President Obama, the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street and the giant corporations sell TPP as rewriting the rules for doing business in the 21st century. And they should know, they wrote it. They kept labor, environmentalists and other stakeholders away from the process and kept it secret. But the record of these corporate-dominated "trade" deals and the parts of TPP that have leaked tell us we can be pretty sure its passage will mean very bad things for working people and our democracy.
All of labor, all who identify as "progressives," most Democrats, legal scholars, faith groups, environmental groups, human rights groups and thousands of other organizations are solidly opposed to the secrecy, to fast track and the process that is delivering this "corporate coup." The Democratic "base" is adamantly and overwhelmingly against it. (Even the Republican base is against it but they -- and everyone else -- understand that the Republican "establishment" is bought-and-paid-for by Wall Street and the big corporations.)
This is big donors vs. the base. This is Wall Street vs. working people. This is Nike vs. New Balance. (TPP would reward Nike for offshoring so many jobs, and would likely force New Balance to give up on manufacturing in the U.S.)
This is one side or the other. For example, the American Action Network just announced it is spending $1 million dollars on ads supporting fast track trade promotion authority. Who are they? They are a right-wing front group that lobbies for:
-- Decreasing regulation and weakening Dodd-Frank
-- Opposing increases to the minimum wage
-- Repealing Obamacare
-- Draconian budget cuts and economic austerity
That is the crowd that is for Fast Track and is spending $1 million putting the screws on members of Congress to vote for it. Will Clinton come out against them?
Pick a side, candidate Clinton. Don't just tell us you are on the side of working people; show us. Will "the base" remember if Clinton wouldn't come down on their side? Maybe not ... but maybe.
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