[asia-apec 125] Re: Re[2]: Discussion group on NGO organising ar

[Northwest FOE Office]

25 September 1996

APEC '93 summary.  Forwarded for your information.


>Return-Path: foewase at igc.apc.org
>Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 11:15:37 -0700 (PDT)
>X-Sender: foewase at pop.igc.org
>To: henry_leveson-gower at mgdestmx01.erin.gov.au
>From: Northwest FOE Office <foewase at igc.apc.org>
>Subject: Re: Re[2]: [asia-apec 120] Discussion group on NGO organising
>  ar
>Sender: foewase at igc.org
>
>At 01:38 PM 9/25/96 EST, henry_leveson-gower at mgdestmx01.erin.gov.au wrote:
>>     Thank you for your offer.  I am very keen to take it up.  Thanks also 
>>     for your paper, which I will examine closely.
>>     
>>     As to APEC '93, if you could comment on all or any of these questions 
>>     I would be very grateful:
>
>     
>>     1)  What was actually the nature of the body that organised APEC '93?  
>>     Who set it up?  Who did it involve?
>>     
>* Briefly, as Director of the Northwest Office of Friends of the Earth I saw
>APEC '93 as a strategic event around which to organize on trade issues.
>1993 was also the year in which NAFTA was voted on in Congress (in fact, the
>NAFTA vote came in November right during APEC.  Together with an intern,
>Emily Kaplan, who worked on most of the logistics, we brought together
>environmental groups (from Project Lighthawk who volunteered to fly
>reporters and delegates around western Washington to see our clearcut
>logging, Western Anceint Forest Campaign, Greenpeace, to WorldWise, a San
>Francisco based group), human rights groups (including Chinese Human Rights
>Alliance, Tibetan Rights Campaign, etc.) to labor groups (Jobs with Justice)
>in an ad hoc coalition.   
>
>Our main goal was to have a unified (enviro, human rights, labor) message
>centered on the "Hidden Costs of Free Trade" and allow each of the three
>interest groups to operate as they saw fit.
>
>>     2)  What involvement did NGOs from the APEC region have in the 
>>     organisation process and actual event?  What NGOs were most active and 
>>     from what countries?  How did APEC NGOs communicate?  Was any sort of 
>>     APEC wide network set up?  
>>     
>* Up until 1993 APEC had been a meeting of finance ministers that drew
>little NGO attention.  Pres. Clinton made APEC '93 a heads of state meeting
>which brought enormous press coverage to this event.  However, outside of
>Friends of the Earth, national environmental groups basically did not pay
>any attention to APEC besides signing on to a letter of concern.  Therefore,
>we were mostly on our own as to how to proceed.  Also in 1993, we did not
>have a Pacific Rim network in place electronically (as there is now) to work
>with NGO's in other countries.  In fact, we still have trouble contacting
>(either by fax or e-mail) our FOE International affiliates in Indonesia,
>Philippines, Malaysia, etc.  The human rights groups may have had the most
>APEC NGO contacts.  We had virtually none (again, aside from a sign on
>letter) with any other APEC environmental NGOs.  
>
>>     3)  What did APEC '93 actually consist of and why?  Who were NGOs 
>>     trying to influence and how?  Was any interaction achieved with APEC 
>>     delegations or the secretariat?  What were the major achievements of 
>>     APEC '93?
>>     
>*  APEC has been described as four adjectives in search of a noun.  APEC '93
>cemented in place the notion that the Pacific Rim was important enough for
>heads of state to meet (the largest gathering of heads of state outside the
>UN). As I recall, the press could not identify any major accomplishments out
>of APEC '93 except that the heads of state were generally civil to each other.
>
> We had a number of specific goals.
>
>- To bring together a coalition of enviro, human rights and labor groups.
>
>- To ensure that the public was not ignore.  We also called ourselves the
>Seattle Citizens' Hosting Committee both to remind ourselves to be good
>hosts and to counter the impression that the Seattle Hosting Committee
>(Business and Commerce folks) were the only representative of Seattle.
>
>- To publish an ECO - APEC WATCH newspaper for the press and the delegates
>and present alterntive trade models that incorporate sustainable
>development, poverty alleviation measures and protection of the environment.
>We published four issues during the week.
>
>- To have public workshops and demonstrations.
>
>- To obtain press credentials and meet with as many U.S. and foreign press
>as possible.
>
>- To submit a letter of concern signed by national and international NGO's.
>
>- To secure a meeting with the APEC Secretariat on behalf of a delegation of
>enviros, human rights and labor organizations.  We were able to have what
>was scheduled for a 1/2 hour meeting turn into a two hour meeting with
>Ambassador Bodde.
>
>   The delegates were extremely hard to interact with.  Because there were
>virtually no APEC NGO reps, we could not send country citizens to meet with
>their APEC officials.
>
>>     4)  Were any joint NGO statements/declarations made at APEC '93?  Did 
>>     all NGOs present participate in their drafting?  Were there any major 
>>     differences in position?
>
>* Yes.  A 13 November 1993 letter to APEC leaders was published in ECO and
>presented to the APEC Secretariat.  It covered, ten areas and was signed
>mostly by US environmental NGOs.  Jim Barnes of our FOE-D.C. staff drafted
>and circulated the letter.  Since there were major splits in the US
>environmental NGO positions over NAFTA, there may have been differences, but
>you would have to check with Jim Barnes (e-mail:jbarnes at igc.apc.org>
>
>In summary, the Seattle Citizens' Host Committee promoted the following:
>
> - Workers rights.  The right to a job and job security.  The right to
>organize unions, bargain and strike.  The right to health care and a decent
>standard of living.  A swift end to all forms of discrimination.  Corporate
>responsibility in the community.
>
>- Human rights.  Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion.  Release all
>political prisoners.  Respect for international law.  Recognize human
>dignity.  Due process for all.
>
>- Environmental rights.  Sustainable development.  Energy conservation.
>Preservation of sensititve areas and of wildlife habitats.  Clean air and
water.
>
>     
>>     5)  What were the major challenges of NGO organising of NGOs around 
>>     APEC '93 - e.g. practical, ideological, cultural?  What were the major 
>>     lessons from the event?  What steps have been taken since then to act 
>>     on these lessons in the region?  How do you see the future of NGO 
>>     cooperation in the APEC region?
>>     
>* Major challenges included:
>
>Organizing a major NGO event with virtually no funding.  We brought Alex
>Hittle one of our FOE-D.C. international staff out to Seattle to assist with
>the ECO publication.  Our entire FOE budget was around $1,000.00.  I believe
>we raised another $1,000 from Seattle groups to help pay joint costs of
>sound systems for rallys, printing of flyers, etc.
>
>Because we were a big tent, we had everybody from the Puget Sound
>Gillnetters to the Black Dollar Days Task Force to the King County Labor
>Council.  I believe we were successful in keeping an extremely diverse
>coalition together.
>
>Unfortunately, I was unable to attend APEC '94 in Indonesia or '95 in Japan.
>Therefore, I am unable to saw whether or how any of our efforts in Seattle
>impacted these events.  Omi  Royandoyan, head of the Philippine Hosting
>Committee for APEC '96 visited me in Seattle in June.  This was extremely
>helpful, both for him to get background on APEC '93 and for me to understand
>how planning for APEC '96 was progressing.  As you are aware, Canada is the
>host country for APEC '97 in Vancouver, B.C. so we need to review APEC's
>93-96 to see what will work best for APEC '97.
>
>One overall problem (two actually) consists of a) Should NGO's continue to
>engage with the APEC process, or is the APEC process so hostile to NGO's
>that it would be better to mount outright opposition; and b) What specific
>goals do we have for a reformed APEC if that is the direction NGO's are
>moving (e.g. sustainable development, NGO's in APEC working groups,
>environmental impact statements on major trade related measures).  
>
>
>>     I hope this isn't not too much of an ask.  Please just write brief 
>>     notes against any of the questions you feel able and have enough 
>>     energy to answer.
>>     
>>     I am also interested, as a matter of comparison, to know about the 
>>     processes, challenges and lessons (basically the same sort of 
>>     questions as above) from international NGO organising around NAFTA and 
>>     even the GATT/WTO.  Again anything very welcome.  You will have 
>>     certainly earned a copy of my hopefully earth shattering thesis when 
>>     finalised.
>>     
>* NAFTA/GATT/WTO
>
>   In 1988, I had an intern here at the NW Office of Friends of the Earth in
>Seattle from the U. of Ohio.  Since the U.S/Canada free trade agreement had
>just passed, I asked him to do some research on the environmental impacts of
>trade, talk to the Ports, Trade offices, etc.  He came back in three weeks
>and said he was quiting and goint to Nepel and that this was the stupidest
>project he had ever worked on, that there was no information and there were
>no impacts on the environment.  Ah, I thought, virgin territory, an untapped
>issue.  Eight years later I have filing cabinents full of studies and
>reports and clippings on environmental impacts of trade.
>
>The best summary of the environmental NGO involvement in NAFTA (including
>the FOE, Sierra Club, Public Citizen lawsuit against the Trade Reps office
>for failing to prepare an EIS on NAFTA (and later GATT)) is found in Chapter
>3 ("The Environment: Unwelcome Quest at the Free Trade Party, Jan Gilbreath
>and John Benjamin Tonra) in The NAFTA Debate ed.by M. Delal Baer/Sidney
>Weintraub, 1994, Lynne Pienner Publishers.
>
>Basically, both the NAFTA and GATT work was organized by the Citizens Trade
>Campaign.  They are still operating out of our Friends of the Earth's office
>in WA D.C. (202) 783-7400 ext. 297/298 (don't know their e-mail, but you
>might get Andrea Durbin in the FOE D.C. office to run an e-mail over to
>their office (adurbin at foe.org>
>
>* There is another book written on this subject by a California professor
>back in 94-95.  I obtained a proof copy, but can't see to locate it for the
>title and author.  I'll keep looking.
>
>
>- Response by David E. Ortman
>              Director, NW Office
>              Friends of the Earth
>              Seattle, WA
>
>P.S. Because of your excellent questions, this information is also likely to
>be of interest to the APEC '96 listserve so I will go ahead and post it there.
>
>DEO
>
>
>>     Thank you very much for your assistance in advance.
>>     
>>     Cheers
>>     
>>     Henry
>>     
>>     
>>     
>>
>>
>>______________________________ Reply Separator
>_________________________________
>>Subject: Re: [asia-apec 120] Discussion group on NGO organising aroun
>>Author:  Northwest FOE Office <foewase at igc.apc.org> at mgdestmx01
>>Date:    24/9/96 10:36 AM
>>
>>
>>23 September 1996
>>
>>Greetings:  Thank you for your e-mail.  I helped organize the citizen NGO
>>response to APEC '93 in Seattle, WA "The Hidden Costs of Free Trade".
>>
>>I would be happy to provide additional information concerning our efforts at
>>APEC '93, as well as info on our NAFTA-GATT work, as well.
>>
>>Let me know how you want to proceed.
>>
>>
>>Andrea Durbin from our FOE-D.C. office will be going to APEC '96 in the
>>Philippines and APEC '97 will be back in the Pacific Northwest (or is that
>>Pacific Rim Northeast?) at Vancouver, CANADA next year.
>>
>>I will also e-mail you a two part paper I did back in 1989 that covers some
>>of the trade-environment issues.
>>
>>Cheers.
>>
>>David E. Ortman
>>Director, Northwest Office
>>Friends of the Earth
>>Seattle, WA
>>
>>
>>cc: Andrea Durbin, International Program, FOE-D.C.
>>
>>
>>
>>At 05:58 PM 9/20/96 EST, henry_leveson-gower at mgdestmx01.erin.gov.au wrote:
>>>     Dear fellow list members
>>>     
>>>     I am a post graduate at the Australian National University and am 
>>>     currently doing research into NGO organising and campaigning around 
>>>     international economic organisations.  I am interested in the 
>>>     theoretical basis for and practicalities of such action and am looking 
>>>     at NGO action around APEC as a case in point.
>>>     
>>>     I was wondering if any members of the list would be interested in 
>>>     joining an email discussion group on this topic so we can share ideas. 
>>>     We could discuss such issues as: 
>>>          
>>>          1) Key aims of organising and campaigning around APEC;
>>>          2) Major challenges of working regionally on APEC issues;
>>>          3) Means that have been or should be used to attempt to overcome  
>>>             the above challenges.
>>>          
>>>          If you are interested, you could send me a message and I will 
>>>     then create a list for this discussion.  This should be confidential 
>>>     and the sources of ideas used by discussion members should not be 
>>>     disclosed.  The facilitator of the asia-pacific list has suggested 
>>>     that we could post some of the discussion to the main list in order to 
>>>     stimulate discussion on that list if we were happy to do that.
>>>     
>>>     I look forward to hearing from you.
>>>     
>>>     
>>>          Best regards
>>>          
>>>          Henry Leveson-Gower
>>>          _________________________________________________
>>>          National Centre for Development Studies
>>>          Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
>>>          The Australian National University
>>>          Canberra ACT 0200  AUSTRALIA
>>>          Tel: 61 (0)6 274 1449 Fax: 61 (0)6 274 1878
>>>          Email: Hleveson-gower at dest.gov.au
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>