The Coalition to STOP TPP continues its week of actions with 2 more conference sessions (Friday evening and Saturday late afternoon), a rally at noon on Friday and a major “Pot’s and Pans” March on Saturday.
- Friday, July 6, 12:00 noon rally at Hilton Bayfront
- Friday, July 6, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Peace Resource Center: 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego, CA 92105
• Food Freedom or NAFTA on Steroids
Come and Meet Ben Burkett, President of the National Family Farm Coalition
Discuss the Significance of Food Sovereignty and Food Justice
Guest of Honor: Ben F. Burkett is president of the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) in the U.S., and a cooperative-marketing-specialist member of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund. Ben is a former Indian Springs manager of 16 years and current director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, the local arm of The Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Ben is a farmer and community activist. He is a board member of the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC). Ben represents NFFC on the Via Campesina Food Sovereignty Comission. La Via Campesina is the international movement which brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world.
- July 7, Saturday, 11 am – March with Pots and Pans Against TPP! March leaves Civic Center at 11 am
- People’s Conference: A Better World Is Possible!
Saturday, July 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Peace Resource Center: 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego, CA 92105
• Fukushima Anti-nuke Activist in San Diego
Guest of Honor: Ms. Chieko Shiina
Experienced activist and dedicated organic farmer in Kawamata village of Fukushima before March 11th, 2001. One of her major contributions to Japan’s national anti-nukes organizing is that she organized the sit-in in front of the Ministry of Economy and Industry from September 11th, 2011. Further, she organized 100 women from Fukushima to set up “Women’s 10 months and 10 days sit-in” from late October, which later became both a symbolic and physical space where women from all over Japan came to communicate and organize. Co-sponsored with San Diego Veterans for Peace.
No to NAFTA on Steroids (background)
From June 30 to July 8, the secret, super-treaty negotiations known as the 13th Round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Negotiations are being held here in San Diego at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel.
The 11 nations involved in the talks are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Canada. Japan has indicated a desire to join. The economic power of this group is more than 40% larger than the 27-nation European Union. The claimed purpose of TPP is to promote development and create jobs. But the reality is different. Though the contents of these negotiations are secret, what is not a secret is that the impacts of the TPP on these Pacific Rim nations, on peasants, on farmers, on workers, on natural resources, on the environment, will be devastating. Some people describe the TPP as “NAFTA on Steroids.”
The TPP will affect many American domestic issues: jobs, public health, environment, worker safety, Internet neutrality, domestic sovereignty, and more. It will:
• Give multinational corporations and private investors the right to sue nations in private tribunals. These tribunals have the power to overturn environmental, labor, or any other laws that limit profit, and award the corporations taxpayer-funded damages.
• Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally
• Create new tools for attacking environmental and consumer safety standards
• Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies
• Further concentrate control of global food supplies, displacing family farmers and peasants and subjecting consumers to wild price fluctuations and un-labeled genetically-modified food
• Undermine public health policies that reduce tobacco consumption and increase access to medicine
• Encourage privatization of lands and natural resources in areas where indigenous people live
For more info, Contacts:
Will Johnson, Occupy San Diego: 707-225-4605; willj@sandiegooccupy.org
Kristen Smith, Women Occupy San Diego: 352-278-2123; kristensmith64@yahoo.com
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