FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Friday, January 31, activists across North America and beyond will rally and march against the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, negotiations for which continue in secrecy in mid-February. More than 45 communities will participate in the Intercontinental Day of Action against the TPP and Corporate Globalization (see event listing below). The action coincides with an important conference this week in Mexico City on the catastrophic impacts of NAFTA on the Mexican people and the need for a radically new trade model for the continent. TPP protests in Canada will also challenge the Harper government’s corporate trade agenda and deals with the European Union, China, Honduras, and other countries.
WHO: Fair trade activists, labour unions, and advocates for migrant justice, climate action, Internet freedom and access to medicines, and many others. See www.tinyurl.com/tradejustice for a list of 70+ organizational sponsors.
WHEN: Friday, January 31, 2014
WHERE: Across Canada, Mexico, United States, and Australia
WHY: This year marks the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Despite growing inequality, a worsening climate crisis, and chronic unemployment linked to unfettered free trade and corporate globalization, a pending 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will expand this failed regime across this hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean. Leaked texts prove the TPP is another corporate bill of rights that threatens to:
– Destroy livelihoods and accelerate the global race to the bottom in wages and working conditions
– Further commodify agriculture, trample food sovereignty, hurt small farmers and contribute to forced migration
– Enable new corporate attacks on democratically-enacted environmental and consumer protections
– Undermine global economic stability by prohibiting effective regulation of financial markets
– Reduce access to life-saving generic medications, increase the costs of prescriptions, and restrict freedom on the Internet
STATEMENT: “We’re here to acknowledge the harm that NAFTA has already caused North American communities, and to resist the new threats that the TPP poses,” says Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with The Council of Canadians, one of more than 70 organizations participating in the day of action. “In the past, people coming together like this across geographic borders have defeated similar corporate power grabs including the TPP-like Free Trade Area of the Americas. There’s no reason we can’t do it again.”
TPP Day of Action
North America & Beyond * January 31, 2014
