Next Steps To Stop Trans-Pacific Partnership: Join The Fair Trade Brigade!

By Flush the TPP, www.popularresistance.org

September 27, 2013
Resist!

The Stop Fast Track Action Camp was a huge success in Washington, DC this week. Now it’s time to build on that success!

– CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE FAIR TRADE BRIGADE –

We see many reasons to celebrate again this week. The goals of the Stop Fast Track Action Camp were to bring greater visibility to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track and to encourage others to take action.

On Monday, we dressed as construction workers and climbed the scaffolding next to the office of the US Trade Representative to place four large banners that called for democracy and transparency. It felt great to place these messages right where the secretive negotiations are taking place.

On Tuesday, we gathered in front of the White House and took our 32-foot TPP Express for a whirl through Washington. We circled around the US Trade Representative office, zoomed past the World Bank, zipped by the US chamber of Commerce and landed just short of the Capitol. Along the way, we passed out hundreds of fliers andTPP OccuCards.

Click on the photos to see video from Monday and Tuesday:

Since then, we’ve seen greater media attention to the TPP including being contacted by the Washington Post, the Ed Show on MSNBC and Bill Moyers Media. We’ve also seen more people planning TPP actions and posting them on the Action Map.

– CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE FAIR TRADE BRIGADE –

It took a tremendous amount of teamwork and physical labor to complete these actions successfully. We want to thank the talented team that volunteered four days of their time. Every person was essential to making these actions happen. And we want to thank our incredible trainers, Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign and Steph Cascadia of Rising Tide.

Now it’s time for the next phase, so we want to let you know what the plans are!

On Tuesday, October 1, we begin our focus on Congress with the Fair Trade Brigade. If you can join us in Washington, DC for a Tuesday to be in the brigade, register here. We will have a visible presence, will speak with staffers and will track how members in the House are going to vote on Fast Track.

If you can’t make it to DC, then organize a local Fair Trade Brigade and meet with your member or a staffer to find out how they will vote. Let us know how the meeting goes by contacting Cassidy at Stopfasttrack@flushthetpp.org. We will track the results on FlushtheTPP.org. Our goal is 218 “no” votes.

And for some fun, start planning now for the Halloween TPP Tuesday. The hashtag to promote that is #TPPBagOTricks. We want to know what is inside the TPP because we don’t think it is filled with treats (except for transnational corporations and their investors). We think the TPP is actually pretty spooky and that it fears the light of day.

Be creative. Dress in your Halloween finest and plan an event either focused on your member of Congress (if they still need coaxing) or on your community to educate about the TPP. Share what you are doing with us! We love to hear about what you do!

In fact, you can use your creativity any day to expose the TPP. For example, these folks made a TPP train that ran over democracy, food safety and the environment.