Trade

Obama Puts Congress On Notice: TPP Is Coming

August 14, 2016 Adam Behsudi, www.politico.com Educate! Congress, Obama, TPP, Trade

By Adam Behsudi for Politico. Washington, DC - The White House put Congress on notice Friday morning that it will be sending lawmakers a bill to implement President Barack Obama’s landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement — a move intended to infuse new energy into efforts to ratify the flat-lining trade pact. The move establishes a 30-day minimum before the administration can present the legislation, but the White House is unlikely to do so amid the heated rhetoric of a presidential campaign in which both major party nominees have depicted free trade deals as massive job killers. Friday's notification is the clearest signal yet that the White House is serious about getting Obama’s legacy trade deal — the biggest in U.S. history — passed by the end of the year, as he has vowed to do despite the misgivings of Republican leaders and the outright opposition of a majority of Democrats in Congress.

Hundreds March To Stop The Trans-Pacific Partnership

July 24, 2016 Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Clean Energy, Democrats, Fossil Fuels, TPP, Trade

By Margaret Flowers. Philadelphia, PA - Thousands of people marched in the March for a Clean Energy Revolution on the day prior to the Democratic National Convention. Popular Resistance and members of the Flush the TPP campaign created a bold, bright and spirited "Stop the TPP" contingent to raise awareness of the threats posed by the TPP, put the Democrats on notice that the people oppose rigged corporate deals and to recruit more people to join the No Lame Duck Uprising. The TPP is a large international treaty that was negotiated over the past 7 years by the Obama administration. It was negotiated in secret with the help of hundreds of 'corporate advisers' from companies like Walmart, Monsanto, Pfizer, Exxon and more. Members of Congress were largely left out of the process.

Brussels: TTIP Game Over Actions Stop Negotiations

July 14, 2016 Staff, www.flushthetpp.org Resist! European Union (EU), Trade, TTIP

By Flush the TPP. Brussels, Belgium - As the 14th round of TTIP negotiations commenced, fair trade activists began their 'games' to raise awareness of the anti-democratic nature of the agreement and to slow its progress. Early on, there were actions to 'rebrand' the negotiations, a tactic also known as 'brandalism.' On the first day of negotiations, with the help of the animal kingdom, activists found that the negotiations had been moved. Nevertheless, hundreds of activists succeeded in making a lot of noise outside with a casserole demonstration. Some of the negotiators unwittingly carried the TTIP Game Over message inside.

Uruguay Wins Philip Morris Case, But Regulatory Chill Achieved

July 9, 2016 Staff, www.mercopress.com Educate! health, ISDS, Tobacco, Trade

By Mercopress. “The Uruguayan state has emerged victorious and the tobacco company's claims have been roundly rejected,” Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez said in a televised national address. He was citing a decision by the World Bank's arbitration body, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID. The lawsuit at the World Bank investment disputes center marked the first time a tobacco group had taken on a country in an international court. The world’s biggest tobacco company — whose annual revenues of more than US$80bn across 180 countries far exceed Uruguay’s GDP of US$50bn, claimed that a 2009 anti-tobacco law damaged its intellectual property rights and hit sales.

Why So Secret? Take Action To Stop Trans-Pacific Partnership

June 8, 2016 Flush the TPP, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Obama, TPP, Trade, Transparency

By Flush the TPP. Open government groups and others have been calling for the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to be more transparent about the agreements that it negotiates on behalf of all of us. That seems reasonable, doesn't it? Apparently not. The administration's response to requests for transparency have been to obfuscate. When asked to create a Transparency Officer, the USTR chose its legal counsel, Timothy Reif, the person in charge of defending its secrecy. Members of Congress say that Reif seemed to interpret his new responsibilities as finding ways to avoid being transparent. Last week, in response to a request from last July for Clinton's emails about the TPP negotiations, the State Department suddenly decided that it would not cooperate with the request until after the November election. Hmmmmm....... what are they hiding?

Newsletter: Living In A Post-2011 World

May 7, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Climate Change, Climate Justice, Democracy, Donald Trump, Fight for 15, Hillary Clinton, Pipelines, Student Debt, TPP, Trade

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. The 2016 election has deepened the understanding of how out of step the establishment political parties are with the people of the United States. The parties have reinforced the rationale for the Occupy uprising, and the uprisings on racism, inequality, poverty wages, mistreatment of students and more that have occurred since 2011; and they have increased national consensus on the dysfunction and corruption of government, the unfairness and inequity of the economy and the lack of concern for the environment and climate change.Don't Represent US In order to understand the election's relationship to the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice, we need to understand that the roots of this election come from the uprising of 2011. As Paolo Gerbaudo wrote in ROAR Magazine: "The 2011 protest wave will forever be associated with the slogan 'they don’t represent us' — a clear indictment of the present form of representative politics and the existing political class."

90,000 Protest Obama: ‘Free Love, Not Free Trade’

April 24, 2016 Jon Queally, www.commonmdreams.org Resist! European Union (EU), Obama, Trade, TTIP

By Jon Queally for CommonDreams. Hannover, Germany - On the eve of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Germany on Saturday to voice emphatic opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement (TTIP), a deal they argue benefits global capitalism and corporate elites at the expense of the public good and local democracy. With a 1960′s “Summer of Love” theme informing the march, many participants grooved under banners reading “Freie Liebe – Statt Freihandel” (Free Love – Not Free Trade) as organizers estimated 90,000 people in attendance. With Obama arriving to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday to push for the deal, the expression of dissent in the city of Hannover matches recent reporting explaining how support for the TTIP has fallen on both sides of the Atlantic.

Take Action To Stop The TPP This Year

April 16, 2016 Staff, www.flushthetpp.org Resist! Democracy, Jobs, TPP, Trade, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Flush the TPP. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an international agreement that was negotiated in secret by the Obama administration with the help of hundreds of corporate lawyers from 2009 to 2015. It was signed by the twelve member countries (Australia, Brunei,Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, Vietnam) on February 4, 2016. It must be ratified by the member countries within two years of signing. Currently, Congress does not have the votes to pass TPP legislation. But, the TPP is a high priority for the Obama administration. White House staff and representatives of Big Business, such as the US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and National Association of Manufacturers, are lobbying members of Congress heavily.

Newsletter: The Times Are A-Changing

March 12, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter 2016 Elections, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Climate Change, Drug War, Education, Nuclear Power, Solar Energy, Trade, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Sometimes, when in the midst of transformational change, it is difficult to recognize that it is happening. We are in a transformational moment now. The new political culture that erupted with the occupy movement in 2011, but which has roots going back decades, and its evolution into activism on key fronts of struggle such as wages, racism, trade, militarism, capitalism and other issues, has grown to be so impactful that it is fracturing the two corporate political parties. A lot of change is occurring on many fronts. That should encourage all of us to keep building the movement of movements so we can create the transformation we need.

‘Silk Road’ Revived As First Train Arrives In Iran From China With Goods

February 23, 2016 Staff, www.AFP.com Create! Asia, Middle East, Railroads, Trade

By Staff of AFP - The train, carrying 32 containers of commercial products from eastern Zhejiang province, took 14 days to make the 9,500-kilometre journey through Kazakstan and Turkmenistan. "The arrival of this train in less than 14 days is unprecedented," said the head of the Iranian railway company, Mohsen Pourseyed Aqayi. "The revival of the Silk Road is crucial for the countries on its route," he said at a ceremony at Tehran's rail station attended by the ambassadors of China and Turkmenistan.

Corporations Killed Medicine. Here’s How To Take It Back.

February 17, 2016 Fran Quigley, www.fpif.org Create! Drugs, Finance, health, Labor, Trade

By Fran Quigley for Foreign Policy In Focus and The Nation - Along the path toward the creation of a global capitalist system, some of the most significant steps were taken by the English enclosure movement. Between the 15th to 19th centuries, the rich and the powerful fenced off commonly held land and transformed it into private property. Land switched from a source of subsistence to a source of profit, and small farmers were relegated to wage laborers. In Das Kapital, Marx described the process by coining the term land-grabbing.

Protesters Force Auckland Standstill As TPP Is Signed

February 4, 2016 Staff, www.newstalkzb.co.nz Resist! New Zealand, Nonviolent Action, TPP, Trade

By Newstalk ZB. Auckland, NZ - A contingent of protesters numbering around 1000 gathered at Aotea Square early this morning before marching to the Centre on Federal Street and confronting police with chanted slogans and hakas. The group then split up, blockading several major intersections in central Auckland with sit-ins. Organisers had been told to act peacefully and not to resist arrest. Their aim was to disrupt the area around SkyCity to prevent officials at the signing ceremony from leaving. One group, including veteran activist Sue Bradford, managed to temporarily block access to the Harbour Bridge, though it has since re-opened. Other groups of protesters blocked on- and off-ramps to the southern and northwestern motorways. More people occupied intersections on Wellesley Street and Hobson Street.

International Actions To Stop The TPP

January 31, 2016 Flush the TPP, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Obama, TPP, Trade

By Flush the TPP. On February 4, 2016, President Obama will sign the TransPacific Partnership (TPP). The signing ceremony will be held in Auckland, New Zealand. Following the signing, Congress will still have to pass implementing legislation before the TPP can be put into place. The Obama administration is currently writing that legislation and is expected to send it to Congress as soon as it anticipates having enough votes to pass it. That can happen any time after Obama signs the TPP. The TPP implementing legislation could be sent to Congress as early as February 5 and as late as after the elections in the fall. It all depends on when Obama and leadership believe they have the votes.

Newsletter: Why Protests Will Continue To Grow

January 16, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, #FightFor15, Black Lives Matter (BLM), China, Climate Change, COP21, Corporatism, Democracy, Economic inequality, Empire, Environment, FERC, Finance and the Economy, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Iraq, Jobs, militarism, Necessity defense, oligarchy, Poverty, Russia, Solar Energy, Stratfor, Syria, TPP, Trade, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. This week the reason that there are a growing protest movement and growing disenchantment with government was put on display. The divergence between government and reality was thrust in our faces. The entire government came together, Members of Congress, the Cabinet, military leaders, the Supreme Court, Vice President and President (minus the 'selected survivor' in case the Capitol was attacked, the head of Homeland Security) to hear the State of the Union. The choreographed self-praise of people who will spend $5 billion this year of mostly big business money to get re-elected was evident from the moment the door was opened. Hugs and kisses, backslapping all around, required applause as the President approached the podium, more staged applause when he was introduced and then, as if they were trained, dozens of standing ovations on cue – 89 times in a 58-minute speech the President was applauded.

International Corporate Courts Make Billions for Corps

January 16, 2016 Nick Mathiason and Claire Provost, www.thebureauinvestigates.com Educate! Trade, Trade Tribunals. Corporations

By Nick Mathiason and Claire Provost for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism - When, in June 2011, indigenous Peruvian farmers attempted to take over a regional airport in the southern province of Chucuito, security forces opened fire. Six protestors were killed and 30 more wounded. Farmers said they were driven to this deadly protest by fears they would be thrown off their land and that water supplies could be polluted if a proposed silver mine in the remote mountains near Lake Titicaca went ahead. The deaths triggered further violence. Fearing complete social breakdown, the Peruvian government cancelled the Santa Ana mining concession given to Bear Creek, a little known Canadian mining firm.

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