Since I started writing this blog entry, an Avaaz petition against the nine-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment negotiations has increased by 10,000 names. (And since yesterday, when I first posted the entry, another 250,000 have signed!) The petition, posted September 12, reads:
Big business has a new plan to fatten their pockets: a giant global pact, with an international tribunal to enforce it, that is kept top secret for years (even from our lawmakers!) and then brought down like a Death Star on our democracies. Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Walmart and almost 600 other corporate lobbyists are all in on the final draft — including limits on smoking laws, affordable medicines and free speech on the Net.
The latest round of negotiations ends in just 4 days — but outcries in each of our countries could shake the confidence of negotiators and scuttle the talks forever. Let’s get to a million against the global corporate takeover. Sign the petition on the right. Avaaz will project our petition counter on the walls of the conference so negotiators can see the opposition to their plan exploding in real time.
Sign the petition here: www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corporate_death_star
Read more about the TPP, and Canada’s participation in it, here: www.canadians.org/tpp
Below: Watch a video of Occupy protestors disrupting a TPP negotiating session this week.
