Hemp Industries

Defeat the TPP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, forged in secrecy by globalist-corporate insiders, must be stopped
by Green Shadow Cabinet, June 17, 2013

Note: I'm featuring this commentary by the Green Party 'Shadow Cabinet' on the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership 'Agreement'—which I had actually never even heard about— for a couple of reasons: 1) with one or two exceptions, the Green positions on TPP are identical with any libertarian or small-government capitalist argument, and 2) I wanted to show to my Libertarian Party contingent the opportunities afforded to us by forming a 'shadow' or alternative government... to show the world how we would do things much better.

The Green Shadow Cabinet stands united in opposition to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and is committed to defeating this Obama administration effort to enrich and empower global corporations at the expense of people and planet.

For three years, the Obama administration has engaged in 16 rounds of secret negotiations to develop the TPP. Those negotiations have included hundreds of representatives of global corporations. The TPP negotiations have excluded representatives of the vast majority of the American people. It is a fact that the TPP is global economic policy for the 1%, at the expense of the 99%.

Today, all five branches and 81 members of the Green Shadow Cabinet begin to act in concert to not only defeat the TPP, but to show America that another government with another global economic agenda is possible. There is an alternative to the corrupt political establishment that produces economic terrors like the TPP. Our Cabinet is proof of that alternative.

Daily this week, the Green Shadow Cabinet will release over a dozen statements in opposition to the TPP; these statements describe the threats posed by the TPP, and offer better alternatives. This month, our Cabinet members will begin participating in the broader movement against the TPP through actions and events across the United States and urge all Americans to join this effort. We are bringing our networks and communities into this critical struggle.

The TPP Threatens All of Us

If you oppose the industrial farming practices of Monsanto, Cargill, and other giant food and agribusiness corporations, with their intense use of toxic herbicides and other harmful chemicals, production of untested genetically modified food, efforts to control the seed supply and patent life, their pollution of the water, air, soil and food supply, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you oppose the actions of the big banks and financial institutions that led to the world economic crash, exploding wealth inequality, risky investments that endanger the economic future, and their ability to dominate national economies, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you are committed to protecting the rights of working people to a living wage, the right to organize, and to safe working conditions, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you favor a free and open Internet where free speech is protected and creativity and communication flourish, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you understand that healthcare is a human right [a notable distinction between libertarians and socialists, who turn every human value into a right] and that the inflated prices of pharmaceutical drugs should not be protected by law, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you want to see the air, waters and lands protected from toxic chemicals and pollution, and know that the ecological crisis of species extinction and environmental breakdown must be reversed, then you must oppose the TPP.

If you would live in a world where local, state, and national governments are allowed to take urgent action to deal with the global climate crisis, and to implement a Green New Deal, then you must oppose the TPP.

We look forward to working with you in the coming months to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership and to prevent its sister trade agreement, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, from following the same path. The first step is to stop enactment of Trade Promotion Authority legislation, also known as “Fast Track,” that would prevent Congress from holding hearings on the TPP or amending the TPP. There must be no end-run around the Constitution, or the right of the American people to petition the government for redress.

Defending the New World

We know that another world is possible. We are building that world every day through local governments, cooperatives, community organizations, and publicly owned financial institutions.

Those who defend corporate capitalism also understand that another world is possible, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is their attempt to foreclose our new world. The TPP gives major corporations legal personhood to sue in transnational courts dominated by judges who themselves are lawyers for major corporations. Under the TPP, corporations would be able to claim that environmental, labor, financial, health and other laws cost them profits, and to extract damages from our governments—and from us as taxpayers —if they enforce those laws.

The current administration in Washington D.C. is committed to passing the TPP and to defeating America’s grassroots movement for economic democracy. The Green Shadow Cabinet is committed to defeating the TPP, and to strengthening the U.S. democracy movement. We and our allies are the many, they are the few. Let us defend our communities and our future and stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Click here to read other statements of the Green Shadow Cabinet and to learn more. Original column at this link.

Just asking: why doesn't the National LP create a 'shadow government' to articulate the alternative to our current system on any given issue. In many specifics, it will be similar if not identical to what the leftists put forth. And the libertarian message, if it can free itself from sanction of the corporate state, is more authentic.

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2013 June 17
Indivdualism vs. Collectivism, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Green Shadow government, Jill Stein, Green Party, Libertarian Party, TPP