Irish citizens were the only citizens of the European Union who had the\r\nopportunity to vote on whether or not to ratify the Treaty of Nice .\r\nThe\r\nIrish people voted No to the Nice Treaty just over a year ago. This, in the\r\neyes\r\nof the increasingly anti-democratic European Union and in the eyes of the\r\nneo-liberal Irish Government, was the wrong answer. So the exact same\r\nreferendum\r\nis being rerun on Saturday 19th October. Those calling for a Yes vote\r\ninclude\r\nthe majority of our political parties, the entire National and Multinational\r\nBusiness community in Ireland and pro-liberalization forces from all over\r\nEurope. They are outspending the Irish opposition by a factor of\r\n9\/1 in their desperation to change the minds of Irish Voters. Why?\r\nThey say it is because they want to facilitate en\r\nlargement\r\nof the EU and that the treaty is necessary to do this. This has been ch\r\nallenged.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
A charge on Indymedia Ireland is that the treaty it\r\nwill\r\ngrant anti-democratic fast-track\r\npowers to the unelected European Commission to sign the EU as a\r\nwhole\r\nup to International trade negotiations with the WTO on the GATS and TRIPS\r\nagreements. No wonder Peter\r\nSutherland\r\n- ex head of the WTO - has been campaigning extensively here. The Irish\r\nhave\r\na vote on GATS and Corporate Globalization. Groups and individuals who are\r\nagainst the forced implementation of GATS on a worldwide level can help us\r\nby\r\nsending statements of support for a no vote on Nice to the Indymedia Ireland\r\nNewswire. We will\r\nforward\r\nthese to the Irish Media\r\n,\r\nPoliticians, Civil Society and those campaigning against this insult to\r\ndemocracy. <\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.indymedia.ie","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Help Ireland Throw a Spanner in the works of the GATS (http:\/\/www.gatswatch.org\/index.html) Machine. A call to action Ireland (http:\/\/www.indymedia.ie\/article133\/) to anti-GATS campaigners worldwide.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/10\/20171.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":20255,"heading":"so phone\/mail home","article":"and tell your friends \/ relatives\r\nto vote NO!\r\n","author":"the way","parent_id":20171,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-10-18 08:45:03","modified":"2002-10-18 08:45:03","fileurl":""}]}