UPDATE: JUNE 18.  Today the House of Representatives approved a "stand alone" Fast Track Authority bill on a vote of 218-208. Democrats who voted in favor again included Rep. Blumenauer, Bonamici and Schrader.

One Win but battle not over.

On Friday, President Obama's corporate driven trade agenda was dealt a serious blow in large part due to the huge grassroots insurgence of phone calls, emails, faxes, meetings, rallies and general rabble-rousing done by all of us and our allies in the labor, environmental, consumer, farmers, internet users, public health, LGBTA and other peoples' movements. Those movements have really stepped up to the plate to say No to Fast Track, the TPP and other corporate trade agreements.

But the fight will continue and so we must be ready ON MONDAY to swing back into action.

What happened on Friday is that the corporatists' plan fell apart. The Senate had passed a combined Fast Track/Trade Adjustment Assistance bill (62-37) last month. But the House split it apart, resulting in two votes, one on Fast Track and one on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). The House voted in favor of Fast Track Authority (219-211, with 28 Democrats voting with the Republicans) but soundly defeated TAA (126-302). Democrats, who typically support TAA, voted against it because of various modifications made to it in order to attract conservative Republican votes and most importantly, because it had to pass for Fast Track to move forward. Not wanted Fast Track to move, Democrats in large number voted No. Note, however, that Oregon Representatives Blumenauer, Bonamici and Schrader, all Democrats, voted wrong on both these pieces of legislation, voting to move Fast Track forward.

Because of differences between the House approved Fast Track and the Senate version, it must either go to the Senate for their approval or the House must try to pass the TAA in another vote on Monday or Tuesday. Speaker Boehner has called for the House to reconsider during that time frame. If the Speaker does not think that a vote would produce the desired result, he might delay the vote. For us, the more delay the better. Or the Fast Track bill could be sent to the Senate as is, without the TAA, for their approval.

So our job now is to CALL, CALL, EMAIL, and CALL more and more often.

The Oregon Progressive Party issued this press release today

:
Oregon Progressive Party asks Portland City Council to Join Seattle and Denounce Trans-Pacific Partnership and Fast Track
April 3, 2015
Contact:David Delk davidafd@ymail.com 503-232-5495

This week the Seattle City Council voted 9-0 in favor of a resolution to oppose the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership and the proposed "Fast Track" method of adopting it in Congress. See the article in the Seattle Times. The full text of the Seattle resolution is below.

Seattle is a major port city. International trade is a foundation of its economy. The Seattle City Council took this action, despite phone calls from President Obama and opposition from Ed Murray, mayor of Seattle.

"We urge the Portland City Commission to pass a similar resolution against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Fast Track," said Jason Kafoury for the Oregon Progressive Party. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership would destroy the environmental, labor, and social justice laws of the United States and all of the states and localities within it. TPP puts the corporations in charge of both the economy and the government."

David Delk, chair of the Oregon Progressive Party stated, “The Trans Pacific Partnership would undermine the rule of law based on nation states, replacing it with rule of, by and for multi-national corporations. The ability of local governments like Portland's to make decisions would be subject to attacks by multi-national corporations, making a mockery of democracy.”

At the March Oregon Progressive Party public meeting, we appoved this statement to be mailed to our US Senators/Representatives and other stating our position of opposition to the granting of Fast Track Authority to the president as well as to the Trans Pacific Partnership, NAFTA on steriods corporate trade agreement. 

Because Oregon Senator Ron Wyden plays a unique role in moving the next corporate trade agreements forward, the Oregon Progressive Party calls for Senator Wyden to abandon his talks with Senator Hatch of the Senate Finance Committee for granting revised Trade Promotion Authority (Fast Track Authority) to President Obama and to opposite the trade agreements which President Obama has been negotiating in top secret for as long as the past 5 years.

Rally before Sen Wyden's Portland Town Hall Meeting

Saturday, January 3, 2:00 PM, (Town Hall meeting starts at 2:30 PM)
Portland Community College, SE Campus
SE 82nd and Division

Sen Wyden is having a series of town hall meetings and, at this one in Portland, we will rally to let Sen Wyden know that we do not support the same old Fast Track Authority (FTA) which he has opposed in the past. FTA has been used in the past to speed corporate trade agreements (like NAFTA, CAFTA and the most recent US So Korea Agreement) through Congress without the usual democratic process - FTA allows limited debate and no amendments. More information on other town halls meeting is available on the Economic Justice Action Group of 1st Unitarian Church website at http://www.ejag.org/events.html

Sen. Wyden has indicated that he is working with Republican Senator Hatch, new chair of the Senate Finance Committee, to present a modified Fast Track Authority bill for approval as one of the most pressing pieces of business for the new session of Congress.  But if that modified FTA does not allow Congress to fully debate the agreements presented and allow amendments to the agreements to be presented, debated and voted on, then it will still be the same old Fast Track Authority.

We need to tell the Senator that we don't want to speed job destroying environmentally harmful,corporate trade agreement which attack the soverienity of the nations through Congress.  We expect, we demand full debates and then rejection of such agreements.

If you can't be at the rally, then please email and call his office with the messge that you are paying attention and that you expect him to represent you, not the corporate interests which drive the writing of agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership, the Trans Atlantic Free Trade Agreements and the Trade in Services Agreement.

Portland Rally To
Stop The TPP

No More NAFTAS!
Twenty Years Is Enough!

What:  Rally followed by leafleting and delegation visits to Congressional offices.
When:  Friday January 31st at 12 noon.
Where:  PSU Park Blocks, in front of the Smith Center (SW Park Ave & SW Harrison St).

January 2014 marks the twenty-year anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a pact that has had devastating consequences for people and the environment in all three countries and beyond.  The pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been described as 'NAFTA on steriods' and threatens to:

The Oregon Progressive Party's monthly membership meeting approved this statement of opposition to fast tracking of the the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, because it sets "binding policy on Congress and state legislatures relating to patents and copyright, food safety, government procurement, financial regulation, immigration, healthcare, energy, the environment, labor rights and more."

NAFTA is 20.
20 years ago on January 1, 1994, President Clinton signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area). Agreement proponents had declared that 170,000 American jobs would be created, exports of American farm products would increase, food prices would decrease, the American balance of trade would be improved. the Mexican economy would be uplifted to be a first class level of prosperity and more.

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch's new report, NAFTA at 20, points to quite different results. Instead of job creation, we see one million US jobs lost; the lost jobs caused a downward pressure on American wages, thereby increasing inequality within the United States; food prices went up; the US balance of trade with both Mexico and Canada moved from small surplus' to deficits; American manufacturers moved their production south of the border (and later out of Mexico to China and now the new low wage nation of Vietnam); and many environmental and health laws have been challenged in private trade tribunals. The United States has become less food sustainable. Mexican immigration into the US doubled. Read the report yourself here. Listen to or watch Democracy Now! interview with Lori Wallach of Public Citizen on January 3rd, 2014 here. Click here for a list of investor suits challenging laws and regulations under various of these so-called "Free trade Agreements."

NAFTA to become the Trans Pacific Partnership

Obama is negotiating another "Free Trade Agreement" like NAFTA, only bigger and badder. Call your US Representative and Senators and tell them not to give Obama Fast Track Authority to pass it and tell them to demand that the agreement text be released now so we can know what is in the agreement. It is outrageous that 600 corporate lobbyists can read it and we cannot. Read the Alliance for Democracy flyer on this and find the link to contact to your rep and senators. http://www.afd-pdx.org/uploads/1/3/4/0/13403615/flyer_1_c.pdf and learn more on Fast Track Authority here: http://www.afd-pdx.org/no-fast-track-authority.html  And tell your US Representative and Senators to

* release the text so that both the public and congress can read the text prior to President signing it

* not vote for Fast Track Authority for the President.  Fast Track Authority has been used to enact almonst every "free Trade agreement.