Create a TPP-Free Zone where you live!

Taking to the streets in
Madison WI to derail fast-track
and the TPP

Don’t let the Trans-Pacific Partnership take away our democratic rights as individuals and as a community. Now is the time to organize to create a "TPP-Free Zone" in your town, city, or county.

If you are not yet familiar with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now is the time to find out. TPP is a massive trade pact being negotiated between the United States and 12 or more Pacific Rim countries including Japan. It is being written by and for the transnational corporate elite and is cloaked in extreme secrecy. No member of Congress has been allowed to participate in the negotiations, yet President Obama wants Congress to approve the TPP under Fast Track authority which would only allow for an up or down vote on this corporate-negotiated trade deal.

Like other free trade agreements, TPP’s provisions will trump local, state and federal laws and regulations whenever they interfere with “free” trade—free, that is, for corporations, but very costly for the rest of us. Like with NAFTA and CAFTA, the TPP’s investor provisions would privilege the “right” to profit—even the right to anticipated future profits—over democratic decision-making.

From leaked text and previous trade agreements, it is clear that the TPP would --
•  Undermine financial industry regulations needed to prevent another meltdown
•  Restrict free use of the internet
•  Greatly expand copyright protection
•  Dismantle “Buy Local” and “Buy American” preferences which promote local business
•  Restrict use of cheaper generic drugs
•  Challenge food safety regulations including GMO labeling
•  Delay action on climate change, if not prevent it outright
•  Prevent government limits on the export of fracked natural gas, as well as coal and water
•  Allow the U.S. and countries to be sued by foreign corporations for lost profits as a result of laws and regulations, even those protecting health and the environment

Yet, labor, environmental, health care, internet/free press, climate justice, green energy and democracy organizations have been excluded from the negotiations. They cannot see the text, nor comment on it despite the impact of the TPP on all these issues.

We know that most members of Congress are bought lock, stock and barrel by the corporations and Wall Street. So while we must  raise our voices against Congress agreeing to  fast track the TPP,  we must not end our advocacy at their doorstep. We must take our resistance to a world ruled of,  for and by the corporations right to our doorstep, right to where we live. We must assert our right to self-governance, to a nation of, for and by the people.

How can we do this? Many communities across the country have passed rights-based laws, establishing their right to self-governance, asserting their right to a clean and safe environment, establishing the rights of nature to thrive as ecosystems, and denying corporations the right to use the US Constitution or state constitutions to challenge these fundamental rights.

Now it is time to assert our right to a local economy, free of rules negotiated in secret, without our consent, by transnational corporations for their own benefit.  It is time to say we will not abide by decisions reached by secret trade tribunals which will impact our health and safety when we do not even have a right to be represented. It is time to pass local laws to create TPP Free Zones.

It is time to build a democratic movement of resistance.  It is time to start right where we live, in our own community.  It is time to say to President Obama and to the corporations which are sitting at the negotiating table

“If you, our unelected representatives, create this corporate-driven monstrosity and then go to Congress and get a rubber stamp, WE WILL NOT OBEY.”

We will be following in the footsteps of the successful resistance to an earlier trade agreement, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. This was the first global mobilization against a proposed trade agreement and an important part of the campaign was organizing locally.  In the U.S. and Canada, some municipalities declared themselves to be MAI Free Zones.  The MAI was defeated in 1998.

We must organize to defeat the TPP and if it is not defeated, then we can do no other than say “We will not obey.”

For information on creating a TPP-Free Zone, see this page on the AfD website.

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Info on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Jessica Desvarieux of The Real News talks to Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch about why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not about traditional trade regulations such as tariffs, but all about expanding corporate rights and privileges. Learn about the few sections of the TPP that have been leaked to the public, why negotiations and content of the agreement are being kept secret, and what a signed agreement would mean for food safety, internet freedom, drug costs, and other basic components of public health and economic justice.

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A postcard call to action on TPP

The Alliance's Portland chapter has produced a short and to-the-point postcard handout with info and actions to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you're organizing on this issue, you will want to have these to encourage people to take action against any upcoming attempt to reauthorize Fast Track, and to demand that the text of the agreement be made public.

The ultimate goal? Democratically-determined trade policies that protect local economies and the rights of people and nature.

There is more info on TPP, including video and other printable resources, on our website.

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Worth reading: How the TransPacific Partnership undermines democracy

Here's a very comprehensive rundown on what we know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a monster trade deal that involves nearly a dozen nations on both sides of the Pacific. Authors Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese note that from NAFTA on, international trade deals have led to job loss and economic disruption, and warn readers to beware any talk of Congressional "Trade Promotion Authority," the euphemism that the Obama Administration, which is pushing this deal, has seized on to avoid the now toxic term "Fast Track."

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What you need to know about Fast Track Authority

As part of the push to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President Obama has now stated that he will ask Congress for Fast Track Authority (FTA). Fast Track Authority was first granted to President Ford (first proposed by President Nixon but he resigned prior to congressional approval) and has been used to enact almost every Free Trade Agreement since. Note that FTA is not required nor requested to enact traditional trade agreements which deal with tariffs and quotas; but because of the complexity of Free Trade Agreements, FTA is seen as required to enact Free Trade Agreements. A distinguishing characteristic of these agreements is that they largely involve non-tariff issues.

FTA allows the president to enter into and sign free trade agreements prior to any congressional approval. These agreements become law when the president signs them.  For all other laws, congress must give its approval first and then when the president signs, it becomes law. FTA turns that standard democratic process on its head.

Under FTA, Congress is not allowed to be part of the negotiations. After the negotiations are completed and the agreement has received the presidential signature, the implementing legislation, which includes changes to American law necessitated by the agreement, is presented to first the House for their vote and then to the Senate for their vote. Neither chamber is allowed to make any changes to the implementing legislation. Both chambers are required to vote within 90 days of the presidential presentation of the implementing legislation.

Such rigid timelines for congressional approval means that neither Congress nor the public have adequate time to read and analyze these enormously complicated detailed agreements, agreements which will have significant impacts on labor public health the environment agriculture, financial regulation and more. And these rigid timelines are imposed on congress in spite of the fact that the president (and the corporate lobbyists) will have spend years negotiating the agreement.

Democracy demands that congress not delegate its constitutional responsibility to negotiate trade agreements to the president. Such delegation is a major power grab on the part of the president. We need to demand that congress not approve Fast Track Authority.

There is an excellent e-book from Public Citizen called The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Authority.  This is what it says about the provisions/timeline of FTA:

Core Aspects of Fast Track Trade-Authority Delegation

• Allowed the executive branch to select countries for, set the substance of, negotiate and then sign trade agreements – all before Congress had a vote on the matter.
• Required the executive branch to notify Congress 90 calendar days before signing and entering into an agreement. 127
• Empowered the executive branch to write lengthy implementing legislation for each pact on its own, without committee mark ups. That is to say, the process circumvented normal congressional processes. These executive-authored bills altered wide swaths of U.S. law to conform domestic policy to each agreement's requirements, and formally adopted the agreement texts as U.S. law. As a concession to congressional decorum, the executive branch agreed to participate in "non" or "mock" hearings and markups of the legislation by the trade committees. However, this is a practice, not a requirement. In 2008, President Bush chose to ignore this practice and exercise the president's Fast Track right to force a vote on an agreement by submitting it without informal agreement on timing or mock mark ups, despite congressional leaders' objections to the pact's submission at that time. 128 
• Once the executive branch transferred such a bill, the agreement itself, and various supporting materials to Congress, the House and Senate were required to vote on the implementing legislation and the attached agreement within 90 legislative days.
• Such bills were automatically referred to the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees. (In the 2002 Fast Track bill, the House and Senate Agriculture committees also got a formal referral). However, if a committee failed to report out the bill within 45 legislative days from when the president submitted the legislation to Congress, the bill was automatically discharged to the floor for a vote.
• A House floor vote was required no later than 15 legislative days after the bill was reported or discharged from committee. Thus, within 60 legislative days, the House was required to vote on whatever agreement the president had signed, and whatever legislation changing U.S. laws he had written to implement the package.
• The Finance Committee was allowed an additional 15 days after the House vote, at which time the bill was automatically discharged to the Senate floor for a vote required within 15 legislative days.
• The floor votes in both the House and Senate were highly privileged. Normal congressional floor procedures were waived, including Senate unanimous consent, debate and cloture rules, and no amendments were allowed. Debate was limited to 20 hours – even in the Senate.
• Once the president provided Congress with notice of his intent to sign an agreement, he was authorized to sign after 90 calendar days. However, there was no mandatory timeline for him to submit formal implementing legislation and start the 90-legislative day vote clock. Thus, an agreement's legal text finalized just minutes before the delegation authority expired could be sent to Congress even years later.
• Once a president submitted an agreement under Fast Track, that agreement's Fast Track treatment was "used up." If Congress adjourned before the mandatory vote clock ran out or if Congress voted against the agreement, Fast Track for that agreement expired. If it were to be submitted again for a later vote, normal congressional floor procedures would apply. 129 
• An advisory-committee system was established to obtain private sector input on trade-agreement negotiations from presidentially appointed advisors. 130  This system is organized by sector and industry and included 700 advisors comprised mainly of industry representatives. Throughout trade talks, these individuals obtained special access to confidential negotiating documents to which most members of Congress and the public have no access. Additionally, they have regular access to executive-branch negotiators and must file reports on proposed trade agreements. The Fast Track legislation listed committees for numerous sectors, but not consumer, health, environmental or other public interests. 131 
• The 1974 Fast Track also elevated the Special Trade Representative (STR) to the cabinet level, and required the Executive Office to house the agency. While other cabinet-level positions tend to be responsive to a pre-defined constituency (Agriculture and farmers, for instance), the STR was unique in that its only real constituency was the president, the gatekeeper committees of Congress, and the hundreds of trade advisory committees. And its main goal was proliferation of trade negotiations. The 1979 Fast Track changed the name of the STR to the U.S. Trade Representative.
• The 2002 Fast Track created an additional requirement for 90-day notice to the gatekeeper committees before negotiations could begin, but neither the gatekeepers nor the executive were required to take any further action after receiving this notice. 132

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Gearing up to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership

President Obama proposed some intriguing and positive programs in the State of the Union speech--public preschool, a hike in the minimum wage, and measures to prevent gun violence. In a country where policy is democratically determined by representatives who truly act on behalf of the common good and the wishes of their constituents, those kind of ideas could really go somewhere.

Unfortunately, it would be irresponsibly optimistic to think that new laws on public safety will be determined out of reach of the gun lobby, or we'll see anything close to a national living wage when big-box retail, fast food, and other low-wage employers remain politically powerful.

That's why it was very disappointing to hear Obama call for a renewed push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. We've written a lot about TPP and the damage it could do to local and national sovereignty and laws that protect workers' rights, the environment, public health, and jobs. That's why on either side of the Pacific, citizens' groups of all kinds are opposed to instituting this compact.

It takes some work to mine profit out of universal background checks and preschools, but TPP is one thing that multinationals can get behind in a big way. And they will. Why not? They already have a much better idea of what's in the agreement, thanks to access to the negotiating process that even members of Congress lack.

We need to stop TPP and one way to start is to get our communities informed about what's wrong with so-called "free trade." Please take a look at this latest edition of Populist Dialogues, featuring Arthur Stamoulis of the Citizens Trade Campaign, and consider sharing it with friends online and with your local community access cable station.

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New "Populist Dialogues" on Trans-Pacific Partnership

There's a new "Populist Dialogues:" host David Delk interviewed Lewis & Clark College economics professor Marty Hart-Landsberg on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and free trade agreements. Professor Hart-Landsberg calls for rejection of TPP, not its modification.

Check out more shows at the Populist Dialogues show website. If you're interested in rebroadcasting this show on your local community access station or want a dvd to share with fellow trade activists, please contact the Alliance office at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org.

 

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Video: Community Forum on the Trans Pacific FTA

A recent community forum on the proposed Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement explored the local impacts of past free trade agreements as well as what might be coming for workers and communities here and across the Pacific if this new FTA is passed.

Elizabeth Swager of Oregon Oregon Fair Trade Campaign opened the forum, focusing on working conditions overseas, the "race to the bottom" and the probable impact of the Trans-Pacific FTA on health care and jobs. She was followed by Greg Pallesen, Vice President of AWPPW Local 5 on trade related job loss; Kim Marks, a grassroots organizer with the Rising Tide North America Collective and former board member of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment and BARK, who spoke on the impact of trade on labor and the environment, and Ted Gleichman, active within the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, on trade and climate change.

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Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 12: Congress to vote on FTAs

It's time to make one more call. Jobs and justice are on the line!

If you have not spoken out against these trade agreements, now must be the time. If you have called, speak out again. Please contact your senators and representative at 1-800-718-1008 and tell them NO Colombia, Panama, or South Korean FTAs.

These three undemocratic and job-killing free trade agreements will be voted on tomorrow by Congress.

We've sent out several alerts as these agreements have worked their way closer to a vote, and we thank you for speaking out against them.

All of these FTAs allow corporate attacks on democratic laws, and will result in the loss of US jobs and the further abuse of communities overseas. And each of the three agreements undermines the democratic process and the common wealth in its own way, whether it's the Panama FTA making it tougher for our government to go after money launderers and tax evaders, to the South Korea FTA creating trade protections for sweatshop-made goods in other countries, to the Colombia FTA "rewarding" those in power for their poor protection of labor rights. For more background information, see these posts on our blog.

Congress needs to hear that the big-budget corporate backers behind these agreements, like the US Chamber of Commerce, don't speak for the majority of Americans. Call Congress at 1-800-718-1008 and demand fair trade policies that promote workplace rights, environmental justice, and democratic governance, create good jobs, and build sustainable local economies. Thank you.

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e-newsletter, April 16, 2007

The Alliance for Democracy
e-newsletter, April 16, 2007

In this Issue:

• Convention scheduled for Tucson this November--save the dates!
• Capital District (NY) chapter works for Clean Elections
• Another change needed to HR811
• Action Alerts: Iran, Fast Track, Impeachment

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Announcing the 2007 Alliance for Democracy national convention
Save the dates--mark your calendar: November 1-4, Tucson, Arizona

Details in a separate email announcement—events include a get-together, workshops on building and strengthening AfD, leadership training, discussion of campaigns and movement building “in alliance” with other groups.

Watch the website and these email newsletters for updates as we build for this great event!

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Capital District (NY) chapter works for Clean Elections
by Ethel Silverberg, Capital District AfD

Closing loopholes is easy compared to reforming the campaign system in New York State. But the Alliance for Democracy has joined with Citizen Action New York to do just that.

The Alliance for Democracy Capital District chapter and Citizen Action are encouraging the New York State Assembly to support full public funding of elections, known as Clean Money Clean Elections reform. AfD members across the state are being contacted and asked to write or call their state legislators on this issue.

While New York passes a partial public financing bill every year, that legislation doesn't go far enough to get big money out of politics. While this year’s partial public funding bill has already been introduced, a bill supporting full public funding will be filed later this month, and this is what we’re asking Assembly members to approve.

The New York State legislature has been called the most dysfunctional legislative body in the country. It’s said that money flows into campaigns like water into a sewer. Fundraisers are held in Albany, the capital, hundreds of miles from some legislators' home districts. Constituents don't attend these parties; they're not invited. The guest list is drawn from the list of lobbyists registered with New York State, who come with bags of money, attending as many as three to five events in one night. "Hello, I'm here, nice to see you, goodbye." Admission to these soirees costs hundreds of dollars, and is only one part of what in Albany is called "dialing for dollars."

As the Alliance is committed to getting money out of politics, here's the chance for reform. If you're from New York, call your state legislator--he or she needs to hear from you. And, if you have friends or family in New York, forward this newsletter to them and urge them to make the call, too.

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Another change needed to Holt Bill, HR811

HR811, or the Holt Bill, will receive its final House markup when the House reconvenes on Monday, April 16. Prior to Congress’s Spring Break we stopped H.R. 811 from coming to the floor for a vote. Now we must to the same again: Call and fax your congressional member now.

• See the eight necessary reforms at www.afd-pdx.org.
• Go to the Election Defense Alliance, Read about why the Holt Bill H.R. 811 must be stopped. Please take action now! http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/EDA_811_email_alert

Now another amendment to the Holt Bill is urgently needed to protect the right of voters to sue if they believe their rights have been violated. Here’s a summary of the argument.

Pending Election Reform in Congress Doesn't Give Citizens Right to Sue

Should citizens explicitly be allowed to sue if they can prove their votes have been stolen or miscounted by electronic voting machines? This right, a cornerstone of the federal Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, is missing from HR811, the Holt Amendment to the Help America Vote Act. Instead, the bill says citizens can sue under other laws.

Our elections are run at the county level, with administrators seeking to retain considerable autonomy over the process. They don't want to deal with lawsuits. But voting rights campaigners know that without the right to use, otherwise known as "private cause of action", thousands of what Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr has described as "separate and unequal" jurisdictions will be even less free and fair.

Suits filed in Ohio after the 2004 elections using the Voting Rights Act's private cause of action have had dramatic results. But they would not have been helped by the most recent version of HR811.

The right of individuals to seek legal redress is one more safeguard in an increasingly automated election environment. That's why there should be a new and explicit private cause of action in HR811, especially as many people predict the bill that will come out of the House will not ban electronic voting machines, but instead seek to regulate this divisive new technology.

The full story by Steven Rosenfeld is available at www.alternet.org/story/50492.

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Allied Actions
Iran: Back the Webb Amendment: A few days before Good Friday, some US and Russian media reported that US forces are in position to deliver aerial attacks against Iran and its nuclear infrastructure.

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has introduced an amendment, S.759, to the Iraq supplemental spending bill that would reintroduce language stripped from the bill to bar funds from being used to attach Iran, and require the President to get Congressional authorization before ordering an attack. The bill has no co-sponsors yet.

Please contact your Senator and urge support the Webb amendment. Speak out against the dangers of another preemptive war. Read the talking points by Phyllis Bennis, Transnational Institute and Institute for Policy Studies, on the United for Peace website (http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3564).

AfD chapters and national sign on to Fair Trade campaign: The Alliance for Democracy national organization, and chapters in Oregon, Maine, California, and Indiana have joined 713 organizations in signing a letter drafted by Public Citizen urging the Democratic leadership in Congress to not bring forward legislation for renewal of Trade Promotion Authority ( “Fast Track”). You may read the letter at http://www.citizen.org/documents/FastTrackSignOnLetter32907.pdf.

Fast Track gives presidents enormous authority over trade agreements and bans Congress from amending them. It spawned NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO. Fast Track authority expires June 30, and even though the current Congress leans more toward fair trade than before, we need to organize to make sure we overcome the corporate money and influence that wants this measure renewed. The time to weigh in is now.

National groups push impeachment events: (Remember -- public pressure led to the impeachment of Nixon.) More than 25 groups have endorsed a Spring 2007 Impeach Bush and Cheney drive. Highlights include:

• A corporate shopping boycott. Between now and April 22 (Earth Day) more than 1,000 groups worldwide are asking members to forgo major purchases. Walk pass corporate chain stores and malls, and go to your local markets, restaurants and second hand shops. Visit www.wearenotbuyingit.org for more info
• The Show it Off! Campaign runs from April 23-27. Wear your pro-impeachment T-shirts, hats, buttons, or what-have-you to build public support for impeachment. Info and some apparel available at http://showitoffnow.blogspot.com
• On April 28, a coalition of groups are sponsoring a national day of action for impeachment. Info on joining and supporting local actions at http://www.a28.org
• Join The Million Phone March phone-in to Congress campaign at http://www.millionphonemarch.com/impeach_already.php

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