Published on Monday, September 23, 2013 by Common Dreams
‘Flush the TPP!’: Protesters Scale Trade Building in Protest of Secretive Deal
Ongoing protests seek to drag ‘destructive’ trade deals into the light
(Photo provided by protest organizers)Protesters scaled the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday and dropped banners calling for greater transparency and an end to “corporatocracy” over the ongoing and secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement currently in the works between the United States and several Pacific nations.
Those negotiations, which have been brokered entirely behind closed doors, are certain to put corporate profits ahead of both human rights and environmental concerns, opponents of the pact have argued.
Today’s banner drop comes as part of a series of actions that started with a rally on Friday outside of the trade office and will continue throughout the next several days.
Groups involved in the ongoing protests include FlushTheTPP.org, CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Earth First!, Communications Workers of America, Friends of the Earth, Food and Water Watch and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.
“Regulating Wall Street is what we need. It’s time to flush the TPP,” Melinda St. Louis, international campaigns director for Public Citizen, said to the crowd on Friday as she stood in front of a large cardboard-constructed roll of toilet paper labeled the TPP Death Star.
“Protecting workers is what we need,” she said.
“Americans cannot afford another back-room deal that offshores manufacturing and service jobs, reduces tax revenues and pushes down wages and benefits in the jobs that remain,” Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign said Friday. “Unless exposed to the light of day and real public participation, the TPP is poised to enrich corporate interests at the expense of the economy, the environment and public health at home and abroad.”
While the U.S. public and the press have been locked out of TPP meetings, corporate “trade advisers” have participated and been given copies of the agreement.
President Barack Obama announced Thursday he will push fast-track legislation, otherwise known as Trade Promotion Authority, which will allow him to push through trade agreements while taking away congressional powers to amend.
“This is the grand-daddy of trade deals, a very destructive project, and it is happening completely under the radar,” Chris Townsend, political director for United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), told Common Dreams on Friday.
Watch below for an interview with Public Citizen’s Melinda St. Louis at the protest on Friday.
(Photo provided by protest organizers)
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Great post Leen61, very Informational they’re hiding so much from the public.
Damn right they’re hiding this — they have known all along that if we peons knew about it we would do everything in our power to ensure it was defeated! What the hell is wrong with our elected employees that they refuse to do what is fair for everyone? Don’t answer that … they’re doing all this b/c they don’t want to share the wealth!
Pwr 2 the POOR peons!
GUILLOTINE GREED!
Yes they are, llip. I posted this so the info gets out there. The people must know how bad this is.
TPP: Terrorize People for Profit, is that the right group ?
What my Sis said! 🙂
That what it should be called, JT.