March and Rally against Columbia and Korea FTAs
DOWN with all Free Trade Deals!Now showing, "Free Trade = Injustice", a film and forum on the Struggle to Oppose the Columbia and Korea-US FTAs
WHEN:
SATURDAY, Feb 3 at 6 PMWHERE: The Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Rd. NW (Green to Columbia Heights. Exit near intersection of Irving St NW and 14th St Nw and go south on 14th St towards Columbia Rd.)
WHAT: Film screening of "Down Down FTA!" (about the anti-KorUS FTA struggle in Seattle) and teach-in on the US' Free Trade agenda with South Korea and Columbia. What will their impact be on the people of all three countries? What are the status' of the negotiations? What are we doing to resist?
With speakers from Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism and Polo Democratico Alternativo (progressive political party of Columbia.)
Technorati Tags: Korea, Columbia, March, Rally and FTA.
World Bank OK With Blood For Oil
Below is an article by Daphne Wysham on the relationship between Chad's newfound oil wealth and the unfolding tragedy in Sudan January 05, 2007
Daphne Wysham is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network.
It has been a year since the horror of the bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur regionwith over 200,000 dead in three yearsbegan leaking across the border into Chad. It has also been a year since a simmering conflict boiled over into a full-scale confrontation between World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and Chadian President Idriss Deby. Are the two connected? In a word, yes. Here’s how.
In 2004, oil began to flow through the World Bank-financed Chad-Cameroon pipeline. The $3.7 billion project is the second largest private investment project in sub-Saharan Africa; oil discovered in Chad’s Doba region in the 1960s would not have finally reached the marketplace but for World Bank finance. The reason: Chad is a war-torn country, the fifth poorest in the world and among the world’s most corrupt. World Bank support meant guarantees of risk insurance for the oil companies involvedExxon, Chevron and Petronas in the event of a civil war or other disruptions to the oil supply.
The historic agreement between Chad and the World Bankannounced with much fanfare and in defiance of civil society’s warningshad explicitly stated that 80 percent of all revenue from the sale of the oil would be directed at poverty alleviation, health care, education and a "future generations" fund.
Although publicly, the Bank declared the project to be proceeding as planned, a U.S. government interagency review conducted in the first six months of the project indicated that 60 percent of the $25 million signing bonus awarded to the government of Chad had been spent “outside of established budget procedures”in other words, pocketed by government officials or spent on such things as armsand that “Chadian governance was weakening, civil conflict and risk of famine were increasing and parliamentary elections appear to have been postponed.”
What started as a trickle of funds being spent “outside of established budget procedures” became a deluge six months later: In December 2005, Deby began forced military conscription of young men to resist an incursion from the east, i.e. Sudan. Deby argued that this was a simple matter of self-defense. The truth is slightly murkier than this.
Deby has remained as “president for life” since he first seized power as the leader of his own rebel army in 1990. His enemies abound, and include members of his own family and ethnic tribe, some of whom reside in western Sudan. A variety of rebel factions have been able to establish bases in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, as well as in eastern Chad.
Competition for power between the rebel groups and Deby’s government began to escalate shortly after the oil began to flow in the World Bank-financed pipeline, in part because oil resources were not being shared outside Deby’s political base. A coup attempt in April 2006 launched in Chad’s capital city of N'Djamena was foiled largely thanks to French troops surrounding the presidential palace.
Millions of dollars intended for development were clearly going astray, and when Deby began blatantly violating the World Bank agreement in December by spending revenue on forced conscription and arms, Wolfowitz had to take action. So, in January 2006, the World Bank suspended its $333 million loan to Chad.
Chad’s oil minister, Hassan Nasser, responded in kind: He threatened to stop the 170,000 barrels a day flowing through its pipeline unless the Bank reversed its decision.
Publicly, the standoff seemed to allow both men to save face. But quietly, in a visit to N'Djamena in July, Wolfowitz and Deby came to a new agreement. This accord allowed for most of the oil revenue to be spent on Chad’s “administration” and “security,” and all money earmarked for a future generations fund to be eliminated. Essentially, this new agreement meant Deby could invest the entire revenue from Chad’s oil fields into bullets and guns. In the stroke of a pen, with no press to herald the change, all of the years of posturing by Bank officials and efforts by civil society groups for development proceeds from the oil revenue had been reduced to a cynical deal: give us the oil, and do with your revenue what you will.
Some argued an exception should be made to the bank accord. Sudanese Janjaweed, on a killing spree in Darfur, were threatening Chad’s stability. Chad needed to protect itself. Perhaps. Or was it that Deby was simply solidifying his iron-fisted control over a country with little public support, while hiding behind the self-righteous banner of self-defense? Would this violence have ever erupted if the oil had not begun to flow in Chad? It may never be entirely clear. But, one year later, indisputable is the fact that World Bank money intended for poverty alleviation is instead being used to buy bullets and guns to fight in one of the most brutal battles being fought in the world today.
It is also painfully clear, as the blood spills on both sides of the Chad border, that the consortium of international oil companies and their allies at the World Bank are being careful to make sure nothing stops a drop of oil from flowing to global markets.
A fragile peace agreement brokered between Chad and Sudan on December 24 seems to be holdingfor the moment. Regardless, those of us who pay taxes support the World Bank, and are thereby helping finance Idriss Deby’s brutal regime. Thanks to the World Bank, we may have plenty of oil in our tanks, but we also have blood on our hands.
Technorati Tags: WorldBank, Oil and Blood.
South Koreans Protest Trade Deal with US
Thousands of South Koreans took to the streets of Seoul on Tuesday to denounce bilateral trade talks with the United States as negotiators from the two economic giants struggled to reach a deal.
South Korean and U.S. envoys began their latest round of negotiations on Monday on a free trade agreement (FTA), which some studies show could add about $20 billion to the annual $72 billion worth of bilateral trade.
But Tuesday's rallies were largely peaceful, unlike the violent protests last July -- the last time the talks were held in the South Korean capital.
Protesters argue that the proposed agreement would mean job losses and ruin South Korea's heavily protected farming industry.
"South Korean farmers will not be able to survive if the FTA takes effect," said Kim Han-chul, a farm activist who joined about 4,000 protesters who blocked a downtown street and carried banners reading: "Ban imports of diseased U.S. beef".
South Korea has balked at U.S. demands to include sensitive farm products, such as rice, in their trade talks. Other sticking points include U.S. calls to open South Korea's market more for its cars and medical products and U.S. anti-dumping duties that South Korea believes are often unfairly applied to its products.
The talks got off to a shaky start with South Korea halting formal working groups in key areas of U.S. concern, including automobiles and pharmaceuticals, leaving chief negotiators Wendy Cutler and Kim Jong-hoon to hash them out informally.
The two sides want to strike a deal early this year before legislation expires on June 30 that allows the White House to negotiate agreements that lawmakers can reject but not amend.
The same law requires the White House to notify Congress 90 days before signing any agreement, meaning it needs to have a final deal with Seoul by the end of March.
Technorati Tags: SouthKorea, FreeTradeAgreement, FTA, Protest, US and UnitedStates.
Walden Bello in DC
If you are in DC this Friday, come support Walden Bello, is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines (Diliman) and executive director of the Bangkok-based
research and advocacy institute
Focus on the Global South. He willl be in town to speak about his upcoming run for Philippine Congress.
When: 12 January, Friday, 6-8:30 pm
Where: IPS, 1112 16th St., NW, Suite 600 (at corner of 16th and L)
(Directions: 2 blocks east of Farragut North metro stop on Red Line;
parking garages on L St., between 17th and 18th)
Why: Support Walden's drive for clean elections in the Philippines (which is the best way for people in the U.S. to ensure Walden's election to Congress)
Walden has been described as the world's best guide to American exploitation of the globe's poor and defenseless as well as an authentic hero of the global justice movement.
Be part of the movement
Technorati Tags: WaldenBello, Philippines,, GlobalJustice and FocusOnTheGlobalSouth.
