Day of action against the Trans Pacific Partnership in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory

It’s time to demonstrate to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: We Reject the TPP! As a part of a month of action against the Trans Pacific Partnership we are mobilizing in Vancouver on November 29th.

This action will also be organized in direct opposition to the Donald Trump election in the US. Trump has been vocal in his opposition to the TPP but we do not stand with his bigoted and racist values that inform his opposition. Our oppositions is based in values of social justice, environmental stewardship and solidarity with people around the world. We stand for justice and united with all workers, including “off shore” and migrant workers. We reject Trump’s message as firmly as we reject the TPP.

We’re opposed to the TPP because this deal is all about expanding and securing the rights and power of corporations. The TPP accounts for an estimated 40% of the global economy and is one of the largest multilateral agreements since the Free Trade Area of the Americas that was derailed by popular movements over a decade ago.

The TPP includes an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision that allows transnational corporations to sue governments over legislation or policies made in the public interest. Environmental regulation and the rights of indigenous people will be undermined by ISDS mechanisms in order to promote investment in extractive industries. The public will pay corporations massive settlements if policy is passed against their business interests. The TPP will extend pharmaceutical patents so that Big Pharma profits while public health is compromised due to higher drug costs. The agreement promotes the continued exploitation of workers around the world by moving manufacturing to where they can find the lowest wage and exploiting workers with unequal status and rights. The TPP undermines local family farms opening up the dairy market to multinationals while also lowering health stands in the industry. The agreement will will expand their rights of corporations on the internet to control information and data while limiting public access to cultural knowledge. And there is so much more (resources are linked below).

Simply put: the TPP is about giving more power to corporations and limiting the power of communities to defend themselves. We must stand together to stop it.

It’s time to take action. Let’s take our opposition out of the closed door consultations crafted by the federal government and bring it to the street. Join us and help mobilize your community to combat the world’s largest corporations as they try to impose the TPP on us.

This action is being organized as a part of a global effort. Latin American activists mobilized on November 4th for the 10th Anniversary of defeating the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The central theme of their mobilization is the fight against neo-liberalism and the TPP (https://seguimosenlucha.wordpress.com/). There is also an Autumn of Action that was launched in Europe against CETA and TTIP (http://www.s2bnetwork.org/autumn-of-action/) along with more actions happening in Asia and Africa. In Canada, actions are being planned for this month and going forward will be posted here: http://www.notppcanada.org/

If you would like to endorse this action please email: hgrewal@canadians.org
Full list of endorsers of this action will be posted soon!