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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Steps forward and back on democratizing trade

Two days ago, Corporate Europe Observatory, the Transnational Institute and the Council of Canadians warned that the proposed CETA trade pact between Canada and the EU would grant energy companies far-reaching rights to challenge franking bans and regulations. These investor-state disputes are used by multinationals to challenge and overturn democratically-enacted laws protecting labor, the environment, public health, or any other common good that gets in the way of the supposed "right" to make money. The three groups are urging the EU, member states and the Canadian government not to include an investor-state dispute settlement system in CETA.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) there already exists a precedent for legal challenges to fracking bans and regulations that could be the state of things to come in Europe. For instance, US energy firm Lone Pine Resources Inc., is challenging a moratorium on fracking in the Canadian province of Quebec, suing the Canadian government for compensation.

EU member states already have experience with investor-state disputes undermining green energy and environmental protection policies. Germany is currently being sued by energy company Vattenfall because of the country's exit from nuclear power. Vattenfall is seeking EUR3.7 billion in compensation for lost profits. EU - Canada CETA negotiations were launched at a bilateral summit in May 2009 and negotiators hope to conclude a deal before the summer.

More positively, 12 Latin American governments gathered in Guayaquil, Ecuador at the end of April to craft a common response to investor-state suits. 

As Public Citizen reported, "Ecuador, the host of [this gathering] has taken a particularly hard battering from the investor-state system enshrined in NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)," including a ruling from one tribunal to hand $2.4 billion to Occidental Petroleum after Oxy broke Ecuador's hydrocarbons law, while confronting a ruling from another tribunal that the government should breach its own Constitution and block the enforcement of an $18 billion court ruling against Chevron for massive pollution of the Amazon.

"Seven of the governments present signed a declaration to coordinate efforts in seeking to replace the investor-state regime with an alternative investment framework that respects sovereignty, democracy, and public wellbeing, and announced the launch of an intergovernmental commission based in Latin America to audit investor-state tribunals, draft alternative investment agreements, and collaborate in strategies for reform…. Representatives from the remaining five governments participated as observers and are now taking the declaration back to their capitals to discuss joining the emerging Latin American coalition."

These efforts are matched around the world. Investor-state provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership are a sticking point for Australia, while India and South Africa are also eyeing changes in policy regarding investor-state disputes. Clearly, there is widespread grassroots pressure to end this egregious example of corporate rule.

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AfD Portland marches against TPP

Alliance for Democracy Oregon members traveled by bus to the Peace Arch in Blaine WA on Dec 3, 2012 for a rally and summit with others opposing the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) from Washington state and from Canada.  They joined friends from the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and many unions in Oregon to make the trip. Here's AfD members Greg Magolis, David Delk (who is also chapter president and AfD's national co-chair) and Barbara Council. And yes, that is a giant posterior-shaped balloon hoisting a slogan into the air.

All kidding aside, summit participants decided to get at least 1,000 organization sign-ons to a tri-party statement opposing the TPP. Negotiations for this deal have been carried on in secret, with even Congress locked out of the process. Lack of transparency is only one concern with the TPP--it has the potential to undermine democratically-determined laws on public health, "Buy American" compacts, and the environment.

For more rally pictures (and a view of the Portland chapter in action this year) see this page on their website.

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Is the Trans-Texas Corridor dead?

According to the Associated Press, among others, state officials are scrapping the Trans-Texas Corridor, a transportation component of the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

Since 2002 Texas Governor Rick Perry had promoted the corridor, which was envisioned as a huge set of highways, rail and utility lines crisscrossing the state but had been under fire almost since its inception. Rural landowners in particular were opposed to giving up their property for the project. Scaled-down plans are now in the works, reducing corridor width from a proposed 1,200 feet to 600 feet.

A wait and see attitude might be the wisest. After all, the Dallas Morning News reports that Perry "suggested that the Texas Department of Transportation's decision to pull the plug on one of his biggest initiatives – the Trans Texas Corridor – was mostly a name change, and that public-private partnerships on toll roads would continue."

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New Alliance website on California's water!

We are proud to announce a new website focusing on the fight to keep California's waters in the public trust. Please go to www.defendingwaterincalifornia.org and take a look! Thanks to web designer Paul Eagle (who also did our Maine site, www.defendingwaterinmaine.org.

The site currently features .pdfs of the new Alliance publication "Water Democracy in California: Community Rights, not Corporate Control," written by Alliance co-chair Nancy Price and designed by Nadia Khastigar at Design Action in Oakland, CA. Defending Water for Life organizer Ruth Caplan also helped write, edit, cut, and shepherd the project to completion. More material will be posted soon!

Nancy will be taking 5,000 copies of the newsletter to this weekend's Bioneers event, where she'll be tabling with Friends of the Eel River, who are profiled in the publication.

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Borderlinks trips for Fall

Registration is now opening for several BorderLinks delegations this fall, including trips to Nogales, Sonora, and Chiapas. For details, please contact BorderLinks's education department at
(520) 628-8263 or education@borderlinks.org.

After last fall's Alliance convention, several members went on an overnight trip to Nogales, Mexico with Borderlinks, a bi-national organization that brings people together on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border to raise awareness and foster action around global economic justice and inter-cultural understanding and respect. Feedback from trip participants was overwhelmingly positive. You can read more about the trip in Terrie Brady's article in the Spring 2008 issue of Justice Rising, here.

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News from Portland Alliance for Democracy

In September and October, Portland Alliance for Democracy will be showing a series of films on non-violence, and hosting Ohio election expert Richard Hayes Phillips--and co-sponsoring a forum on fair trade--and continuing to campaign for Instant Runoff Voting...oh, and organizing a conference on water.

Here's the details: "Movie Nights" kick off Wednesday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at the Bridgeport United Church of Christ, 621 NE 76th Ave. The series, "A Force More Powerful", focuses on non-violent resistance as one of the most important but least understood means of overcoming oppression and authoritarian rule. The first films look at the life and work of Gandhi, and the sit-ins and boycotts that desegregated downtown Nashville. Future film topics include Yugoslavian resistance to Slobodan Milocevic (Sept. 24), Danish resistance to the Nazis and the Polish Solidarity movement (Oct. 15) and anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and anti-Pinochet organizing in Chile (Oct. 29).

Richard Hayes Phillips will speak Wednesday, September 17, at the First Unitarian Church, Eliot Hall, SW 12th and Salmon Streets, Portland. No one turned away, but a $5-10 donation is appreciated. The church's Democracy Action Group and KBOO community radio(90.7 FM) are co-sponsoring.

Phillips began investigating the Ohio election when he received an e-mail containing obviously erroneous election results from Cleveland. He quickly found that hundred of votes in certain precincts had inexplicably shifted from John Kerry to other presidential candidates. His investigation is detailed in Witness to a Crime: A Citizen's Audit of an American Election..

Next moonth, the Trade Forum will take place on Tuesday, October 14, at 7 p.m. at Portland's First Unitarian Church (note--new date! If you copied the original Sept. 24 date onto your calendar change it now!). Representatives of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign will discuss past failures of "Free Trade" agreements, examine the Trade Act of 2008, and hopefully get commitments of support for the bill from the two candidates running for Oregon's open Senate seat. Candidates Gordon Smith (R-incumbent) and Jeff Merkley (D) have been invited. Mr. Merkley has accepted and will be present. No word yet from Smith.

Good news, too, on IRV--the chapter's Instant Runoff Voting campaign has commitments from both their state senators and representatives to introduce local option IRV into both legislative chambers when they convene next year.

Lastly, the chapter is planning a water conference for October 17-18 at the First Unitarian Church--details to follow!

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NAFTA Expands to Peru in House Vote - Most Democrats Vote “No”

In the aftermath of congressional approval of expansion of NAFTA to Peru, Global Trade Watch is asking people to write letters to the editor of their local paper thanking, or criticizing, their representatives for their vote on the measure, and to call their senators to ask where they stand on the measure.

In the final roll call, 116 democrats voted “No,” including nearly three-fourth of freshman, despite great pressure by some of the party leadership. Those who voted “No” also passed up campaign cash from corporation PACs backing the Peru FTA, including Citigroup, Wal-Mart and Chevron.

The Peru deal now moves on to the Senate, where it will face a lot of opposition from freshmen Democrats and others who campaigned on fair trade. Take a moment to call or write an e-mail to your senators asking them where they stand and asking for a “No” vote. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or toll free at 800-828-0498.

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