TPP: U.S. PIVOT TO ASIA, THE PHILIPPINES AND PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE

Friend,

Time and again, The Administration tells us: 'The U.S. must secure trade with Asia in order to be competitive in the global economic arena.' But unsurprisingly, we repeatedly learn that our trading partners' citizens have no say about trade agreements that are signed in their names, and most often end up as collateral damage when public lands and services are developed by for-profit transnational corporate interests, and enforced by the U.S. military industrial complex.

One recent example: Filipino officials have made it clear they want to join the TPP agreement, but this would require they amend the Philippines Constitution to allow foreign business interests and investments, which would bode poorly for the Filipino population and environment.  Sound familiar?

In an effort to educate ourselves on the 'Asian Pivot', The National TPP Team is proud to welcome Bernadette Ellorin, Bayan USA.

Bernadette Ellorin image credit:www.gmanetwork.com

Bernadette Ellorin, is a founding member and currently serving her 3rd term as Chairperson of BAYAN USA, the US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) in the Philippines. BAYAN USA is an alliance of 20 Filipino grassroots organizations in the U.S. representing youth, students, women, workers, cultural workers, and human rights advocates. As the oldest and largest overseas chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Philippines), BAYAN-USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement of the Philippines and as a center for educating, organizing, and mobilizing anti-imperialist Filipinos in the U.S.

Please join the National TPP Team Call for an honest discussion about the geopolitics behind the “Asian Pivot” and why we must organize against it this Sunday, September 13, 4:30 Pacific / 7:30 Eastern Time.

National TPP Team Call Sunday, Sept 13, 4:30 PDT / 7:30 EDT   

TPP: U.S. PIVOT TO ASIA, THE PHILIPPINES, AND PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE

SIGN UP HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/events/tpp-geopolitics-of-the-asian-pivot-and-resistance-to-global-corporate-rule

Dial-in Number: 605-562-3140 / Access Code: 951146#

Coalition Partners with timely updates:

Speaker with Popular Resistance / Flush the TPP, continuing updates on organizing work moving into the fall,www.flushthetpp.org;

Kathryn Johnson, Field Organizer, Public Citizen's Global Tradewatch;

Adam Weissman, TradeJustice New York Metro;

Susie Chasnoff, Our new social media team member will share the coming week's twitter storm information and current meme;

Harriet Heywood, MoveOn Regional Organizer-Update on the Miami TTIP Campaign;

Andrea Miller, Director, People Demanding Action /peopledemandingaction.org

Thanks for your participation on this crucial campaign,

Harriet Heywood

National TPP Team

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

TIME TO REGROUP ON TPP / BUILD A FAIR TRADE MOVEMENT

we WILL remember those who sold us out!


Hello Fellow Fair Trade Fighters,

I’d like to begin by thanking you for your hard work and unwavering commitment. For more than two years, we’ve fought valiantly side by side, to stop Fast Track Trade Authority. Despite our best efforts, we suffered a setback when the Senate voted against the public interest and passed Fast Track.

But our fight is far from over. We must now pull together and stand strong against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). This won’t be easy—but nothing worthwhile ever is.

However, there is some good news—and other important things I want to share as we continue together:

• Our Stop Fast Track coalition effort has helped galvanize a fair trade movement for the 21st century that will continue to fight to protect American jobs, the environment, and more.
• We will continue to organize—notably on our National Sunday TPP Coalition Calls (click to join us this week)—and bring together coalition partners from all across the ideological spectrum who oppose TPP, TTIP and TISA—and the secret, backroom deal-making and public betrayal that these pacts represent.
• The Senate fast track vote did not go our way, but momentum is on our side. Hundreds of thousands of people are now engaged in this effort, organized in every state, and angry enough about today’s vote to be more committed than ever to fight and be heard.
• WE’VE RAISED THE PROFILE ON TPP TO A 2016 CAMPAIGN ISSUE! The success of the Stop Fast Track effort elevated TPP and its promises to the status of “major campaign issue” for 2016 and beyond. We must hold candidates running for re-election accountable for their votes beginning with the primaries—and pressure every presidential candidate to take an unequivocal public position “for” the people.
• We’re grateful to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Senators Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, and all who stood loyal and strong with us. We won’t forget you in 2016—we WILL remember those who sold us out!
• We’ve built a formidable coalition that includes the support of a united labor movement, as well as Americans energized by faith, human rights, food safety, the environment, internet freedom and more.
• Our movement will now turn our immediate focus to the actual deals, starting with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact – Americans have not yet even seen the text of the TPP! That needs to change. On the plus side, we have already begun to organize internationally, bringing in partners from South America, Canada and New Zealand to speak on our Sunday Calls, and many more to join our weekly TPP Tuesday Twitter Storms, which include last year’s World Trade Cup.
• Our goal of establishing a fair trade policy includes building real and enforceable labor and environmental standards, and creating an inclusive process that keeps the public informed, and brings elements of civil society into the discussion, rather than keeping working people on the outside of the negotiating process. To paraphrase an old saying: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
• There are serious problems with the TPP – from the loss of American jobs to the troubling Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision to its impact on affordable prescription drugs and high projected job losses. These problems alone can threaten prospects for completing the TPP.
• Because many TPP issues—such as intellectual property (IP) provisions, ISDS, copyright protections and U.S. tariffs—concern potential trading partners, they could be successful hurdles to finishing the deal.
• TPP backers made big promises about how the TPP will raise the bar on key priorities. Now they have to deliver—and we are prepared to track what happens on these promises and hold them accountable!

We can still win—if we stand together and make sure that those in Washington who’ve voted against public interest know that it will cost them their jobs. Follow-through on this is crucial. (We can’t be ruled by fear.)

Pro fast track forces may be doing a little end zone dance right now—but we can call a flag on the play and push them back by stopping TPP. Please stand with us. Join us Sunday when we’ll hear from leaders at the United Postal Workers, the Public Banking Institute, and a state public banking effort, about how and why we must stop TPP in its tracks—no matter how “fast” President Obama, and others who sold us out, try to move it forward.

Call-in number for our Sunday call is 605-562-3140 / 951146# / Calls begin at 4:30 Pacific / 7:30 Eastern Time  

Time to regroup for the long haul!

In solidarity,

Elizabeth Warren

Director of Communications

People Demanding Action

Harriet Heywood
Regional Organizer
MoveOn.org
Kill The Unholy Trinity Campaign

we WILL remember those who sold us out!

The TRUTH will set you FREE.