ILPS condemns TPPA as US scheme to further control Trans-Pacific trade

From the Website of ILPS
Links:  http://www.ilps.info/joomsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=418:ilps-condemns-tppa-as-us-scheme-to-further-control-trans-pacific-trade&catid=45:public-statements-and-calls-to-action&Itemid=57

ILPS condemns TPPA as US scheme to further control Trans-Pacific trade

Saturday, 29 October 2011 23:00

By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

The International League of Peoples' Struggle resolutely condemns the drive of the US government and its monopoly capitalists to realize the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as a scheme to impose their power over trade and investment flows. This would aggravate the exploitation of the working people and the environment as a way of raising superprofits and seeking to cope with the grave economic, social and economic crisis.


The TPPA was initiated by the Bush regime. Since March 2010, negotiations have been proceeded, with the objective of creating a a legally-binding free trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific region. Right now, the TPPA talks involve nine countries – the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Peru, Chile, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Singapore. Japan is poised to join. The USA has free trade agreements (FTAs) with four of the nine countries.

The TPPA is conceived of as an economic dimension of the growing US confrontation with China. This is a confrontation which is a growing danger to world peace. Peoples’ organizations in the nine countries covered by the TPPA have therefore agreed to expose and oppose the callous and unjust demands of the US corporations and the US Trade Representative regarding the TPPA.

At first, the talks on the TPPA advanced when the US delegation put forward specific text, revealing that the entire TPPA process is US-driven. Delays arose when the US Trade Representative waited for the FTAs of the US with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to be ratified by the US Congress.

What are the objectives of the US corporations in the TPPA?

These are: 1) to subordinate the health and medicines policies of all o
ther countries to the demands of giant US pharmaceutical companies, including the extension of patent rights to allow the charging of higher prices for a longer period, and restrictions on the right of governments to control prices for medicines; 2)to require that all government procurement be open to US corporations – no local content or local training polices; 3) to require that all media policies that support local cultural content be abolished, allowing complete domination by US media corporations; 4) to impose US copyright law on all other countries – greatly extended copyright and royalty payments which greatly favour US corporations; 5) to make internet service providers criminally liable for any copyright piracy on their networks; and 6) to demand tariff-free access for US exports into all markets, while limiting corresponding access to US markets.

What would be the result?

This neo-liberal over-reach by the giant US corporations would deliver a disastrous blow on jobs, health, and freedom of communications and information in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The just response to these outrageous dictates of US monopoly capitalism is for the people to mobilize themselves and and protest! And the people's protests have taken place in Auckland New Zealand, Chicago and Peru, three of the sites of negotiating rounds.
The people's campaign has been effective. The initial objective was for the TPPA deal to be signed by November 2011, and unveiled at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader Summit in Honolulu as the blueprint for all member economies, including most of the ASEAN nations, Russia and China. But now that won't happen.

Instead some kind of progress report may be given to APEC and then talks will proceed into 2012. The opposition of trade union, health and media sectors to the US corporations in the US itself and in other countries has delayed this obnoxious scheme. The ILPS is determined to work vigorously in cooperation with other forces in order to expand and intensify the people's protest movement against the TPPA.

ILPS Websites

http://www.ilps.info/joomsite/


Links:

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Anti-people neoliberal dogma in G20 Summit means aggravation of global economic crisis

From Website of ILPS

links:  http://www.ilps.info/joomsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=417:anti-people-neoliberal-dogma-in-g20-summit-means-aggravation-of-global-economic-crisis&catid=45:public-statements-and-calls-to-action&Itemid=57

Anti-people neoliberal dogma in G20 Summit means aggravation of global economic crisis

Thursday, 27 October 2011 18:00

By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle 

The G20 summit is to be held in Cannes, France on November 3 and 4. Assisted by their finance ministers and heads of central banks, the heads of governments of the world’s twenty largest economies are supposed to confront once more the global economic and financial crisis and seek solutions.

As in previous summits, they will fail to solve the crisis, bound as they are by the laws of motion of capitalism and imperialism and by the neoliberal dogma. They are driven by the profit-making interest of the monopoly bourgeoisie and financial oligarchy and continue to pass the burden of the crisis to the broad masses of the people.

Public funds in trillions have been used to bail out the big banks and corporations from the crisis of their own making and to wage wars of aggression to please the military-industrial complex. They have brought about spikes and plunges in the financial markets but have not stimulated civil production and employment. As a result, public deficits and public debts have mounted. And now the public debt bubble is bursting in a number of the G20 member-countries, especially the US and certain EU countries.

Solving the crisis of overproduction and the extreme abuse of finance capital is beyond the purview of the G20 summiteers, especially because of their neoliberal blinders. They are now most concerned with the problem of debt defaults plaguing major capitalist countries, including the U.S. and those in the European Union, and still many others.

Apparently their main objective is to contain the threats of default by further pushing austerity measures at the expense of the people. These measures, which include tax hikes for the people and tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy, pressing down of wages, cutting back on pensions and social benefits, reducing social services and public sector employment and rising fees for social services, can only aggravate the economic and financial crisis.

We anticipate the G20 summit to come out with further plans to skirt the fundamental problems of capitalism and imperialism, to further exploit the people under the auspices of the IMF, World Bank and the WTO and thus to aggravate the crisis. The imperialist powers will impose themselves on the rest of the summitteers and defeat or coopt any contrary view from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

The G20 summit is held at a time that the dominant imperialist powers are gloating over their success at conquering Libya and taking over its oil resources with the use of barbaric air attacks in combination with their Libyan puppets and rabble brigades directed by NATO special forces. They are expected to dance over the graves of close to a hundred thousand Libyan people massacred by NATO bombs and puppet butchers under the pretext of humanitarian intervention and protecting civilians.

They are poised to claim the mass uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.as the victory of their brand of democracy as well as the invincibility of capitalism. They will once more go through the ritual of shedding crocodile tears over Africa and all the impoverished and underdeveloped countries of the world now further brought down by global depression.

The US and other imperialist powers are carried away by their wanton use of financial means and hightech weapons of mass destruction to destroy the lives, homes and social infrastructure of peoples with impunity. They are oblivious of the fact that the world capitalist system is practically falling apart because of its grave crisis, bankruptcies, state terrorism and wars of aggression as well as the rising wave of people's resistance driven by the needs and aspirations for national and social liberation.

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, call on our member-organizations, all allied forces and the broad masses of the people to take up all the urgent issues against imperialism and reaction, further strengthen themselves organizationally, occupy the public squares and the major streets and undertake all other forms and means of mass mobilization. We must intensify resistance and build the movement for national liberation, democracy and socialism.

ILPS Website

http://www.ilps.info/joomsite/

links:

http://www.ilps.info/joomsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=417:anti-people-neoliberal-dogma-in-g20-summit-means-aggravation-of-global-economic-crisis&catid=45:public-statements-and-calls-to-action&Itemid=57

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