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Call today! Keep Massachusetts Trade Advisory Board in the House-Senate Business and Jobs Growth Bill
The House version of the bill (H4863) establishes the board, but the Senate version (S2380) lacks this provision. The two bills are now in conference.
06/02/2010 [events II] - A thank you to speakers Mary Zepernick, Rep. Cory Atkins, and Brandon Jarboe, legislative aide to Sen. Jamie Eldridge, for participating in the second Democracy in the Balance forum on May 19 in Concord. It was a wide-ranging look at corporate power and personhood, with Mary contributing the historic view and the Move to Amend coalition's call for a broad constitutional amendment against corporate personhood, and Cory and Brandon bringing us up to date on what the Massachusetts legislature may accomplish to curb potential harms of the Citizens United decision.
Dave Lewit, Editor, BCA Dispatch, forwards this message from Ted Dooley, National Lawyers Guild and former co-chair of Alliance for Democracy:
An article from the upcoming issue of the BCA Dispatch focuses on an odiferous "finishing" operation for hogs in Tewskbury and the home-rule regulation it inspired. Home rule ordinances are difficult to pass in Massachusetts; in this case the legislature has to weigh in on what is basically a neighborhood matter. The Alliance believes robust home rule is key to breaking the grip that corporations have over state and especially federal decision-making, and to relocalizing our economy. Click on the headline to read the complete article. Here's the new text of the globalization impact bill, which would create a state advisory commission on federal trade pacts.
The bill to create a trade advisory board needs legislative support! Here's who to call and what to ask for. Thanks for your help!
Last year, we worked on moving passage of HR 374, the "Globalization Impact Bill," which would create a citizens' advisory commission to assess the impact of proposed international trade policies and pacts on the Commonwealth's laws and economy. This bill has been refiled by Rep. Byron Rushing, and we will be working hard in 2009 to turn it into law.
Click on the headline to find out more about the 2005 roundtable, follow links to roundtable footage on Blip.tv, and learn about plans for a follow-up event focusing on building local economies. The following is a great, short explanation of what's driving economic integration along the northeast Canadian-US border, and how the corporate vision of superhighways and deepwater ports has very little to do with the real economic and environmental needs of New England, upstate New York, and the maritime provinces.
Click on the headline above to read an op-ed by water conservation consultant and author Amy Vickers, printed in the July 7 Boston Globe. She concludes with some proposals for a state-level assessment of the Commonwealth's long-term water needs, a moratorium on water sales, and giving local communities and water districts the ability to ban corporate water sales. The Alliance for Democracy's Defending Water in Maine website is the hub for info on AfD's Defending Water for Life Campaign in that state. You can read about water protection in several Maine towns, download info on Nestle's spotted ethics and environmental record, see video of recent public meetings in Kennebunk over a proposed water sale to Nestle-owned subsidiary Poland Springs, and get talking points for letters to editors or simply for educating friends who are still hooked on bottled water. Video interview with Janet Eaton, independent researcher--educator and the Sierra Club of Canada’s International Liaison to the Corporate Accountability Committee and Water Privatization Task Force, and Karen O'Donnell, labor activist and former Mass. state representative. Filmed in March, 2008, at Cambridge Community TV.
Two video blog entries from author and New York University professor Mark Crispin Miller.
After two previous stolen elections, should we expect that everything will go just fine this time? The neocons have added more restrictive voter ID laws and wider use of electronic voting machines to their bag of tricks. But what if they expect an election day mandate for change? Would they go so far as to suspend our rights and impose martial law? And what's the best proactive response?
The Massachusetts Globalization Impact Bill has a new committee assignment and number. It’s now H 4705, and will be considered by the Committee on Rules. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Byron Rushing, sits on the committee, along with at least one co-sponsor. North Bridge AfD and BCA members will be working on organizing tools to get the bill out of committee and passed, including model letters to editors and op-eds. Keep an eye on this site for updates! George Bush, with the Mexican president and the Canadian prime minister, are quietly building a Fortress North America and continental "free-trade" area under mega-corporate direction. Not even many congress members know about this, because it was put together in 2005 by the three nations' chief executives without any legislative input or oversight. It's details and personnel are secret. But you can inform Congress and your fellow citizens by following these PowerPoint slides by one of Canada's foremost academic-scholar-activists, Janet M. Eaton, PhD.*
Some call it "Super-NAFTA". It is deliberately misnamed "Security and Prosperity Partnership"(SPP)---unless you happen to be one of the privileged executives or shareholders whose security and prosperity it enhances. Organized by the executive branches of the US, Canadian, and Mexican governments, with heavy input by 30 major corporations, it seeks to "harmonize" trade, labor, environmental and security regulations among the three countries, backed by police and military. The result will be a pro-corporate race to the bottom on workers' rights, resource protection, personal liberty, and local democracy and economies...
by Dave Lewit, Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy
01/07/2008 [Readings] - Please read introductory material at this site before referring to text. Refer to text by clicking on title above. The "BCA Dispatch" is the official newsletter of the Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy. It is a monthly publication containing political articles from local and international sources, chapter news, and editorials---framing and advancing true democracy.
As we move forward with the work of the New England Alliance for Democracy, we are also searching for a logo to represent us graphically. We are therefore asking for artwork proposals. We have received two proposals up to this point. You can see them by clicking on the title link. If you are interested in designing a logo for the NEA please send it to boston[@]newenglandalliance.org.
It's essential that you call your state senator and representative within the next few days and ask them to contact the conference committee to ensure inclusion of Section 136 of the House version, which establishes a Trade Advisory Commission, in the final bill.
Click on the link below for the whole story!
Waiting for a resolution!
DVDs of the first forum, featuring John Bonifaz and Jeff Clements from Free Speech for People are available, too--please consider submitting this 59-minute, very professional dvd to your town's community access station, and spread the word!
Block S 3194!
Folks, congress is apparently trying to push this one through on a fast track. On April 12 Senator Harry Reid introduced Senate bill 3194 that has nearly identical wording as S.1611 and HR 413 in a way that will force it to the Senate floor for a vote tomorrow which would send the bill to the House where they plan to amend it to their bill which would do away with the need to put it in a conference committee, sending it straight to the president for signature into law.
Simply put, this law would force every law enforcement agency in the US to allow police unions to have a say not only in pay and benefit issues, but also in disciplinary policies. If you thought it was hard to hold cops accountable for misconduct now, just wait until police unions get to influence disciplinary policies in every police department and sheriff's office in the US!
Toxic Tewksbury Factory Farm
Text of HB 341
The bill was introduced in January and heard by the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies in June. We are currently looking for Massachusetts voters and activists who would be willing to call legislators and ask them to help move the bill out of committee. It would also be a great help if you can bring this legislation to the attention of other folks or groups in your district--your union, your town's climate action group, your local environmental organization, your church's social justice group, your local peace group, progressive small business owners, etc., so that more people can learn about it make calls on its behalf.
Your legislators can learn how to support the bill by contacting its sponsor, Rep. Byron Rushing, at 617-722-2180.
Click on the headline link for the text of the bill!
What can you do to support the creation of a trade advisory board?
Click on the headline for more information.
Maine Citizens Trade Advisory Board in action
You can see video of a recent Maine Citizens Trade Advisory board hearing by clicking on the headline link, above. At the hearing, people from around the state spoke on the impact of climate change on the state's ecosystem and economy, and how trade pacts discourage more sustainable and less carbon-intense economies.
In the next few weeks we hope to have resources here for people who are interested in seeing a Massachusetts citizen trade advisory commission. So keep checking on the home page to find out more.
New England Roundtable on Blip.tv
Atlantica: Myths and Realities
Click on the headline to see the video and learn more.
Globe op-ed suggests state-level protections for rural aquifers
The Water Wars heat up in Maine!
Janet Eaton, Karen O'Donnell and Dave Lewit on SPP
Click on the headline to see the video.
Mark Crispin Miller on election theft and the possibility of martial law
Click on the headline to read more and see videos.
Democracy Protection Kit
Click on the headline to read more. Visit the Democracy Protection Page to read letters and articles in our Democracy Protection Kit that you can use to begin a dialog on civil rights protection in your community.
A new number and new committee for Globalization Impact Bill
Janet Eaton's Slide Show on SPP
Click on the headline to read more.
SPP Challenges You
Click on headline above to see whole flier.
Why A “Globalization Impact Bill”?
Toward Passage of H.374 in 2008
...Globalization has worked for the audacious and their investors in the short run. It has failed to meet its stated goals of prosperity and safety for all, and it has weakened or devastated the majority of people on earth, including the bulk of Americans especially by dramatically shrinking democracy. It has accelerated the destruction of the earth upon whose ecosystems all life depends....Now, since 2005, a secretive, corporate-driven NAFTA-Plus agreement has been reached by the three heads of state which they euphemistically name “Security & Prosperity Partnership” (SPP).
AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE, AND WE ALL KNOW IT...What can we do about it—particularly here in Massachusetts?
Click on the headline link above to read the full article on our "readings" page.
Globalization Impact Bill H.374
GANDHI CIRCLES
Group Readings and Discussion on
STRATEGIC NONVIOLENCE
September 11,2007 will be the sixth anniversary of the bombings of the World Trade Towers in NY and the Pentagon. It is also the 101st anniversary of Gandhi's launch of Satyagraha---Truth Force, or strategic nonviolence---in Johannesburg, South Africa. Some see a contrast here---the NY event spells mendacity and death; the Gandhi event spells truth and life. Can the revived courageous event displace the fear-ridden event? You may or may not agree, or find the coincidence irrelevant.
How can the Gandhi event be commemorated? Should it be a day of reminiscence and honoring the man, or might it be a day of resolve to build a movement of nonviolence to bring justice and new society to our world?
The following readings with narration, totaling about 45 minutes before break and discussion, provide stories of key events in the development of strategic nonviolence. We suggest that you consider offering such readings to your activist group, or religious or civic group, for reading and discussion sometime in the anniversary month of Gandhi's launch, or any time. Perhaps 12 people would be ideal, but it can be done by 2 or a circle of 24. We hope you will invite people who are strangers to this kind of thinking. And we hope that you may involve more groups. Please let us know which groups you have contacted.
The passages in italics are narration to introduce and connect the readings. No need to read aloud the source references. You may want to narrate yourself, or offer this role to someone with a trained voice. You may not like all the selections or the narration, and of course you can cut or substitute. The packet will always be a work in progress. We would appreciate feed-back and suggestions for modification---to boston@NewEnglandAlliance.org. OK, to start, click on the title above.
BCA Dispatch, the Newsletter of the Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy
In search of a logo for the New England Alliance for Democracy