We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Treaty

Click here to access article by Raul Burbano, Kristen Beifus and Manuel Pérez-Rocha from Tyee (Canada). 

While reporting on the latest neoliberal effort to remove national trade barriers under Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, the authors provide an excellent review of prior trade agreements and their record in creating problems for local economies, creating a race to the bottom for worker wages and working conditions, and forced emigration in search of work.
Free trade creates rich people not rich communities. We have 20 years of evidence from NAFTA... we don't want any more.
at
Labels: , ,