As another (the 18th) round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) begin this week in Malaysia, the clock is ticking towards completion of the text (still being kept secret from civil society).
The TPP is poised to become the largest Free Trade Agreement in U.S. history, with profound negative consequences for social, environmental and economic justice, as well as basic human rights throughout the world.
Negotiations on this monstrous pact started about three years ago, but there is still very little public knowledge about what it is and the threats it poses. The TPP’s architects are purposefully trying to keep the agreement’s potential impacts on jobs, climate regulations, Internet freedom, food safety, indigenous sovereignty and more hidden in the shadows.
It’s time to take a step and organize an action to resist the TPP this summer! Communities around the world have already organized their own actions and we’re encouraging you to join #TPPTuesday and organize and event to bring more awareness to your community (it does not have to be on a Tuesday!).
Sign up to organize your action against the TPP!
Then the #TPPTuesday Social Media Action Team will promote your action and log it in the growing list of actions that will happen this summer. Check out what we did a few weeks ago at Global Exchange when we heard the TPP negotiators were in San Francisco, CA.
Your #TPPTuesday action can range in complexity. To get you started, here are some TPP action ideas to get you inspired:
* Pack up a Congress member’s or mid-level Executive’s office and ship it overseas;
* Hold a “billionaires for free trade” event supporting some free trade promoter;
* Hold a funeral (for workers, jobs, the environment, democracy, etc.);
* Have a “make the link” action where you build a paper chain out of petitions, stapling it together in a corporate or Congressional office;
* Picket politicians’ fundraiser;
* Tape stuff to a politician or corporation’s door;
* Hold a “die-in”;
* Say “bon voyage” to jobs;
* Deliver a cake with a message/photo on it;
* Have a frog puppet explain the issue;
* Go door-to-door in your neighborhood warning neighbors about the TPP;
* Hold a candle-light vigil;
* Get a couple friends together and take a photo holding up an anti-TPP sign in front of a corporate office.