Security and Prosperity Summit:

April 21, 2008
Dear Member of Congress,
On the occasion of the 4th Leaders Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), to be held in New Orleans on April 21-22, we take this opportunity to call on all members of Congress to educate themselves on the SPP, which was never brought to Congress for debate or vote. Our concerns include the opaque and undemocratic nature of the SPP, its definition of “prosperity” as the expansion of a failed trade model, and its definition of “security” as the expansion of military force and the restricting of civil liberties.
Congress has been entrusted with oversight on such issues of trade and security. It is imperative that they exercise their responsibility on this matter by examining what prosperity and security really mean. Rather than proceeding along the failed path of NAFTA, all efforts should be made to implement a trade agenda that focuses on the needs of communities and people. That agenda should include the voices of those populations most affected, as well as their advocates in civil society.
Therefore, as civil society advocates, we call upon the U.S. Congress to:
0. Require the Bush administration to immediately halt SPP implementation and submit the process to Congressional oversight.
0. Hold congressional hearings in which the process and goals of the SPP are thoroughly aired and input is invited from a broad cross-section of the public.
Make subject to congressional vote the decision of whether SPP implementation should proceed.
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/security-and-prosperity-partnership-open-letter-to-congress/#more-105