[CTC] Black Lives Matter platform calls for end to TPP

[Susie Chasnoff]

Here's a meme if anyone would like to use it:

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 4:24 PM, Rose Espinola <respinola at citizen.org> wrote:

> Thanks for sending this Arthur! This is a good moment for our
> organizations to promote Black Lives Matter’s broader platform. They’re
> using the hashtag  #Vision4BlackLives.
>
>
>
> For those with Spanish-language handles, the text is also available in
> Spanish - https://policy.m4bl.org/m4blplatformspanish/.
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Rose Espinola | National Field Director*
>
> Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
>
> Office: 202-454-5129
>
> Cell: 754-281-9361
>
> Email: respinola at citizen.org
>
>
>
> *From:* CTCField [mailto:ctcfield-bounces at lists.citizenstrade.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Arthur Stamoulis
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 02, 2016 10:37 AM
> *To:* CTC Field Field
> *Subject:* [CTC] Black Lives Matter platform calls for end to TPP
>
>
>
> https://policy.m4bl.org/economic-justice/
> An End to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a Renegotiation of All Trade
> Agreements to Prioritize the Interests of Workers and Communities
>
> *What is the problem?*
>
>    - Global trade policy, strongly supported by the U.S., is structured
>    almost exclusively around the needs of capital, rather than people.  So
>    trade barriers are lowered through changes in tariffs to ensure easier flow
>    of capital and goods or regulations that protect local economies, workers
>    or the environment are often weakened to address the needs of an
>    international competitor in a market.
>    - Workers in the global economy and the environment are both at best
>    secondary considerations in global trade agreements. Wages are pulled down
>    internationally by the trade scheme and labor standards are weak with
>    little protection for unionization.
>    - The rules for trade determine who benefits or suffers losses in the
>    global economy, often privileging some countries, companies or sectors over
>    others.  For example, rules such as those governing intellectual property
>    rights enrich some, while depriving groups of people of even fundamental
>    needs such as essential medicines because it puts costs out of reach.
>    - Existing trade agreements also tend to increase inequality providing
>    greater mobility for those with high-paying jobs but not those with
>    low-paying jobs who cannot easily travel to new locations for higher pay.
>    - While low-wage workers face barriers and costs to mobility, the
>    increasing ease of mobility of capital leads to a race to the bottom where
>    capital follows the lowest wage levels and worst working conditions. – and
>    low wage workers with barriers and costs to mobility.
>    - The TPP, like most free trade policies, will destroy economic
>    opportunity for Black people and the working class.
>    - The TPP will decrease access to health care and exacerbate an
>    already exploding health crisis facing Black people and poor people
>    throughout the world.
>    - The TPP will grant corporations control over the online platforms
>    essential to the Black Lives Matter Movement
>    - The TPP will allow corporations to avoid domestic courts and
>    challenge economic and social reforms won by the Black Lives Matter
>    Movement in a corporate-driven foreign tribunal.
>
> *What does this solution do?*
>
>    - Trade agreements have successfully standardized how  products, such
>    as automobiles, are made.  This power to create standards should be
>    utilized to ensure the human rights of people here and around the world,
>    beginning with the rights and needs of Black people everywhere because our
>    communities have faced the most severe marginalization globally.  The
>    United States should announce its intention to withdraw from its current
>    trade agreements within five years unless they are renegotiated to include:
>
>
>    - Higher labor standards and wage minimums as a condition of
>    participating in free trade;
>    - Protection for the ability to organize and unionize, including
>    across borders
>    - Stringent environmental standards
>    - Racial equity standards in the sectors covered
>    - Transparency in all trade agreements so the public is fully aware of
>    all of an agreements’ components at every stage of the treaty development
>    process
>    - An effective enforcement scheme that would penalize and exclude
>    companies, and countries where appropriate, when worker rights and
>    environmental standards are violated.  Enforcement shall including standing
>    for those impacted by violations of the agreement to challenge the company
>    or country at issue.
>
> *Federal Action:*
>
>    - Call on the Executive Branch and Congress calling for renegotiation
>    of agreements including but not limited to, FTAA, CAFTA, and NAFTA and a
>    call for renegotiation the terms of TPP prior to any ratification by the
>    United States.
>
> *State Action:*
>
>    - Call on state legislatures to demand federal action renegotiating
>    treaties according to the goals described above.
>
> *Local Action:*
>
>    - Call on City Councils and Mayors to demand federal action
>    renegotiating treaties according to the goals described above.
>
> *How does this solution address the specific needs of some of the most
> marginalized Black people?*
>
>    - Black people have been forced into the lowest wage work available,
>    when they have been afforded work at all.  By transforming the trade
>    framework, Black people will enjoy higher wages and dignified conditions of
>    work, as well as be afforded some protection against environmental
>    injustice, which disproportionately sickens Black communities.
>
> *Resources:*
>
>    -
>    http://www.aflcio.org/content/download/158221/3936941/TPPandworkersofcolor-Updated.pdf
>    ,
>    -
>    http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Trade/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Free-Trade-Agreement-TPP/Report-on-the-Impacts-of-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership
>    - What does the Trans-Pacific Partnership Mean for Black People,
>    Rachel Glimer (Ebony)  See:
>    http://www.ebony.com/news-views/what-does-the-trans-pacific-partnership-mean-for-black-people-503#axzz4Der6qMZ9
>
> *Organizations Currently Working on Policy:*
>
>    - Global Exchange, AFL-CIO
>
> *Authors & Contributors of this Policy Overview*
>
>    - Cathy Albisa, NESRI
>    - Marbre Stahly Butts, Center for Popular Democracy
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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