Here is a great animation about the impact of the TPP on generic medicines…it is in Spanish-however even if you can’t understand the words….you know what they are saying!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvCJ4ZUBZE4&feature=youtu.be

Check out this YES! Magazine article on the TPP

Then join us this Saturday, May 11th
from 2-5pm at Central Co-op Annex, 1900 E. Madison, Seattle!

TPP DAY of ACTION
May 11th 2-5pm
Central Co-op/Madison Market Annex-1900 E. Madison, Seattle

2:00pm-TPP & Eaters & Farmers
Community Alliance for Global Justice, Canaan Fair Trade & Equal Exchange & Domestic Fair Trade Association
10 Reasons why TPP matters to Eaters * Impacts on Farmers Globally & in WA

2:30pm-TPP & Workers
Washington State Labor Council, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 21, Philippine US Solidarity Organization (PUSO)
Loss of living wage jobs in WA * Poverty wage jobs in US * Forced Migration * Rise of Sweatshops

3:00pm-TPP & Healthy Communities
Sierra Club, WA Physicians for Social Responsibility
Privatizing water & land *  Challenging environmental laws * Access to affordable life-saving medicines

3:30pm- TPP & “Personhood”
Get Money Out of Politics (GMOP) & others

Corporate take over of policy-making * How to assert your ‘person-hood’ & reclaim the political process!

4:00pm- TPP & Consumers
(of all ages)
(Once Again Butters & Fair Trade Federation members Sol Fair Trade, Jam Town)

Sample fair trade foods & wines
& Drumming with Jamtown!!!

Find out Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership matters to YOU…
and what YOU can do about it!

In Seattle:

2-5pm
Central CO-OP/Madison Market Annex
1900 E. Madison (corner of 19^th & Madison)

Description: Join the Central Co-op, Washington Fair Trade Coalition, Washington State Labor Council, Sierra Club, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Philippine-US Solidarity Organization, Sol Fair Trade, Backbone Campaign, IAM 751, SPEEA & others to educate & activate yourself as an eater,
a conscious shopper, a worker, & a community member.

Enjoy Equal Exchange coffee & chocolate, Once Again Butters, and fair trade eats, and connect fair trade products to fair trade policy. TPP will impact food, sustainable jobs, access to affordable medicine, our environment, education & our very democracy.
Be involved in upcoming actions! Activities for all ages!

In Olympia:

1-3pm
WSLC Offices/WFSE 443
906 Columbia (2^nd Floor)
Olympia, WA

Description: Join Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE 443), South Sound Clean Clothes Campaign, Marigold Fair Trade, Traditions, the Green Party & the Washington Fair Trade Coalition to educate & activate yourself as an eater, a conscious shopper, a worker, & a community member.

Enjoy fair trade coffee & chocolate and connect fair trade products to fair trade policy. TPP will impact food, sustainable jobs, access to affordable medicine, our environment, education
& our very democracy.

Throughout the World!
Visit: TPPxBorder.org

As we join Sumi and Kalpona today at the Renton Walmart (734 Rainer Ave. S at 10am) to demand worker justice, their colleagues and communities continue to suffer…Please join us in demanding Walmart take responsibility for its dangerous supply chain that continues to claim lives in Bangladesh and throughout the world!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/bangladesh-building-collapse_n_3143845.html

On April 23rd & 24th, the WFTC will stand with Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity and Sumi Abedin, garment worker and survivor of the Tazreen Factory fire that took the lives of 112 of her colleagues, to encourage a SweatFree Purchasing Policy for WA state, and call on Walmart and the GAP to support independent fire codes and to compensate victims of the fires and their families.

Be a part of this unique opportunity as workers in solidarity across Walmart’s global supply chain jointly call for respect!

WA Government & Community Forum
April 23rd from 9-10:30am
Columbia Room of the Legislative Building
WHAT: Senator Steve Conway, the Washington Fair Trade Coalition & South Sound Clean Clothes Campaign, in collaboration with the Washington State Labor Council, are hosting Kalpona and Sumi to explain the condition of garment workers in Bangladesh and the ways that a SweatFree Purchasing policy for WA State supports worker health and safety and labor rights in Bangladesh.

Walmart Workers  in Solidarity Throughout the Supply Chain
Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 6:00pm
UW, SAVERY HALL 260 Located in The Quad behind Kane Hall  
WHAT: Our Walmart workers join Kalpona and Sumi to call on Walmart to sign on to independent worker monitored fire safety standards and respect workers throughout its supply chain!

ACTION: RENTON WALMART
Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 10:00am
743 Rainier Ave. S. Renton WA 98057

Kalpona Akter is the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity and a former child garment worker. She is an internationally-recognized labor rights advocate and has travelled widely to speak about the deplorable conditions Bangladesh garment workers face every day.
Sumi Abedin is a Bangladeshi garment worker who survived the fire at Tazreen Fashions, a factory supplying Walmart apparel. Sumi was working on the 4th floor of the factory at the time of the fire and survived after jumping from the burning building.

END DEATH TRAP TOUR SPONSORS: UFCW 21, WA Fair Trade Coalition, The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, United Students Against Sweatshops. http://bit.ly/EndDeathTrapsTour.
For more information, contact Reagan Jackson at (206) 436-6558.

On May 11, International Fair Trade Day, days prior to the opening of the 17th Round of the TPP in Lima, Peru (May 15th-24th) TPPxBorder calls on the 99% who are harmed by corporate globalization to oppose the TPP in their community. Here is why you need to organize a People’s Assembly Resisting the TPP or join one in your community.

• The TPP undermines access to fundamental medicines by extending monopoly protections for Big Pharma
• The TPP empowers corporations to sue governments for environmental and health measures they do not like
• The TPP restricts Internet innovation and increases the surveillance of online interactions
• The TPP undermines Indigenous rights and human rights
• The TPP creates a race to the bottom on working conditions, environmental standards and all kinds of public regulations
• The TPP prioritizes large-scale corporate agriculture (GMOs, antibiotics, etc) over sustainable local farming

Trans-national community resistance put a freeze on the WTO. It stopped the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It can stop the TPP. Visit TPPxBorder.org for information about May 11th People’s Assemblies.

In WA State our goal is to have People’s Assemblies in Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle & Spokane…want to co-organize a People’s Assembly in one of these areas or in your own community? Contact kristen@washingtonfairtrade.org

Thousands of Japanese farmers took to the streets this past week against the TPP, as their newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was elected on a promise to not join the TPP if it ‘required unilateral elimination of tariffs’ has indicated that Japan will join. According to Japan Daily, his Liberal Democratic Party assured voters that they would maintain tariffs on key farm products, especially rice, wheat, beef, dairy products and sugar. However the White House has not confirmed that to be the case and his government seems to not be one for keeping promises. Akira Banzai, head of Japan’s Zenchu, the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (representing millions of farmers across all 47 prefectures of Japan), vowed “to protect our food, our livelihoods and our survival, we will staunchly resist TPP to the very end.” Japan’s entry into the TPP might actually be the beginning of the end for the TPP. For now, we in the US are called to action by the Japanese farmers who continue to take to the streets to hold their elected leaders accountable.

Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Treaty

View full article and comments: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/03/08/Trans-Pacific-Treaty-Threat/

AFL-CIO has spoken:

‘It appears global firms that use the United States as a flag of convenience once again are seeking to define our national interest in trade negotiations’

‘Changing the policies that have promoted the race to the bottom is as important as our work to promote freedom of association and collective bargaining for workers everywhere’

http://www.aflcio.org/About/Exec-Council/EC-Statements/The-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Working-Families-Need-a-New-Trade-Model