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It’s been a wild ride for your small OpenMedia team since the launch of our Stop the Secrecy campaign. In just seven days our campaign has grown to historic proportions, becoming the largest-ever action against the excessive secrecy around the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Now we’re gearing up for the final 36 hours of the campaign — with President Obama set to fly home tomorrow and a key U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing on the TPP scheduled for Thursday. It’s absolutely crucial that everyone gets on board this campaign in these crucial last 36 hours — add your voice right now at https://StopTheSecrecy.net and share the campaign with your friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Reddit.

There’s a lot happening — so let’s quickly recap the past seven days. It didn’t take long on launch day for us to see the impact our campaign was having — our website nearly crashed under the unprecedented surge of incoming traffic! Since then, tens of thousands of people have been signing on in support each and every day. We now have an incredible 3,090,559 citizens speaking out against TPP secrecy, and that number is growing every minute.

Think about that number for a second — that’s more people than live in the entire city of Chicago coming together to demand transparency around extreme TPP proposals that could censor the Internet, kill jobs, undermine environmental protections, and remove your democratic rights.

This all adds up to a remarkable movement, and if you’ve played your part then please take a moment to pat yourself on the back. We simply could not have done this without you, our community — or without the support of our awesome partners at Demand Progress, Daily Kos, Fight for the Future, Roots Action, and over 50 other major organizations. (see here for a full list of supporting organizations)

And, with U.S. President Obama spending the last week locked in crucial talks aimed at arm-twisting Asian nations into signing up to the TPP, the message from citizens to Obama couldn’t be clearer. To ram that message home we’ve been using a giant spotlight to project our hard-hitting Stop The Secrecy message on prominent buildings in Washington, D.C. We’ve literally been shining a light on the secretive forces behind the TPP — check out the latest photos on our Tumblr page.

We’ve succeeded in piling on the pressure during a key week in the TPP process — and experts say that this citizen pressure is a big reason why the old industry lobbyists and bureaucrats pushing the TPP have so far been held off.

Our campaign is going well — but the next 36 hours will be vital. With Obama about to return and with key U.S. Senators set to debate the TPP on Thursday, we need to maximize our numbers in these crucial final hours.

Here’s how you can play your part:

  • If you’ve yet to do so, join 3.1 million others and speak up right now at StopTheSecrecy.net
  • After adding your voice, share the action with everyone you know online — on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Reddit. Heck, stop random people on the street if you have to — just get the word out far and wide.
  • Use our straightforward letter to the editor tool to get a letter published in your local newspaper. Here’s the U.S. version of the tool, and here’s the Canadian version.
  • Join the discussion at our lively #StopTheSecrecy hashtag on Twitter — and please retweet your favourite tweets. 

The best thing about being part of OpenMedia is our community — we know that thousands of you will always step up when we need it most. We’re already over 3.1 million people strong — now, let’s work together to maximize our momentum and welcome Obama home with a message he and key decision-makers simply can’t ignore.

Let’s keep speaking up!

David Christopher

David Christopher

David Christopher is the Communications Manager of OpenMedia.ca and writes regularly for the organization. He’s from the west of Ireland and holds a degree from Trinity College Dublin, where he...