STOP THE TPP *NEW*

An Open Letter

By Former Missouri State Rep. Lloyd C. Daniel

Congress can stop the worst international trade agreement in United States’ history.  The people need elected leaders who have the courage and intestinal fortitude to stand up against this global power grab which is not in the interest of the vast majority of people.

What follows are just three of the many reasons to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement:

1)  It allows super rich transnational corporations like Exxon to sue developing nations, or even this nation, for interfering in the corporation’s attempt to control global markets and seek profits at any cost.  Their 21^st century Ebenezer Scrooge ‘profits before people’ strategy is at the root of much of the misery and grief endured by poor and working poor people both here and around the world. The US would be a member of the TPP.  So, would boycotts, selective buying campaigns, strikes, work slow downs, heath and food safety complaints, discrimination lawsuits, marches and demonstrations, etc. in the US also be deemed illegal by these new trans-national laws?

2)  It will, like NAFTA, drive down wages of people countries that lose jobs to the hyper- exploited $3.00 a day so-called “developing” nations. Would members of the TPP push for fairness or will it manifest the haughty arrogance of that “great” American entrepreneur Henry Ford, speaking out against anti-child labor laws asked the question, “Why pay a man a dollar, when you can pay a kid a dime”?  An historical note: Ford was also known for on occasion praising Adolph Hitler, until things began to go badly for the Third Reich.

3)  The TPP is a thinly veiled part of the attempt by the United States and its Asian client states to “contain” China.  For decades the US and its allies were able to prevent China from becoming a member of the United Nations. That period of history is long gone.  What we see today is part and parcel part of the more recent, provocative and accelerated; attempts to regain economic and military influence and control over large portions of Asia, including Western Asia.  The results of this approach has proven to be uneven at best or more often disastrous at worst (see Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.).  I must ask the question, “What would be the US response to the presence of Chinese battleships off the coast of San Francisco or in the Gulf of Mexico?”

One thing that this new era is proving is the fact that the United States of America does not have the right, wisdom or ability to run the planet.  Now is not the time to continue spending trillions on international misadventures. Now is the time to redirect those taxpayer dollars into developing this nation’s human and physical infrastructure.  It’s time to wake up and smell the future!

CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES!

Editor’s Note:

To read, hear and watch more on this and other issues log on to Lloyd’s website at  localhost:8000