Occupy TPP: Dallas, TX – May 8-19

via Texas Fair Trade Coalition:

International trade ministers and corporate lobbyists will be descending on Texas from May 8 to 18 for a critical trade summit aimed at rushing the secretive new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement toward completion. The Texas Fair Trade Coalition and our allies are planning to welcome them — and we need you to join us.

TPP: Out of the Shadows!
Rally for Good Jobs, Affordable Medicine & a Healthy Environment
Saturday, May 12 1:00pm
Addison Circle Park 15650 Addison Rd * Addison, TX

The May 12th rally and march is the main event while negotiators are in town. It features a permitted rally with trade justice advocates from around the world, followed by a march down to the negotiation site. It has been endorsed by the Citizens Trade Campaign, Code Pink, Communications Workers of America, Dallas AFL-CIO Council, Dallas Peace Center, Friends of the Earth, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn.org Dallas, National Family Farm Coalition, North Texas Jobs with Justice, Occupy Austin, Occupy Dallas, Occupy Texas, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Texas AFL-CIO, Texas State Building Trades Council, United Steelworkers, United Students Against Sweatshops, Welcoming Immigrants Network and many others.

Reserve your free seat on a bus from San Antonio or Austin to attend the May 12th action

RSVP here to learn about other carpooling options and to get updates as they develop

Download a PDF flyer for the May 12th action

No Back Room Deals for the 1%
Press Event Demanding Transparency
Tuesday, May 8 10:00am
Intercontinental Dallas Hotel 15201 Dallas Parkway * Addison, TX

The Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas Fair Trade Coalition and others will hold a press conference demanding transparency in the TPP negotiations and delivering a petition urging that negotiators release the texts.

Sign the petition that will be delivered to U.S. trade negotiators in Texas

The TPP Opening Bash
Global Activist Reception & Teach-In
Thursday, May 10 6:00pm
Community Center for Cooperation 2900 Live Oak St * Dallas, TX

Join trade justice advocates from around the world for an activist reception starting at 6:00pm, followed by a teach-in at 7:00pm with national and international speakers including Lori Wallach (Global Trade Watch), Celeste Drake (AFL-CIO), Ilana Solomon (Sierra Club), Sanya Reid Smith (Third World Network) and Kelli Seals-Obazee (Dallas Peace Center).

Help spread the word on Facebook here

Housing
The TPP negotiations are a big deal, and people will be coming from far-and-wide to ensure that the 99%’s voices are heard by negotiators. If you can put up one or more activists, or if you’re still looking for housing, please use the following forms. No guarantees., but folks will try to match you.

Please fill out this form if you can offer housing in the Dallas area

Please fill out this form if you’re looking for housing

Other Events
Other events are being organized for throughout the negotiations.

Please sign up here to receive updates as they develop

Download factsheets about the TPP and find other background information

What Is the TPP?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive, new international trade and investment pact currently being negotiated behind closed doors between the United States and countries throughout the Pacific Rim. Wall Street banks and other corporate interests are pushing for the TPP to:

• Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally
• Create new tools for attacking environmental and consumer safety policies
• Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies
• Further concentrate global food supplies in the hands of fewer-and-fewer middlemen, displacing family farmers and subjecting consumers to wild food price fluctuations
• Institute longer patents that restrict access to affordable, generic medications

Instead of being debated out in the open, the TPP has thus far been negotiated in the shadows. Approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have been given special “cleared advisor” status to review negotiating documents and advise negotiators. Meanwhile, the general public has been barred from even reviewing what U.S. negotiators have proposed in our names.

The twelfth major round of TPP negotiations — perhaps one of the last — is taking place at the Intercontinental Dallas Hotel in Addison, Texas, from May 8 to 18. Please join us in dragging these negotiations into the light of day and ensuring that we aren’t saddled with a back-room deal that enriches the global 1% at the expense of the economy, the environment, family farms, public health and democracy itself.

Demand Transparency

The vast majority of Americans have been barred by the U.S. Trade Representative from reviewing its proposals for the massive new Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have regular access to the negotiating texts as so-called “cleared advisors.”

TAKE ACTION: Please help put an end to this type of back room dealmaking by signing our online petition demanding that negotiators release the texts.

The petition will be delivered to negotiators during a press event outside Dallas on May 8th.