Democract

By Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing - Like its cousin, the Trans Pacific Partnership, TTIP is being negotiated by trade officials and industry reps, without any oversight from elected legislators and without any participation by citizens' groups, environmental groups, or labor groups. And like TPP, it is expected to arrive with Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions that lets offshore corporations sue your government to overturn the democratically enacted environmental, labor and safety laws that undermine their profitability. At a pro-TTIP congress where the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister was promoting the treaty, a flashmob of attendees stood up singly and then in bunches, singing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" a rousing revolutionary song from Les Miserables, as the moderator sputtered with comic ineffectualness into the microphone. It's a hell of a video.