All photos by Cassidy Regan
Shame on You, John Delaney!
Germantown, MD – It has been one month since Fast Track passed through US Congress. Now we are starting a mass mobilization effort to stop the TransPacific Partnership (TPP). One part of the effort to Stop the TPP is to hold members of Congress accountable, by birddogging them wherever they go and challenging them in upcoming elections. Already, this has been happening across the country.
On July 16 a small group from Communication Workers of America (CWA), FlushtheTPP, and Popular Resistance protested Congressman John Delaney’s vote to Fast Track the TPP at a community forum. See the video here: filmed and edited by Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins.
Shame on You, John Delaney!
Congressman John Delaney (D-MD) was the only member of Congress from Maryland who voted to pass Fast Track in the final votes (Sen. Ben Cardin voted for it in committee). Fast Track, which became law, means that Congress gave up its responsibility to oversee international treaties and gave that power to the White House. This power could last for the next 6 years.
If you want to contact John Delaney to tell him to drop his support for these treaties, call 202 225 2721 or you can contact his Chief of Staff, Justin Schall, at justin.schall@mail.house.gov.
Fast Track has been used in the past to rush large trade deals like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO) through Congress without adequate oversight. As a result, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost from the US as multinational corporations moved their manufacturing bases to countries that engage in human trafficking and wage slavery. Past deals have also taken away environmental protections, allowing these corporations and big investors to profit from further extraction of dangerous minerals and fossil fuels. These deals have been critical to the creation of global corporate imperialism and it all could get much worse under “trade” treaties that are currently being negotiated like the TPP, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).
These three treaties will further deregulate financial institutions (increasing the risk of economic crashes), will increase the US trade deficit, will drive greater privatization of land, water, resources and public services and will drive the global race to the bottom in wages, worker rights, access to health care, food safety, Internet freedom and more. The treaties end Buy America preferences and inhibit the building of local economies. The international trade tribunal being established will prevent governments at the national, state and local levels from passing laws to protect public health and safety and the planet. Taken together, these treaties will fundamentally alter the global balance of power away from people and governments and give it to transnational corporations.
With Fast Track passed in the US Congress, the Obama administration is rushing to complete the first of these deals, the TPP. The next, and possibly last, ministerial meeting of the TPP is coming up at the end of July in Hawaii. If Obama and the global 1% get their way, the TPP will come to the US Congress for a vote under Fast Track this fall or winter. Popular Resistance, FlushtheTPP and others are organizing for a mass mobilization when the TPP comes. Click here to take the TPP Action Pledge.
To learn more visit FlushtheTPP.org and PopularResistance.org or contact Mackenzie@PopularResistance.org to get involved.
