Between The Lines - Margaret Flowers: Left-Right Coalition Mobilizes to Oppose Passage of Fast Track and TransPacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (Week Ending March 6, 2015)

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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Opponents Mobilize to Stop Fast Track and TransPacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement

Posted Feb. 25, 2015

Interview with Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance.org, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

President Obama is pushing hard for congressional approval of trade promotion, or fast track authority, that many believe is essential for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, or TPP. The proposed trade deal would include 12 nations that border the Pacific Ocean, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam.

Congressional leaders from both parties support the trade proposal, while progressive Democrats and tea party Republicans mostly oppose it. Democratic opponents maintain that the TPP is unconstitutional and undemocratic, as the trade pact has been negotiated in secret over the past several years with most members of Congress kept out of the loop. Tea party legislators oppose fast track because they say it gives President Obama too much power. Congressional approval of the TPP would give corporations even more power than they acquired under earlier trade deals like NAFTA to set the trade agenda and override environmental, health and labor protections.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance.org, a daily movement news and resource website which also organizes several campaigns, including "Flush the TPP." Here, she talks about the pressure now being exerted on Democrats who favor the TPP and the consequences if the controversial trade deal wins passage.

MARGARET FLOWERS: The members of Congress were home this week for President's week and so this was a perfect time for people around the country make their member of Congress know that they're opposed to fast track. So there were actions across the country; in Oregon they had a bus touring the whole country. Oregon is really a critical state because Sen. Ron Wyden is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and that's the committee where they will introduce fast-track legislation. The Republican chair of that committee is really pushing Sen. Wyden to join him in sponsoring that legislation, and if he does that, that will allow cover for the other Senate Democrats to go ahead and support it as well. So he's really crucial. And we're glad to see that Oregon voters have spoken out loudly, as well. There was a poll just released this past week showing that 73 percent of Oregon voters oppose fast-track, which is great. Sixty-two percent oppose TPP. So we gotta put him in the hot seat.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I know you kind of said this, but just to be clear, he is a Democrat.

MARGARET FLOWERS: Yes, he's a Democrat. And other exciting thing that happened this past week – and this is something that people can do all over the country – is that Richmond, California, voted to be a TPP-free zone, as well as Vermont introduced legislation making their whole state TPP-free. What communities are doing is they're making resolutions to say, "If you negotiate this agreement in secret and then you rush it through Congress without us knowing what's in it and how it will affect our communities, we're not going to obey that." That's not constitutional. It's undemocratic.

And so we're gonna stand up and protect our communities, because the TPP will affect people in their local communities. Part of it requires that local laws be harmonized with rules inside the TPP, as well as it gives corporations greater power to challenge us if we pass laws to protect our health, safety, workers, our environment.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, can you be specific at all...like, what could be different if fast-track is approved and the TPP passes?

MARGARET FLOWERS: Right, so fast-track is really key to stopping this, because that would allow to put it through Congress without debates or amendments. If this passes, we see this as a real game-changer. Among other things, as I mentioned having to harmonize our laws, it does give corporations the right to sue if any laws interfere with their expected profits. Now, this is new. Under NAFTA, we had corporations suing if something interfered with money they had invested, but this allows them to sue for much more money because they can say, "We wanted to frack in your community, but you banned it. We would have made billions of dollars, so if you want to get away with banning fracking, you're going to have to pay us billions of dollars." And communities just don't have that kind of money, so it will force them to repeal those laws.

This is really scary, because it happens outside of our judicial system. It's in a court that is staffed by corporate lawyers, and we have no right of appeal. Their decision is binding.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Actually, my congresswoman in Connecticut, Rosa DeLauro, is one of the leaders of the Democrats fighting fast-track. It's interesting to see the coming together of some of the more progressive Democrats with some of the tea party Republicans, because, for different reasons, both are opposed. So, after this past week of activities, what do you have up your sleeve? What's next?

MARGARET FLOWERS: And Congresswoman DeLauro's been fantastic, and held an excellent press conference, which really broke through the media blackout that's been going on, so we congratulate her and thank her for that. We expect that when Congress returns from their recess, they will move to introduce fast-track legislation in late February or early March. And we think we have about two months to stop it. If we can push them back to May without passing it, then we start getting into the presidential election and the next election cycle, and nobody really wants to touch this in an election cycle. So this is really a critical time, and we're going to be urging people to use a tool we have called StopFastTrack.com, to contact their members of Congress, to also join our rapid response team where we'll identify people and places that we need to be in order to put pressure on them and we'll need people to be ready to mobilize for that. But everybody, wherever you are, can contact your member of Congress. Thank them if they are opposed to fast-track and urge them to stay strong, and if they're not opposed to fast-track, you need to push them.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And is there an easy way to find out where your congressperson or senator stands on this, or do you just have to call the office?

MARGARET FLOWERS: You know, it's an interesting moment because, for reasons, people are not really willing to list who is for or against. They don't want the other side to have this information. So really, it means that people individually need to contact their member of Congress to find out where they stand.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Just one thing; you mentioned that when the elections come closer, elected officials don't want to touch this. Why?

MARGARET FLOWERS: Because they know that we have a more than 20-year history with these types of agreements, that people in this country are aware of the detriment they do to us, so it is actually politically toxic and can be used against them in an election cycle.

For more information on Popular Resistance.org, visit PopularResistance.org.