Two days to stop TPP -- A vast, global corporate power grab

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Beauty_pact
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12 Sep 2012, 8:48 pm

From the Avaaz.org newsletter:

Quote:
Dear friends,

Details are leaking of a top-secret, global corporate power grab of breathtaking scope -- attacking everything from a free Internet to health and environmental regulations, and we have just 4 days to stop it.

Big business has a new plan to fatten their pockets: a giant global pact, with an international tribunal to enforce it, that is kept top secret for years (even from our lawmakers!) and then brought down like a Death Star on our democracies. Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Walmart and almost 600 other corporate lobbyists are all in on the draft -- including limits on smoking laws, affordable medicines and free speech on the Net.

The latest round of negotiations ends in just 4 days -- but outcries in each of our countries could shake the confidence of negotiators and scuttle the talks forever. Let's get to a million against the global corporate takeover. Sign below and forward widely. Avaaz will project our petition counter on the walls of the conference so negotiators can see the opposition to their plan exploding in real time:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corpor ... cb&v=17850

The deal, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is written to protect investors from government regulation, even if that regulation is passed in the public interest. Leaked versions suggest the TPP would undermine protections for air and water safety and reintroduce measures from the US Internet freedom attack as well as steamrolling efforts to produce generic affordable medicines. Worse still, lawmakers who fail to conform to the TPP’s rules face sanctions in an international tribunal -- a place where corporations can sue us for deals previous governments signed in secret!

Negotiators say this is just a trade agreement, written to facilitate investment and profit for all. But the leaked draft imposes so many limits on citizen protections, it's clear this "trade" agreement is skewed to put corporate profit above people's needs -- that's not surprising since it's been drafted in secret with almost 600 corporate lobbyists.

But there is hope: Australia is bucking against the international tribunal system, and New Zealand is objecting to the takeover of its medicine-pricing protections that keep drugs affordable. Massive public opposition, casting doubt over each country's ability to sell TPP at home, could derail the talks for good. Sign the petition now, and forward widely -- the delegates and lobbyists are watching the wave of opposition grow in real time:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corpor ... cb&v=17850

US Senator, Elizabeth Warren in a recent speech said: “Corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters, because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people." Let’s reach one million to stop the corporate takeover of our governments.

With hope,

Iain, Pedro, Laura, Ari, Emma, Lisa, Luca, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

PS - Avaaz has launched Community Petitions, an exciting new platform where it's quick and easy to create a campaign on any issue you care strongly about. Start your own by clicking here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_ ... ?do.ps.tpp

MORE INFORMATION

The Nation: "NAFTA on Steroids"
http://www.thenation.com/article/168627/nafta-steroids

The Guardian: "The Pacific free trade deal that's anything but free"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... trade-deal

Huffington Post: "Leak Cracks Open Trans-Pacific Partnership Scandal"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-fletc ... 94675.html

Reuters: "Lawmakers press for open Trans-Pacific trade talks"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/ ... MK20120627

TechDirt: "Hollywood Gets To Party With TPP Negotiators; Public Interest Groups Get Thrown Out Of Hotel"
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201201 ... otel.shtml

Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Background and analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement"
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp


EDIT: Updated the title of the thread



Beauty_pact
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14 Sep 2012, 2:38 pm

www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-nati ... talks.html

Quote:
Actress Q’orianka Kilcher returns to VA to demand release of controversial Trans Paciific Partnership texts

Lansdowne, VA --(ENEWSPF)--Septemer 14, 2012. Actress Q’orianka Kilcher was arrested yesterday evening at an upscale golf resort in Virginia after helping to deliverer over 350,000 protest signatures to an official with the US Trade Representatives negotiating the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. The actress, producer and activist was filming an interaction between other activists and police officers outside the hotel where the meetings are taking place when she was suddenly handcuffed and arrested for trespassing. In a choppy video recorded on her cell phone, an officer can be heard saying “are you filming this? That’s it! You’re trespassing!” at which point the clip ends abruptly as she is arrested.

Ms Kilcher’s arrest occurred immediately after she joined with representatives of Rainforest Action Network and Avaaz.org in a scheduled meeting to deliver over 350,000 petition signatures opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership and calling for transparency for these high stakes negotiaions.

In a statement prior to her arrest, Q’orianka Kilcher stated, “The Trans Pacific Partnership would be devastating for people around the world and it is being negotiated in complete secrecy to hide the content, because these agreements would never see the light of day if US citizens and congress were allowed to see what is being proposed in our names. While hundreds of corporate advisors have access to the information contained within these documents, the American public, the media and even members of congress do not.

“This sort of secrecy is highly undemocratic and is a complete disregard of all the systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution to avoid exactly this sort of thing.”

Ms. Kilcher’s arrest follows a week of rallies, protests and civil disobedience opposing the high stakes Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations taking place this week. A rapidly growing movement is organizing to oppose the unprecedented lack of transparency surrounding theObama Administration’s handling of the TPP discussions. While 600 corporate lobbyists have been allowed access to and input on the draft texts from thebeginning of negotiations three years ago, the public and even high rankingmembers of US Congress have not been allowed to see what is being proposed on their behalf.

Draft texts of the proposal have appeared on Wikileaks and the website of Citizen’s Trade Campaign.

“Labor leaders, environmentalists, healthcare advocates and internet privacy proponents are seriously concerned that while the TPP is referred to as a 'trade agreement,’ in actuality it reads like a wish list of transnational corporations to implement a binding system of global corporate governance.” Said Laurel Sutherlin of Rainforest Action Network. “Of the 26 chapters under negotiation, only a few have to do directly with trade. The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them. The TPP essentially proposes to establish a parallel system of justice where companies can sue countries in a tribunal of judges composed of unaccountable international trade lawyers with little to no process for appeal.”

/ ... /



ruveyn
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14 Sep 2012, 4:12 pm

Yet another SInister Global Conspiracy.

Well I am glad no one blamed the Jews this time.

ruveyn



xenon13
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14 Sep 2012, 8:48 pm

It's been the same sinister conspiracy...