TTIP, Secret Talks And Corporate Lobbyists.

 More on TTIP from SumOf Us:

       Environmental standards, workers’ right and food hygiene are all under the chopping block with TTIP. And even worse: these incredibly sensitive policy areas are being negotiated away in secret -- so far only lobbyists of the big corporations have had access to EU lawmakers.

       But this is about to change. The European Ombudsman -- the place where European citizens can lodge complaints about EU politics -- has opened a formal investigation into TTIP and its lack of transparency following pressure from civil society. We have only 7 days left to write to the Ombudsman and let her know how we feel about our rights being negotiated away in a secret trade deal.

Write an email to the Ombudsman today!

      While lobbyists of the big corporations from Monsanto to Nestle to Exxon Mobile have been going in and out of meetings with lawmakers in Brussels, ordinary citizens are often standing in front of closed doors. That has to change!

      We need actual citizens’ participation in a process that is going to affect our lives as profoundly as the TTIP. We need true access -- to the negotiating documents, the meeting reports and full transparency about which lobbyists are meeting with European lawmakers.

Here is what you need to do: write an email to the European Ombudsman to demand full transparency about the TTIP and in particular the comings and goings of corporate lobbyists. It will only take a few minutes but it will be totally worthwhile.

Here are some talking points you could use for your email:

• The EU should be extremely open and transparent and immediately release all information on the TTIP negotiations, especially when it concerns areas such as environmental standards, workers’ rights and health and safety. 
• The EU should lay open all communication between lobbyists of big business. Sadly, so far business had way more access to negotiations than normal citizens. That needs to change. 
• The EU should release a list of all the meetings that corporations have had with lawmakers.

     Remember: the more personal your message, the more likely it will be read by the Ombudsman.

The leaders of the European Union are starting to really feel the people’s discontent with this secret trade deal. And this is also thanks to you. Thousands of SumOfUs members complained to the EU Commission about corporations being able to sue governments -- the ISDS clause in TTIP. Many of you have chipped in to support our TTIP work and the development of the European Citizens’ Initiative. Now is the time to keep up the pressure!

Send an email to the Ombudsman to ask for full access to the TTIP negotiations and transparency about the comings and goings of corporate lobbyists.

     Thanks for all you do, 

Anne, Hannah, and the team at SumOfUs

More information:

European Ombudsman launches public consultation in relation to the transparency of the TTIP negotiations

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

SMILING FASCISTS IN EXPENSIVE SUITS.

     The corporate beast is working hard at cementing its grip over our lives, it already holds tremendous sway over most elected governments with its financial clout. But they want to go even further and create what would be one massive corporate fascist regime, they want to over rule any legislation they deem hinders their plunder and rape of the planet. Legislation might be for the benefit and welfare of the people, but if it gets in the way of their sacred profits, then it will be over-ridden. New fascism doesn't come marching down the streets in jackboots, it sits in plush offices dressed in expensive suits, but it is just as brutal and ruthless. We ignore it at our peril. 

This from AVAAZ: 

Dear friends,

We have four days to stop a top-secret global corporate power grab that attacks everything from a free Internet to environmental protections. This agreement is being negotiated right now by bureaucrats backed by corporate lobbyists. Click below to crash their secret meeting with our global call to kill the TPP deal:

    Details are leaking of a top-secret, global corporate power grab of breathtaking scope -- attacking everything from a free Internet to health and environmental regulations, and we have just 4 days to stop it. 
     Big business has a new plan to fatten their pockets: a giant global pact, with an international tribunal to enforce it, that is kept top secret for years (even from our lawmakers!) and then brought down like a Death Star on our democracies. Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Walmart and almost 600 other corporate lobbyists are all in on the draft -- including limits on smoking laws, affordable medicines and free speech on the Net.

    The latest round of negotiations ends in just 4 days -- but outcries in each of our countries could shake the confidence of negotiators and scuttle the talks forever. Let's get to a million against the global corporate takeover. Sign below and forward widely. Avaaz will project our petition counter on the walls of the conference so negotiators can see the opposition to their plan exploding in real time:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corporate_death_star/?bwqhjab&v=17858

    The deal, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is written to protect investors from government regulation, even if that regulation is passed in the public interest. Leaked versions suggest the TPP would undermine protections for air and water safety and reintroduce measures from the US Internet freedom attack as well as steamrolling efforts to produce generic affordable medicines. Worse still, lawmakers who fail to conform to the TPP’s rules face sanctions in an international tribunal -- a place where corporations can sue us for deals previous governments signed in secret!   Negotiators say this is just a trade agreement, written to facilitate investment and profit for all. But the leaked draft imposes so many limits on citizen protections, it's clear this "trade" agreement is skewed to put corporate profit above people's needs -- that's not surprising since it's been drafted in secret with almost 600 corporate lobbyists.

   But there is hope: Australia is bucking against the international tribunal system, and New Zealand is objecting to the takeover of its medicine-pricing protections that keep drugs affordable. Massive public opposition, casting doubt over each country's ability to sell TPP at home, could derail the talks for good. Sign the petition now, and forward widely -- the delegates and lobbyists are watching the wave of opposition grow in real time:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corporate_death_star/?bwqhjab&v=17858

    US Candidate for Senate, Elizabeth Warren in a recent speech said: “Corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters, because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people." Let’s reach one million to stop the corporate takeover of our governments.

With hope,

Iain, Pedro, Laura, Ari, Emma, Lisa, Luca, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

ann arky's home.