Today in New Zealand, protesters are taking to the streets
in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin to voice their
concerns about the TPP trade deal. Trade ministers from the 12 nations are
negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - which would stretch from
Japan to Chile and cover 40 per cent of the world's economy.
Activists worry that
a US-led free-trade deal under negotiation will prioritise corporate profits
over workers' rights and pressure governments to bow to the will of investors. Campaigners
for workers' rights complain that they have been denied a voice in the trade
talks, and have raised concerns about part of the deal that would allow corporations
to sue governments for the potential loss of future profits.
A protest group calling itself Show Us Ya Text occupied the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Auckland headquarters to demand the full text of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal. Several members of the group went
into the offices to demand the Government release the full TPP text.
It's Our Future – Christchurch spokesperson, Gen de Spaexplained, “there are thousands of families in poverty in New Zealand precisely
because of economic instruments like the TPP which convey huge benefits to
super-wealthy corporations and disadvantage the most vulnerable in our society.
Protesters are not taking food from the mouths of the hungry, the current
economic paradigm, which simultaneously wreaks havoc on the environment is the
real cause.” It's Our Future – Christchurch, a self-organising grass roots
group of dedicated individuals from all walks of life who have concerns around
the 12 nation trade deal are organising events all week to coincide with the
Nationwide Week of Action against the TPP.
Amid placards of protest, speakers from around Palmerston
North and the wider regions expressed their opposition to the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement. While the protest was planned for The Square, bad
weather on Saturday meant more than 100 people attended the protest at the Convention
Centre instead, to listen to politicians, activists and former Oxfam executive
director Barry Coates. He said the agreement was a real threat to the Government
now and future governments. He discussed cases where countries were sued for
loss of future profits under similar agreements.
"Germany was taken to the international tribunal when
they wanted to phase out nuclear power."
It would also threaten the country's businesses, as it would
open up government and local government contracts to international investors,
he said.
"The investor-state dispute settlement provisions in
this massive trade deal ... if it's passed, binds them to a convoluted logic
that allows multinational corporations to sue ... if a government passes a law
or regulation that protects its people to the possible detriment of
sales," said Shawna Bader-Blau, executive director of the Solidarity
Centre. "Corporate rights are treated as portable, binding and protected
by enforceable laws in global trade agreements, but not so human rights,"
Bader-Blau said at the opening of a migrant labour conference on Monday hosted
by Solidarity Centre in Bogor, 60 km south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Speaking
before more than 200 labour and migration experts from 45 countries, Bader-Blau
said that while investor rights are protected, human rights are "relegated
to unenforceable side agreements, aspirational multilateral protocols, spotty
national laws and no accountability".
Activists say the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
has been used to pressure states not to raise the minimum wage or enact labour
reforms.
"If we want to protect migrants, we have to tie that to
the trade agreements", said Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations
(AFL-CIO). "We think we can go back to the drawing table and draw up a
better trade agreement".
Dr Romuald Rudzky, founder of the NZ School of Export, said
the benefit would only be seen by multinational corporations. "Remember
that over 50 of the world's 100 largest economies are corporations, not
countries." He said New Zealand was about 364th, between French
supermarket chain Carrefour and Japanese company Matsushita (Panasonic). "Let
us be in no doubt that the TPP is a Trojan Horse... touted as a great prize, a
gift, a no-brainer. It is in fact a vehicle for destroying the country from
within."
The World Socialist Party (New Zealand) is well aware of the
detrimental consequences of capitalist trade agreements without resorting to
simplistic nationalistic protectionism. The TPP and European TTIP agreements
are deemed to be important to kick starting new trade rounds, but also
re-arranging the political architecture of the world to match the increasingly
concentrated capital holdings that are bursting out of national boundaries. The
socialist attitude is that, at the end of it all, the arguments among rival
capitalists which have so far prevented agreement are a dispute between vying
capitalist factions, free-trader versus protectionist, foreign versus native
capitalist – competitors, fighting to defend or create conditions that offer
them the best return. Even so, among the casualties are working people the
world over, who will end up as collateral damage, more powerless and more
vulnerable than ever in the face of global capitalism. As Marx once described
such free trade treaties - 'freedom of Capital to crush the worker' (Speech on
the Question of Free Trade 1848).
We end exploitation by ending capitalism.
WSP(NZ) website:
E-mail:
wsp.nz@worldsocialism.org
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| NEW ZEALAND'S PARTY OF EMANCIPATION AND LIBERATION |
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