STOP MAI

MEDIA RELEASE -for immediate release, 14 October 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)

National protest proceeds as report claims French have withdrawn from MAI talks

Australian Stop MAI protest groups have co-ordinated a strong letter of objection to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, for delivery to the MAI negotiators’ meeting at the OECD in Paris on Tuesday, 20 October. [view letter]

The letter, signed by a big number of civil-society organisations and individual citizens, calls on the OECD and Prime Minister John Howard to drop the draft MAI treaty which, it says, "unacceptably elevates the rights of transnational corporations above those of elected governments, communities, citizens, workers and the environment."

Meanwhile, a report from watchdog organisation World Economy, Ecology & Development in Bonn claims that host nation France has withdrawn from negotiations. "Consequently, in absence of the French delegation, the talks on the 20th of October will have only informal character," the report said.

If the report is accurate, the decision of the French government may be viewed as a great success for the international campaign against the MAI, which has been conducted largely on the Internet and without support from most mass media.

Signatories to the Australian public protest include the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Civil Liberties Council, unions and charitable bodies. They are backed by hundreds of academics, business professionals and other citizens.

In Perth on Saturday, 17 October. Campaigners will set up a street information stall to give passers-by an opportunity to sign their names to the Paris letter.

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