Sending A Message: It's Time To Stop Secret Trade Agreements That Undermine Democracy

from the speak-up dept

Thu, Apr 24th 2014 4:02pm — Mike Masnick

A bunch of organizations and companies have teamed up to demand that President Obama Stop the Secrecy around the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. With over 2.8 million signatures already, the groups behind this project are projecting a "stop the secrecy" light on buildings around Washington DC to draw attention to the shady, underhanded nature of the way that these trade agreements are negotiated. The campaign kicked off by shining the message on the Canadian embassy:

The organizers note that as the campaign goes on and more people sign, they'll be shining the message bigger and brighter -- and on bigger targets.

While this may be a bit gimmicky, the message here is a serious one. It makes absolutely no sense at all that negotiations like the TPP are done in secret. All of the excuses the USTR gives about this wither under scrutiny. Plenty of other international agreements are negotiated with public texts being shared. The USTR could easily do the same if it chose to. The very fact that former USTR Ron Kirk admitted that they won't reveal the details of these agreements because the public might not like them explains exactly why this kind of secrecy is undemocratic.

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Filed Under: secrecy, stop the secrecy, tpp, ustr

32 Comments

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Mason Wheeler (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 4:17pm

The very fact that former USTR Ron Kirk admitted that they won't reveal the details of these agreements because the public might not like them explains exactly why this kind of secrecy is undemocratic.

Why has that quote from Ron Kirk not been turned into a soundbite/rallying cry and spread around the entire Internet by now?
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- Pragmatic, 29 Apr 2014 @ 8:17am
  
  Re:
  I suppose you could make a meme of it using a meme generator - a bit of fun with a political point.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 4:23pm

Who is paying for the light gimmick? Not a cheap endeavor.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 4:25pm
  
  Re: light gimmick
  Yeah, the light gimmick must be costing hundreds of dollars. Grassroots, my eye.
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  - Charles (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:29pm
    
    Re: Re: light gimmick
    I got my notice from demandprogress.org. It, like the other backers of this project, survive on donations. As far as I know it is a grassroots organization, though organized.
    
    I am tired of swallowing the koolaid, so I try to support similar groups in the way I can.
    
    You are entitled to your own opinion
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    - Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:36pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: light gimmick
      Demand Progress is a Google front.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 6:54pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: light gimmick
        Everyone and their granny is a Google front.
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        Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 10:55pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: light gimmick
        No, everyone and their granny are Google Nazi Rockstar NSA Commie fronts.
        
        If you're going to be silly, then at least shoot for the moon.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:04pm
  
  Re:
  Quick! somebody pass a law against shining lights on buildings...
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  - Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:35pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Already exists; permission is required to do what they're doing.
    
    Who's funding this?
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    - That One Guy (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 6:13pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      You know, you could just click on the link in the story, go to the page, and see all the various backers, doesn't take much effort there.
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      - John Fenderson (profile), 25 Apr 2014 @ 9:57am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Aww, don't give the game away! I love it when the "who's funding this" question gets asked for things like this, where the answer is easy to find and the expense is not great to begin with. It's fun to watch the straw-grasping!
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  - PoohBah, 25 Apr 2014 @ 6:20pm
    
    Re: Stop Secrecy Dot Net
    Hey, Anonymous Coward - who needs a law?? Just an executive order will do just fine.....
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:02pm

Calling it now: Obama responds to this with several paragraphs about how his administration is totally the most transparent ever, and how all those trade agreements are 100% transparent because eventually some congressmen will probably get to glance at them before voting on them.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:15pm

Interesting that the majority of supporting organizations are associated with Democratic Party causes that range from left to way-way left. Might rattle a cage or two at the WH, but it will take mainstream organizations and companies to lend strong, vocal support for anything to change.
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- Andy, 25 Apr 2014 @ 2:51am
  
  Re:
  Republicans would be accepting the cash payments just as much if not more, than the democrats, all politicians are the same republican and democrats, once you accept that you will live a much better life when they both fuck you wherever they can.
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Kronomex, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:28pm

Anything that involves the corporations and their deals with the bought and paid for puppet government would have to be kept secret. Can't have the peasants, I mean citizens, know what's going on.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 6:18pm

Democracy?
Democracy? What Democracy? You mean the oligarchy in the US? The USTR was perfectly open with everyone who mattered. That just doesn't include you or me.
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Violynne (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 7:38pm

Personally, I don't see what the issue is. From what I've been reading, TPP isn't going anywhere because the countries brought to the table are disgusted with what they're reading and pulling out.

The way things are going, the US will be the only country which signs on the dotted line.

I'd rather they spend more time focusing on more pressing issues, like trying to keep the FCC from fucking up the internet as we know it.
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- That One Guy (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 8:32pm
  
  Re:
  Ah, but without pressure and attention to the matter like this, how many of them would have even bothered to look closely at what they were being asked to sign, rather than just taking their 'negotiators' at their word?
  
  Public attention like this also makes it more difficult to just slide things under the rug until it comes time to sign the thing, and when the problem is secrecy, the 'fix' is as much light as you can get.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 9:07pm

In Mexico the trade it�s on table in negotiations
In Mexico the trade it�s on table in negotiations
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cosmicrat, 24 Apr 2014 @ 11:33pm

what kind of luminaire is that
Anyone know what kind of lighting fixture they're using? Seems brighter than an ordinary ellipsoidal/leko, also looks HMI-ish.

I'm guessing something like a Mac 500 profile. Such fixtures can be rented for less than $150.00 a night if you have the right sources.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 1:12am

the bigger problem is governments everywhere dont want democracy any more. they want countries to be ruled for and by big business. the people and there wants, needs and desires are at the bottom of the pile now. the frightening thing is that this whole way of thinking seems to have started in the one very country that supposedly put itself forward to the World as being the most democratic, the most caring there was. that country is the USA! instead of the picture it paints, the country has become less and less 'by the people, for the people, of the people' and so much like 'by big business, for big business profits, with the help of big governments and law enforcement and fuck the people'! as for the 'all men are created equal, try telling that to anyone in this administration and the security forces. that has gone, never to be resurrected!!
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 5:21am
  
  Re:
  So, you mean, they want neo-feudalism, but without the obligations that feudalism imparted on the aristocracy?
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- OrganizedThoughtCrime (profile), 26 Apr 2014 @ 3:22am
  
  Re:
  As a general rule, any entity that goes to such lengths to proclaim how free, democratic, caring, etc. it is, almost always isn't (even close).
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 6:16am

The 1976 Act was adopted because the US was worn down over the years since Berne on the issue of international harmonization and its reluctance to buy-in.
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 6:16am
  
  Re:
  This comment was meant to be deleted, but I pressed the wrong key. Kindly ignore.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 6:27am

Why does everyone keep calling it government ,it's a corporation and has been for quite sometime , we are just consumers now, who are forced to pay for and shop at the USA corp.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2014 @ 3:24am
  
  Re:
  I would disagree, if it wasn't for the PP-ACA, or Insurance Industry Appreciation Act as I prefer to call it.
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submandave, 25 Apr 2014 @ 1:47pm

Trust them, you'll like it.
"they won't reveal the details of these agreements because the public might not like them"

Didn't they tell you: they'll have to ratify the TPP to know what's in the TPP.
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- That One Guy (profile), 25 Apr 2014 @ 3:33pm
  
  Re: Trust them, you'll like it.
  Nah, any scientist will tell you, it's much easier to study something when it's not moving, so it would be far more logical to kill the treaties and then study the bodies, rather than pass them and and try and study them.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2014 @ 3:25am
  
  Re: Trust them, you'll like it.
  EXACTLY.
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