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Trade

Newsletter: When People Mobilize, We Can Win

February 28, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , ,
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.

Urgent Action: Tell Sen. Wyden To Oppose Fast Track

February 26, 2015 Margaret Flowers, www.flushthetpp.org , ,
This week, we are occupying Sen. Ron Wyden’s office in Washington, DC to remind him that the people want him to oppose Fast Track and the TPP. Senator Wyden is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee which is where fast track legislation would be introduced. The chair, Sen. Orrin Hatch, is pushing Wyden to join him in introducing a fast track bill. The pressure is working! Last week, people all across OR told Sen. Wyden through rallies, teach-ins and a bus tour that they oppose fast track and the TPP. A new poll found that 62% of OR voters are opposed to the TPP and 73% oppose fast track. We’ve been in Wyden’s office for three days (since he returned to Washington).

Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz To Speak At TPP Forum

February 22, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
Today, the purpose of trade agreements is different. Tariffs around the world are already low. The focus has shifted to “nontariff barriers,” and the most important of these — for the corporate interests pushing agreements — are regulations. Huge multinational corporations complain that inconsistent regulations make business costly. But most of the regulations, even if they are imperfect, are there for a reason: to protect workers, consumers, the economy and the environment. What’s more, those regulations were often put in place by governments responding to the democratic demands of their citizens. Trade agreements’ new boosters euphemistically claim that they are simply after regulatory harmonization, a clean-sounding phrase that implies an innocent plan to promote efficiency. One could, of course, get regulatory harmonization by strengthening regulations to the highest standards everywhere. But when corporations call for harmonization, what they really mean is a race to the bottom. Corporations want a world before the recent financial crisis that brought some regulation to banks. They want to go back to the era before the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act so protection of the environment does not undermine their profits. President Obama and Republican leaders are trying again to push Fast Track trade authority. This Wednesday come here Stiglitz talk about where the global trade situation is now.

Newsletter: Transforming Fundamental Power Inequities

February 21, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Most of the Popular Resistance team is in Cove Point, Maryland right now. Almost all are very likely to go to jail for several weeks after Monday's hearing for our efforts to stop the Dominion fracked gas export terminal at Cove Point. You can donate to the campaign here. Stopping this terminal is the key to stopping fracking on the east coast. The Calvert Commissioners have made a charade out of democracy. The government in Calvert County has kept the facts from the public. Before letting the public know of the plan to build the terminal they entered into a secrecy agreement with Dominion so the public has been kept in the dark. In the first hearing on the terminal, the County Attorney wrote the agenda: take public testimony, close the record and vote for the proposal. The proposal was for massive tax breaks for Dominion and waiver of zoning requirements. The latter turned out to be unconstitutional. Protests and civil resistance are the only avenues left to stop the Dominion terminal. This is literally a life and death situation for a community of 44,000 people; hundreds, probably more than a thousand lives, will be shortened and diseases that are not common now, will become common.

Newsletter: The Contagion Of Courage

February 14, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
When our colleagues take brave actions, others are inspired. George Lakey describes how courage develops in movements. He lists some key ingredients to overcome fear: people working in community to empower each other, envisioning a successful action and spreading the contagion of courage. Lakey describes courage as each of us expanding beyond our comfort zones and adds that our training for actions should include opportunities to step outside our comfort zone. He suggests we need to view the rapid heartbeat and adrenalin during an action not as fear, but as excitement. Envisioning the whole story - where the story starts, the action being taken and its successful impact - emboldens us and calms our fears of uncertainty. We learn courage in community because courage is contagious.

Top Democrat Denied Access To Trade Deals

February 14, 2015 Dana Liebelson, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , ,
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, wants to view an unredacted copy of the proposed text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP). He wants to bring his chief of staff, who has a top security clearance, and he wants to be able to take notes privately. He also wants to review documents that show the position of each country participating in the agreements, as well how the U.S. position has changed over the course of the negotiations. In a letter this week, Doggett accused Michael Froman, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), of avoiding his requests since January. "USTR has provided no legal justification for denying such Member and staff review," wrote Doggett. The text of TPP is treated as a state secret -- to a degree. Access to TPP texts is limited to members of Congress and staffers on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee who have an official security clearance. Hundreds of corporate lobbyists and executives are also given access . . .

Rapid Response To Stop Fast Track And The TPP

February 13, 2015 Staff, www.popularesistance.org , ,
We need to organize quickly. President Obama and the new Congress are moving to pass Fast Track legislation which will permit the President to sign secret trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) before Congress sees them and restrict Congress from determining what impacts the TPP will have on our health, economy, communities and the planet. We know what previous trade agreements like NAFTA have done to outsource jobs and lower wages, block efforts to protect public health and increase our deficit. The TPP is a whole new breed. We call it "NAFTA on steroids." The reason the TPP has been negotiated in secret and is being pushed through Congress in this unconstitutional and undemocratic way is because it contains provisions that will give corporations even more power to determine our laws even down to the local level and remove our power to fight back. We aren't going to let that happen. We are working with our allies across the continent to stop Fast Track and the TPP.

Will New York City Be The Next ‘TPP-Free Zone’?

February 12, 2015 Stephanie Buhle, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
On Thursday Council Member Helen Rosenthal introduced a new resolution that opposes the President’s “fast-track” authority over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and declares New York City a “TPP-Free Zone.” The TPP, a free trade agreement being secretly negotiated between the United States federal government and eleven other Pacific Rim countries, will “eliminate tariffs and other barriers to goods and services trade and investment” among these countries. However leaked texts and news reports show that the TPP would significantly alter the balance of international power, reduce national, state and city sovereignty, and negatively impact domestic businesses, environmental and labor protections, food sanitation standards, and free access to the internet and low-cost medications.

Mobilized & Winning, Now It’s Time to Escalate

January 30, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
Since the President’s State of the Union message where he announced his plan to push corporate trade agreements and seek Fast Track trade promotion authority, the movement against Fast Track, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and globalized trade has grown. Instead of the bump in support that Obama expected after the State of the Union, opposition has increased inside Congress and in the grass roots. This week Senator Grassley saidthat currently they don’t have 60 votes in support of Fast Track and therefore it could not pass a filibuster. If Wyden demands that Congress sees the text of the TPP and has true involvement in the negotiations before they are finalized, then he and Hatch will not reach agreement and the Republicans will have to go it alone. In the House there are even more challenges for Fast Track. Chuck Porcari of the Communication Workers (CWA) writes: “House Speaker John Boehner has said that the White House needs to deliver at least 50 House Democrats if Fast Track has any hopes of passing, especially now that the White House is trying to whip together 80 Democrats in the House and New Democrat Coalition is trying to cobble together at most 40 votes. . . . According to a story by Inside U.S. Trade, ‘one informed source questioned whether the New Democrats actually have an idea of which lawmakers will provide the 40 ‘yes’ votes they are seeking.’”

Activists Disrupt Hearing Over Fast Track For TPP

January 27, 2015 Cassidy Regan, www.popularrresistance.org , , ,
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman was greeted with protest at Tuesday's Senate and House Hearings on Capitol Hill, as people raised concerns about the President's trade agenda and "Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority. Activists with signs and banners chanting "No TPP!" and "No Fast Track!" were escorted from the Senate Finance Committee hearing room shortly after the U.S. Trade Representative took the microphone. The legislation, which Obama requested from both parties during last week's State of the Union address, would limit congressional oversight of the Administration's free trade agreements and is widely opposed by hundreds of environmental, labor, public health, food safety, and faith groups nationwide.

Environmentalists Reject Obama’s Call For Expanded Trade Powers

January 24, 2015 Zach Carter, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , ,
Nearly 50 environmentalist organizations sent a letter Wednesday to every member of Congress, urging them to oppose granting President Barack Obama "fast-track" authority to pass new free trade deals. The letter, signed by the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and dozens of other groups, comes the morning after Obama pressed for that power in his State of the Union address. "Today’s trade agreements … are about much more than tariffs and quotas and have significant implications for our environment, public health, and global climate," the letter reads, drawing attention to "rules that would grant foreign corporations the right to sue governments, in private tribunals, over environmental, public health, and other laws and policies that corporations allege reduce the value of their investment."

Wake Up While There’s Still Time To Stop TPP

January 22, 2015 AbFeldman, www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight , , ,
Redacted Tonight explains the hard-to-digest Trans Pacific Partnership in a hilariously informative way that urges people to wake up and stop the TPP before it’s too late. Comedian Abby Feldman takes to the streets of Washington, DC, desperately trying to warn passersby of the secrecy, lack of congressional oversight, impending loss of sovereignty, and potential for serious damage that TPP poses - all while struggling to stay awake. We must act quickly to stop this global corporate coup that will control our laws to protect ourselves and our communities. An emergency protest is being held in New York City on Monday, January 26 at noon at the Sheraton on 7th Ave. and 53rd St. Click here for the Facebook event page. And we have created a rapid response team for actions.

Newsletter: Breaking The Spell Of The Corporate State

January 10, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The democracy crisis grows deeper. Analysis of the mid-term elections shows voting levels lower than the era of Andrew Jackson, when the requirement of owning property to vote was removed. People are rejecting both political parties as 42% of Americans are registered independents compared to 30% Democrats and 25% Republicans. Nozomi Hayase writes people are breaking the spell of the corporate state, recognizing the elites who govern are not smarter than the rest of us, that they fit the characteristics of psychopaths for their endless war, debt-ponzi schemes and that the ongoing financial crisis exposes their agenda of hoarding wealth for themselves. At the same time Hayase writes: “Civil disobedience against the corporate state demands that we disobey their commands and instead begin listening to our hearts that know what is right and wrong.”

Politics Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership

January 4, 2015 Andrew Levine, www.counterpunch.org , ,
There are signs too that there is increasing awareness that the declining fortunes of the vast majority are not just contingent side effects of neoliberal, “pro-growth,” economic policies that Democrats would reform away if only Republicans wouldn’t stop them. These policies are what neoliberalism is about, and promoting neoliberalism is what politicians these days do. Even within the Democratic base, the realization is dawning that Democrats, though not quite as blatant as Republicans, are just as culpable. They too do what their paymasters demand. It is also becoming harder than ever to deny that the trade policies that some Democrats, along with Republicans, have championed since the Bill Clinton days are a root cause of the discontent now rising to the surface. Despite the drivel emanating out of the White House, “free trade” is emphatically not good for nearly everybody. Quite the contrary, nearly everybody is now on to what neoliberal trade policies do.

China’s New Silk Road Threatens US Imperialism

January 1, 2015 Pepe Escobar, www.salon.com , , , ,
November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9th. Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain. Today, 90% of the global container trade still travels by ocean, and that’s what Beijing plans to change. Its embryonic, still relatively slow New Silk Road represents its first breakthrough in what is bound to be an overland trans-continental container trade revolution.
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