In a remarkable protest outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Ministerial in Maui on July 29, 2015, at least four hundred people took part in a unified sounding of the p\u016b<\/i> (Hawaiian conch shell), setting a new world record that will be officially submitted to Guinness Records. Event organizer Trinette Furtado said that in blowing the p\u016b<\/i>, \u201cwe are putting out a mighty kahea<\/i> (call), past the shorelines of Maui, to connect with others standing up for their ‘\u0101ina<\/i> (land) and people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the record-setting sounding of the conch, powerful ancient chants echoed down the beach, beginning with \u201cI Ku Mau Mau\u201d\u2014\u201cStand Up Together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gathering opened with a pule, a Hawaiian prayer, rooting the event in indigenous culture and concerns. Long-time Native Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte spoke, \u201cThis is nothing new we\u2019re talking about today. It\u2019s nothing new for us Hawaiians. We don\u2019t need another layer of colonialism and bureaucracy. We had the sugar and pineapple barons, now we have the chemical-GMO barons and the tourist industry. We don\u2019t need anymore. It\u2019s pilau, pilau, pilau<\/i> (rotten).\u201d<\/p>\n
Native Hawaiian Trinette Furtado similarly called the TPP, \u201can affront to the sovereignty of all of us as individuals, and also an affront to Hawaiian sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawai\u2018i activists asserted the need for charting new pathways in international relations based on human solidarity, raising the well-being of all, and maintaining local democracy and sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Global justice activist Andrea Brower said, \u201cWe aren\u2019t opposed to trade, and we aren\u2019t opposed to international cooperation. What we are opposed to is economic imperialism\u2014the writing of the rules of the global economy in order to serve solely the most dominant financial interests, always at the expense of the poorest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connecting the TPP to the defining global challenges of climate change and inequality, Marti Townsend, Director of the Hawai\u2018i Sierra Club, said: \u201cSigning a deal that would restrict governments from taking action on climate change, gut environmental protections, and increase poverty all at the same time is an injustice that will haunt generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cade Watanabe of the union UNITE HERE Local 5 added, \u201cWorkers around the world are hurting. We need agreements that lift living standards for all, not drive them down so that big business can make another buck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Minister of Agriculture in Japan, Masahiko Yamada, shared how he had been fighting the TPP over its five years of secretive negotiation, and explained how it would also hurt farmers and workers in his country. The crowd rallied behind him in chants of international solidarity: “Stop TPP” and “gambaro!,” or “let’s do it!\u201d in Japanese.<\/p>\n
Lorilani Keohokalole-Torio spoke from her indigenous ancestral connection to Hawai\u2018i, \u201cBehind me stands my ancestors and my \u2018ohana<\/i> (family).\u00a0 We are not aligned with people coming in and restructuring how we live. It hurts my na\u2018au<\/i>, my gut. We are fed up, we are educated, we are empowered, and we are aligned to help this place, mother earth, regain the strength that she wants back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The action marked a convergence of social justice, labor, indigenous, environmental and human rights movements supported by K\u0101ko’o Haleakal\u0101, AiKea, Sierra Club, UNITE HERE! Local 5, KAHEA: Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, Hawai\u2018i Alliance for Progressive Action (H.A.P.A), Babes Against Biotech, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Kai Palaoa, Hawaii Center for Food Safety, Hawai\u2019i SEED, Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, \u2018Ohana O Kaua\u2019i, Occupy Wall Street Maui, Public Citizen, Flush the TPP, Friends of the Earth, Shaka Movement, Popular Resistance, MoveOn, CREDO, SumOfUs and many more.<\/p>\n
Associated Press video of the protest can be found online here<\/a>, and additional information at TPPMaui.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a remarkable protest outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Ministerial in Maui on July 29, 2015, at least four hundred people took part in a unified sounding of the p\u016b […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,66],"tags":[83],"yoast_head":"\n