In his push to “Fast Track” the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement to Congress, President Barack Obama has made common cause with U.S. corporations and conservative Republicans against workers, environmentalists, and progressives.
Fast Track means that the trade agreement, negotiated under unprecedented secrecy, would be brought to the U.S. Congress for a vote without amendments or the possibility to filibuster. On May 22, the U.S. Senate passed Fast Track authority, and now it must pass in the House of Representatives, where it faces opposition from both the far-right of the Republican Party and the populist element of Obama’s own Democrats.
Some of the largest U.S. companies like Nike, Pfizer, Caterpillar Inc. and Boeing have put their support behind fast-tracking the TPP.
“Our interests on this issue are aligned,” said executive vice president and head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Myron Brilliant. “We welcome that engagement.”
Establishment Republicans are looking to quiet the extreme right-wing opposition to President Obama and are urging support for providing him fast track power. Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, in a letter to House Republicans, underlined the fact that the TPP contained the conservative principles of free trade that, “may divide our Democratic colleagues, but they unite us.”
Workers and the oppressed of the world have long known what “Free Trade” means despite the rhetoric from the halls of power that claim such deals help the people and the economy. “Free Trade” agreements are put in place to allow giant corporations to trample over all national boundaries and laws put in place to safeguard workers and protect the planet in the interests of extravagant profits. Corporations can claim that if their rights to exploit labor or the land anywhere covered by the trade agreement have been violated they can demand compensation. They don’t have to abide by the laws of nations and can use these trade agreements to batter down any national law that they view as inhibiting profits.
There have been those within Congress to raise their voice in opposition to the TPP. A populist grouping of Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has challenged Obama on fast tracking the TPP and on a number of the deal’s provisions, including the secrecy of the negotiations, the environmental impact of the agreement and the threat it poses to labor. But despite this, it is important for class conscious workers and nationally oppressed people to remember that these “progressive” elements within the Democratic Party are only reacting to popular pressure and struggle. Because of their commitment to the status quo they are incapable of truly acting out of genuine loyalty to the working class or its class interests, which is illustrated by the fact that their opposition fails to address the ultimate aim of the TPP: the economic and military domination of the Pacific region at the expense of China and Russia.
As trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement continue the process of capitalist plunder and exploitation, the people need to look to themselves to organize and not depend on those who, though they speak against it, ultimately defend the current system. The only viable alternative to the economic exploitation and devastation of capitalism is socialism. Under socialism we can begin the process of which, as Karl Marx theorized in 1848, “In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to.”
