CONFRONT THEIR ECONOMIC REGION: Demonstration Opposing the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER)

Sunday July 20th 5 pm. Westin Bayshore Hotel. 1601 Bayshore Drive (two blocks east of Denman and one block north of West Georgia)

From Sunday July 20th to Friday July 25th, the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) Summit will be meeting in Vancouver. (check out www.pnwer.org) The PNWER is a northwest US-Canada forum to  encourage global economic competitiveness” and like other current regional and national free trade frameworks like NAFTA, SPP, and TILMA, it is all about furthering an agenda of corporate free trade, border militarization, privatization and theft of indigenous land and resources, ecological destruction, repression in the name of national security, impoverishment and displacement, and cooperation in war and occupation.

Specifically the 2008 agenda highlights border security, oil/gas mining, and 2010 Olympics. In the words of Minister Stockwell Day, “[PNWER] has had a profound impact on policymaking.” In PNWER’s own words, it serves as a “cross-border forum for unfiltered dialogue that capitalizes upon the synergies between business leaders and elected officials.”

PNWER reinforces the idea of “Fortress North America”, whereby the rich and privileged live in gated communities and gentrified cities, protected by police and security, with easy movement for capital between borders; for the rest, there’s border fences, reserves, ghettos, factory assembly lines, prisons, surveillance, increased precarity, and empty rhetoric about democracy and human rights.

In the next few years, so-called British Colombia (unceded Indigenous territories) will be at centre of a commercial and resource boom, with unprecedented expansion in: the tourist and recreational sector leading to the 2010 Olympics; pilot projects for border surveillance and US-Canadian military training cooperation under the SPP; mineral and gas mining in the interior and North; resource extraction and privatization including water and forestry products; and infrastructure development for resource transportation including tarsands pipelines.

We do not believe in lobbying the PNWER leaders and we encourage actions over the four days to raise awareness about, reject, protest, creatively resist and/or disrupt this agenda of colonial and capitalist pillage.

“You show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker.” – Malcolm X

Organized and supported by No One Is Illegal, La Surda Latin American Collective, Council of Canadians BC/Yukon Office, Anti Poverty Committee, Olympics Resistance Network, Komagatamaru Heritage Foundation, Canadian Arab Federation, Siraat Collective, Latin America Connexions Collective, Building Bridges Human Rights Project- Vancouver, Stopwar.ca, International Iranian Federation of Refugees, Siraat Collective, Cafe Rebelde Coordinating Committee, Bolivia Solidarity Committee, Vancouver Socialist Forum.

For more information call 778 885 0040.

TEXT OF PNWER LEAFLET

Members of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) are meeting at their annual summit in Vancouver. This cross-border trade and security organization brings together large corporations with North West states, provinces, territories in U.S. and Canada. PNWER describes itself as “a statutory public/private partnership..” In the words of Minister Stockwell Day, “[PNWER] has had a profound impact on policymaking.” According to PNWER, it serves as a “cross-border forum for unfiltered dialogue that capitalizes upon the synergies between business leaders and elected officials.”

Despite the importance of PNWER, few people even now about this organization as it has quietly escaped significant public scrutiny. Increasingly agreements such as PNWER, Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) are being discussed and negotiated in a veil of secrecy despite having real and profound impacts on our society: furthering an agenda of corporate free trade, border militarization, privatization of indigenous land and resources, ecological destruction, repression in the name of national security, impoverishment, and cooperation in war.

Not everyone is left out of these cozy meetings- corporate participation in PNWER is strong. High level sponsors include BP, Teck Cominco, Conoco Philips, Terasen Gas, Merk Frosst, ExxonMobil, Plutonic Power, the Business Council of BC, and Trans Canada Pipelines. In fact, the ongoing governance of PNWER is overseen by a “Private Sector Board” of major corporations.

PNWER, Security and Prosperity Partnership, Alberta Tar Sands, and Olympics: What is the connection?

In the next few years, BC will be at centre of a commercial and resource boom, with unprecedented expansion in: the tourist, real estate, and recreational sector leading to the 2010 Olympics; pilot projects for border surveillance and US-Canadian military training cooperation under the SPP; mineral and gas mining in the interior and North; resource extraction and privatization including water and forestry products; and infrastructure development for resource transportation including BC-Alberta tarsands pipelines.

PNWER is closely linked with the Security and Prosperity Partnership – the NAFTA plus Homeland Security model- being pushed by the government and corporate leaders of Canada, Mexico and USA.

The SPP combines the destructive neo-liberal policies of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of resource extraction, corporate tax breaks, privatization measures, and weakening of labour standards with the fear and paranoia of post 9-11 “Homeland Security” policies that has resulted in immigrant raids, border militarization, foreign troop occupations, and repression of civil liberties.

In brief, the SPP calls for maximization of North American economic competitiveness in the face of growing exports from India and China; expedited means of resource (oil, natural gas, water, forest products) extraction; secure borders against “organized crime, international terrorism, and illegal migration”; standardized regulatory regimes for health, food safety, and the environment; integrated energy supply through a comprehensive resource and energy security pact (primarily about ensuring that the US receives guaranteed flows of oil particularly from the Alberta tar sands in; and coordination amongst defence forces.

The 2008 PNWER Summit agenda focuses on three critical issues:

• The 2010 Winter Olympics which is already having devastating impacts: expansion of sport tourism on indigenous lands; corporate subsidies from tax-payer money; unbridled real estate speculation; homelessness and gentrification of poor neighbourhoods; increasing privatization of public services; union-busting through imposed contracts; exploitative conditions for workers especially temporary migrant labour; the fortification of a security apparatus estimated at $175 million; and destruction of mountains, old growth forests, streams, hunting and fishing grounds, and delicate ecosystems.

• Planning for fundamental energy issues like the tar sands, private electricity, ocean energy, and biofuels. The Alberta tar sands (“oil sands”) are already the largest contributor to Canada’s increase in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental organizations are calling for a moratorium on growth of the mines. Yet PNWER and the SPP aim to increase tar sands production by five-fold to 3 million barrels a day by 2015. Companies exploiting the tar sands are calling for the expansion of the temporary foreign worker program to secure exploitable labour that will ensure higher profits, while surrounding indigenous communities have documented incredibly high cancer rates and irreversible damage to the land.

• Under the heading of “homeland security,” PNWER will review cross-border information sharing, border security, and cross-border trade. PNWER aims to ease travel for business, while making the border more difficult for most people, particularly increasing border harassment against migrants and refugees. Despite the rhetoric of making ‘us more safe’, the expansion of security initiatives and infrastructure comes with little security for our society; instead creating greater insecurity for immigrants, refugees, and people of colour, while reaping great profits for the private sector.

Within this context PNWER will reinforce the idea of “Fortress North America”, whereby the rich and privileged live in gated, gentrified, and militarized communities with easy movement for capital between borders. For the rest, there are border fences, reserves, ghettos, low-wage work, surveillance, and empty rhetoric about democracy and human rights.