Trans Pacific PartnershipThreatens Democracy

40% ofWorld Economy at RiskofCorporate Control

How much do you know about theTrans Pacific Partnership? Up untilrecently, very few people knew thatthe TPP even existed. Now, after themuch publicized posting ofmajorsegments of the highly secretivedocument on Wikileaks, we are

beginning to understand why twelvenations and many multi-nationalcorporations kept the public in thedark for six long years.

Based on the 1994 North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA) aswell as the 2007 Korean Free TradeAgreement (KFTA) the Trans PacificPartnership is a mammoth twenty-nine chapter trade agreement withsections ranging from the energyindustry to patent law and even NetNeutrality. Despite this, the mosttroubling aspect of the document that'snow poised to control forty percent ofthe world's economy is its elevation ofcorporations to the level of nation-states, endowed with special rightsand privileges that make it easier,

safer, and cheaper to undercut theAmerican economy by exporting jobsto low-wage companies across thePacific region.

“A Corporate Trojan Horse”

According to Public Citizen the TransPacific Partnership “would open to9,000 more corporations the right todrag the U.S. government intoinvestor-state corporate tribunals”explained Lori Wallach. “Those are theextra-judicial tribunals where panelsof three corporate attorneys would beempowered to rule on a claim broughtdirectly against the U.S. governmentby a foreign corporation claiming theyshould get compensation from our taxdollars for any domestic law they

think violates their rights under theagreement, and they should get paidfor their lost future profits for havingto meet our laws.”

You read that right. If the United States(or any other country within theagreement for that matter) passes adomestic law, lawyers from multi-national corporations would now havethe right to sue governments for “lostfuture profits.” By giving corporationsthe right to enforce the terms of publictreaty, the TPP deliberately hands overthe keys to democracy andaccountability for upwards of 800million people.

Yet, as scary as this is, it's only thebeginning. Of the twenty-nine

chapters within the TPP only five ofthem have anything to do with trade.The remaining chapters underminenearly every aspect of corporate andgovernment accountability. With theteeth of the tribunals described above,the TPP undermines Net Neutralityand Internet freedoms and civic accessto information with languageimported from the Stop Online PiracyAct (SOPA). An additional chapter laysout exploitation of patent law andallows companies to increase theprices ofmedications throughenormous monopolies. Yet anotherchapter deregulates much of thefinancial services industry, paving theway for an infinite number of gut-churning boom-bust cycles thatpeople around the globe can ill afford.

A “Procurement” chapter cuts the legsout ofAmerican-made products andservices, setting American workers upto compete for wages with thosemaking as little as sixty cents an hour.And yet another chapter evisceratesenergy industry regulations,potentially setting climate justicefights back decades at the worstpossible moment.

After an initial vote by Congress (atPresident Obama's urging) to “FastTrack” the agreement, we are a hair'sbreadth away from losing whatprecious measures of accountabilityand Democracy we have left in thedeveloped world. Fast Track authorityallows Congress to force through theTPP to the President's desk while

allowing absolutely zero amendmentsor changes to the text of theagreement. In a head-spinning work ofobfuscation, the TPP is being held upby pundits (including NPR reporters)as the best hope of uniting an everpolarized country. For once, theybreathlessly exclaim, liberals andconservatives can at long last cometogether on an issue that according toObama “protects American workersand the environment.” This could notbe further from the truth.In a published letter to a U.S. TradeRepresentative, Senator (and nowcandidate) Bernie Sanders vehementlyoutlined is staunch opposition to theTPP:

A Rising Chorus ofOpposition

“It is incomprehensible to me that theleaders ofmajor corporate interestswho stand to gain enormous financialbenefits from this agreement areactively involved in the writing of theTPP while, at the same time, theelected officials of this country,representing the American people,have little or no knowledge as to whatis in it.”

Candidate Sanders is hardly alone inhis condemnation for the TPP. InMarch of 2013 a group of 4,000Japanese farmers held protests acrossTokyo to decry the effect theagreement would have upon the local

agricultural industry. Joining themwere protesters dressed as zombies andthe Malaysian AIDS Council in KualaLumpur in February of 2014 who railedagainst the likely rise in the cost ofmedications to treat severe conditions(including HIV/AIDS).

Economist Robert Reich entered thefray as well in January, stating “Trojanhorse in a global race to the bottom,giving big corporations and Wall Streetbanks a way to eliminate any and alllaws and regulations that get in theway of their profits.” Amy Goodman ofDemocracy Now! chastised Obama forturning his back on the wideconstituency that elected him in 2008and again in 2012:

"President Barack Obama and theRepublicans in Congress are united. Yes.that's right. No, not on Obamacare, oron the budget, or on negotiations withIran, or on equal pay forwomen. But onso-called free-trade agreements, whichincrease corporate power and reduce thepower ofpeople to govern themselvesdemocratically, Obama and theRepublicans stand shoulder to shoulder."

Speaking from Washington,Congressman Alan Grayson lays barethe road before us. The Trans PacificPartnership is a “Fast Track to Hellwhere America is nothing but cheaplabor and debt slavery.”

The HereticA Poem from the Boston Anarchists

Social thinking, the idea that we aremembers of a society, and that ourdecisions ought to be made withothers in mind has become heresy.

The dominant message insists that weare all individuals. Be whoever youwant, even yourself.But to be myself, I remember I have toconnectto others I care about and who careabout me.

Heresy, then becomes a necessity inorder to survive, to exist.