[CTC] Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal

Thu Apr 9 06:20:22 PDT 2015

More great work from the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-in-blimp-rv-target-sen-ron-wyden-over-trade-deal-1428444536 <http://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-in-blimp-rv-target-sen-ron-wyden-over-trade-deal-1428444536>

Activists in Blimp, RV Target Sen. Ron Wyden Over Trade Deal
Oregon Democrat, generally in sync with party’s liberal wing, is chased around Portland by campaigners against Trans-Pacific Partnership; ‘he’s hearing our message’

The Wall Street Journal
By Siobhan Hughes
April 7, 2015 at 6:08pm

PORTLAND, Ore.—When Sen. Ron Wyden goes home to Oregon, he faces an unusual entourage: activists manning a blimp and a recreational vehicle who are set on pressuring the senator to say no to a trade deal.

Mr. Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate panel that oversees trade policy, is generally in sync with his party’s liberal wing. But in recent weeks he has been the target of a highly personal campaign organized by some of his constituents to persuade him to oppose President Barack Obama <http://topics.wsj.com/person/O/Barack-Obama/4328>’s request for “fast track” authority, which subjects trade deals to an up-or-down vote without amendments.

Drawing support from labor unions and environmental organizations—and pulling in people from a church and even a dance group—the activists will provide a test of whether a populist uprising can stand in the way of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has been in the works for almost a decade <http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-trans-pacific-partnership-wouldand-wouldntdo-1426441618>. Besides the U.S., it would cover 11 countries—mostly in Asia but also including Canada, Mexico and Australia. Together, the 12 countries account for 40% of the global economy.

Mr. Wyden is pivotal because he is seen as someone who could shape the fast-track legislation—which he is negotiating with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R., Utah)—in ways that would make it acceptable to fellow Democrats who are on the fence on trade. The bill is expected to be unveiled in coming weeks.

ENLARGE

Activists have followed Mr. Wyden around with this blimp. PHOTO: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

On one side, Mr. Wyden hails from a port state where the fast-track measure, known formally as Trade Promotion Authority, is backed by companies such as Intel Corp. and Nike <http://quotes.wsj.com/NKE> Inc.,which both have significant Oregon operations, as well as agricultural interests like blueberry growers. On the other side is a range of antitrade forces that is broader than in the past—and ramping up the pressure at a key moment.

“The only way we’re going to get these guys to make the right decision is get out here and put some pressure on,” said Rogue Robertson, 41 years old, who took part in an Oregon Fair Trade Campaign event Saturday to ask residents of Mr. Wyden’s neighborhood to put “No Fast Track” signs in their windows. The activists have also staked out Mr. Wyden’s Portland home and office, and plan to go to town halls he has scheduled for later this week.

Mr. Wyden deals with the protests by mostly avoiding them. He didn’t engage with activists over the past weekend, though he is expected to address them at the town halls.

Oregon Fair Trade Campaign activists standing in front of Mr. Wyden’s house Saturday as they prepare to go door to door. PHOTO: LEAH NASH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“He has been very quiet,” said Elizabeth Swager, 36, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, which was founded a decade ago by state chapters of the AFL-CIO and the Sierra Club following unhappiness with earlier trade deals. “What I take away from that is that he’s hearing our message, so I think we have to keep going.”

In a statement this week, Mr. Wyden acknowledged their activity: “Oftentimes my work in Congress involves fighting against powerful interests and I count on activist citizens to win the day, so I’m encouraged to see people working to get their voices heard even when we don’t agree.”

The activists’ motivations vary. Some fear that the trade deal would give drug companies a form of monopoly power that keeps generic drugs from competing against costlier pharmaceuticals. Others focus on the risk of job loss and the erosion of environmental standards, especially because of a provision in the trade deal that would let foreign corporations sue the U.S. for policies that hurt the expected performance of U.S. investments. One example that activists cite: a successful legal action by a chemical maker against Canada over a ban on a chemical that the company said would harm its business. Such legal actions go through tribunals established by trade deals instead of through ordinary court systems.

In Washington recently, Mr. Wyden in an interview declined to say how he thinks the fast-track talks will play out. Like many of his constituents, the senator voices concern about the difficulty of enforcing labor and environmental standards set by trade pacts, and criticizes the secrecy in which the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been negotiated. But he has also said that “trade done right can be a tremendous opportunity,” for instance to create better-paying jobs in the U.S.

Doug Krahmer, an Oregon blueberry grower, hopes Mr. Wyden will support a new fast-track bill. “In Oregon we produce more blueberries than what we can consume, so if we don’t have good export possibilities, we’re just going to choke on our own production,” he said.

The Portland activists, though, worry about the size and scope of the trade pact.

As their RV threaded through the city, navigating carefully along its ubiquitous bike lanes and past its community gardens and food trucks, the group’s members also stood out by campaigning in the backyard of a politician who usually agrees with them. They are betting that many of the city’s locally focused residents will support their cause. When they walked door to door in Mr. Wyden’s neighborhood, it appeared that they hadn’t miscalculated.

Rachael Townsend, a 30-year-old activist whose résumé includes organizing workers in Honduras, received a hug from one neighbor and was told by another, “I really appreciate what you are doing.”

After hours of distributing signs, a visibly fatigued Ms. Townsend nonetheless joined fellow activists who cheered at one another’s small victories, such as persuading Mr. Wyden’s neighbors to leave antitrade messages on his voice mail.

Some liberals in Portland are so worried that Mr. Wyden, a longtime supporter of trade deals, will back a new one that they have begun talking about a primary challenge when his term is up in 2016.

The activity was one part of a multifront campaign that has also included protests outside the New York home of Mr. Wyden’s wife and a Washington fundraiser. Last month, the Internet group Fight for the Future set up a jumbotron across from the U.S. Capitol to deliver an antitrade message to Mr. Wyden.

The fact that more activist groups than in the past are coalescing to press the senator is unusual in a movement that traditionally lacks the organizational infrastructure to win political victories.

“I want to believe it’s not his personal position, but it’s a position he’s been brought into, so it’s a position we have to pressure him to move off of,” said Jeff Klatke, 45, whose presence on the RV was itself a statement because his union hasn’t put much muscle into trade fights in the past.

Mr. Klatke, who typically votes for Mr. Wyden, is the president of an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees chapter that represents about 25,000 workers.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes at wsj.com <https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=siobhan.hughes@wsj.com>

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