The Obama administration has announced that it is expediting negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with China and is in similar talks with several other countries. At the same time, the Administration is conducting an inter-agency review of the U.S. model BIT, the template that serves as a starting point for substantive negotiations. These treaties, as well as the nearly identical investment chapters of trade agreements, have become increasingly controversial.
In a recent advisory committee report to the State Department, several labor, environmental, and other public interest organizations raised concerns that current rules facilitate and accelerate the off-shoring of U.S. jobs, allow private investors to undermine environmental protections by suing for damages in international tribunals, and prohibit certain policies designed to prevent or mitigate financial crisis. Moreover, rising foreign investment in the United States increases the likelihood that U.S. laws will be the target of investor lawsuits, particularly if the U.S. government ratifies deals with China and other major economies. This briefing will feature perspectives from individuals who served on the advisory committee.
This briefing is sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
Speakers: Labor standards: Owen Herrnstadt, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Environmental protections and conflicts with U.S. law: Matthew C. Porterfield, Harrison Institute for Public Law – Georgetown Law China and state-owned enterprises: Linda Andros, United Steelworkers Financial stability: Kevin Gallagher, Boston University Moderator: Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies Organized by: AFL-CIO; Center for International Environmental Law; Earthjustice; Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University; Institute for Policy Studies; International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Sierra Club; and United Steelworkers of America.
The IMF has introduced reforms with some positive features. But it has not questioned, much less shifted away from, the “market-fundamentalist” orientation it has prescribed and enforced for so long.
What is the G-20? How do their policies affect me? What can we do about it?
The G-20 promotes policies that put profits first through deregulation, privatization, and free trade. Their agenda has harmed working-class communities in the U.S. and around the world, causing job loss, lower wages, poverty, inequality, and environmental destruction.
As part of a five-event series scheduled around the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, the Institute for Policy Studies, The Nation Institute, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) are co-sponsoring a panel discussion, featuring Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.
Other panelists include:
Emira Woods, Institute for Policy Studies Miriam Miranda, general coordinator of the Fraternal Organization of Afro-Hondurans (OFRANEH) and representative to the Resistance Front against the coup in Honduras. Carl Redwood, Jr., Hill District Consensus Group Rev. John Welsh, president of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN) Leo Gerard, president and international president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA)
Moderators: John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation magazineTammy Bang Luu, Labor/Community Strategy Center and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GCJ)
Zionist ideology — the notion that redemption comes through the settlement of land — is powerful. It’s the heart of the settler state’s mythology, in Israel as in the United States.
