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21 April, 2008
Today, in New Orleans, state of Louisiana, US, a group of civil society organisations, including trade unions from Canada, Mexico, and the US, will present a common vision for solidarity on energy-related issues. The forum, which includes the ICEM, is billed as a “People’s Summit: Our Response to NAFTA Expansion and the SPP.”
SPP is the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a closed summit of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, and US President George W. Bush that is intended to further integrate the economies and trade of the three nations. The so-called “Amigos Summit” is occurring today and tomorrow, 21-22 April, in the southern US city of New Orleans.
The counter-summit, or People’s Summit, from 20-22 April, is aimed at affirming citizens’ rights to energy, the challenges that must be met regarding renewable energy, energy efficiency, and implementing sound environmental energy practices.
Participating will be ICEM affiliates Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada and the United Steelworkers (USW). Also, representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Mexican Union of Electricity Workers (SME), Mexico’s Democratic National Alliance of Oil Workers (ANDTP), Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 258, Canada), and the Office, Professional Employees (OPEIU Local 378, Canada) will participate, as will the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers Canada, and the Alliance for Responsible Trade of the US.
The People’s Summit comes with a backdrop of an early April poll, conducted in Canada by Environics Research on the SPP. That poll states that a vast majority of Canadians disagree with the three-nation regulatory harmonisation, energy integration, and possible bulk water exports.
The poll states that 87% of 1,007 Canadians queried think that the northern nation should set its own independent environmental and health and safety standards; 88% want a national water policy that recognises clean drinking water as a basic human rights and also a ban on bulk export of water; and 86% of Canadians feel that there should be an open, public debate of the secretive SPP partnership, and that it should be brought before a vote of the nation’s Parliament.