Between The Lines - Lori Wallach: Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (Week Ending Jan. 11, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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Secretly Negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Treaty Prioritizes Corporate Power over Governments

RealAudio MP3

Posted Jan. 2, 2013

Interview with Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, conducted by Scott Harris

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a proposed trade and investment treaty being negotiated in secret by 11 nations that include the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Japan has also expressed interest in joining the pact; however, that position was quite unpopular among Japanese voters in December’s election campaign. The 15 round of TPP talks held in Auckland, New Zealand from Dec. 3-12, drew militant protests. Despite growing opposition around the world, negotiators in New Zealand stated they hoped to conclude a deal by the end of 2013.

Although negotiations have been conducted under unprecedented secrecy, leaked documents reveal an agenda demanding aggressive intellectual property provisions which would roll back public health safeguards in favor of enhanced corporate patent and data protection. Critics charge those provisions would make it harder to gain access to generic drugs, such as retroviral medications to treat HIV and AIDS. Other concerns center around the treaty’s expansion of corporate power to challenge national laws on worker rights, environmental regulations and consumer protections.

While some 600 corporate advisers have participated in TPP negotiations – having access to drafts of the treaty’s language – the public, members of Congress, journalists, and civil society have been excluded. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Lori Wallach, director of Public Global Citizen’s Trade Watch, who was in New Zealand during the most recent round of talks. Here, she explains why she believes the TPP is the most potentially damaging agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement and the 1995 establishment of the World Trade Organization.

LORI WALLACH: Well, this is a perverse irony because, although people were divided about what NAFTA would do back the 1990s, the polling shows that one of the only things that actually unites the American public across Democratic, Republican, Independent, extremely conservative, extremely progressive - is opposition by majorities in each of those categories to more NAFTAs. NAFTA's actually united us in more opposition. The reason – and if people knew about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, they would be up in arms and there would be a debate.

The reason they don't is unprecedented secrecy. This is a negotiation that has been going on since 2008, started by the Bush administration, took a hiatus, and at the end of 2009 the Obama administration picked it up. There have been 15 multi-week rounds of negotiations. There is a multi-thousands page draft text of 29 chapters of what isn't a trade agreement – that's the brand that we're being sold. In fact, what it is an enforceable system of binding global governance written largely by and certainly written for the biggest multinational corporations. Think effectively "NAFTA on steroids" with Vietnam, China, it would be open for any country to join. And the chapters of which only 5 of the 29 have to do with trade include new rights for the big pharmaceutical companies to expand, to raise medical prices, expand monopoly patents, limits on Internet freedom, penalties for inadvertent noncommercial copying, sending something to a friend. There are the same rules that promote off-shoring of jobs that were in NAFTA that are more robust that literally give privileges and protections if you leave.

There is a ban on "buy American" and "buy local" or "green" or sweat-free procurement. There are limits on domestic financial stability regulations. There are limits on imported food safety standards and product standards. There are limits on how we can regulate energy towards a more green future - all of these things are what they call "Behind the Borders" agenda. And the operating clause of TPP is: "Each country shall ensure the conformity of its domestic laws, regulations and administrative procedures with these agreements." That's to say, that we're told to conform all of our domestics laws - including all the important public interest laws fought so hard by people around the country – for these corporate dictates and it's strongly enforceable. If we do not conform our laws, another country can challenge us and impose trade sanctions until we do, but this one is even privately enforceable by the corporations themselves.

This is an agreement that actually formalizes the priority of corporate power over government. It allows any foreign investor to go to a United Nations or World Bank-based tribunal of three private sector attorneys and sue our governments for our taxpayer-compensation over any domestic policy or action that the foreign investor thinks undermines their expected future profits. I could not make this up, and in fact, it would be hard to believe, except this is one of the few chapters that has leaked. This whole negotiation has been the most secretive I have seen in 20 years of watching trade agreements. Not even the members with jurisdiction directly over the agreement are being allowed to see the draft.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What has been the role of the Obama administration, pushing the agenda if at all, forward on the TPP talks?

LORI WALLACH: What's heartbreaking is in fact the Obama administration has – despite President Obama's really terrific promises in his 2008 campaign promises to replace the old NAFTA job-killing race to the bottom model of trade agreements – in fact, the administration has recycled through in to their trade positions. Many of the very people who got us into NAFTA during the Clinton administration and those folks have picked up exactly where the Bush people left off, pushing this corporate agenda. And even more, which is just stunning; they've actually in areas like pharmaceutical, Big Pharma's rights to expand patent links in poor countries. The Obama negotiators have actually rolled back reforms that the Democratic Congress made Bush include in some of his later trade agreements, which is just remarkably are horrifying. But lock, stock and barrel, the rest is just straight up the same old, except NAFTA on steroids. So NAFTA had certain elements of each of the rules that are in TPP and TPP is the maximalist of corporate power.

Find more information about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade treaty and its critics at http://www.citizen.org/trade/.