We should be able to decide in our own communities whether we want to risk a polluted river in exchange for the promise of some gold…[A]ll over the world citizens organize and advocate for laws to protect us from corporate abuse. Sometimes we do win and get the law on our side…In reply…[corporations] have steadily and slowly built a counter-strategy...That counter-strategy is called ‘global investment rules’…National governments across the world have been busily spinning a complex web of global trade agreements with one another…[M]any of these accords…include giving corporations the right to sue a government in a global trade court if it isn’t happy with some effort that government has undertaken to protect the public…The video here...is a good ten-minute primer on global investment rules, told by our friends working on this issue around the world. [refers to Bechtel, Pacific Rim, Philip Morris]