Surviving Capitalism (Not) : TTIP Why the Rest of the World should Beware

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

Friday, March 27, 2015

TTIP Why the Rest of the World should Beware

Click here to access article from the Transnational Institute. (The Transnational Institute was originally founded by the Washington DC-based Institute for Policy Studies.)

This article contains an outline of specific topics from which their PDF document provides more details based on the investigations about the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty by the research staff of the Transnational Institute.

The [TTIP] is a comprehensive free trade and investment treaty currently being negotiated – practically in secret – between the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (US). It could have massive implications for people and the environment on both sides of the Atlantic.

The stakes couldn't be higher, and not only for Europeans and Americans, but also for the rest of the world, which would be affected in many different ways by this agreement between these two superpowers of trade.

Their findings in the PDF document clearly suggest that this treaty benefits mostly the multinational corporation based in the US, Canada, and Europe; and many of its proposed provisions provisions are in conflict with other legal documents of the European Union.

Also, this is the first time that I've seen it viewed as a geopolitical strategy to confront a growing multipolar world. If this is correct, then it is another weapon designed to prevent the growing influence of Russia, China and the other BRICS countries.

...the objectives of TTIP go well beyond the intentions to solidify the Anglo-Saxon neoliberal model. It is first of all a geopolitical strategy to confront the emergence of a multipolar world. This is why the former Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Clinton has described TTIP as an “economic NATO”.

See also what Wikileaks has uncovered about the other infamous neoliberal trade proposal--the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal at this post entitled "TPP vs. Democracy: Leaked Draft of Secretive Trade Deal Spells Out Plan for Corporate Power Grab"--from Raging Bull-Shit.