View allAll Photos Tagged StopTPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
I was proud to be a New Zealander last Thursday. Kia ora to everyone who came from all over the country and thanks to Hikoi organisers, It's Our Future and Real Choice.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Photos by Jerrick Romero, Aerial Action launched by Backbone Campaign and the TPP
Welcoming Committee, Funeral for our Liberties mobilized by March
Against Monsanto
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY - Protestors outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
meetings in Salt Lake took to the skies to get their message to
negotiators this morning as organizers with the Backbone Campaign used
weather balloons to lift a 75-foot banner reading "TPP: What Are You
Hiding?" about a dozen stories up the exterior of the Grand America
Hotel where negotiations are taking place.
"If the TPP is really a good deal for Americans, why won't the Obama
Administration release the details to journalists or even Congress?"
said Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign. "If TPP
negotiators were listening to the public or Congress instead of their
corporate advisors, we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of using
weather balloons to ask them what they're hiding."
The chapter of the TPP on intellectual property released last week by
WikiLeaks has caused tremendous alarm among environmentalists, consumer
rights groups, development organizations, internet freedom activists and
organized labor. Those documents show that the basic premise of the TPP
is that signatory countries are free to enact laws and regulations,
provided such laws and regulations are consistent with the terms of the
TPP. The TPP in essence makes each signatory country subservient to a
higher power, thereby substantially limiting each country’s sovereign
authority.
“By using this backdoor approach, the TPP will permit the U.S. banking
industry to circumvent U.S. laws that impose regulatory constraints on
Wall Street’s activities and limit regulation of risky financial
products like those that caused the economic meltdown in 2008,” said
Jonathan Ruga, a member of the TPP Welcoming Committee. Ruga added that
“[t]he secretive and highly undemocratic process used to bring the TPP
to conclusion is a blatant attempt to line the pockets of Wall Street
and other members of the elite community of multinational corporations
at the expense of the American people. It is yet another shining example
of the near complete domination of our political system by big
corporate”.
On the ground a group of activists, dressed somberly in black, held a
mock "Funeral for Our Freedoms" complete with hearse, casket and
tombstones representing clauses of the TPP.
"When will enough be enough for those who exploit workers, destroy our
environment, and seek to further diminish the foundations of our
constitutional republic?" asked Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt
Lake and 2012 Presidential candidate of the Justice Party. "We need to
call it as it is and recognize that these TPP promoters are traitors to
our republic, traitors to the public interest, and traitors to the
concept of government of, by and for the people."
Since talks began on Tuesday the TPP Welcoming Committee has staged six
protests outside the negotiations. Last night activists projected their
message onto the Grand America Hotel with light projectors. Tuesday,
local labor leaders from the AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers spoke out
against the trade deal alongside representatives from the Sierra Club
and Utah Tar Sands Resistance.
Photos of light projections:
www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/721576378971...
Follow Backbone Campaign on Twitter: @backboneprog Action Hashtags:
#votenofasttrack #flushthetpp #FlushTPPSLC
###
The TPP Welcoming Committee is a coalition of individuals and
organizations including Backbone Campaign, Sole de Utah, Utah Tar Sands
Resistance, the Justice Party, Center for a Stateless Society, Popular
Resistance, Occupy.com, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, HESA-Heterodox
Economics Student Association at the University of Utah, and March
Against Monsanto.
For more information, call 805-776-3882, email Team Backbone and visit www.slcstoptpp.us
High Flying Ariel Protest Puts Message Before Negotiators of Secret TPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
- Photos by Damien Conway.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Nurses continued their fight against secret trade deals that threaten the health of their patients, environment & democracy! #StopTPP
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Shining Light on Secret TPP agreement & calling on Congress to
STOP Fast Track
For Immediate Release: Day before Wikileak of TPP Document - 13 Cities
Mobilized to Shine a Light on Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership "Trade"
Deal Telling Congress "Don't Fast Track a Train Wreck - FLUSH the
TPP!"
CONTACT: Bill Moyer 206-356-9980 | bill@backbonecampaign.org
| or Eric Ross 805-776-3882 | eric@backbonecampaign.org
| 805-776-3882 | VoteNoFastTrack.org
SEATTLE - On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12
other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the
light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle,
Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago
people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent
monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and
nighttime, high visibility tactics.
They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light
panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with
spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These
coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations
taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24
and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and
George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among
Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked
chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement. [Here
is Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch initial interpretations of the
chapter on intellectual property.]
The TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids, a "Corporate Coup," and
concerned citizens from across the nation are calling on Congress to
"Flush It!" and to oppose President Obama's request to renew "Fast
Track" authority to commit our country to this secretive agreement that
has less to do with trade, than it does with dismantling any domestic
policies that undermine future profits for transnational capital and
corporations.
Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign stated "Only a
bought a sold government would sign a treaty that sacrifices our
capacity as communities and country to pass laws for workers benefit,
and the protection of our communities and our natural resources."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated under secrecy for 3
years. Obama is now pushing to have it swiftly approved to much to the
dismay of members of Congress, most of whom haven't even been allowed to
see the text. While Congress is constitutionally required to negotiate
any international treaties, Fast Track or granting Obama Trade Promotion
Authority would forfeit the Congress' responsibility and the public's
right to weigh in on the TPP negotiations.
Perhaps in response to growing citizen outrage letters were release
today from both Democrats and Republicans challenging President Obama's
request for renewal of Fast Track authority. [From Today's Public
Citizen announcement: The
151-signature DeLauro-Miller letter, additional
letter from Democratic Ways & Means members, One
of two letters, this led by Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)]
One of the illuminated messages on Tuesday read "Corporate Tribunals
WTF?" This referred to how the TPP would give more power to corporate
interests including the ability for foreign companies to sue for
taxpayer compensation if any domestic law diminished the company's expected future profits.
Masked as a trade deal, the agreement has been negotiated under
supervision of 600 unelected corporate "trade advisors" while the text
has been hidden from members of Congress, the press, and the public.
What has been learned about the TPP has come through leaked texts, and
is alarming to members of Congress worried about sovereign powers being
negotiated away, public health officials, labor representatives,
environmental groups, and advocates of consumer issues.
"The TPP, the largest ever of it's kind, is a race to the bottom
international agreement on domestic and international policies of food
safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulation, and the
environment," says Kristen Beifus, executive director of Washington Fair
Trade Coalition."
Trade Justice organizations have declared December 3rd a "Global Day of
Action Against the TPP to resist toxic trade agreements." Citizens are
urged to take action in their own community, contact their
congressperson, and learn more about the TPP's dismantling of democracy
by visiting VoteNoFastTrack.org.
Citizens can find out where their congressperson stands and tweet them
Tuesday's coordinated actions were organized by the Backbone Campaign,
which specializes in "amplifying citizen engagement with creative
tactics and artful activism" in collaboration with Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch, PopularResistance.org, Fair Trade Coalitions in
Washington and Oregon, and more.
The coordinated day of action follows on the heals of an action in
September when to the surprise of secret service, members and allies of
PopularResistance.org and the Backbone Campaign "redecorated"
the United States Trade Representatives office by scaling the building
and unfurling giant banners demanding a release of the TPP text. The
Backbone Campaign is grateful to Wikileaks for beginning that process.
View the growing collection of photos from the 11-12-13 actions HERE.
To speak with organizers of yesterday's day of action please contact
Bill Moyer at 206-356-9980 or Eric Ross at 805-776-3882.
Info and Collaborator Web Sites:
Thanks to our many awesome collaborators both mentioned and not!
Watch
Coalition
Coalition
Brigade
Diego Overpass Light Brigade
Rising Tide
Talking Points
###
Backbone Campaign's mission is to provide creative strategies, artful
activism trainings, and creative action support to progressive
activists, organizers and organizations around the US and beyond in
order to invigorate and nurture a people-power, community-based, and
internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights,
thriving communities, and ecological well being. Backbone Campaign's
vision is a world where human dignity, community resilience, and
ecological well being is built upon a foundation of democratic
economic and political systems and diverse, thriving culture where
human rights, the rights of communities and nature are truly
inalienable and honored.
Nurses, labor and environmental organizations join TPP protest in front of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's office in San Francisco to ask her to oppose the TPP
Trade policies adopted under Fast Track have cost us more than 1 million jobs. Visit www.afge.org/stopTPP for more information.