We Can Still Defeat TPP

 “When the inexcusable and anti-democratic veil of secrecy surrounding the TPP is finally lifted, and the American people see what is actually in the agreement, they are going to force their representatives in Washington to vote that deal down.”                    Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen

We lost the Fast Track fight, (because of the 13 traitorous Senate Democrats above who sided with Republicans to end debate) but TPP is far from a done deal. Once the text is released, Congress will be debating it for 90 days and the ugly truth the "corporate trade advisors" have been hiding for years will be in open view.  

TPP's unprecedented secrecy
The little we know about TPP, is thanks to Wikileaks. Members of Congress have only recently been able to see portions of the text and are not allowed to take notes, copy pages or even talk about what they read!

We will not be able to see TPP's negotiating texts until four years after it is passed, or is voted down. With TISA we will not be able to see them for five years. What are they hiding?

It is already clear from leaked texts that this is not just a trade deal (only 5 chapters out of 29 are specifically about trade) but it is rather a global power grab by multinational corporations intent on profits at the expense of the earth and our rights. 

Here is what corporate tyranny looks like
I think most Americans would shudder at the thought that multinational corporations could sue US taxpayers for laws and policies that a corporation says could reduce their "expected future profits". Under the ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) provision of TPP, these cases would be decided by international tribunals and the judges would be corporate lawyers whose decision would be final. No US court could override them! 

Want clean air, safe food, drinkable water, fair working conditions, labels on GMOs, fracking bans, or bank regulations to prevent another 2008 economic meltdown? TPP will give foreign corporations the right to retaliate against any such laws or regulations and sue us for billions of dollars. Think it can't happen? Unfortunately, under NAFTA and other trade agreements, corporations are already suing nations and winning ($3.5 billion has been paid out and another $14.7 billion in corporate suits are awaiting decision). TPP goes a step further than granting corporations personhood- it makes them more powerful than countries. It gives them nationhood!

"In a threat to our sovereignty and solvency, the TPP would expand the scope of policies that could be attacked. And, there would be 15,000 new foreign corporations empowered by TPP to attack US laws." Expose the TPP 


To me this is the most egregious part of TPP, but there are many other disastrous results of TPP passing- the loss of millions of American jobs (hard for us to compete with Vietnam wages at 29 cents an hour), a race to the bottom for wages and worker safety, increased costs for medicines (Big Pharma made sure patents on drugs would be extended and generics will be at risk), loss of internet freedom,  the end of Buy American policies, the forced importation of foods that do not meet our safety standards, increased environmentally destructive fracking (see the video below) and more. 



The unbridled corporate greed of "Free Trade", or a "Fair Trade" bright future? 
The good news is that a slumbering America has been awakened! Environmental groups, workers, family farmers, internet freedom advocates, people of faith and organizations for food safety and public health have all come together to fight this corporate takeover. It's about time that we started to marshal all our forces to restore democracy and to protect what is dear to us and makes America great. 

This is just the beginning of a movement to create a new paradigm of trade that protects our earth and ensures our basic human rights- our ability to live in freedom, safety and dignity. Fair Trade lifts all people to a better standard of living and ensures a viable and sustainable future for all of our children. 

TPP and its partners TISA* (Trade in Services Agreement) and TTIP (the European version of TPP) do just the opposite. They benefit the very few, the plutocratic elite, at the expense of the rest of us. This unholy triumvirate would make our lives less safe, more polluted, miserable and eventually unlivable as measures to deal with climate change would be seen as barriers to trade. We are already seeing the effects from NAFTA and TPP is NAFTA on steroids.

Expect more of this w/ #TPP House scraps meat labeling under threat of retaliation http://t.co/TAtvOZV4gL #StopTPP pic.twitter.com/j9zVmDjP8N

— Barbara Upton (@upton1144) June 30, 2015

So let's roll up our sleeves and "Get to work!" as Ed Schultz of MSNBC says. By the way, he deserves kudos for being practically the only journalist who has covered these terrible, plutocratic deals from the beginning. We need to exert more pressure for others to follow his lead.


There are many organizations leading this fight- join them! Public Citizen, Flush the TPP, Progressive Democrats of America- TPP Media March, MoveOn, Sierra Club and more. 

Remember, Fast Track only won in the House by two votes- we can defeat final passage of TPP there. Pledge to keep up the fight here! We can do this. We have to do this!

*Please note this article "Leaked TISA Documents Reveal Privacy Threat" was in Forbes magazine -  hardly a bastion of left-wing thinking. It's time for the "left" and "right" to come together on this! We have to go beyond labels to save our democracy. 

What You Don't Know about the TPP Will Hurt You!

From TPP March on the Media Like them on Facebook! (photos added)

Our demonstration in front of Congressman Gibson's office in September

 

If you have not heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal you are not alone. However, the fact that the TPP is not making headlines in mainstream news is no accident. The deal is being negotiated with such a degree of secrecy, not even members of the US Congress have been allowed to see the full draft.

What we do know about the TTP from leaked documents on Public Citizen is truly frightening. If the public knew what 600 corporate representatives were negotiating behind closed doors, there would surely be such a global outburst of protest, it would make the ground shake.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal has provisions that would: 

     Force the US (and other member countries) to import and sell unsafe food products
     Creates “State-owned enterprises”
     Cause 90 percent of Americans to take a pay cut
     Raise the cost of prescription drugs and reduce access to medicines
     Eliminate nearly all oversight on the banking industry
     Ship millions of US jobs overseas
     Limit free speech through new intellectual property rights laws
     Eliminate most internet privacy rights
     Create corporate owned “investor states”
     Give foreign countries the right to sue the United States for “loss of expected profits”
     Exempt foreign companies from US laws including, environmental, land use,banking,      
       public safety and health, food safety and labor, among others.

In an essay called “What’s the matter with NAFTA,” Elaine Bernard of Harvard Law quoted

Michael Walker, an economist with the right-wing Fraser Institute in Canada, as saying, "A trade agreement simply limits the extent to which the U.S. or other signatory governments may respond to pressure from their citizens.”

The plain translation of Mr. Walker’s words spell the end of freedom and democracy as we know it. If government is more bound to a trade deal than “pressure from their citizens” then the US Constitution is essentially null and void.

To put this in perspective, let’s say a TPP nation wants to drill an oil well in a residential neighborhood that has laws that don’t allow oil drilling. Under TPP, the company can drill there anyway because not drilling in that particular spot, represents a loss of expected profits.

That same company also does not have to comply with local environmental laws for the same reason. Additionally, if they happen to kill the last animal of its kind, or add cancer-causing pollution to the drinking water supply, that’s okay, too, under the TPP. Spending money to operate without polluting cuts into their profits.

If local citizens protest because their neighborhood is being ruined and their children are dying from pollution-related diseases, it won’t matter. The TPP gives companies the right to ignore the laws of sovereign nations. The businesses would even have the right to file a lawsuit to recoup any profits they may not collect. If they win their case in a foreign tribunal, US taxpayers will have to pay the corporation for their “losses.”

 

While the above is an over-simplified, hypothetical example, it does provide an idea of just how dangerous this pseudo-trade deal really is and why the people negotiating it want to keep the details secret. 

As The Guardian explains, “The TPP is an effort to use the holy grail of free trade to impose conditions and override domestic laws in a way that would be almost impossible if the proposed measures had to go through the normal legislative process. The expectation is that by lining up powerful corporate interests, the governments will be able to ram this new “free trade” pact through legislatures on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.”

The “New World Order” will no longer be a conspiracy theory if the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes law. By design, this trade deal is a huge step toward creating a One World fascist government that has complete control over every form of life on the planet.
Some 40 percent of the global economy will fall under the control of corporate interests with the TPP deal. In addition to the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam will have the right to violate the laws of sovereign nations.

For generations, wealthy elitist have been manipulating governments and laws like a global Ponzi scheme. One step at a time, working-class people have been convinced to surrender their rights to the more powerful, under the guise of economic benefits for themselves.
In fact, there is little historical or modern-day evidence to suggest that the rich have ever had any intention of sharing their wealth with the poor.

Why Citizens United matters so much
In 2010, corporations were declared “people” by the US Supreme Court. The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision opened the floodgates of corruption that have since poisoned US elections and the legislative process. It allowed millionaires and billionaires to spend an unlimited amount of money to create false or misleading ads to influence the minds of voters. That money filled the seats of congress with radical freshmen that pledge their allegiance only to the corporate lobbyists’ flag. The American public is barely an afterthought for the Citizens United Congress.

Had the Citizens United decision gone the other way, the world might not be on the brink of the New World Order that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will bring. But that’s not what happened and it would be naïve to think that all those election “investors” are not expecting a return on their money.

The wealthy elites want the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it’s good for them, not you. And that’s why the negotiations are being conducted in secret. The public is not supposed to know how badly they are being sold out until it’s too late.
If you live in America and you want to try to stop the TPP, tell your elected representative to deny President Obama “fast track authority” for trade agreements. 

Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202 224-3121 and ask to speak to your representatives.

Dec 3- International; Day of Action against TPP- a Toxic Trade Deal

  From flushthetpp.org

Call To Action: December 3, International Day of Action Against Toxic Trade Agreements

Join the International Call to End the WTO and Stop the New Wave of Free Trade Agreements on December 3^rd, the first day of the World Trade Organization meetings in Doha, Qatar. The Doha meeting will be followed by a 20^th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) meetings in Kyodo, Singapore. Negotiations for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TAFTA) are also underway.
All of these trade agreements share the same fundamental principle that profits are more important than the health and needs of people and the planet. They are destroying local economies and public infrastructure in order to establish a global neo-liberal economic system that privatizes all goods and services. These agreements grant transnational corporations the power to change laws even down to the local level and challenge court decisions in their own tribunal that operates outside of sovereign judicial systems and cannot be challenged by domestic courts.
On December 3, we call on all allies for fair trade, peace and justice to gather in a public space at noon and declare global resistance to these toxic trade agreements. We will not obey secret deals made by transnational corporations that defy public interests and desires and destroy hard-won protections of people, workers and the environment. We demand the rights of all people to live with dignity, to meet their basic needs and to build a 21^st century sustainable green economy.

• We are acting in solidarity with people all over the world to end the race to the bottom in jobs and wages.
• We respect the right to have a job with a living wage and safe working conditions.
• We want 21^st century jobs that build a sustainable green energy economy.

Communities in the United States are starting to pass resolutions to declare that they will not obey trade agreements that cause harm to their communities. To learn how you can do the same in your community, visit “Declare Your Community a TPP-Free Zone.”
To participate in the international day of action:

1. Endorse the Call to End the WTO and Stop the New Wave of Free Trade Agreements by contacting Mary Lou Malig of La Via Campesina – Asia at marylouisemalig@gmail.com.
2. Register your action with Flush the TPP by contacting Cassidy at StopFastTrack@FlushtheTPP.org.
3. Find tools for your day of action at FlushtheTPP.org/tools.
4. Share photos, videos and reports about your day of action with Flush the TPP by contacting Margaret at FlushtheTPP@popularresistance.org.

TPP (The Terrible Plutocratic Plan) in the News

From William Rivers Pitt, TPP in the USA Is Why We Occupy, Truthout:

"The trade pact known as the Trans Pacific Partnership is wending its way to existence with the express approval and muscular push of the Obama administration. This has been happening for a while now, and almost entirely in secret, because if people knew what it entailed, they might, you know, Occupy.

Let's see...TPP favors banks over people, companies over workplace safety and the environment, coal and oil over alternative energy sources, major agribusinesses over local farmers and local produce, the absolute end of "Buy American," as well as the end of laws protecting even the most anemic minimum wage, product safety...and here's the best part: if corporations feel like governments are encroaching on corporate power and "rights" in these matters, they can sue those governments in specially-created tribunals. NAFTA has similar tribunals that have levied hundreds of millions of dollars in fines; under TPP, the rights of corporations to sue for "damages" is massively expanded.

TPP is the point of why Occupy came to exist in the first place, the distilled essence. If this deal happens, it will be the final triumph of the legal fiction known as "corporate personhood," the fraud that gives your 14th Amendment rights to a faceless, unassailable company with billions in assets and the will to use them in our already-septic political system. With this "trade" pact, they will be able to stretch those rights globally, nationally, regionally, locally, and literally right down your throat.
It sounds like a bad Batman plot. It isn't. The president thinks it's a fine idea.

Occupy.

While you still can."

From an OpEd by David Brodwin in US News and World Report:

"Many provisions of TPP have little to do with trade per se. They simply promote the interests of powerful global industry groups and use legal and political mechanisms to limit true competition in the market place. For example:

• Provisions of SOPA, the so-called "Stop Online Piracy Act" which was rejected last year by Congress. SOPA would give a competitive advantage to the film industry and other content-creators while restricting innovation on the internet.
• Provisions that would extend patent protection on pharmaceuticals while restricting governments from negotiating lower prices.
• Provisions that would privilege major banks and financial institutions over credit unions and the emerging sector of public banks.
• Provisions that would disadvantage organic farmers and others who adopt safer and more environmentally-sound agricultural practices.
• Provisions that would extend the dominance of coal and oil and hinder alternative energy producers, by blocking regulations and limiting deployment of smart grid and other infrastructure.

An OpEd from Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club and James Hoffa, president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters- calling for fair trade not free trade. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/323167-trade-is-good-when-its-fair-

Please call your elected officials today and say "No Fast Track for TPP"! Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202 224-3121. Tell President Obama what you think of his attempt to push this through Congress without debate- 202 456-1111. Sign the petition-

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-dont-renew-fast

Most Americans now see what a bad deal NAFTA was for American workers- A May 2012 Angus Reid Public Opinion poll found that U.S. respondents who believe that the country should “renegotiate” or “leave” NAFTA outnumbered by nearly 4-to-1 those that say the U.S. should “continue to be a member” of NAFTA (53% vs.15%). Support for the “leave” or “renegotiate”positions dominated among Republicans, Independents and Democrats alike. 

TPP is NAFTA on steroids. Public opposition has stopped 15 bad trade deals in the past. We can stop this one too. Keep Faith!

Our Sept 17 Action at Congressman Gibson's Kingston, NY office
TPP Opposition Growing and What You Can Do
TPP the Global Monsanto Protection Act

Rally to Tell Congressman Gibson- No Fast Track for TPP!

We had a great rally in front of Congressman Gibson's Kingston office today. About 40 people from all over the Hudson Valley came to register their opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The TPP has been negotiated by multinationals secretly for over three years and it threatens our jobs, food safety, environment, sovereignty and our very democracy. Read more: http://www.clearstreammedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/tpp-opposition-growing-and-what-you-can.html
http://hv4nogmos.blogspot.com/2013/09/tpp-global-monsanto-protection-act.html

Thank you to all who came from near and far! Thanks too to Dutchess County Legislator, Joel Tyner for his interactive rap which was very entertaining!

We have stopped bad treaties before and if we can stop Fast Track for TPP, we can stop this one too. Call your elected representatives (Capitol Switchboard- 202 224-3121) and say "No Fast Track for TPP!" If you haven't yet, send your email to ClearStreamMedia@gmail.com to receive updates.

A copy of the letter signed by 40 at the rally and delivered to the Congressman's office is below.

Ulster County MoveOn Council
New Paltz Women in Black
PO Box 955
New Paltz, NY 12561

September 17, 2013

Representative Chris Gibson
Congressman of the 19th District of New York
721 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401

Dear Congressman Gibson:

Subject: No Fast Track for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Many of your constituents are upset to hear some of the details that have been leaked about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The fact that 600 "advisers" from multinational corporations and financial institutions have been meeting behind closed doors for over three years to negotiate this treaty already casts serious doubts on what is being proposed in our names.

We find it interesting that the former trade adviser for the US, Ron Kirk, said if the American people knew what was in this treaty they would rise up in opposition and it would never pass. We agree. Here is brief summary of the parts we find most egregious.

• The TPP would set up foreign tribunals to challenge national, state and local government laws that corporations say would hurt their future profits. Already under NAFTA and WTO, such lawsuits are increasing. The US has lost 95% of them. This could result in a huge transfer of taxpayer money to corporations already experiencing record profits, but even worse, it would have a chilling effect on any government's ability to pass laws for the environment, public health and public safety. Unbelievably, the "judges" in these tribunals would be corporate attorneys and their decisions final. This is a description of corporate tyranny. http://www.flushthetpp.org/
• Under the TPP,  there would be a mad rush to off-shore millions more American jobs to countries where labor is most exploited and environmental regulations the laxest, accelerating a global race to the bottom in wages, benefits and working conditions and worsening climate change.
• The TPP would "harmonize" food safety standards.
  "That means all countries that sign on to the agreement would be required to abide by the lowest common denominator standards of all participating governments. So, for instance, if Vietnam were to allow for higher residues of veterinary antibiotics in seafood than the U.S. allows and Vietnam and the U.S. both sign on to the TPP as trade partners, the U.S. could be forced to lower its standards to allow for imports of seafood from Vietnam or face a lawsuit by the seafood exporter for depriving the company of future sales of its products in the U.S." http://www.alternet.org/food/secret-trade-agreements-threaten-food-safety
• The costs of medicine will increase under TPP as patents are extended for big pharmaceutical companies and there are fewer generics.
• Internet freedom under TPP. "would have extensive negative ramifications for users’ freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process, and hinder peoples' abilities to innovate". https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
• The TPP would undo the already too weak regulations of Wall Street setting us up for more and even worse financial crashes.
• TPP would ban "Buy American" procurement policies.

The Obama administration is pushing for the Fast Track of TPP, which would only allow Congress to make an up or down vote without requiring an airing of the provisions of TPP through public hearings, or allowing Congress to make any amendments. It is the responsibility of Congress to review and amend treaties. We ask that you not cede this power to the Executive Branch, which we see as a clear violation of separation of powers and antithetical to the spirit of our Constitution. We are asking you to pledge NO to the Fast Tracking of TPP.

We find it shocking that few in Congress have even been able to read the text of the TPP. Rep Alan Grayson was allowed to and he said it is "a punch in the face to the middle class" and added he was not able to even talk about what is in it!

We support Fair Trade that raises standards and protects American workers, the environment, public health and public safety. We ask you to stand up for democracy, for US sovereignty and for your constituents and reject the Fast Tracking of a secret deal that benefits the 1% at the expense of people and the planet.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Signed by 40 attending today's rally 

and here is a photo gallery of other No TPP events. On the second anniversary of OWS, stopping the fast track of TPP was front and center! http://www.popularresistance.org/photo-gallery-from-s17-ows-anniversary/  
http://www.flushthetpp.org/video-were-stopping-fast-track-and-the-tpp

TPP Opposition Growing and What You Can Do

We are starting to see the explosion of opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) that was expected given the radical and sweeping new powers it gives to multinationals over governments, people and  the earth.

From the AFL-CIO, "Corporations are trying to hijack a trade agreement that is currently being negotiated in secret. It's called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and if they're successful, they'll have a say in everything from your rights at work to the prices of your prescriptions and safety of your child’s toys. Working families around the world are going to be affected by the outcome of this legislation". Read their article "Do You Know What TPP Is? You Should. It's Going to Affect You." and sign their petition.

Even Mayor Bloomberg got in  the act this week with an Op Ed in the New York Times excoriating Obama for caving to the tobacco industry in the TPP. As many now know the TPP gives corporations the right to sue governments if they pass health and public safety laws the corporations feel could interfere with future profits. They could sue nations, states and municipalities for millions (this is already happening under NAFTA- and over $13 billion in suits are pending).

The big difference with TPP is that the "judges" who would decide these cases are corporate attorneys. You cannot make this stuff up.

So if a nation, a state or locality passes a fracking ban, a corporation like  Halliburton could come in and sue them for millions because the ban would lessen their future profits. Labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be revoked saying such labels erected "trade barriers".

In the beginning, the one thing corporations could not sue nations for was their anti-smoking policies. An exception was made because even they had to admit tobacco is uniquely lethal. But tobacco cried and everyone caved and that "safe haven" has been removed.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said that legal challenges against a country’s anti-smoking policies will now be allowed and then he went on to say "it was an important step forward for public health." Say what?! As Mayor Bloomberg correctly states this new stipulation in the TPP will result in more dying from smoking- in fact he says one billion will die of tobacco use by the end of the century if nothing is done.

Bloomberg adds the TPP "that sells out our national commitment to public health, and forfeits our sovereign authority over our tobacco laws, does not merit the support of Mr. Obama; of the Senate, which would have to ratify it; or of the American people"

I'm glad Bloomberg weighed in, but his focus was a very narrow one. Here is a more inclusive article from Jim Hightower "The Trans Pacific Partnership- Corporate Coup d'Etat against Us" He includes a list  of "TPP’s provisos that would make our daily lives riskier, poorer, and less free".

Obama is trying to push Fast Track for the TPP that would effectively make Congress a rubber stamp for a deal done by the multinationals. Congress would have to pass it without any amendments and with little debate. Saying NO to the Fast Track of TPP is the most important step we can take right now to derail this destructive deal.

    Expect many more suits like this one by Syngenta and Bayer if the TPP goes through.  It is not an exaggeration to say it would end life as we have known it and overtime it would end life...period. 

Actions and Things You Can Do:
Sept 3 - rallies in front of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand's offices in NYC- telling them to vote NO Fast Track for TPP

Also, please call them and Rep Gibson and tell them all- "Do not give up your constitutional duty to review and amend trade treaties- NO Fast Track for TPP!" Capitol Switchboard 202 224-3121 . Tell President Obama what you think of his attempt to pass this without debate -  tell him to end the secrecy. White House comment line 202 456-1111.

Sept 17- actions everywhere to expose TPP and say No to Fast Track for TPP. There will be one in the Hudson Valley-stay tuned!

Sign this petition and PLEASE share it! If we get 30,000 names we will get more national support from MoveOn which is needed!
 

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-dont-renew-fast

Thank you to the 35-40 who joined us last Sunday for our Teach-In on the TPP. We will stay in touch! If you want to be a part of the local NO TPP Team please send your email to: ClearStreamMedia@gmail.com Thank you! Together we will stop this.