Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

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I received this last night asking for a representative to be sent – presume I was not the only one. Loving it! The Anti-FATCA movement is making progress!

Perhaps those of you in Switzerland could attend. Here it is:

The federal decree approving FATCA and federal law implementation will be published in the Federal Gazette on Thursday, October 3.

This leaves only a few days to decide whether or not we launch a referendum against the dictates of the USA, which seriously violates the sovereignty of Switzerland and the privacy of its citizens.

League Vaud decided to invite representatives of all the movements that support, in one way or another, a referendum against FATCA

Thursday October 3 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the Federal Palace.


The session will begin with a round table in which a representative of each movement says what means the movement is willing to put in the battle.

It was not until the end of the round, when we have the overview of all available means (files, money, activists, etc..) That the decision will be taken or not referendum committee.

It is vital that any movement willing to support, in one way or another, a referendum against FATCA be represented at this meeting by a person authorized to make commitments on behalf of the movement.

Those attending this session (maximum of two representatives per movement) are requested to register with me by Wednesday, October 2 at noon.

For the League Vaud,

Denis Ramelet

PS: The meeting will be chaired by Olivier Delacrétaz, president of the League Vaud. This chair sitting in no way constitutes a claim of the Presidency of any referendum committee.

PPS: We would like to pay tribute to Mr. Philippe Nantermod (PLR), which launched the resistance movement in the spring, and Mr. Marc Studer (Lobby Citizens), which took over after the summer. Without their commitment, this meeting could not be convened.

 

44 thoughts on “Swiss REFERENDUM against #FATCA / Thursday October 3rd 2013”

  1. Another interesting book about the Swiss, from a UK-expat perspective, is “Swiss Watching: Inside Europe’s Landlocked Island” by Diccon Bewes, if you can find it locally. I bought my copy (paperback, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing of London and Boston, ISBN 978-1-85788-548-4) from Orell Fuessli Buchhandlungs when I was in Zurich three years ago … great bookstore to visit if you’re in Zurich, by the way.

  3. Would be interested in finding out how to sign off on the referendum and how the process works exactly. Can this be signed online or do you have to go to the capital? I’ve googled but only come up with newspaper articles so If anyone has any information on this process, thanks to post it.

  4. Little Switzerland is amazing. The swiss army could not stand up to the bigger ones of today ( maybe back in 1515 that was possible), but its the spirit that I admire. And I think everybody could benefit from a class in neutrality and taking care of one`s own business. The world is being bullied by America. What will happen when America loses its power? What will those who were bullied do then?
    BTW- I saw an old cartooon by Thomas Ungerer the other day. It was a picture of a US army airplane dropping presents…..and bombs.
    I will vote.

  8. This its how the process works: (from Wikipedia)

    “Facultative referendum: Any federal law, certain other federal resolutions, and international treaties that are ongoing in nature, or any change to Swiss law may be subject to referendum if at least 50,000 people or eight cantons have petitioned to do so within 100 days.”

    Usually you sign on a form, and you have to put in what place you’re from. Only Swiss citizens may sign.

    I’ll be collecting as many signatures as I can!

  9. THe Pirate Party has been formulating a policy about data protection, in response to the Snowden. The 2 Sweden pirates in EU have been using it to make part of their platform. Could be useful to connect FATCA to Snowden.

  10. The dates seem weird. Has this meeting already happened or not? If so then what was the position taken at the meeting? Is there to be a referendum or not? I hope that there will be a referendum on the matter.

  12. @ Swiss Pinoy I have just posted the following at the Pirate party link that you gave.

    Please forgive me as I do not speak German – my great grandparents left Switzerland as missionaries in the 1800s.

    Please do have a referendum and help Switzerland and the world to reject the entire concept of FATCA, DATCA and GATCA. The less that Governments know of their people’s affairs the better. The more that the People know of their Governments’ affairs the better. Information is power and gives Tyrants the ability to selectively apply brute force to enslave people – not always requiring iron shackles or bullets.

    No Government anywhere – no matter how apparently benevolent at the present time – no matter how they say “Trust Us” – should have the extent of knowledge of the people of the world as is envisaged by the FATCA / DATCA / GATCA complex. Transparency is NOT always a good thing. Hitler and Stalin would have loved FATCA.

    People need privacy and need sometimes to be able to vote with their feet – they need to be able to escape Tyranny as people have since the advent of mankind on this earth. To escape Tyranny, people need to be able to PRIVATELY store the product of their labour – whether in tools, foodstuffs, treasure or money – in a form that they can move with or cache in safety. The Jews needed to escape Hitler, many needed to escape Stalin. Many have had to seek safety and freedom by fleeing from Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua and countless other countries around the world at various times over the centuries. Indeed the United States of America has been the destination for Trillions of Dollars and Millions of people fleeing Tyranny and of course the United States has been the laundry where their money has resurfaced as clean capital. Other countries have been no different even if on a smaller scale than the US – Canada, the UK, Switzerland and others yet some of those same countries like the UK in their turn in history tried to impose Tyranny on its people and many of those people fled with whatever of their wealth they could carry or cache.

    The world needs to be careful of extra territorial laws. I see in today’s news that Secretary Kerry of the United States is claiming that an alleged terrorist was “lawfully” seized in Libya and transported out of Libya to some point unknown. I wonder whether the Libyan Government consider that the alleged terrorist was “lawfully” seized and transported out of their country – I think not as the Libyan Government is now asking the USA for “clarification” of their action. I have no sympathy for terrorists but I dont condone the abuse of the Sovereignty of nations. I can only ask Secretary Kerry – what the reaction of the United States would be should some other country kidnap someone they sought who was sheltering in the USA. No individual country on earth save perhaps China have the ability to face down the USA in an armed confrontation and things should not be allowed to get to that point. The world needs to save the USA (which has so often been so great a force for good in this world over the last 2 or 3 hundred years) from its own wrongful path. The world needs to stop the encroachment by the USA by standing together and saying NO to FATCA. Please have your referendum and please peacefully stand up for the Dignity and the Sovereignty of Switzerland and say NO to FATCA.

    The US currency is the world reserve currency; this situation needs to change. No country should have the power to be able to print the world currency and so devalue the reserves of all countries.

    The US threatens to withhold 30% of all payments out of the US to institutions that do not sign up for FATCA. Maybe the world who fund Wall Street and US Treasury Bills need to start to pull out their money. Maybe the world needs to mark up the cost of all exports to the USA to cover any such withholding … perhaps the world needs to tell the US to pay their bills in Gold as Charles de Gaulle once did. Perhaps Zurich or Toronto need to become a larger Capital Market to replace Wall Street. If the US (generally considered a benevolent nation to date) threatens to brutally wield such awesome economic power over the world, then perhaps the world needs to communally start to distance themselves from the USA … perhaps the world needs to vote with their feet. Not to be abusive, not to be warlike … but to simply preserve themselves by distancing themselves from what seems to be Tyranny in the making.

    Peace. Let good wisdom guide you.

  18. In the event that there are other Swiss living outside of Switzerland, you are entitled to sign the referendum. In order to do so, you need to be eligible to vote and this eligibility needs to be periodically renewed. I went to the Swiss embassy and they are now registering me again for voting rights. I did this in person though it may be possible to do some or all of this via mail/email.

    Once my voting rights are reinstated, they will be able to validate my signature for the referendum so that I can send it in. Given that some of the cantons can take a month or two to reinstate voting rights or to register new voting rights it’s important to act now so that the end of 100 day referendum period does not preclude you from participating. The 100 day referendum period expires on 16 January 2014.

    If you are Swiss (or might have the sympathetic ear of someone else who is Swiss), links to the referendum form are below:
    http://www.lldc.ch/wa_files/FATCA_20referendumbogen2.pdf (German)
    http://www.lldc.ch/wa_files/referendum_fatca.pdf (French)

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