Security and Prosperity Partnership is dead

NEWS RELEASE

UNITED STEELWORKERS

***************************** USW, activists and NDP efforts kill Security and Prosperity Partnership

TORONTO - United Steelworkers’ National Director Ken Neumann said that union members can take pride in preventing another attack on democracy now that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) has been withdrawn as an active initiative by Canada, the US and Mexico.

Neumann said persistent opposition to the SPP by the labour movement, the New Democrats and many civil society groups for the last five years has paid off.

“Steelworkers have played a key role in the sustained opposition to this formal agreement aimed at the deep integration of corporate power in North America,” said Neumann. “It started as a deal by the Liberals under Paul Martin with then-US President Bush and Mexican President Calderone. It was another step in an anti-populist agenda that includes flawed trade agreements and ill-conceived deregulation - an agenda the Harper Government continues to believe.”

Opposition to the SPP was heightened by a 2007 incident at Montebello, Quebec, where Quebec provincial police were caught on camera attempting to infiltrate a peaceful demonstration.

“The SPP was quietly created. And thankfully, after years of opposition, it was just as quietly withdrawn,” Neumann said. “This shows that steady, critical organizing and educating on behalf of working people can make a difference.”

The SPP was never subject to scrutiny by legislators and was instead an executive agreement in partnership with an elite corporate group of 30 CEOs from the three countries.

“Secrecy and back-room deals must never be allowed to replace the need for transparency in government,” Neumann added. “We need a serious turnaround in our economic future, one that does not sell off our resources or destroy our ability to control our domestic economy.”

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