aka: Super-NAFTA

Action Alert!
Say No to the Corporate SPP Coup d'État

Ron Covais of Lockheed Martin told (Luiza) Savage (of Maclean's magazine) that, "The guidance from the ministers was, 'tell us what we need to do and we'll make it happen,'" and that rather than going through the legislative process in any country, the Security and Prosperity Partnership must be implemented in incremental changes by executive agencies, bureaucrats and regulators. "We've decided not to recommend any things that would require legislative changes," Covais tells Savage, "because we won't get anywhere."

Covais, when he said We've, was speaking of the NACC (North American Competitiveness Council

Source: Wikipedia

The Security and Prosperity Partnership
An End Run Around Democracy -
Consolidating the American Empire

In 2005, the North American chief executives, Pres Bush, Pres Fox and Prime Minister Martin, met in Waco Texas and shook hands on the future of North America. They had a press conference but released little in the way of details of their new plan. They did not say they were taking their plan to their respective congresses. And they never have.

While this plan is very far reaching, it is specifically designed never to be voted on, to never be debated in any legislative body. But yet it affects the core of each of our nations.

Some History

Following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2002, the United States closed their borders with Mexico and Canada. The effects in Canada were immediate and drastic. The majority of Canadian international economic activities was and continues to be with the United States. It all stopped with the border closures. Factories closed in Canada, 11 of them permanately.

Canadian corporate and national leaders had thought that such ecomonic disruptions would not happen after they signed onto NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). And so they called for deepening the NAFTA agreement so that this would not happen again.

The United States felt, however, that trade was not the most important factor in our relationship. Rather, trade took an secondary position to security. If the borders were to remain open, then Canada would need to secure their own borders to the satisfaction of the American government.

Thus the Security and Prosperity Partnership was born of this joint need to "deepen" the open trade borders of NAFTA and to secure the American nation from possible terrorist attacks.

The Organizational Structure

The SPP consists of

• The three North American CEOs (Bush, Calderon, Martin presently);
• Highest level minsiters who report to the North Ameican CEOs annually;
• Working groups - 3 on security and 10 on prosperity. The 10 groups on prosperity are Food and Agriculture, Energy, Financial Services, Business Facilitation, E-Commerce and Information Communication. Technologies, Environment, Manufactured Goods Movement of Goods, Transportation, and Health;
• NACC - North American Competitiveness Council. This council was formed in 2006 to give guildance to the SPP. It is composed of 30 North American business leaders, 10 from the US, 10 from Canada and 10 from Mexico. These CEOs represent some of the largest multinational corporations in the world: Wal-Mart, General Electric, UPS, Ford, Whirlpool, Chevron, Lockheed Martin and more. From the US Chamber of Commerce website: In the United States, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Council of the Americas jointly serve as the Secretariat. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) serves as the Secretariat in Canada and the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (IMCO) serves as the Secretariat in Mexico." They have issued three reports, two just prior to the annual North American CEO's annual summit (Aug 06, Feb. 07, Aug 07. Additional information on the NACC: wikipedia

Resources

Alliance for Democracy Fact Sheets:

#1: The Corporate Vision
#2: SuperCorridiors Linking Mexico, The US and Canada
#3: Corporate Control, Trade and Trasnport of Water
#4: SuperCorridors Linking Mexico, the US and Canada, West Coast Corridor

Alliance for Democracy member articles and presentations:

• Progressive Populist: Security and Prosperity Partnership - The Stealth, Profit and Power Corporate Take-Over By Ruth Caplan and Nancy Price
• Justice Rising: The Security and Prosperity Partnership; How Bush, the Military and Corporate America Plan to Tighten Their Control Over Our Lives, by Nancy Price
• SPP slide presentation by AfD's Ruth Caplan at AfD 2007 national convention. PDF, Powerpoint, OpenOffice Impress

Alliance for Democracy national website pages on SPP