STOP MAI

MEDIA RELEASE -for immediate release, 9 September 1998 Authorised by the STOP-MAI Campaign Coalition (WA) Website http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html Affiliated with the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTInet) and with the World Social Forum (WSF)

MAI campaign going to Paris in October

Co-ordinated Australia-wide action has been planned to criticise the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in the period to 20 October, when delegates from the 29 OECD nations will meet in Paris to decide the fate of the "stealth treaty".

A public meeting at Rockingham yesterday (8/9/98) was told of a series of actions which will firmly lock Australia’s civil society into world-wide rejection of any more freedom for multinational corporations to sidestep labour and environmental standards and avoid taxation.

The meeting was attended by representatives of trade unions, non-government organisations, the Greens, Australian Democrats and One Nation. It was shunned by both major parties, both of which are known to be committed to the MAI.

During the federal election campaign, all parliamentarians will be asked to declare their personal views on the MAI, irrespective of official party stance. Approaches will also be made to high-profile personages and groups to endorse petitions calling on the OECD to change direction.

Australian Stop MAI campaigners are proposing the adoption by the United Nations of a Citizens’ Public Trust Treaty to redress "the consequences of half a century of unprincipled economic growth".

ends #10

Note: A copy of the Citizens’ Public Trust Treaty can be faxed on request

(Postscript) or an online copy can be accessed here or here

PHONE CONTACTS: Brian Jenkins +61 8 9528 1864; Dion Giles 0411 745 538