Rally at the TPP Negotiations in DC

UPDATE:

Hundreds of activists from labor, environmental, consumer, human rights, public health, faith and family farm groups protested outside the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), where the latest round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations were taking place on December 8, 2014.

“The voices of millions of working, middle-class Americans cannot be ignored,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “They are tired of being the casualties of bad trade deals that send good-paying jobs overseas. The Teamsters Union will continue to fight against Fast Track authorization and the Trans-Pacific Partnership – American workers cannot pay the price of another bad trade deal.”

“U.S. public opposition is focused on TPP non-trade terms being pushed by U.S. officials on behalf of corporate interests that would raise medicine prices, undermine Internet freedom and provide foreign firms operating here special privileges relative to their domestic competitors,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “President Obama will not get Fast Track authority for the TPP because congressional Democrats and Republicans alike oppose such ‘diplomatic legislating’ and are irate about the actual trade terms, such as disciplines against currency manipulation, that the administration has refused to raise in TPP talks.”

“We believe in trade,” said George Kohl, senior director of Communications Workers of America. “We are fighting against old trade policy that literally guarantees corporate profits at the expense of working families in all nations. In the weeks ahead, we will mobilize like never before against Fast Track authorizing legislation and the TPP, and for 21st century trade that gives workers’ rights, environmental issues and other concerns the same standing as corporate profits.”

“It’s time for all Americans – environmentalists, parents, workers – to come together and make some noise,” said Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program. “We can’t let negotiators secretly shape trade pacts behind closed doors that will open up the floodgates for fracking, make environmental safeguards vulnerable to polluter attacks and worsen climate disruption. We’re raising our voices to say ‘no’ to fast tracking a flawed Trans-Pacific Partnership, and ‘yes’ to protecting our families and communities.”

Added Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign, “Trade negotiators need to wake up to the fact that Fast Track is dead and won’t be resurrected. Voters have had enough of backroom pacts that put corporate profits ahead of human needs, and Congress members increasingly understand that rubber-stamping the TPP would be a fast track out of office.”

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ORIGINAL POST:

It’s time to take action!  Trade negotiators from throughout the Pacific Rim will be meeting in Washington, DC the week of December 7th for a closed-door round of talks aimed at concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — the massive corporate power grab that would set rules governing roughly 40% of the global economy, with dire consequences for the economy, environment and public health both at home and abroad.

We need your help!  This could very well be the last time TPP negotiators are together in the U.S. Join with labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, faith, human rights and community organizations for a rally and other actions that drag the TPP out of the shadows and that say NO to Fast Track.

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Here’s the main event…

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As often the case as of late, negotiators provided very little notice about this round, so we’re mobilizing with just days to go.  Please help spread the word via Twitter with any of these sample tweets:

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There are other actions also taking place throughout the week (with more to be announced)…

3:30pm * Tuesday, December 9