Activism Opportunity in Seattle: Rally to Prevent Another NAFTA!
Come to the TPP Cross Border Event to learn about the next big trade and investment agreement. Peace Arch Park (on the Border between Washington State & British Colombia), 1:00 PM, December 1. There buses coming from Portland -- check out the links if you need transportation.
Today's "free trade agreements" are no longer really about dropping tariffs--that's already been done by the WTO and prior FTAs. They are about promoting offshore investment, giving multi-national corporations a larger voice in government policies, limiting regulations, increasing the monopoly power of drug companies, unshackling Wall Street, and generally promoting the neoliberal economic agenda. This is not "no" to trade, it's "no" to GE, Cargill, Citibank, Pfizer, and Caterpillar writing the rules.
More information can be found here:
http://tppxborder.org/
http://www.facebook.com/TPPxBorder
http://twitter.com/tppxborder
Background on the TPP:
The TPP FTA is a proposed trade agreement between the U.S. and ten other Pacific Rim countries (Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam). Japan and Thailand have also expressed interest in joining.
The administration has called this FTA a "new model." However, there are few indications that the substance of the agreement will differ in a significant, positive way from past trade agreements based on the NAFTA model -- meaning it is not clear how this will be an agreement for the 99% instead of the 1%. It is not evident that the “new model” includes the major changes that labor and progressive groups have been advocating for more than a decade.
While the Administration touts the TPP as a job-creating enterprise, it has not commissioned a job impacts study to be done by the International Trade Commission. The Administration has provided no information as to how the TPP specifically will promote manufacturing more effectively than US trade policy has done for the past 20 years (during which time we have lost almost 700,000 jobs to NAFTA and more than 2.7 million to China after its entry into the WTO).
A major difference from past trade agreements is that a completed TPP would allow new countries to join, or "dock-on," at any time. This dock-on aspect could be one of the most critical of the entire agreement, as it would allow any country in the world to join the agreement at a later date. This includes China. It is also not yet clear whether the agreement will ensure that an up or down vote in Congress will take place for each new entrant (for example, new entrants can join the WTO without such a vote). But it does mean that the rules set down by the TPP could be the last rules ever negotiated by the US--and rules that favor the 1% will guide all future trade expansion. Thus, it is CRITICAL to get this agreement right!!
Negotiations for the TPP are closed to the public, and the text of the agreement remains classified. The press has largely ignored the negotiations, even when they have happened on American soil. The American public seems largely unaware and un-engaged in the process.
Are you interested in engaging? In helping to tell the Administration that this agreement MUST be different than the corporate-centric agreements of the past? If so, contact the organizers at the links above or PM me. We need YOUR help to raise the profile on this agreement and make sure it works for workers worldwide.
Take the first step by signing the petition here:
http://act.aflcio.org/c/18/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=4617
Please spread the word! 
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Have problems with NAFTA? Concerns about the WTO? Learn about the new Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (aka the "TPP"
and tell the world NO MORE NAFTAs!!
Rally and Teach-In (lunch included) at Peace Arch Park on the International Border Saturday, Dec. 1 at 1:00 PM.
More info here: http://tppxborder.org/
Organized or Endorsed by:
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3937, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW), Backbone Campaign, Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC), Common Frontiers, Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ), Community to Community, Council of Canadians, Global Exchange, Institute for Policy Studies: Global Economy Project, International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 751, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46, Newground Social Investment, OpenMedia, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, Philippine-US Solidarity Organization (PUSO), Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, Seattle Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Sierra Club, Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21, Washington Community Action Network, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE-AFSCME) Local 443, Washington State Labor Council, Witness for Peace Northwest