JOIN THE RALLY TO STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AMERICA
WHEN: Tuesday, October 1
TIME: Noon
WHERE: In Front of the Federal Building (Nancy Pelosi’s office in SF)
We’ll Demand Transparency for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Oppose it Being Fast Tracked. This is NAFTA on Steroids!
HOW TO GET THERE: BART is one of many ways – From Central Contra Costa’s Walnut Creek station, for example, take the 10:50 train and sit in the front car. It’s approximately 5 minutes between stations. Get off at Civic Center and walk along Market to the Bay. At 7th St. turn right and go to the corner of 7th and Mission.
Clicking either one of these links will give you more information and help us plan.
Click here to RSVP to join us at the Walnut Creek BART station to take the 10:50 train to San Francisco: http://civic.moveon.org/event/moveonaction/140017
Click here to RSVP to join us at the rally in San Francisco: http://civic.moveon.org/event/moveonaction/140023
Here are some of the gains we’ve made to protect people and the environment in America starting with FDR’s New Deal–all of which will be in jeopardy if the TPP goes through:
Clean air, clean water, and pure food standards
Workplace safety protections such as OSHA
Minimum wage laws
Strong labor unions (to the extent we still have some)
Outlawing of dangerous chemicals such as DDT and Dioxin
Forbidding mining and development in wilderness areas and National Parks
Regulation of climate-changing greenhouse gases
Any potential GMO labeling requirements
Regulation of fracking
Availability of inexpensive generic drugs
Regulation of advertising and forbidding sales of tobacco and alcohol to minors
The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a new international trade agreement being negotiated in the greatest secrecy ever, by the U.S. and eleven foreign governments, overseen by 600 corporate lawyers–but the public and Congress have been excluded.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
So far, the TPP has been drafted with an unprecedented degree of secrecy. While information has been kept from the public more than 600 corporate advisers have access to the treaty’s text – including companies such as Halliburton, Monsanto, Walmart, and Chevron. The Obama administration has kept the TPP classified, making it the first-ever classification of a trade agreement. In addition to denying public access to its text, the president has urged Congress to use Fast Track to pass the treaty. Fast Track would limit congressional consideration of the text to a quick up or down vote and give President Obama the power to sign and negotiate the treaty. This turns the Constitution on its head as the Commerce Clause authorizes Congress to “regulate commerce among nations” not the president.”
The protesters join Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN), Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), and many others who are opposing Fast Track and calling for the text’s immediate release. Earlier this summer, Rep. Grayson stated that, “this, more than anything, shows the abuse of the classified information system,” calling the treaty an “assault on democratic government.” Sen. Warren noted in her letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, “if transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States.” Groups of Republicans and Democrats are beginning to speak out against Fast Track, the lack of transparency and the TPP. Just as the war against Syria was stopped by a cross-partisan coalition, such a coalition can stop the TPP. Indeed 14 trade agreements have not become law in the last ten years preventing countries from reaching agreement. Check this out to see a huge action in Washington DC. http://truth-out.org/news/item/19021-protesters-take-over-us-trade-rep-building-expose-secret-negotiations