OCCUPY TEXAS Take Action for Fair Trade! Instead of being debated out in the open, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement (TPP) is being negotiated in the shadows. Approximately 600 corporate lobbyists and around 130 government representatives have been given special “cleared advisor” status to review negotiating documents and advise negotiators. Meanwhile, the general public has been barred from even reviewing what U.S. negotiators have proposed in our names.” It will be four years after approval, or disapproval, before the public is allowed to know what is in the trade agreement. Rhonda Varsane explains, “OccupyTEXAS is just one of those which are organizing to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement. We are standing together as we call the International Community to join us in ‘ACTION’”. Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement (TPP) is in continued negotiations in the Dallas/Addison area during May 8-18 for the twelfth major round of TPP negotiations, at the Intercontinental Hotel, 15201 Dallas Parkway, 75001, in what Bob Cash, of the Texas Fair Trade Coalition, calls the “biggest, ‘baddest’, and most secretive of any trade agreements”. Join us for a Press Conference on May 8th, a Teach-In on May 11, and other activities which are in various stages of planning. The most important activitie is scheduled for: 1 PM Saturday, May 12, as a public rally at the Addison Circle Park in Addison. For more information please go to: http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/texas Join the growing list of endorsers demanding transparency. Texas AFL-CIO International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO Texas Building Trades Teamsters Union International Teamsters Union Local 745 in Dallas International Brotherhood of Machinists National Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club North Texas Jobs with Justice OccupyTEXAS Occupy Amarillo Occupy Dallas Texas Fair Trade Coalition Public Citizen/Global Trade Watch Dallas Peace Center Rhonda Varsane 972-948-7657 or Rusty Tomlinson 765-722-1113 OccupyTEXAS OccupyTEXAS ops (fb) OccupyTEXAS@goodnewpress.net
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CALL TO ACTION OccupyTEXAS AS PART OF THE 99% RELEASE AN OFFICIAL
CALL TO ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH: INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL-CIO INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF MACHINISTS TEXAS AFL-CIO SIERRA CLUB (NATIONAL AND LONE STAR CHAPTER) TEXAS FAIR TRADE COALITION PUBLIC CITIZEN/GLOBAL TRADE WATCH CITIZENS TRADE CAMPAIGN OCCUPY AMARILLO OCCUPY DALLAS
AGAINST TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (TPP) ASKING FOR SUPPORT FROM ALL THE 99% TO DISTRIBUTE FACTS, TEACH, ASSEMBLE, PROTEST AND STOP THE TPP For info on events RSVP: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet viewform?formkey=dHdJX2U5SGpFbEZieTc5X0JKWFF4MHc6MQ&fb_source=message OccupyTEXAS ops (facebook) 1-972-948-7657 OccupyTEXAS@goodnewpress.net (e-mail)
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT By Brooke Harper-Patterson, Senior Field Organizer, Global Trade Watch The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) has been conducted without transparency. Despite a worldwide campaign to release the draft texts of the negotiations, negotiators have only released a memo of understanding, stating that they would not release the text until four years after an agreement is met or the talks conclude. While over 600 corporate advisors have access to the text, members of Congress, journalists, and stakeholders do not. (TPP) is a new trade agreement between the United States, Australia, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Currently Japan, Canada, and Mexico would also like to join the trade agreement. It would serve as a docking agreement for countries along the Pacific Rim to joi From leaked documents from our international allies we have found several troubling provisions in TPP 1. It would offer incentives for corporations to invest and offshore jobs in other countries at a time when the US has soaring unemployment rates. 2. It would decrease access to medicine by giving pharmaceutical companies extended monopolies over patents and limiting the production of generic drugs, which are used in low income countries for programs such as PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and to provide access to lifesaving drugs. It would also ban formularies which are used by Medicare/Medicaid, Veteran’s health programs and state healthcare plans to negotiate lower drug prices. For countries that have socialized medicine programs such as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan it would increase the costs of drugs dramatically. 3. TPP would weaken labor provisions. While offshoring jobs to low cost alternatives such as Vietnam, the labor chapter of the Agreement does not include elements of the International Labor Organizations’ conventions or even state that it would enforce labor right provisions. 4. Intellectual Property would stifle innovation and change the way that we use the internet. Countries would be forced to adapt sanctions to punish those who infringe on copyright violations. The tech world has described the IP provisions in TPP as being worse than ACTA and SOPA. Furthermore, intellectual property provisions in TPP would also hinder medical advances. Pharmaceutical companies would be empowered to extend patents for any changes made to the formulary of a medicine independent of whether or not it increased the medications efficacy. (For example if Tylenol were still under patent and they changed it from a pill to a capsule they would be able to extend the patent for another few years, even if it did nothing more to cure your headache). 5. Corporations would have increased power to attack our domestic laws through the investor state provisions that are included in TPP. Examples of past investor-state cases brought against countries are Metalclad vs. Mexico when the corporation sued Mexico for not permitting a waste disposal facility in an area that they had declared an ecological safe zone. Mexico had to pay out millions of dollars to the California company. Under investor-state provisions in NAFTA and CAFTA, there are over $12 billion in pending claims from investor-state suits all having to deal with environmental, transportation, and health laws none of which have to do with trade. For More Information, Contact: Brooke Harper-Patterson Senior Field Organizer Global Trade Watch bharper@citizen.org 202-454-5133
Bob Cash, Texas Fair Trade Coalition bobcash@citizenstrade.org 512-912-6630
PUBLICCITIZEN 1600 20th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20009 www.citizen.org 202-588-1000
OccupyTEXAS fb-OccupyTEXAS ops Rhonda Varsane OccupyTEXAS@goodnewpress.net 972-948-7657
Hello OccupyTEXAS and Friends, Please find the following packet of “Presentation Materials” below for our upcoming fight against TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) [Free Trade Agreement] at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/#folders/0B7BKX46ZRO08ajZ4WlhWd3ZRSVd1ZXBBckp2djFsdw 1. Presentation Materials TPP powerpoint presentation FINAL https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BS7gNUivfIDrTEEiaYgedib8g1MA58AAEMsBSHOiIyg/ edit#slide=id.p15 2. Press a. Press Release-Leaked Drug Patent https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08aGtjMjN0MWVTQzZLS25hNmdpcDl2Zw/edit b. Press Release-Recently Revealed Secrecy Pact https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08Sy16bkNxSUFUVE9lZkxqSUVuQXFLZw/edit c. Press Release-Controversial TPP Negotiations https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08ZTIzTWd5RkVRSnlHcTRqZGRIY3l1QQ/edit 3. Memos a. Article-Obama’s Trade Opportunity https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08VUppaWdtUU5UZUsyc0pHSkdfYnE0dw/edit b. Article-New Trade Deal Would Benefit https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08Wk1GN1lfRElTQnlHR0pQRmZJTmhWUQ/edit c. Article-Bill Daley’s Big Pharma History https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08V2txXzFIRVVUNk80V0YtQm56My0wUQ/edit d. Memo on TPP Origins FINAL FOR BRIEFING https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08V0JkTW1rVjBSMnFCUjZja3pRc1Qxdw/edit
4. Fact Sheets a. Environmental https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08ZjVCbVo1QmZRTzJ6VVVwOGV1NUVwdw/edit b. Public Health https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08V0tsVEk5Y2dUV3F0UF9rbWs5UFlmZw/edit c. Investment Services https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7BKX46ZRO08QUMzTUxyaVdSdVNpSWJaSmVCMkd2UQ/ edit
AFL – CIO Fact Sheet: http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Trade/Trans-Pacific-Free-Trade-Agreement
ADDITION INFORMATION Texas Fair Trade Coalition Fact Sheet http://issuu.com/varsane/docs/ transpacificfactsheet_revised_1111?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage Fact Sheet Environment http://issuu.com/varsane/docs/pubcitfact_sheet__tpp_and_environment?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage Fact Sheet Health http://issuu.com/varsane/docs/pubcitfact_sheet__tpp_and_health?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage Fact Sheet Investment and Services http://issuu.com/varsane/docs/pubcitfact_sheet__tpp_and_investment_and_services?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage
Material distributed by: OccupyTEXAS ops OccupyTEXAS@goodnewpress.net 972-948-7657 Material supplied by: PUBLIC CITIZEN 1600 20th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20009 www.citizen.org 202-588-1000 Brooke Harper-Patterson Senior Field Organizer Global Trade Watch bharper@citizen.org 202-454-5133 Bob Cash, Texas Fair Trade Coalition bobcash@citizenstrade.org 512-912-6630
IDEAS Call your Senators and Representative and tell them to oppose the Trans Pacific Pact (TPP) trade agreement, respectively. See attached for suggested talking points. Then tell your friends on social media sites. Contact Congress. Customize your letter to explain who you are and why you are worried about TPP. Write a blog post about TPP. Whether it’s a candid explanation of why you oppose , a discussion of the effect on human rights, or a call to filmmakers to protest, there are plenty of things to say about this scary trade agreement. Help us get the word out by writing articles on your own blog, your school blog, or on blogs which take guest contributors. Are you an artist? Showcase the dangers of this trade agreement through art and music, and use your art as a way of reaching people who might otherwise not know about this issue. You can make stickers, posters or patches, create a YouTube video, or hold an open-mic night around TPP. Do you administer a website? Then put a banner on your site protesting the TPP. Coordinate a teach-in or debate at your local college or community center. Invite local experts in areas of trade to come discuss the issue of TPP. If you’re in high school, talk to your civics and media studies teachers about a class discussion on the implications of the trade agreement. Share the attached information. If you’re in college, speak out through like-minded organizations working for fair trade. Then use that platform to coordinate with other students to speak out against TPP. If you’re in college, set up a meeting with your college newspaper editorial board and explain the TPP to them and why they should speak out about it. Work with them to write articles on the topics.
A Call for Transparency in the Trans-Pacific Trade Negotiations Dear U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk: Americans deserve the right to know what U.S. trade negotiators are proposing in our name. The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement is likely to impact jobs, wages, agriculture, migration, the environment, access to medicine, consumer safety, banking regulations, indigenous rights, Internet freedom, Buy American laws and more. A pact this far-reaching should be negotiated in the most transparent and participatory manner possible. Please publicly release all Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement proposals now. NAME
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Please return petition to : Occupy TEXAS 20339 FM 2728 Terrrell, TX 75161
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