Page 4
News
Street Roots • August 12-18, 2016
Concert Details
What: Rock Against the TPP
Where: Director Park
815 SW Park Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
When: 5-10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20
Go to RockAgainstTheTPP.org
for a free ticket
Teach-in Details
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
diverse faction of well-known
performers will take the stage in
Downtown Portland’s Director Park on
Aug. 20 in an effort to build opposition to the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with a
free rock concert.
Portland is the third stop in the “Rock
Against the TPP” tour, which kicked off in
Denver, Colo., with legendary guitarist Tom
Morello, the Flobots and Talib Kweli in July.
The tour is sponsored by a wide range of
organizations, from the Teamsters and
United Steelworkers to Sierra Club and Daily
Kos.
Actress and activist Evangeline Lilly speaks to a crowd in Denver about the Trans-Pacific
The Portland concert will feature punk
Partnership as part of the Rock Against the TPP tour.
groups Anti-Flag and Downtown Boys,
comedian Hari Kondabolu, slack rock
guitarist Makana, Danbert Nobacon of
Chumbawamba, hip-hop artist Son of Nun
and other performers, including Canadian
actress Evangeline Lilly of television’s “Lost”
and “The Hobbit” movie franchise.
Lilly will MC the event and lead a teach-in
at First Unitarian Church the following day
where she’ll educate participants on
provisions of the TPP and ways to get
involved locally.
To gain access to the event, fans must go
to RockAgainstTheTPP.org to sign up and
add their name to a petition telling members
of Congress to stand in opposition to the
deal.
Most of Oregon’s representatives in
Congress say they’re still undecided (See
expected future profits - and these
a victory that we can create together and
“Who’s down with TPP,” page 5).
corporations only need to convince those
The TPP is a 2,000-plus-page trade deal
celebrate,” he said.
three corporate lawyers that a U.S. law or
One of the tour’s lead organizers is digital
written in secret with corporate lawyers and
government decision violates the
rights group Fight for the Future. Its
advisors that covers 40 percent of the global
corporation’s new TPP rights.”
campaign director, Evan Greer, said the
economy.
While Obama has already signed the deal,
group got involved when it learned how the
President Barack Obama has said passing
the document is nothing more than a
TPP would hurt internet freedom by
it through Congress is the number one
doorstop unless Congress approves it, said
exporting “the worst part of U.S. copyright
priority of his administration while he’s still
Wallach.
policy to other countries without expanding
in office.
She said the White House plans to push
or requiring protections for fair use or
Critics of the deal say it grants new rights
the TPP through Congress after the
freedom of speech.”
to corporations while exploiting workers and
November elections, “when the retired and
Greer said the same type of enforcement
the environment, and that it erodes the
newly fired get to come back and have one
over intellectual property has been used to
sovereignty of nations.
last vote - perhaps when they are thinking
target legitimate political speech in the past,
Those who support the TPP say it will
about their next job.”
for example, the repeated deletion of Martin
boost U.S. exports, create jobs and stimulate
Similar provisions of the North American
Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech
economic growth by removing tariffs.
Free Trade Agreement enabled TransCanada
from YouTube.
At the launch of the Rock Against the TPP
Corp, to sue the U.S. for more than $15
“The TPP would essentially lock that
campaign, organizers said they want to make
billion for blocking the Keystone Pipeline.
system into place,” said Greer. “It poses a
it clear they are not against global trade.
The TPP would extend the right to sue
threat in that sense to our ability to really
What they are against, they said, are deals
governments for limiting profits to thousands
share, express and gain knowledge on the
written behind closed doors without any
more corporations housed in the 12
internet. In addition to that, it would also
public input that put the rights of
countries signed onto the deal.
harshen
penalties
for
whistleblowers
and
corporations ahead of people and the
“The TPP gives 9,500 new Japanese
journalists that are exposing the wrongdoing
environment
corporations the right to sue you for trying
“This is not about isolationism,” said Jonny of corporations through a section on quote-
to protect your wages, your jobs, your
unquote trade secrets.”
5 of the Flobots. Rather, he said, “it’s about
freedom of speech, your access to affordable
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s
saying we have solidarity with people around
medicine and your clean air and water,” said
the world who also want the ability to protect Global Trade Watch said a key provision of
actress Lilly at the launch of the campaign.
the TPP would grant new rights to
their water, their land, their legal rights - we
“And that’s just Japan.”
thousands
of
corporations
to
sue
government
want that ability as well.”
Greer said concert organizers consulted
bodies before a panel of corporate lawyers
He said the movement against the TPP is
with Morello (of Audioslave, Prophets of
who are responsible for issuing a verdict. ’
an exciting opportunity for an international
Rage and Rage Against the Machine) and
She said, “These lawyers can award the
victory transcending political ideology.
folksinger Ryan Harvey to explore how to
corporations unlimited sums, to be paid by
“At a time like now when there is so much
use music and culture to build a global
despair and violence around the world, this is American taxpayers, including the loss of
A
Rockin' Against
the tpp
Anti-Flag and Downtown Boys to
headline tour stop in Portland
What: TPP Teach-in led by
Evangeline Lilly
Where: First Unitarian Church
1211 SWMain St.
Portland, OR 97205
When: 1 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 21
Go to RockAgainstTheTPP.org
for a free ticket
movement against the TPP.
In 2015, the duo founded Firebrand
Records, which signs musicians standing up
for social justice issues. Some of the label’s
artists, such as synth-pop and soul artist
Bell’s Roar, have joined the tour.
“If we’re not allowed to be part of the
conversation, we’ll make our own
conversation, and we’ll try to make it louder
than theirs,” said Harvey. “Music and
political action have always been tightly
bound together throughout global history.”
Harvey said his business partner’s former
band, Rage Against the Machine, took aim at
the “exact same economic policies” that are
entrenched in the TPP deal.
“We see it as the latest attempt by a lot of
the same people, and people of the same
political and economic spectrum who are
trying to push these same old policies to
erode human rights and environmental
regulations, to push down wages, push
corporate profits up,” he said. “It’s a global
trade agreement written for and by
corporations.”
Anti-Flag lead singer and guitarist Justin
Sane said his group joined the tour to make
it clear that they too stand firmly against the.
deal.
“People are already sick and tired of the
stranglehold that corporations and politicians
that serve them have on our democracy,” he
said. “If approved, the TPP would hand them
even more power to control and exploit us.”
Polling suggests an effective way to build
opposition against the deal is to tell people
about what’s in it.
Political consultant Stanley Greenburg
worked as a pollster for President Bill Clinton
and Nelson Mandela. He said that in recently
conducted focus groups and polling around
the TPP, when people learn the details of the
deal, “it’s kind of a wow moment.”
When his research team begins each
survey, respondents are “marginally against it
overall,” he said. “But when they are
educated, learn how it was created and what
its main provisions are - to give corporations
more control at the expense of the American
government and the American people - they
get angry, they get engaged and they want to
know what to do.”
Rock Against the TPP is currently trying
to raise funds for a final showdown concert
and protest in Washington, D.C.