Twitter action called for in blocking a dodgy internation trade deal

Guest blog post from Phil Fletcher of Barnet Green Party

URGENT!

 

Hi Folks,

 

Received this rather worrying email. The European parliament have voted not to have a debate on CETA [Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement — Canada and the EU] and are voting on Wednesday.If you’ve got the time, please take part in this twitter action. If you haven't the time, could you please forward this on to someone who has?

 

Cheers

 

Phil Fletcher

(Barnet Green Party)

 

Please help stop CETA [Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement] by tweeting your MEPs and asking them to vote  FOR the Greens' proposal that the question of the legality of ICS in CETA to be referred to the European Court of Justice. 

Thank you

Laura

MEPs voted on Monday 21.11.2016 afternoon on whether there should be a debate on the issue of the European Parliament asking for a European Court of Justice decision on the legality of ICS (ISDS [Investor-State Dispute Settlement] in CETA)

before the European Parliament actually votes on this,  in Strasbourg , on Wed.

The proposal for a debate was rejected by 184 votes to  170 votes.

Consequently, there will NO debate before the vote on Wednesday.

(How bad can the institution of the EU get...?)

So it would be useful to contact your MEPs quickly and ask them to vote  FOR the Greens' proposal that the question of the legality of ICS in CETA to be referred to the European Court of Justice. 

Let's see what we can achieve.

Below is some stuff to help,  including tweets 

and  a list of key MEPs to contact

Linda 

Tweet particularly these UK MEPs. See below for suggested tweets

@sajjadkarimMEP 

@syedkamall

@jfostermep 

@C_Stihler_MEP

@davidmartinMEP 

@derekvaughan

@gleniswillmott 

@LindaMcAvanMEP

@maryhoneyball

@richardhowitt

@JimNicholsonMEP

@juliegirling

@DavidHannanMEP

@EmmaMcClarkin

Global corporate lobbyists and right wing politicians only hate regulation when it is not on their terms. Screwing the disadvantaged is their staple diet

Britain's MEPs and poor folk face threats imposed by Brexit, including dodgy trade deals

'TTIP — the hidden threat' poster should include reference to the threats to social security and poor people

With the Brexit vote, if Britain does leave the EU it seems to this blogger that both Britain's Members of the European Parliament and poor people are more likely to be screwed.

With Britain out of the European Union Parliament, there would by definition be no more seats for British Members of the European Parliament in the European Parliament; and global corporate lawyers would seize the opportunity of a Conservative & Unionist Government ever more desperate to enter dodgy trade deals and dismantle the welfare state.

Regarding dodgy trade deals, there would be a more exclusively UK trade deal with global corporations from the USA. On her website that is still up and running at present, Molly Scott Cato MEP (South West England, Green Party of England & Wales) looks at the perils and pitfalls for the UK as Germany looks like it is pulling out of the 'Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership' (TTIP).(1)

'Privatisation of public service delivery' equals dismantling of the welfare state

Kwuggies (Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members) have been against TTIP for about two years now, and of course deeply concerned about what corporate lawyers would want to do to not only the NHS, but also the welfare state as a whole. One of the worst 'players with people's lives' in the American health insurance industry — Unum — has been 'advising' successive UK  governments  on 'welfare reform' since the early 1990s.(2) (3) 

The Disability News Service has reported that in 2005, whilst at Unum, Professor O'Donnell [now Chief Medical Officert at Maximus, the company that replaced Atos' administration of Work Capability Assessments for the Department for Work & Pensions] wrote: "We know that our views and understanding are not yet in the mainstream of doctors' thinking, but Government Policy is moving in the same direction, to a large extent being driven by our thinking and that of our close associates, both in the UK and overseas."(4)

Regarding the then Unum Chief Medical Officer's reference to the 'direction' in which UK Government Policy was moving in 2005, there has been the ongoing matter of the regulation of psychotherapeutic professionals and the standards, methodology and 'outcomes' by which they operate.(5) That has more recently extended to the recruitment or attempted recruitment of helping professionals such as pscyhotherapists and counselling professionals into 'delivering the work cure'.(6)

There is further encroachment of Unum and its associates into the dismantling of the welfare state even without even more dodgy trade deals:

In Secrets and Lies: Maximus the leader of the inhumans we [Disabled People Against Cuts] ask why Disability Rights UK have agreed to a) be part of the Maximus testing process on the WCA [Work Capability Assessment] and b) why they've teamed up with Unum and other insurance companies to develop a TV programme showing how much better off disabled people will be if they take out private insurance. With user-led disability organisations like these we don't need enemies.(7)

Workfare — 'work for your benefits' exploitation — originated largely in the USA under the Clinton Presidency, ridiculing Clinton's purported aspirations of being kinder to poor people than his Republican opponents. One of the major — and fraudulent — players with vulnerable people's lives that emerged from America's introduction of workfare was Maximus Incorporated.(8) (9)

Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty has drawn attention to the lack of human rights orientation in American-based accountancy firm Grant Thornton's accountancy framework:

I had specifically drawn Grant Thornton's attention on the 3rd May 2015 to the work of the Government Office for Science and the Royal College of Psychiatrists showing that debt is linked to mental health problems. Grant Thornton replied on the 5th May 2015,

"We have no remit over related public sector bodies nor to opine on the impact of this policy on the well-being of those required to pay council tax."(10)

That is the kind of mentality that we face. Corporate lawyers' and accountants' orientation to the rights of 'shareholders', 'investors' and 'stakeholders' with financial/legal clout seem to reign supreme; and TTIP-type deals are driven by 'Investor to State Dispute Settlement' (ISDS) corporate law enforcement that overrides democracy and the rights of poor people.

The UK Government's systematic abuse of disabled people's rights continues while an investigation of its actions is still pending. Disability News Service reports:

Delayed UN examination of UK government 'will take place next year'Disabled people's organisations and grassroots groups are set to call on disabled people across England to provide the evidence they need to prepare a "hard hitting" report on the government's failure to implement the UN disability convention.The Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA) has announced that it will put together a "shadow report" to submit to the UN's Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It emerged this week that the Committee is set to hold its delayed public examination of the UK Government's progress on implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) next year; the first time the UK has been examined since the Labour government ratified the Convention in 2009....(11)

Do the devisers of ISDS-driven trade deals have any consideration regarding the rights of disabled and disadvantaged people re UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? Any possibility of 'government by corporate law firms' must be suspended until that investigation has been carried out, I would argue

Britain's Members of the European Parliament may no longer have seats in the European Parliament, but they and Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members can still engage in extra-parliamentary activity — activity outside parliaments. Our extra-parliamentary activities still include the Internet.

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Link addresses

1. http://mollymep.org.uk/2016/07/19/ttip-brexit-uk-us/
2. http://dpac.uk.net/2013/02/unum-finally-nailed-through-bragging-on-driving-government-thinking/
3. http://dpac.uk.net/2015/02/maximus-and-the-fit-for-work-service/
4. http://dpac.uk.net/2015/02/maximus-atos-and-work-capability-assessments/
5. See especially Jennifer Maidman's detailed comment at http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/social-care-experts-blog/2009/08/cognitive-behavioural-therapy/
6. https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/07/11/psychocoercion-and-unemployment-a-marriage-made-in-austeritys-hell/
7. http://dpac.uk.net/2015/01/dpac-2014-review-toryroadtoruin/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_Inc.
9. http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=maximus
10. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/summoned-to-court-for-civil-disobedience-of-laws-damaging-the-health-and-we
11. http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/delayed-un-examination-of-uk-government-will-take-place-next-year/

Greece: "You cannot impose economics on such a politicised people."

Below is a video blog by Paul Masson. Martin Francis the Wembley Matters blogger says that Masson can be followed on Twitter @paulmasonnews

It strikes me that in what has happened to Greece under the impact of the global financial institutions, the emphasis given to the 'sovereignty' of a currency has been designed to undermine the sovereignty of the human rights of the Greek people.

I am reminded of what Green Party MEP for London Jean Lambert has said of proposed 'harmonization of standards' under Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership. She has cited the example of chickens bread under such unhygienic conditions in the USA that their caracasses are bleached before processing for human consumption. Perhaps that is a good metaphor for what the predatory drivers of the Troica's 'bailout package' think is suitable treatment for the Greek people?

Good on the Greek people for becoming so much more politicised than chickens raised under American food standards as to say, "No!"

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

How to help stop TTIP

More 'armchair activism', this time from 38Degrees

Swheatie's preface

I have just signed the below, adding the paragraph:

My country's Government backs TTIP but that same Government is a coalition without a mandate for the savagery of the cuts to public services that it is committing. Those cuts make a mockery of the coalition constituent parties' commitment to equality for disadvantaged minorities, particularly sick and severely disabled people.

And concluding:

 Please also work to ensure that the EU commission website is much more accessible to disabled people.

What use is EU equalities legislation if it is to be waived aside by the whim of global corporations that pursue and exacerbate inequality?

Please be aware that the KUWG accepts no responsibility for such content as requests for financial assistance on other sites that it has links to.

38 Degrees write:

Great news. It looks like the EU is wavering on TTIP - the dodgy EU-US trade deal. Jean-Claude Juncker, who’s due to start a new job as the new EU Commission President, is hinting that ISDS could be removed. That's the bit of the deal that allows corporations like McDonald's or Marlboro to sue our government. [1]

This is one of the worst parts of TTIP - getting rid of it could help us see off the whole deal. But there’s a problem: our government is lobbying to keep it in. [2]

Right now, we need to show that the UK government isn’t speaking for us, the people of the UK. Thousands of us have already written to the EU to tell them that ISDS should be dropped. And it looks like it’s finally sinking in - so let’s not let our government undo our hard work.

If enough of us email Juncker directly, we can make sure TTIP is impossible to ignore. He won’t be used to this many ordinary people getting in touch! Can you email him today?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-juncker-2

The deal was locked behind closed doors - only politicians and big businesses were supposed to hear about it. Together, we’ve changed that. We’ve signed petitions, we’ve spread the word about TTIP in our communities and we’ve put it firmly on the agenda of our MEPs. [3] And its paying off.

As Juncker takes office as the new EU Commission President, we can show him that he can stop hinting - we’ll support him removing ISDS from the deal. If we flood his inbox now, he’ll be left in no doubt that the idea of McDonald's or Marlboro suing our government is a no go area.

Please can you email Jean-Claude Juncker right now? There’s already some suggested words, so it’ll only take a minute or two:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-juncker-2


Thanks for being involved,

India, Nat, Blanche & the 38 Degrees team


NOTES:
[1] Jean Claude Juncker speech to the European Parliament:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-705_en.htm
International Business Times: TTIP and ISDS: The obscure trade clause threatening to tear European politics apart:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ttip-isds-obscure-trade-clause-threatening-tear-european-politics-apart-1470908
[2] Financial Times: EU States tell Juncker not to water down trade deal:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e1dac340-59e1-11e4-9787-00144feab7de,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fe1dac340-59e1-11e4-9787-00144feab7de.html%3Fsiteedition%3Duk&siteedition=uk&_i_referer=#axzz3GxJgsWUa
[3] TTIP Days of action on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgxAsRSpuqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tnLhtpRJQ

Stop TTIP petition from 38Degrees

As the saying goes, the price of liberty is constant vigilance. Thus it seems there is little time for me to practice on my guitar today, despite having got up at about 7:30am. But I'll try and make this the last upload I make today.

Swheatie

A deal that could permanently privatise our NHS is being negotiated in secret right now. It's called the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership, or TTIP for short, and this EU-US trade deal is one of the most dangerous ever written. [1] Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have the power to scupper it. But first they need to feel the pressure from the people they represent - us, the public. Can you add your name to a huge EU-wide petition and help convince them? Click here to sign: [Swheatie adds: beware of request for a donation that follows your signing of the petition] SIGN THE PETITION Today, thousands of 38 Degrees members are out on the streets campaigning against TTIP and collecting signatures for this petition. The shady deal would allow big corporations to sue our government if they don't like our laws. Simply raising minimum wage could drag our government into a lawsuit that could cost taxpayers millions. [2] The same sort of deal is being negotiated with Canada called CETA. [3] Both of these massive deals have been negotiated behind closed doors. Now people across Europe are uniting to force them out into the open. If TTIP and CETA can be pushed to the top of the political agenda in the EU, then MEPs will be forced to say whether they support it or not. Your signature, along with hundreds of thousands of others from countries including Germany, France and Italy, can help move these dangerous deals into the spotlight. There are millions of 38 Degrees members in the UK alone, and there's millions more people across Europe who want to stop TTIP. Will you add your name? Please click the link to sign the petition: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-eu Working across borders which usually divide us can have a really powerful impact. This pettion is organised by 240 organisations and signed by people from all 28 EU countries. We may all live in different places and speak different languages - but together, we all stand against TTIP, and that sends a strong message. [4] Thanks for being involved, Belinda, India, James and the 38 Degrees team NOTES: [1] Independent: British sovereignty 'at risk' from EU-US trade deal: UK in danger of surrendering judicial independence to multinational corporations: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-sovereignty-at-risk-from-euus-trade-deal-uk-in-danger-of-surrendering-judicial-independence-to-multinational-corporations-warn-activists-9057318.html [2] Touchstone: Special courts for foreign investors have no place in trade deals: http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2013/11/special-courts-for-foreign-investors-have-no-place-in-trade-deals/ [3] Short briefing on CETA, by Nick Dearden, Director of World Development Movement: http://wdm.org.uk/trade/short-briefing-ceta [4] Stop TTIP: Supporting organisations: http://stop-ttip.org/supporting-organisations/

Unite Community events in and around London, early October 2014

From Unite the Union Community Section, London

Below are some of the events Unite Community members are involved with over the coming weeks. We are putting together a paper newsletter.

As always, it is great to see the developing work of Unite Community activists, that we are leading on or supporting in the wider movement, whether on Social Security, Housing, the NHS, TTIP and Mental Health. Please get in touch with Pilgrim and Robin if you want to get more involved or get things going in your area.

This month is Black History Month and attached is schedule of events that have been organised by The London and Eastern Region of Unite

Have a good weekend,

Pilgrim Tucker, Robin Sivapalan and Tony Winchester

Robin and Pilgrim can be contacted postally at
Unite Community Coordinator
Ron Todd House
33-37 Moreland Street
London EC1V 8BB
Tel: 020 8800 4281

 

Support Rev Paul Nicolson at the High Court: Legal challenge vs extortionate court costs added to Council Tax bills

Tuesday 7 October, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand (off Kingsway), London WC2A 2LL

9.30am -- Vigil outside

10.30am – one-hour court hearing. The more of us the judges see in the public gallery, the better!

Rev Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty is valiantly refusing to pay his Council Tax to Haringey, and is ready to go to jail because he objects to the poorest people being unfairly targeted.  This hearing seeks a judicial review of the Tottenham magistrates who repeatedly refused to tell him at his council tax hearing in August 2013, how they arrived at £125 costs for a summons to late and non-payers of council tax. (Swheatie adds: for more info on this, see Revd Paul Nicolson's Taxpayers Against Poverty blog posting Tottenham Magistrates asleep on the job...)

Sanctions Centres or Job Centres?: Day of Action, part of the Boycott Workfare Week of Action

The Unite Community Job Centre activists group agreed to hold a day of action on Wednesday 8^th October at different Job Centres — postcode link text gives links to map locations:

So far we have confirmed:

Barnsbury Job Centre, 1 Barnsbury Road, N1 0EX: 11am-1pm

Hendon Job Centre, Crown Building. 10 Finchley Lane, NW4 1DP: 9am – 3pm

North Kensington Job Centre, Quayside House Kensal Road, W10 5BL: 12pm-1pm & 3pm-4pm

Walthamstow Job Centre, Dansom House 656a Forest Road, E17 3SH: 9am-11am

Wood Green Job Centre, Granta House 1 Western Road, N22 6UU: 9am-12pm

The next Job Centre activists’ meeting is at 3pm, Tuesday 7^th October, Unite regional office, 37-39 Moreland Street, London EC1V 8BB. Materials for the day of action can be collected from there. If you want to set up a protest/leafleting on sanctions at your job centre, please get in touch with Robin on 07860 955 361 / robin.sivapalan@unitetheunion.org

For details of other events during the Boycott Workfare Week of Action see http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=3736

No to MPIPM

The No to MPIPM public meeting on 16^th of September at Unite HQ was a great event, attended by representatives of dozens of live housing campaigns in London and beyond. Our Unite Regional Secretary Pete Kavanagh spoke, committing Unite’s support to the campaign. There’s a lot to be done to organise and promote the actions and events Wednesday 15^th October -1 Friday 17^th October. Please contact Robin if you want to get involved. The latest newsletter from the Radical Housing Network can be found here, including an update on the inspiring E15 Mothers campaign on the Carpenters Estate:   

http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9aa3abe72ff7ca4ad4f1cb9cc&id=143f17fda8&e=c86250a409

Student Workers:

We will be launching an initiative for our student-worker Unite Community members at the RHB Cinema, Goldsmiths University at 6pm, Thursday October 16^th.

Initially we will be training student-worker members in basic employment rights advice and will be holding weekly drop in sessions for student-workers based in campuses in NW, Central and SE London.

Speakers include;

Owen Jones (Author)

Pete Kavanagh (Regional Unite Secretary)

Shelly Asquith (President of SU Arts)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1558709464350952/

Film Night: TTIP — Capitalism on Steroids

From 6 Billion Ways — a coalition of campaigners on local and global justice issues, aiming to build a broad movement for progress change

Tuesday 14 October
6.30pm-9pm
Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

Join and share on Facebook >>

***free event – no need to register***

It will cost at least one million jobs. It will lock in fossil fuel dependency for the coming decades. It will irreversibly extend the privatisation of key public services such as the NHS. It will make it harder to regulate the banks.  And it will give US corporations the power to sue the UK and other states for loss of profits when these governments introduce public policies designed to protect their citizens.

It is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). If it goes through, it will be the greatest transfer of power to big business that we have seen for a generation.

But now for the good news: there’s every chance we can stop it.
Join us for an evening of films and speakers on the growing fight back against TTIP. Find out how you can join the resistance, what local actions you can be involved in, and most importantly, discuss how we can win!

• Join and share on Facebook >>
  
• Suggested tweet: TTIP: Capitalism on Steroids, 6 Billion Ways film night at Rich Mix, Tuesday 14 October https://t.co/cJAPR3LkZ0 #noTTIP

TTIP meet with 38Degrees — Saturday 30 August in Hampstead and Kilburn

By 38Degrees

Mark, Jill, Nadia and other 38 Degrees members who also live in Hampstead and Kilburn are meeting next Saturday, the 30th August, to spread the word about the sinister EU-US trade deal TTIP [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership]. Are you free? Joining in on the day is easy. As soon as you sign up using the link below, you'll be able to see the plans in Hampstead and Kilburn and chat to the rest of your group. So will you join in with Mark, Jill and Nadia and give an hour or two on Saturday 30th August? Please sign up now to make sure the office team has time to send you a pack of flyers: YES - I'll join Mark, Jill and Nadia NO - But I'll donate to fund the materials Here's a map of your area and the volunteers who have signed up so far: The plan is simple. The link takes you to a page on the 38 Degrees website where you can connect with Mark, Jill and Nadia near you. Once you’ve clicked the link you’ll need to pop in a few details, and then you can start making plans with the other 38 Degrees members in your area. The 38 Degrees office team will send you a pack. It’ll include a badge, a poster, bumper stickers, and leaflets for you to hand out. The leaflets explain the dangers of the trade deal in plain English and lets people know how they can take action too. Already, over 120,000 38 Degrees members have signed a petition against TTIP. There are lots of parts of the deal to worry about. It’ll make privatisation of our services like the NHS and National Rail irreversible. It’ll also allow big corporations to sue our government if they make changes to the law that affect the businesses profits - like raising the minimum wage. [1] The government is not going to have a sudden change of heart on TTIP unless they’re bombarded with questions and opposition. The only way we can do this is through people power - making sure as many of us as possible know about it. Whatever you can do to raise awareness of TTIP where you live will help. So can you spare an hour or two and join thousands of 38 Degrees members to campaign against TTIP? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/ttip-leaflet-action Thanks for being involved, Megan, Nat, James, Barney, Blanche and the 38 Degrees team NOTES: [1] The Independent: British sovereignty ‘at risk’ from EU-US trade deal: UK in danger of surrendering judicial independence to multinational corporations, warn activists: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-sovereignty-at-risk-from-euus-trade-deal-uk-in-danger-of-surrendering-judicial-independence-to-multinational-corporations-warn-activists-9057318.html Touchstone: Special courts for foreign investors have no place in trade deals: http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2013/11/special-courts-for-foreign-investors-have-no-place-in-trade-deals/

Mega bucks business not good for NHS

From Megan Bentall of petitioning website 38 Degrees

Here’s a scary prospect:

The NHS being carved up by more and more private companies. Coke or other mega corporations taking our government to the cleaners because they don’t like how strict our laws are.

Sound far-fetched? A huge new trade deal is being negotiated right now between the US and the EU, that could make that scary prospect a reality. [1] The deal’s called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - its a fancy name for a sinister trade deal.

Under the deal, US healthcare companies trying to provide NHS services could sue our government for passing a law to put a stop to privatisation. Or big businesses could sue the government for raising the minimum wage - if it hurts their profits. [2]

Business Minister Vince Cable’s department is in charge of TTIP in the UK. He’ll decide what we sign up to - he could make or break the deal. If he hears how important TTIP is to the public, he might do the right thing and fix or scrap TTIP.

A huge petition is the first step in showing Vince that we’re watching him closely. Can you take two minutes to add your name to a petition telling him to fix or scrap TTIP now? Click here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/petition-ttip

It’d be easy to fix this deal. Vince could take a stand against businesses being able to sue the government, like Germany has done recently. [3] Or he could call for the NHS and public services to be completely removed from the deal, like the French government did when they got some areas excluded. [4]

So let’s push TTIP into the spotlight and force Vince’s hand. Already thousands of us have chipped in and raised £100,000 for an ad campaign launching in the Autumn. [5] But we need to keep the pressure mounting. We need to tell Vince Cable to fix or scrap this deal.

Click here to add your name to the petition:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/petition-ttip


Thanks for being involved,

Megan, Susannah, Blanche & the 38 Degrees team


NOTES:
[1] The Independent: British sovereignty ‘at risk’ from EU-US trade deal: UK in danger of surrendering judicial independence to multinational corporations, warn activists:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-sovereignty-at-risk-from-euus-trade-deal-uk-in-danger-of-surrendering-judicial-independence-to-multinational-corporations-warn-activists-9057318.html
Open Democracy: On TTIP and the NHS, they are trying to bamboozle us:
https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/john-hilary/on-ttip-and-nhs-they-are-trying-to-bamboozle-us
[2] Touchstone: Special courts for foreign investors have no place in trade deals:
http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2013/11/special-courts-for-foreign-investors-have-no-place-in-trade-deals/
[3] ipolitics: Germany throws down gauntlet in CETA investor state negotiations:
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/07/27/germany-throws-down-gauntlet-in-ceta-investor-state-negotiations/
[4] Screen Daily: EU-US free trade talks under fire from filmmakers:
http://www.screendaily.com/news/eu-us-free-trade-talks-under-fire/5072471.article
[5] 38 Degrees blog: TTIP fundraiser:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2014/06/17/ttip-fundraiser/

A submission to an EU consultation about 'TTIP'

A submission to an EU consultation about 'TTIP'

TTIP stands for 'Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership' and has already been referred to on this blog site. Now the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees has intervened toward facilitating EU citizen input into this consultation where the EU commissioners have previously hindered Swheatie's involvement.

The text of Swheatie's input appears below, with a link to the John Hilary briefing added.

Swheatie's submission in response to the 'public consultation' on TTIP

A pamphlet by John Hilary of War On Want about the dangers of TTIP listed the TTIP portal of the European Commissioners website and so I went there, aiming to input what I had to say about the matter. Thus I was instantly confronted with an invitation to give feedback on why I was visiting that site that day, and told that the survey should only take me a few minutes.
  
I know that I am a person with a learning difficulty that makes my mental processing among the lowest few percentile but I was appalled at how 'norm-based' that rubbishy survey was. Further, when I had given up on that survey as a complete distraction from my original purpose and attempted to locate any details regarding the deadline for submissions to the 'consultation', I found that the TTIP portal seemed to be designed more to obfuscate than to help with any real consultation.

What I did glean from my perusal of that website was that 'investors' were being presented as angels who must not be abused, and that that is the basis upon which 'Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement' exists, and that there was something about the law operating within a country [rather than any reference to the UN Declaration of Human Rights]. I believe that ISDS could lead to situations like how, historically, Haiti was punished by France for what it had done to free slaves: Haiti was forced to compensate the heirs of slave traders for their 'loss of human cargo'.

As I have stated, I am a person with a learning difficulty. For all the laudable anti-discrimination legislation that the EU has helped bring to the UK, I have not as far as I am aware been helped while the global company ATOS has in effect murdered vulnerable people in its 'disability denial factories' that have apparently been based upon those of American-based insurance company Unum, formerly Unum-Provident. It was only through legal aid that has now been withdrawn that I won my case against ATOS and the Department for Work & Pensions so I got Employment & Support Allowance after having accrued only 17 months total waged employment from November 1977 to early 2009 when I first applied for ESA. [Swheatie forgot to add that apart from 1994 to 1997 at uni as a mature undergraduate, he had been on jobseeker benefits before claiming any disability benefit.]

And in 1978 an Employment Rehabilitation Centre 'Social Worker' told my parents that because I was slow, it would be a waste of public money for me to receive any further government-funded education and training, despite "an academic brain."

In conclusion, while TTIP talks about 'removing barriers to trade', the authors show remarkable ignorance surrounding how physical, economic and environmental barriers turn personal impairments into disabilities. I want more enforcement of existing human rights legislation rather than a charter for human rights abusers to increase the world's injustices in the name of 'free trade'.

Kate Belgrave: Talking with people dealing with public sector cuts AND highlighting the importance of integrity in public life

By Swheatie of the KUWG

These days as KUWG's friend Kate Belgrave highlights in her interviews taken outside jobcentres, jobcentres are more geared to torturing vulnerable people economically in the name of 'promoting personal responsibility' than they are into 'the help you need when you need it'. Link to Kate's latest blog piece on her fieldwork outside Kilburn Jobcentre. Such blog pieces so far rely exclusively on transcripts of interviews rather than video-footage.

Kate also does a lot of blogging about the plight of homeless single mums in LB Newham that do incorporate video camera work. Newham's policy is not to help economically vulnerable people find waged work — no way! Rather than Newham's policy being anything like 'nice work if you can get it', Newham's policy equates to 'hope of housing if you can get the work, and sod off if you can't'. Kate's latest blog piece juxtaposes video-footage of Newham Mayor Robin Wales facing the Focus E15 Mums of Stratford and Kate Belgrave herself, with video-footage of mould growing in rented, Housing Benefit-subsidised accommodation that is not desirable for growing human minds. Link to blog piece: Children in mouldy, decaying houses, councillors at property investor fairs in Cannes …

That blog piece incorporates links to information about a property-developers' fair in Cannes that was attended by Newham Mayor Robin Wales. Wales is quoted as telling the Guardian regarding the expense of Newham being represented in Cannes: 

“It's all paid for by our development partners.” 

I find that extremely worrying as Kate Belgrave does when she calls for “absolute transparency on all of this — who met with who, when, why, what was discussed, who willbe 'investing' in what and what sort of money will move between whichorganisations and people and why — and how the people who turnedout to [a 'Meet the Mayor of Newham' event] to try and get theirhousing problems solved will benefit.”

This is all at a time when there is a controversial matter called the 'Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership' being discussed in the European Parliament that is alternatively known as TAFTA [TransAtlantic Free Trade Agreement] in the USA. That potential dodgydeal would allow global corporations such as those intending to profit from wining and dining elected representatives of UK democracies, to sue UK democracies should, say, the electorate vote in a party that does not go in for dodgy deals that would result in a sell-off to global billionaires and tax-dodging corporations. The potential beneficiaries of TTIP already act as latter day colonial rulers, never bothering to look at the mould and mice droppings that people in their 'colonies' have to face on a daily basis.

In closing, I note that the property-developers' fair in Cannes that Robin Wales attended is now an annual event that is organised by Reed MIDEM — A member of Reed Exhibitions'. 

Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, Reed also owns the social work 'trade magazine' Community Care. Former Community Care blogger Mike McNabb's 'Outside Left: Weighing into the social policy debate' blog series contains a very revealing blog piece that pre-dates benefit caps and all the woes to poor families emanating from the Welfare Reform Act 2012. Link tot blog piece: Asylum seekers' £2m home: but who's playing the system? Since that blog piece was written, Mike McNabb lost his blogging station at Community Care. Link to his 'Outside Left' swansong piece, The last post: Thank you and goodbye from Outside Left. Now that Mike McNabb can no longer embarrass customers of a Reed-promoted property-developers' fair while drawing a Reed calary cheque, it's great that Kate Belgrave can help highlight the importance of integrity in public affairs.

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group's over-riding motto is 'Never attend anywhere official alone'. With the aid of Kate Belgrave's video-capture and interview transcripts, more and more people can serve as witnesses to the hardships and official indifference faced by the Focus E15 single mums of Newham even while the integrity of Community Care magazine as social work's 'trade magazine' is brought into question by association of parent company with arms fairs and property-development exhibitions.

Haiti's descent into destitution as a portent of why 'Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership' would be bad for Human Rights in the UK

Swheatie attended an International Women's Day fundraising event for Haiti on Saturday 8 March and learned why Haiti is such a poor land. Basically, before slavery was officially ended in the USA, former French colony Haiti was a haven for escaped slaves. And colonialist France thought that was very unfair to French slave owners and thus worked out means of penalising Haiti for standing up for Human Rights and opposition to slavery.

Thus, between 1825 and 1947, France forced Haiti to pay the equivalent of  £21.7bn as 'compensation' for slave owners' loss of their human 'property, paid over 100 years, impoverishing the country.* Leaving aside the matter of subsequent US intervention by way of coups in that land in support of murderous dictators and the ousting of Liberation Theologist President Aristide who pledged to "take Haitians 'from destitution to poverty', starting with women, children and subsistence farmers,"** let's turn now to the matter of the 'Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership' — aka 'TTIP' or 'EU-US free trade agreement'.

TTIP and TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership, that parallels TTIP in America's insistence that rights of corporations transcend democratic rights of citizens] will also include Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), allowing transnational corporations to sue governments directly for the loss of any future profits resulting from any government action, at any level, such as new legislation.  Where ISDS is already included in ‘trade’ deals, it is shown to lead either to big pay-outs from governments to transnational corporations or to deter governments from legislating – the ‘chill’ effect.

— Recipe for Ruin: TTIP the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership | Politics and Parasites

Thus, if a corporation does not like, say, a guaranteed minimum wage or any other such anti-slavery measure, we have some idea of what they will do to 'remedy' the situation. What do you think about that? And with EU elections coming up this May, what do UK political parties have to say about where they stand on the matter?

Why not ask them, or search for references to TTIP on their websites. Do not trust the BBC to give you the information you want on the matter. They seem to be only concerned with the UK's biggest political parties whenever they are not giving UKIP free publicity.

Wikipedia reports regarding Haitian history: "Fearful of the influence of the slaves' revolution [in Haiti], President Thomas Jefferson refused to recognize the new republic, as did most European nations." but Jefferson did leave us with a useful quotation to bear in mind when making democratic decisions: "Democracy presupposes knowledge."

PS: If you are in a political party, what does your political party say about its stance on TTIP?

* Source: Global Women's Strike factsheet 'Haiti: 10 Years of Resistance to 29 Feb 2004 Coup and its Bitter Legacy'
** Source: ibid