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Bilaterals.org: Everything That’s Not Happening at the WTO

Bilaterals.org September 12, 2006 Bilaterals.org

(Versions in español and français available below)

In September 2004, a number of organisations initiated a collaborative website to support peoples’ struggles against bilateral free trade and investment agreements: http://www.bilaterals.org. The initiators included the Asia-Pacific Research Network, GATT Watchdog, Global Justice Ecology Project, GRAIN, IBON Foundation and XminY Solidariteitsfonds.

When the site was set up, the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Cancún and the stalling of the US-driven Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were being celebrated by numerous opponents of neoliberal globalisation. But behind the scenes, powerful governments — especially the US and Europe — were quietly moving to sign far-reaching bilateral free trade and investment deals in order to achieve what they and their transnational corporations (TNCs) had not been able to get at the multilateral level. read more

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Overthrow: A Pre-emptive History of the United States

April Howard September 7, 2006 April Howard

"Why does a strong nation strike against a weaker one?," Stephen Kinzer asks in the first line of his book Overthrow. "Usually because it seeks to impose its ideology, increase its power, or gain control of valuable resources." In this case, Kinzer is referring to the aggressive foreign policy of the United States in the last century, and specifically to the habitual, if extreme cases in which it has deposed foreign leaders in order to create a government more favorable to its own interests.

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Oaxaca, Mexico: Free Speech in the “Dirty War”

Kelly Komenda and Sara Yassky September 6, 2006 Kelly Komenda and Sara Yassky

Since May 22, Oaxacan teachers have been occupying the main plaza in the city of Oaxaca. In the beginning of the occupation, the teachers' demands from the government were simple: fair wages to adjust for their cost of living and the guarantee of a better educational environment for their students, which to the teachers meant funding for books, supplies, uniforms and food. 

Darfur

How Fast Can UN Peacekeeping Move?

Rene Wadlow September 5, 2006 Rene Wadlow

After difficult negotiations regarding the composition and command of an expanded Unifil to guard south Lebanon and to consolidate a fragile cease-fire, at the end of August, the UN Security Council voted on resolution 1706 to constitute a 22,500 member UN peacekeeping  force - mostly military with some additional civilian police - for Darfur, Sudan. 

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Iraq: The British Camp

Rory Stewart August 30, 2006 Rory Stewart

"A Prince cannot avoid ingratitude." -Machiavelli, Discourses, Book I, Chapter 29

"Pursuant to my authority as Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), relevant UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 1483 (2003), and the laws and usages of war, I hereby promulgate the following: The CPA is vested with all executive, legislative, and judicial authority necessary to achieve its objectives . . . This authority shall be exercised by the CPA Administrator." -Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq), Regulation Number 1