The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an Assault on Democracy That Will Undermine the Economy

[limpyhobbler]

Ron Kirk former US Trade Representative: making the text public would raise such opposition that it could make the deal impossible to sign.

By Kevin Zeese

There is a battle building between the people of the planet and transnational corporations. The battleground is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is a battle the people can win if we act in solidarity.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a global corporate coup that makes corporations more powerful than governments and undermines our national sovereignty. While the public and media are not allowed to see the text, and members of Congress only receive limited, heavily restricted access, 600 corporations have been advising the president and suggesting amendments as they have full access to the documents. This includes some of America’s worst corporate citizens: Monsanto, Walmart, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Phiser and big Pharma, Cargill, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron among them.
...

Some members of Congress are making their way through the bureaucratic process that allows them to see the text, but does not allow their staff to do so, nor does it allow elected officials to make copies, take notes with paper or computer; and they are not allowed to share it with their constituents. It took Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) six weeks of negotiation with the US Trade Representative to finally got to review the text on June 17th. He was only allowed to see an edited version of the text and was not allowed to bring any staff with him.

Grayson told the Huffington Post that the Obama administration classifies the documents to prevent discussion of the contents, “They maintain that the text is classified information. And I get clearance because I’m a member of Congress, but now they tell me that they don’t want me to talk to anybody about it because if I did, I’d be releasing classified information.”
...

http://www.popularresistance.org/the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-an-assault-on-democracy-that-will-undermine-the-economy/

[marmar]

1. k/r

[DJ13]

2. Another K&R for more eyeballs

[Doctor_J]

3. Another in a long line of assaults over the last 25 years

Democracy has battered spouse syndrome at this point.

[rhett o rick]

4. The Revolution is waiting for the spark. nm

[Fuddnik]

5. Our new National Anthem will be "Serfin' USA". If this abomination passes.

And it will.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. Some politicians are going to get very wealthy over this.

[delrem]

7. It isn't "Free Trade" if the deal is kept secret from the workers, the citizens. nt

[Populist_Prole]

8. Yeah it's typical benign sounding keywords plutocrats use to put a spin on it

Just like "Right to Work"

Only right wing ideologues are fooled though. That's why they have to craft this stuff behind closed doors.

[delrem]

9. It wasn't always crafted behind closed doors.

What's changed?
Why are the Dems doing it? If the Dems do it, the Reps will do it even more, so why isn't anyone minding the store?

[Populist_Prole]

11. Not always crafted, but "fast track" voting has been around for a good while

And it has the same effect. Having our representitives getting the bum's rush and voting something up-down without seeing details is just as bad.

What's changed? The plutocrats are bolder: flush from getting their way so absolutely and for so long.

[delrem]

12. How come there's no opposition?

Isn't opposition necessary in a democracy?
The US only has 2 viable parties and they differ only regarding matters of sexual mores. To be sure those are important differences, but when those are the only differences there's effectively a dictatorship. Why do US citizens passively accept such a dictatorship? (I'm not a US citizen, if you hadn't guessed).

[AzDar]

10. K & R

[dmr]

13. "global corporate coup" That scares me! Where's the outrage?

[treestar]

14. Since we don't know what is in it, how do we know all this about it?

[limpyhobbler]

16. 1) Leaks 2) Clues from Members of Congress 3) Deductive reasoning. nt

[treestar]

17. That's not necessarily an objective picture

And clearly it cannot be implemented without the final agreement being known.

I don't see that negotiating it in secret is really going to do all that harm. If we don't like the final product, we can say so when it comes out.

[limpyhobbler]

18. We want to know what's in it now so we can expose it, to derail it.

Last edited Sat Jun 22, 2013, 12:08 PM - Edit history (2)

Keeping it a secret makes it harder to fight against it. That is the point of the secrecy.

It's hard to fight against a secret law.

Obama is a huge whore for the multi-national corporations. This "trade deal" is one of many ways he is stabbing us in the back.

[treestar]

19. There are no secret laws

They are just negotiating it in secret. Heck you don't even know what it is to make the judgment it must be "derailed," but it can be when it is finally published.

[limpyhobbler]

20. Obama is a fan of secret laws and secret deals to screw the American people.

Whether it's the NSA using a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act, or history's biggest transfer of power to multi-national corporations, the plan is the same. Keep the workings of government hidden from the American people so they have no grounds to complain.

You say secrecy is not a problem. Then in your next breath you say there are no grounds to complain because the thing is secret. The reason for the secrecy is precisely to prevent people from complaining.

We have a right to exercise democracy over major decisions about the direction of the country. But with both parties in agreement on this issue, we effectively have no power over this. The transfer of power out of the democratic sphere and into the realm of business-corporate authority continues unabated.

The corporations and their government whores are trying to fast track the TPP deal through in secret. We don't need to wait for the final deal to be published to know it's a raw deal for people. The problem is not with any particular detail of the thing - the problem is the thing itself. No more raw deals. No more NAFTA's. No more WTO's. No more trade pacts with China. It's bad for workers, bad for the environment, bad for consumers, bad for human rights, and is fundamentally anti-democratic. The Neo-Liberal attack on democracy will continue until people organize and block it.

[treestar]

21. there are several countries negotiating that treaty

All of those countries' current leaders must be as bad as Obama, no?

It's not going to be a secret. The final product will not be a secret. It can then be protested as loudly as you please.

Then it will be debated, changed, etc.

[limpyhobbler]

22. Every one of the countries has a people's movement to stop the Neo-Liberal Attack.

Except where such movements are banned by law.

People in each of these countries recognize the Neo-Liberal agenda is to transfer power away from people, even away from governments, to the stateless corporations.

People recognize the TPP is a theft of economic and political power. The latest in a long line of such thefts.

Screw the Neo-Liberal attack on the people. Anybody who supports this shit or defends the secrecy in negotiations is a rat faced skunk.

For the last time: People do not need to wait until the corporations have finished their secret negotiations. We have more than enough information to know this is a shit deal for the American people, and in fact for the great mass of people in all the affected countries.

[treestar]

23. Then keep protesting it

No one stops you from protesting the secret negotiations, or what is likely to be in the negotiations, and when the agreement is finished, no one is stopped from protesting that too.

US, Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam

All of those countries and their leaders are part of this big conspiracy?

[limpyhobbler]

24. Also please note: The corporations are the ones doing the negotiations. It's not a secret from them.

Multi-national corporations are in the negotiations and fully lobbying and paying the politicians.

The process is not secret for them. But it's a secret from the people. Even mostly a secret from Congress.

Corporations are inside - the people are locked out.

If you're trying to to frame opposition to the TPP as a "conspiracy theory", forget about it. Anybody can see what's going on here.

Ask yourself this: Why do we need a Trans-Pacific Partnership right now? Who's pushing it and why? Do you believe politicians' explanations for why they are selling this crap?

In case you missed this, you may be interested: Elizabeth Warren: If people knew what was going on, they would stop it .

[treestar]

25. How can this treaty become one the US abides by

without it eventually being shown to Congress?

Corporations can't make a US treaty. Only the government can do that.

[limpyhobbler]

28. That's weird because the corporations are the ones running the negotiations and

telling their government whores exactly what to do. Why it's almost as if we've undergone some kind of corporate coup d'état.

How can anybody in Congress pretend to read thousands of pages of international trade rules? Where would they find the time between their busy schedules of whoring themselves out for corporate money?

mysteries indeed

[bemildred]

15. This is another reason all this "secrecy" stuff has to stop.

It's fraud, essentially, selling something under false pretenses.

[SamKnause]

26. TPP

Yes it is an assault on democracy.

Yes it will undermine the economy.

It isn't referred to as NAFTA on steroids for nothing.

The kicker is there is not a damn thing we can do about it.

If the corporations want it, and you know they do, they will get it !!!!

The Supreme Court has repeatedly made it perfectly clear that corporations will be protected and pampered at all costs.

The House and Congress are owned by the lobbyists representing the needs and wants of the corporations.

The White House is filled with corporate shills.

Alan Grayson, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders versus all branches of government and a rigged system.

It certainly gives epic battle a new meaning.

[HooptieWagon]

27. I don't have to be Nostradamus...

...to predict that TPP is gonna be real bad for workers, Main Street, and the enviroment.