Today is the big day. Together with our partners at Daily Kos, Fight for the Future, Roots Action, and Demand Progress, OpenMedia has launched Stop The Secrecy — a huge international campaign calling for an end to the excessive secrecy around the Trans-Pacific Partnership. You can see it for yourself at https://StopTheSecrecy.net
To amplify our message, we have attracted support with the help of dozens of groups from across the political spectrum — including rabble.ca — to make Stop The Secrecy one of the largest online campaigns ever. Together with major collaborators ranging from Avaaz to Reddit, over 2.7 million people have spoken out against fast tracking the secretive TPP without any debate.
Yes, you read that right: over 2.7 million people have now spoken out against the secretive TPP.
We’ve timed the action to coincide with a series of crucial behind-closed-doors talks in Asia, where U.S. President Obama is trying to ram through the TPP in meetings with key leaders. To get the attention of other world leaders, the media, and Obama himself, we are using a high-powered spotlight to project a hard-hitting “Stop the Secrecy” message onto a prominent building in Washington, D.C beginning tonight.
And, yes, you read that right. We’re launching a Stop The Secrecy “bat signal” in D.C.
This message will get larger the more people sign on to our online campaign — and even in the early hours of this campaign we’ve already seen tens of thousands speak out. If each and every one of us takes a moment to spread the word we can maximize our impact in these crucial early hours. Help spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. We need to ensure that our message is as big as possible for when Obama returns back to Washington on April 30th.
See, here’s the thing: whether you’re passionate about the open Internet, our environment, good jobs, access to medicine, or healthy democracy (or all of the above), the TPP impacts you. The agreement will overwrite national laws that govern 40 per cent of the global economy — without any type of proper oversight. But an army of lobbyists and unelected officials are working hard to ensure that only a handful of highly privileged voices are heard in these ultra secretive discussions.
This is why many different groups working on many different issues have come together under the banner of Stop The Secrecy. People from all over the world are speaking out and — regardless of what they are passionate about — shining a light on the extreme secrecy of the TPP something that unites us all.
Stop The Secrecy is part of a broader 16-day campaign to stop fast tracking the TPP, that includes online and offline actions taking place all around the world, led by groups like Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, the Communications Workers of America, and others. You can see a full list here.
If you’re located in the U.S., we encourage you to take a look at how you can chip in and take further action by checking out Global Trade Watch’s Save the World Stop Fast Track campaign. For a flavor of some of the on-the-ground work happening in Japan right now, take a look at Channel News Asia’s recent coverage of an anti-TPP demonstration outside the Japanese Prime Minister’s residence.
We’ll make sure you get a chance to see the first images of the “Stop the Secrecy” projection as soon as we have them — and we will keep you in the loop as the campaign develops. Be sure to check back in the coming days and, if you’ve yet to do so, add your voice right now at https://StopTheSecrecy.net
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
