Seattle City Council Unanimously Opposes Fast-Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership

[ND-Dem]

The Seattle city council just unanimously passed a resolution that comprises some of the strongest statements about the Trans-Pacific Partnership—and its twin proposal to speed the deal through Congress—a local governmental body has made. The TPP, a giant, hardly-transparent international trade deal currently being negotiated by the federal government, has inspired loud opposition from environmental and labor groups.

Despite what little we know about the deal, it would appear that all nine council members are wary of it, too.

Should Seattle have even stuck its nose in an international trade deal that we know so little about? Depends on who you ask, and we'll be unpacking more of what that means later. Council member Mike O'Brien, who helped bring the resolution before the council with Kshama Sawant, argued that even though the TPP doesn't "exist in a form we can meaningfully debate," the deal's lack of transparency is reason enough to decry it, and emblematic of a much bigger problem.

Sawant framed the debate as one of corporate interests versus human ones. "Basically anyone who supports the rights of human beings and the environment is on one side of the debate," she said. And Nick Licata said that Seattle's position will send a strong message to Washington, DC. "I believe that the nation is looking at Seattle's vote today," he said. "We will continue to see this kind of struggle going on in the future, and the only thing that will derail it is the mobilization of citizens in a democracy."

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/03/30/21981325/seattle-city-council-unanimously-opposes-fast-track-for-the-trans-pacific-partnership

[davidsilver]

1. You have to love Seattle but, in the end, the resolution won't have much impact

[ND-Dem]

2. seems to be the general sentiment at this Democratic outpost. as I said: Democrats are

all about human rights: until they're not.

[sabrina 1]

3. Unless it spreads around the country, which hopefully it will.

The resistance to this anti human rights bill is already pretty strong and now that we have more information, confirming what people already thought, it is like to grow even stronger.

And not just from Americans, it is growing stronger in the other nations involved in the secret deal.

Hopefully Seattle is just the first to take a stand against the TPP.

[betterdemsonly]

5. Brings the issue out in public.

The press is hush hush. It also clear the momentum is building among the left. A week ago I am guessing most duers never heard of the TPP.

[ND-Dem]

6. Let's hope. Though according to several prominent DUers, the public is too stupid to care;

they prefer to watch the kardashians.

Let's prove them wrong.

[betterdemsonly]

4. Sawant is a real keeper

Wish there was someone like her where I lived.