It's very bad ju-ju.
This week, secret ‘negotiations’ are underway in a remote resort in Lansdowne,Virginia for the greatest global corporate coup in history. It’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and if you haven’t heard about it, then you are in the majority because there is a virtual media blackout in the United States.
Even in Leesburg, VA, where many of the people are conservative, every person we met supported our protest when we explained why we were there. We were protesting the TPP because what we know so far is that it will:
•Allow corporations to sue nations if laws such as those protecting the environment or labor conditions interfere with corporate profits.
•Create aprivate corporate tribunal to hear these cases in which the judges are largely corporate lawyers.
•Extend the patent period for pharmaceuticals which will keep prices high and medications out of the hands of those who need them.
•End “Buy America” provisions which will lead to greater job outsourcing.
•Furtherde-regulate Big Finance.
•Undermine internet freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process, and hinder peoples’ abilities to innovate.
TPP is the biggest corporate power grab in history. Under the TPP transnational corporations will have more power than individual nations. President Obama promised to renegotiate NAFTA in a way that was favorable to the American people. However, it appears that the opposite is happening with the TPP. We are asking President Obamato live up to his campaign promise of greater transparency and release the text of the TPP. We are also asking that there be a democratic review process in Congress before a vote on the TPP.
