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

Monday, June 30, 2014

Wikileaks: Leaked TISA Text Shows US, EU Aggressively Rolling Back Regulations

Click here to access article by Carey L. Biron from Mint Press News.

It's difficult to keep up with all the secret negotiations going on to make it easier for global capitalist elites to break down national restraints on business operations that harm the health and welfare of the public, the 99 Percent. Thus far we've learned of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and now we have the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) which seems to focus on breaking down national restraints on financial/banking operations. We can thank Wikileaks for another exposé of what our capitalist masters are doing to circumvent national laws that we've fought for over the centuries designed to protect our interests from predatory capitalists.
Civil society groups have been expressing concerns since the talks, around what is known as the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, began a year ago. Yet because the negotiations have been held in secret, watchdog groups have never been able to base their analyses on anything concrete. Now that they can, many are warning that the results appear to be even more problematic than they expected.
“The leaked TISA text is worse than I could have imagined — it’s pretty shocking,” William Waring, a trade expert with Friends of the Earth....