnel open, looking to build one now, and another at a much later date. State water officials are reportedly working on a statement for release, and have not released a new cost estimate for the revised tunnel proposal. Executive Director of Restore the Delta, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said, “The Department of Water Resources is functioning at the direction of Metropolitan Water District to begin contracting for construction on a single tunnel project with two intakes, and then to later phase in an additional tunnel as funding becomes available. “This is a desperate maneuver to keep CA WaterFix alive. This is not the project described in the Environmental Impact Report for CA WaterFix, or in the permit application presented by the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation for the hearings at the State Water Resources Control Board. “Californians have a right to know how long construction would take, what the impacts would be on Delta communities, fish, and wildlife under an even longer construction period, how much water would be delivered and when, and what the costs of a phased in project would be. A cost-benefit analysis still needs to be completed. Any attempt to move forward with the project without new environmental documents and project applications is an attempted end-run around California voters and water users. It is bad planning, and bad politics.” We agree! We have opposed the Delta Tunnels project as an expensive boondoggle designed to transfer water from an ecologically sensitive area to support unsustainable industrial agriculture. In the face of California's changing climate, we need to invest in conserving and capturing water locally--smaller-scale infrastructure projects that can also generate jobs. You can read more about the Alliance's water campaigns here, and connect with state campaigns through the Defending Water portal. ![]() Alliance for Democracy's Co-chair and founder of Portland Public Banking, David Delk, is featured in two articles about the spreading of public banking across the United States. First article: Public Bank Fans Want to Get Portland City Council on BoardFirst up, money for a feasibility study. Second article: Public Bank Movement Gains Ground in Cities and States across the US - N...Cities and states pay billions in interest to fund capital projects. They also face other shortfalls in local fi... Thank you to our members and supporters who responded to yesterday's Giving Tuesday appeal. If you're not on our mailing list, you missed our "ask," but it's never too late to join or contribute. Please take a look at our spring and fall newsletters; they highlight some of the work we've done over the last six months.
With your support, we can do even more. Your contribution or membership dues—whether one-time or as a monthly sustainer—will go right to work advancing our campaigns on corporate globalization and trade, water, local food, voting rights and election protection and public banking. You’ll be helping us focus public attention on NAFTA renegotiation and the need to #ReleaseTheText... to get copies of our People’s Vote Must Count issue of Justice Rising out to voting rights groups... to spread the word about the new Grassroots Institute and its work on educating for an end to corporate rule. Join us as we replace corporate rule with true democracy and a sustainable and equitable economy. Drop in on the 17th to your Representative's district office, or take action any time during the Congressional Thanksgiving Recess
On Friday, November 17, your Representative returns for the Thanksgiving Congressional Recess. We are asking you to invite friends, maybe from groups you work with, to join you in a visit to your Rep's District Office that day to talk about NAFTA renegotiation. If November 17 is not convenient for you, the recess runs through November 27. This mobilization coincides with the first day of the next round of NAFTA negotiations taking place in Mexico City, and in solidarity with the “Inter-Continental Days of Action on NAFTA.” Alliance for Democracy asks you to please deliver these two items to your Representative… ● This letter with Citizen’s Trade Campaign’s NAFTA demands. Please edit the template letter to add your Congress member’s name and Washington office address, and your contact information. ● A factsheet about NAFTA’s impacts on your state. Click here for “50 Reasons Why We Need to Replace NAFTA.” On the map, click on your state and then click on the statement or statements that pop up for a link to a detailed factsheet. These well-researched handouts give you the information to talk effectively about local and state impacts that must not be repeated in NAFTA-2. ● Here’s a general NAFTA factsheet to keep your Representative well informed. We are at a crossroads. NAFTA renegotiation is moving rapidly. The outcome could still go in multiple directions. We must push Congress members to support OUR DEMANDS for a NAFTA replacement, while we can make a difference. If our demands are not met, we will work to defeat a TPP-style NAFTA-2 that is worse than NAFTA-1. We want: √ ISDS secret trade courts eliminated √ Enforceable labor and environmental standards: TPP must not be the basis for NAFTA-2 √ Release draft chapter texts now. Corporate lobbyists are demanding the renegotiation deliver a TPP-style NAFTA 2.0 that would be worse for people not just in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but across the planet. Meanwhile, there are proposals on ISDS (the secret trade courts), labor rights, environmental protections, Buy Local/Buy American, and possible sunset or 5-year review of NAFTA. Some proposals have been tabled by negotiators from one or another of the NAFTA countries. The prospect of a US NAFTA withdrawal by Trump hangs over the negotiations. Mexico’s President wants negotiations completed by March 2018 to avoid NAFTA being a contentious topic in the country's presidential election, which takes place in July. Remember, we defeated the TPP by delaying negotiations into the 2016 election year. Here are excellent summaries of where negotiations stand to date: “NAFTA Talks: What’s the Deal?” and “NAFTA Talks Falter: Time to Increase Pressure,” and a Citizen Trade Campaign’s Letter to President Trump Detailing Civil Society NAFTA Demands. It's possible that you might be able to make an appointment with your member of Congress or with an aide, but if not don't be deterred from a quick visit on the 17th. Show up, be friendly, introduce yourself and ask if you can speak to your Representative or to the District Director. Bring the letter and relevant fact sheets, stress your demands for an end to ISDS, enforceable and strong labor and environmental standards, and a release of the text. Here are some more office visit tips. Don't forget to take pictures—share them online if you're a social media user, and email them to us at afd *at* thealliancefordemocracy *dot* org, and to photos *at* citizenstrade *dot* org. Then let the Citizens Trade Campaign know how the meeting went by filling out this online form. Groups working nationally and in district on trade justice will use the information you report to plan next steps in the campaign. Thank you for taking action! Nancy Price and David Delk, Co-Chairs ![]() Tuesday's edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio was a great, heartening talk with Gar Alperovitz, author, activist, historian and political economist, and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Take an hour to hear about how a new economic system, neither centrally-planned state socialism nor investor-oriented capitalism, is quietly emerging across the US and the world. Coops, worker-owned businesses, public banks, B corporations, and new applications of renewable energy technology are all steps forward to reorienting economic activity toward the good of people and planet. You can listen to or download the show from the "Recent Shows" page on this site, or hear previous shows on the Archives page. For more information about the Democracy Collaborative's Next System Project, click here. It looks like the 11 remaining TPP countries may be trying to revive the deal, more or less. But if it remains a "dockable" agreement, in that other countries can sign in after the original nations ratify it, it may not be the kind of agreement that US-based corporations want.
For instance, New Zealand's new Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, is already claiming the deal is "a damned sight better." She's an opponent of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a mechanism that allows foreign corporations to sue a nation in order to overturn domestic laws or regulatory decisions that infringe on the corporation's "right" to profit. ISDS was one of the aspects of the TPP that both left and right in the US and elsewhere rightfully objected to. While Arden may not be able to keep ISDS out of the CPTPP, she has said she will push for recognized side agreements between countries that will say that there will be no ISDS cases brought against either nation. Electronic Frontier Foundation has also taken a look at what a new-ish TPP might mean for intellectual property, if the US is in or out of a final agreement. What the US negotiators wanted was far more extreme than what other countries called for, so it's not a surprise that that chapter is now on hold. EFF rightfully notes, however, that there is still much to object to in the chapters that remain, and that any negotiations from here on need to be conducted with much more transparency than the ones for the original TPP. Meanwhile Vox offered this extremely shallow look at what's happening. Granted, Vox is an opinion site and not a news site, but jeez louise, guys! There is a much better story that needs to be covered, instead of this "Twilight of the Meritocracy/I Should Have Gone to B-School in Berlin" twaddle, and it's this: What kind of trade does the rest of the world think it needs? What kind of trade is fairer and are these countries turning to their people more and to multinationals less in an attempt to deliver? What kind of trade policy is more in line with the continued economic and social health of developed democracies--a type of nation that the US just isn't, despite having so many noisy gazillionaires. With US mainstream media both partisan and unable to see past pro-corporate business as usual, we'll have to count even more on international and alternative media to follow what's going on, and to figure out what this all might mean for our own trade justice work. |
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