TPP in the USA Is Why We Occupy

[WilliamPitt]

From the Solidarity March going down Broadway from Union Square to Wall Street, New York City,
May 1, 2012. (Photo: erin m )

TPP in the USA Is Why We Occupy
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 19 September 2013

The second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street came and went on Tuesday with a fair degree of introspection in the socially conscious corners of social media. What did it mean? What did it accomplish? Is it over or just beginning?

More than a few voices suggested the whole thing was nothing more or less than a body-odor ego trip for righteousness junkies looking to lord it over their less-invested activist counterparts. For some of the people in those very large crowds, I'm sure that characterization is true; shake a tree full of activists, and a few rotten gourds are sure to fall and splatter.

The excellent author Rebecca Solnit, in a Facebook post on S17 rebutting those who would spurn the whole thing as a giant waste of time, explained like a songbird in full voice what Occupy was, is, will be, and what it accomplished:

Please assess how many Occupy encampments there were - one UCLA estimate was 400 in California alone during the height in late 2011 - and then quantify how in those myriad locations in the USA and other countries (including Germany and New Zealand) many people were served how many free meals, how much free healthcare, how many libraries were set up, how many people found solidarity, a new way of doing things, a sense of possibility...

...how many debtors found support for their afflictions, how many homeless people found space to exist for a while, how many foreclosures were successfully protested, how many students rethought the loan racket, how much was done by the stalwarts at Occupy Sandy to provide food, clothing, medical supplies, solidarity, organizing, and support for those devastated by the storm...

...and how many times did the mainstream media use language Occupy created, and how many laws and elections were shaped by the terms Occupy dictated, and without Occupy would the president have just said, "Because even though our businesses are creating new jobs and have broken record profits, the top 1 percent of Americans took home 20 percent of the nation's income last year, while the average worker isn't seeing a raise at all. In fact, that understates the problem. Most of the gains have gone to the top one-tenth of 1 percent."

It didn't do everything but it did a lot. But much of what it did can't be quantified, because it was a change in people's sense of self, of civil society, of possibility, an experience of direct democracy, an articulation of what is wrong with the economic system, a mingling with people from very different walks of life, an open dialogue, a moment of terror for the bankers and rulers, and so much more. I was changed, and for the better, and I am not alone.

(snip)

The trade pact known as the Trans Pacific Partnership is wending its way to existence with the express approval and muscular push of the Obama administration. This has been happening for a while now, and almost entirely in secret, because if people knew what it entailed, they might, you know, Occupy.

Let's see...TPP favors banks over people, companies over workplace safety and the environment, coal and oil over alternative energy sources, major agribusinesses over local farmers and local produce, the absolute end of "Buy American," as well as the end of laws protecting even the most anemic minimum wage, product safety...and here's the best part: if corporations feel like governments are encroaching on corporate power and "rights" in these matters, they can sue those governments in specially-created tribunals. NAFTA has similar tribunals that have levied hundreds of millions of dollars in fines; under TPP, the rights of corporations to sue for "damages" is massively expanded.

TPP is the point of why Occupy came to exist in the first place, the distilled essence. If this deal happens, it will be the final triumph of the legal fiction known as "corporate personhood," the fraud that gives your 14th Amendment rights to a faceless, unassailable company with billions in assets and the will to use them in our already-septic political system. With this "trade" pact, they will be able to stretch those rights globally, nationally, regionally, locally, and literally right down your throat.

It sounds like a bad Batman plot. It isn't. The president thinks it's a fine idea.

Occupy.

While you still can.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18931-tpp-in-the-usa-is-why-we-occupy

[djean111]

1. There is no valid defense for the TPP. None.

What a second-term accomplishment!

[phantom power]

2. recommend

[BelgianMadCow]

3. ...while you still can

being the operative sentence. And if you still dare.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. K & R

Cheers!

[WillyT]

5. Most Excellent Will... Thank You !!! - K & R !!!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. TPP would make Living Wage laws suicidal for the American worker n/t

[KG]

7. oh, c'mon. how can y'all be again' it, ya don't know anything about it....

[WilliamPitt]

8. Up

[grahamhgreen]

9. Toilet Paper Policies.

[burrowowl]

10. Obama is a Corporate shill!

[johnnyreb]

11. K & ARgh.

[Jefferson23]

12. Dangerous and terribly so. n/t

[Oilwellian]

13. TPP is the boot in our face that Orwell spoke of

and we need to make a lot of noise about it. Great piece Will.

K&R

[dreamnightwind]

14. Absolutely

Thank you for this post! Stop the TPP!

[donheld]

15. Thanks William

[Enthusiast]

16. Kicked and recommended....nt

[BelgianMadCow]

17. Up

is down.

[colsohlibgal]

18. This Is Bad News Squared

The Obama can do no wrong crowd needs to take a good hard look at the TPP and if you're still in the tank for him shame on you.

This is a multi faceted corporate coup and your guy is all for it. Wake up.

The democratic party is now the new republican party and the republican party of today is maybe slightly left of Mussolini.

We've come a long way but it's the wrong way (other than with social issues) and it's going to take a long hard struggle to get our country back from corporate/big money control.

[Blanks]

19. Secret?

http://www.ustr.gov/tpp

I'm sure there are bad elements to the TPP (probably all of the elements that are pointed out), but there is an page about it at the White House.

Why does everyone keep saying it is secret?

[JDPriestly]

20. Sample of a press release at that website:

Sunday, July 14 through Tuesday, July 16 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The 18th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership talks is underway in Malaysia among negotiators from the eleven TPP countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. Negotiating groups meeting on Sunday, July 14 were the groups discussing investment and competition policy.

Groups meeting on Monday, July 15 were those negotiating investment, competition policy, market access, financial services, and intellectual property rights, as well as chief negotiators.

The same negotiating groups met on Tuesday, July 16. Additional bilateral meetings are also continuing throughout the round.

Press inquiries for the United States should be directed to [e-mail].

http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/trans-pacific-partnership/round-18-malaysia

Wow! Full of information. Amazing. Note that under groups meeting, there is no mention of justice for working people, nothing about working conditions, nothing about protecting workers' rights to organize. It is only about increasing the privileges of corporations. It is inhuman, anti-social and will harm just about everybody on the planet.

PLEASE NOTE EVERYONE:

After all the trade agreements we have entered into, here is the total balance of trade deficit for our country thus far in 2013:

-404,371.7 MILLION DOLLARS.

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0004.html

Meanwhile the budget deficit for the US thus far in 2103 is $607.4 billion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/us-budget-deficit_n_3745096.html

We import too much. We need to focus on our domestic economy. Every time we buy a foreign made product, we decrease the production in our country. That affects the amount of taxable revenue produced in our country. In addition to reducing the taxable revenue, our trade agreements with foreign countries make it easier for corporations, to name a few, Apple, Microsoft and all the many countries who prepare products or designs for products in this country, sell the manufacturing cheap to some affiliate in China, buy it at a big mark-up from the Chinese affiliate, place the profit in the Bahamas and bring it in, thereby avoiding
paying our employment taxes, supporting Social Security, or even our defense industry.

We, the American people, are losing money and opportunities on our trade agreements. We need to stop this nonsense now. These giveaway trade agreements need to be stopped. They do not make economic sense.

[Blanks]

21. Are you suggesting we abandon trade with other countries?

The problems that you mention could be resolved by adjusting the tax structure in this country. Return to the 1950's marginal tax rate, reinstate some of the anti-trust rules that used to exist.

Trade agreements themselves aren't the cause of the problesm that you see and foresee, they are just another symptom of too much power being in too few hands (just like citizens united). I agree that we shouldn't enter into trade agreements without social justice being in the forefront, and sustainable agriculture and renewable energy should be important considerations, but blaming the reduction in factory jobs in this country on trade agreements is completely ignoring the impact that automation and computers have had on the production of goods and materials.

Have you contacted the point of contact from the website with any questions you have, comments, criticisms? All I'm saying is that one of the things I keep hearing is that its a secret. If its not a secret, what other criticisms fall by the wayside when someone actually looks into it?

[JDPriestly]

24. I am suggesting that we return to unilateral trade agreements.

We don't need these broad trade agreements because they intrude on our sovereignty. I am familiar with the workings of the NAFTA court and have seen that court in action. Don't ask me about it.

And these broad trade agreements prevent us from controlling out trade deficits. I understand that our trade deficit is only one contributor to our budget deficit and domestic economic problems, but I believe it is a big one, a really big one.

Just adjusting the tax code will do nothing to change the problem that I mentioned in my previous post which is that, thanks to our trade agreements, corporations have many ways to hide profits overseas and avoid taxes within the US. You could tax corporate profits at 100% in the US. If those profits are taken by a company in the Bahamas and we have no way to even find out about them, we won't collect a penny.

The speeches, etc. I read on that website told me nothing, absolutely nothing about any of the details of the agreement. That website is worthless. Have you actually looked at it? It's all vague generalities at best. The TPP is being negotiated in private. It is not protecting worker's rights. One of the few details available is that our laws to protect health, such as tobacco regulations may be protected. That's about what I learned. It is the worst excuse for transparency I have ever seen. If Obama wanted to keep his campaign promise of the most transparent government, he would not be handling the TPP negotiations as he is.

I like Obama, but I have to fault him for the secrecy in these negotiations.

[Blanks]

27. If the problem is that corporations are hiding money...

That's still a tax problem and not a trade problem. I believe that you're familiar with the workings of the NAFTA court just as I believe you when you say that the site is not really transparent, but did you contact the point of contact with questions, comments or criticisms?

I've signed petitions opposing the TPP mostly because I think if we take action to oppose something like this, they try harder to sell it (which will provide more transparency).

I believe that there are problems, but I don't agree that previous trade agreements are the sole reason why American manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Certainly they've contributed, but I don't want people fighting trade agreements thinking that a victory will bring jobs back. I think that's setting people up for disappointment. Automation is at least as responsible.

If we really want to accomplish the goals that people who are fighting the TPP hope to change - I still think that's through tax policy (including laws against companies hiding money in offshore accounts) and not fighting trade agreements. Although I can see working toward both, the real vigor should be toward the taxes.

[JDPriestly]

32. aws against companies hiding money in offshore accounts are not the answero

nor are changes to the tax code.

So Mr. X is the CEO of a public company with a famous name. People, including pension funds, buy shares in the company. Mr. X's son owns a company headquartered in the Bahamas. Mr. X is a minor shareholder in a company that makes products very cheaply in a poor country, sells them to the company owned by Mr. X's son and then Mr. X's son sells those products at a huge mark-up to the public company with a famous name and Mr. X as CEO.

The tax code cannot solve that problem.

[Blanks]

33. Sorry, but I'm not convinced.

If there are particularly shady things going on in trade - those items need to be addressed. After the Great Depression rules were put in place to prevent that same kind of meltdown.

If the problem is that people are using shell companies to move large piles of money to offshore accounts - then there should be legislation preventing that kind of behavior. There probably is a law against that, but the republican controlled congress refuses to fund any kind of enforcement against the wealthy.

If this example that you use is going on now, then it will continue to go on whether the TPP goes through or not. So opposing future trade agreements does nothing to solve it. If the problem is that the wealthy are skirting the laws - the only solution is to tax them more. Including Mr. X son, if he was paying 91% of his income in taxes (and FICA on the entire income) why do I care how much he's marking the product up? The profit either goes toward taxes (for infrastructure projects) or they decide to pay the employees more to reduce the company's tax burden.

The taxes are what's not fair, not the trade agreement.

You declared taxes and laws to NOT be the solution, but you didn't really back it up with much. I believe that YOU believe they are not the answer, but you did nothing to convince me.

[pampango]

29. Do you mean "bilateral" trade agreements. "Unilateral" would mean a trade agreement with yourself.

"And these broad trade agreements prevent us from controlling out trade deficits."

Our trade deficits with "free trade" countries is tiny (51% imports - 49% exports) compared to our trade deficit with all the other countries (61% imports - 39% exports) in the world. They are not a a "really big" cause of our economic problems.

[JDPriestly]

31. Bilateral may be the correct term.

Your logic is wrong. We import too much from free trade countries and from the other countries. It is the total that is important. We should be free as a nation to keep the amount we spend on foreign trade in balance by imposing tariffs on certain goods that could be produced in the US.

We are killing our country with our imports.

Every item imported means fewer jobs in the US. Every dollar we owe to foreign countries is not just a dollar owed in the normal sense but also one less opportunity to hire an American and one less opportunity to collect taxes from a corporation and American worker. We all end up paying for the unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc. that are the result of the excessive unemployment caused by imports.

The equation is not so simple. Our trade deficit has repercussions on the health of our economy that go far beyond the simple percentages of trade in "free trade" and other countries. Foreign trade is never free. We spend do much money to protect our country from terrorists and foreign enemies. We spend a great deal to protect Americans from crime.

But the greatest dangers to Americans are from our damaged environment and our idiotic trade policies.

We are borrowing to buy junk from places like China. We are repeating the mistakes the Indians made when Europeans first came offering trinkets for land. Our trade policies are foolish and naive.

[obxhead]

22. More bad policy and hidden negotiations from the President

that promised transparency and change.

I think I've had about all the hope and change I can take. At this point if they all went on vacation until 2016 we might be better off.

[Phlem]

23. K&R!

-p

[jsr]

25. Recommend

[randome]

26. 'Occupy' is what occurs AFTER a war.

Please, somebody find a new name that will energize people.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[Blanks]

28. Occupy also means just basically sitting around in somebody's way...

I agree that it's time for a new name. Something synonymous with action would be good.

It made sense to begin with, but if the movement is really going to affect change, I think the occupy 'brand' needs to segue into something more productive.

Perhaps an 'AIM' toward accomplishing some particular thing would help the movement.

[randome]

34. I think of the group Liber8 from the Canadian sci-fi series Continuum.

Of course they become a violent terrorist group -not something I EVER want to see happen in real life- but, hell, at least they get shit done!

Now if Occupy could morph into something that truly captivates the public's attention, they could effect real change instead of simply 'changing the conversation'.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[navarth]

30. thanks. nt

[marmar]

35. K&R