TPP Treaty Defeated by Popular Opposition

Among the best results of the recent election is the abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty, which was an attempt to extend international corporate power and undermine democratic initiatives under the guise of “trade.”  There will be no lame-duck session attempt to revive this dead-duck deal, and popular opposition had a lot to do with that.  It looks like the TIPP, the European version, will also be postponed at best.

Here is a summary from one of the hundreds of organizations that mobilized opposition to the TPP, the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) in Minnesota, in a statement signed by its director Mark Schultz:

This is an important victory for people. The reason the TPP won’t be brought up for a vote in Congress during the lame duck session is because it would be defeated.  And it would be defeated because the American people strongly rejected it. The enormous groundswell of people across the political spectrum and partisan lines — everyday people organizing and raising their voices against corporate power — prevailed over fleets of corporate lobbyists. The Land Stewardship Project is proud to have been a part of this broad coalition of community, labor, environmental, farm, consumer, faith, human rights and the many other organizations that worked tirelessly to help everyday people raise their voice and oppose the TPP.

We believe that every public official should hear the voice, the judgment, of the people, and step forward to publicly announce their opposition to the TPP – not just in the lame duck session, but for good. The TPP policy is too flawed, too controlled by corporate interests and too focused on growing corporate power over people and communities, to ever be passed by the U.S. Congress. We call on members of Congress to show their belief in American democracy, and publicly oppose the TPP now.

Members of the Land Stewardship Project for the past two years have organized meetings, collected thousands of petitions and made hundreds of telephone calls to stop the TPP because we believed from the start this pro-corporate policy was bad for democracy and bad for rural communities. Family farmers and other residents of rural communities and urban communities from across the Upper Midwest oppose this policy that would have given more power to corporations over their everyday lives. The TPP would have allowed multi-national corporations to sue local governments to increase profits. They would use the threat of huge lawsuits to stop the passage of local ordinances and state laws that people know they want and need — like a county banning frac sand mines, or a community setting a preference for locally grown food for their schools, or a township passing a moratorium on factory farms or other harmful development. LSP members saw this as an affront to local democracy and a corporate power grab and stood strongly against it.    

Family farmers also spoke out in opposition to the policy stating that the TPP was not for them. This policy was written by corporate lobbyists to benefit agribusiness and financial interests, and would not have helped farmers support their families, care for the land and grow rural economies. LSP stood strong for rural communities by raising voices from across the region and brought farmers to meet their elected officials in Minnesota and D.C. to express their opposition to this policy.         

Because of all of this amazing work, we can proudly say that PEOPLE have defeated the TPP. Everyday people stood up for local democracy and their communities and have defeated the corporate interests that wanted this policy enacted. This shows what is possible when we organize together. And we know we must remain vigilant and keep organizing. We know the same interests that wrote the TPP and tried to pass it behind closed doors will not stop fighting for similar pro-corporate policies. Neither will the Land Stewardship Project stop. We commit to continue fighting for family farmers, stewardship of the land and strong and vibrant rural and urban communities where people have the power to set the course of their lives.