TPP

Over 100 Legal Scholars Warn About TPP Dangers

March 14, 2015 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Congress, Free Trade, Law, TPP

Over 100 law professors sent an open letter to Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) saying they need to “protect the rule of law and the nation’s sovereignty” in trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While TPP is still secret, leaks and precedent indicate that it will contain provisions allowing giant, multinational corporations to bypass our country’s legal system. These provisions will allow these multinational corporations to sue governments, including ours, in “corporate courts” if they decide to pass laws and regulations that restrain the profits of these giant corporations, such as efforts to help citizens quit smoking.

Fast Track: We’re Winning, Phony Group Created, Repubs Say No

March 12, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! fast track, TPP

People across the political spectrum are recognizing that past claims about trade and jobs have been false and it is more accurate to call these agreements "job-killing trade agreements." As the Coalition for Prosperous America writes: "While it's been too slow, the country is now beginning to see that the deals they supported in the past have not produced the growth and job creation that were promised. America was lied to. The promotional trade treaty arguments of today are simply re-runs of past arguments that turned out to be false." Reuters reports: “Nearly 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs — one in four — have been lost since NAFTA and the various post-NAFTA expansion deals were enacted through fast track.” And, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports: 3 out of 5 displaced workers who found a job are earning less money and one-third took a pay cut of 20% or more.

Stop The Fast Track To A Future Of Global Corporate Rule

March 12, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Corporatism, fast track, TAFTA, TPP, TTIP

Several major international agreements are under negotiation which would greatly empower multinational corporations and the World Economic Forum is promoting a new model of global governance that creates a hybrid government-corporate structure. Humankind is proceeding on a path to global corporate rule where transnational corporations would not just influence public policy, they would write the policies and vote on them. The power of nation-states and people to determine their futures would be weakened in a system of corporate rule. The Obama administration has been negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) over the past five years, is currently pushing Congress to pass trade promotion authority (known as fast track) which would allow him to sign these agreements before they go to Congress. Then Congress would have a limited time to read thousands of pages of technical legal language, debate the contents and be banned from making amendments.

Unions To Fight Trade Pact By Freezing Political Donations

March 11, 2015 Melanie Trottman, www.wsj.com Resist! Capitalism, Free Trade, Labor Unions, Neo-Liberalism, TPP

Dozens of major labor unions plan to freeze campaign contributions to members of Congress to pressure them to oppose fast-track trade legislation sought by President Barack Obama , according to labor officials. The move is part of the unions’ campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which the Obama administration is negotiating with 11 nations around the Pacific Ocean. The unions worry the trade agreement could send more jobs to low-wage countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia. Unions have opposed the TPP through demonstrations, letters to lawmakers and political ads, but withholding political contributions is a more forceful way of flexing their muscle. In the 2014 midterm elections, unions—the lifeblood of the Democratic Party—contributed about $65 million from their political-action committee, or PACs, to candidates, nearly all Democrats.

Newsletter: At A Critical Juncture, Rise Up!

March 7, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Civil Rights, climate crisis, Corporatism, fast track, police brutality, Racism, TPP

We are at a critical juncture in world history. We live in a globalized world. That is the reality. But at present, it is a world that is increasingly dominated by multi-national corporations and big finance capital that controls national policies. The result of this system is exploitation of people and the planet and the use of the security state to oppress those who resist or to gather resources. William Dalrymple reminds us of the serious consequences that can result from such an arrangement in his article about the East India Company. It is up to us to rise together and fight back, to resist the expansion of corporate power and to build new systems that are more democratic, just and sustainable. We are with you in this struggle. People power, applied strategically, can succeed.

Movement Launches Nationwide Actions Opposing Pacific Trade Deal

March 7, 2015 Occupy, www.occupy.com Resist! Democracy, fast track, Free Trade, TPP

These trade agreements are structured solely in the interest of corporate gain. The TPP and Fast Track are bringing together odd bedfellows like in Spokane, Wash., where Tea Party members and Occupiers are coming together in opposition. Eleanor Goldfield, a musician with Rooftop Revolutionaries and activist with the Rolling Rebellion, says passage of the TPP and Fast Track would “turn corporate personhood into corporate nationhood by creating international court systems and trade tribunals that allow corporations to challenge laws enacted by countries in the interest of public health, safety and justice.” With this sovereignty, corporations would hold sway over nearly every facet of our lives, from food to Internet access. As Julian Assange wrote, “If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

Anti-Fast-Track Momentum Builds

March 7, 2015 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Democracy, fast track, TPP, Trade

Fast track is a process under which Congress agrees to bypass its duty to define, consider, debate and approve trade deals. Fast track limits discussion and debate and gives Congress only 90 days in which to bring the deal up for a vote. It is a rigged process designed to ensure that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, the “history’s largest trade deal“, is pushed through Congress before the public has time to fully analyze, understand and consider its ramifications and organize opposition if opposition is warranted. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has said that negotiations on a new fast-track trade promotion authority bill are “stuck” and no bill will be introduced before April. On the one hand this is a good sign; there is enough opposition that they are holding back the bill. On the other hand, this could mean that the bill will be introduced with a very short time for legislators to consider its full implications before having to vote on it.

Act Out!: Internet Mobilizes & Wins; TPP Next

March 5, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! fast track, FCC, Net Neutrality, TPP

Act Out! is a new video series we will be highlighting on Popular Resistance. It has been created by musician, activist and author Eleanor Goldfield and appears on the Occupy.com YouTube channel. In this first installment of Act Out!, Eleanor Goldfield takes on a sprawling corporate trade deal and celebrates the national movement that's mobilizing to protect the Internet from corporate interests. Breaking down the Trans-Pacific Partnership, she highlights the work being done by activists around the country – and shows ways that you can get involved, whether through a phone call, a meme or a late night adventure. In recognition of the recent historic victory of people power vs. corporate power in the FCC decision, Eleanor showcases some of the diverse and creative ways that groups worked to raise awareness and defend Net Neutrality, including dance parties, hand puppets, projections – and showing the award-winning documentary Killswitch. From tweets to marching in the streets, this is Act Out! Episode 1.

Fast-Track Trade Bill Unlikely To Come To Congress Before April

March 4, 2015 Krista Hughes, www.reuters.com Resist! fast track, Law, Senate, TPP, Trade

The chairman of the U.S. Senate committee responsible for trade said on Tuesday it is unlikely that a fast-track trade bill will come before lawmakers for consideration before April. Senator Hatch had hoped to introduce Fast Track last week, then this week while the Obama administration said they hoped it would be passed in March. Protests have been mounting. Popular Resistance is holding a “Toast-In” to emphasize his career is toast if he co-sponsors Fast Track because 73% of Oregonians oppose Fast Track. "It does not look like it will come up before April at this point because of all the work that has to be done on budget and such in March," Republican Orrin Hatch said, in reply to a question about when the bill would fit in the legislative calendar. The panel's top Democrat, Ron Wyden, said negotiators are continuing to find common ground.

Desperate Obama Administration Deceives On Fast Track & TPP

March 3, 2015 Yves Smith, www.nakedcapitalism.com Educate! Elizabeth Warren, Free Trade, TPP

The Massachusetts senator has come out forcefully against the misleadingly named trade deals, the TransPacific Partnership and its ugly sister, the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Mind you, these treaties are not about trade. Trade is already substantially liberalized and in keeping, only five of the 29 chapters of the TransPacific Partnership deal with tariffs. What these pacts are primarily intended to do is strengthen intellectual property laws to help US software and entertainment companies, along with Big Pharma, increase their hefty profits, and to aid multinational by permitting the greatly increased use of secret, conflict-ridden arbitration panels that allow foreign investors to sue governments over laws that they contend reduced potential future profits. I am not making that up.

Join The ‘Toast-In’ To Stop Fast Track!

March 1, 2015 Mackenzie McDonald, www.popularresistance.org Resist! fast track, TPP

The Toast in: From Tuesday (March 3) through Thursday (March 5), 11AM-5PM, we will sit in Wyden's office with plates of toast, signs that look like toast, toast memes, a giant piece of toast, a toaster in the office, and more! We are just developing these ideas so let us know if you have other thoughts. Ideally we will have two or more people in his office at all times for these three days, making our presence felt. It is his D.C. office at 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. If you can participate please email info@popularresistance.org with the dates and times that you are available and what you prefer (how much time, which days, etc) your preferred email and your phone number, and any comments or concerns. If you can't join us in person, call his office during the Toast-In and encourage others to do the same. Forward this message widely so we can fill up his office!

Why US Food Is More Dangerous Than Food In Europe

March 1, 2015 Alison Rose Levy, www.alternet.org Educate! Foods, Free Trade, Precautionary principle, TAFTA, TPP, TTIP

A speaker at an event I recently attended asked why U.S. food companies put butylated hydroxyltoluene, a food preservative and endocrine disruptor, in cereal sold stateside, while in Europe the same companies formulate the same product without BHT. There are three answers to that question: The European Union prohibits numerous harmful ingredients U.S. regulatory agencies allow. Well-informed European citizens have organized and pushed for those regulations. U.S. citizens have not yet pushed for such regulations in sufficient numbers. The precautionary principle is an approach to risk management which places the burden of proof to demonstrate a product or ingredient's safety on the corporations that produces the product— prior to releasing it to the public. Over the last few decades, the U.S. has become lax with this approach while Europe proceeds with a greater amount of caution. But that contrast may not survive efforts by the U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and multinational corporations, which are currently negotiating super trade treaties behind closed doors.

Newsletter: When People Mobilize, We Can Win

February 28, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Cove Point, fast track, FCC Internet, Fracking, Gas, Gas export, Net Neutrality, Reclassification, TPP, Trade

This week was a busy one for Popular Resistance as three key campaigns had major updates. The success of the ten-month campaign to reclassify the Internet as a common carrier under Title II of the Federal Communications Act to ensure net neutrality has been widely reported. While widely reported, not all the reports described how the movement actually achieved it or what it means. We held a three-day sit-in at Senator Ron Wyden’s office. We are focused on Wyden because he is negotiating with Senator Orrin Hatch on Fast Track legislation. If Wyden joins with Hatch he will provide cover to other Democrats by making this a bi-partisan bill. The campaign to save Cove Point from a Dominion Resources fracked gas export terminal had a major event this week when 24 people went on trial.

Nurses Sound A Code Blue In D.C. On Fast Track & TPP

February 28, 2015 National Nurses United, www.nationalnursesunited.org Resist! Free Trade, NAFTA, Protest, TPP

With the White House and some of the biggest multinational corporations lobbying Congress to “fast track" the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries, National Nurses United today converged on the nation’s capital to explain that what’s good for investors’ balance sheets is not necessarily good for patients. “Nurses are patient advocates—and by extension advocates of our patients’ families and our communities—and we are here to sound a Code Blue on fast track,” said RN Deborah Burger, a member of the NNU’s Council of Presidents. “While there are many good reasons to reject fast track, the nation’s registered nurses are particularly concerned about these trade agreements’ threats to public health and safety.”

Congress Ready To Introduce Fast Track: Act Now

February 28, 2015 Maira Sutton, www.eff.org Resist! Congress, Free Trade, Law, TPP

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are stalling while the White House assures its trading partners that this secret trade agreement won't be amended when it comes back to Congress for ratification after the President signs the deal. That's why the Executive is scrambling to get its allies in Congress to pass Fast Track. If they succeed, the U.S. Trade Representative can block remaining opportunities for the examination of the TPP's provisions by lawmakers who could ensure that this secret deal does not contain expansive copyright rules that would lock the U.S. into broken copyright rules that are already in bad need of reform. The Fast Track bill is likely going to be introduced as early as next week—so it's time to speak out now. Congress needs to hear from their constituents that we expect them to hold the White House accountable for the TPP's restrictive digital policies.

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