Speak Up an Oppose the TPP

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – the worst trade deal that an American administration has negotiated – has been signed by the American trade representative.

The TPP basically makes corporate law the law of the land. Whatever benefits a corporation is what a country has to do. And if it doesn't, it can be fined an amount equal to projected future profits. And then be forced to change its law to match what the corporation wants.

So much for democracy.

This is bad news for us.

It is also our rallying cry.

Already the calls against the TPP are coming our from many different directions.

In the Buffalo News today (Feb. 6, 2016) in the business section Bloomberg News reports that the TPP would endanger the (cheap, overworked, and underpaid) call centers that the US has.

Losing jobs is a big deal. The environmental regulations that we would have to change because a foreign company would lose money is another good reason to oppose the deal. NY banned fracking. A foreign company could sue NY for lost profits and then demand that NY lift its fracking ban.

There are many good reasons to oppose this deal. I remember when NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) was passed. H. Ross Perot said that the “giant sucking sound that you hear is American jobs leaving...” He wound up being correct.

Every “free trade” agreement since has screwed over American workers.

Now corporations want more.

We need to stand against them.

Rep. (Mayor) Brian Higgins wrote an OP-ED in today's News stating why he is opposed to the TPP. I have heard from Rep. Tom Reed that he is opposed to it as well. I believe Se. Schumer is opposed. I can not remember if I have received anything from Se. Gilabrand about this.

Of course Pres. Obama is in favor of it. The 1% that financed him and the DNC are in favor of it.

I believe Sen, Sanders is opposed to it. I know Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party is opposed to it. I am almost certain that the Constitution Party is opposed to it. I know that the Socialist Party USA is opposed, as is the Party of Liberation and Socialism.  Both have been on the ballot in NY.  Other socialist organizations are opposed.  

This is an unusual issue in that opposition to it is cutting across party lines.

We need to be louder so that it fails in the Congress.

We need to contact our Representatives and Senators and let them know we mean “NO.”

All in capitals.

We also need to let President Obama know that we mean “NO” as well.

A treaty that was negotiated in secret and had 20 corporate representatives for every trade representative can not, in anyone's wildest dreams, be good for the working class, the middle class, or anyone that has hopes of living a better life.

We need to act now.

Contact your representative and tell them “NO to the TPP.”

The doors are open.....

The Superintendent of Buffalo Schools, Kriner Cash, publicly announced a back door takeover of 8 schools in the Buffalo News today. It sounds very positive to those concerned about the quality of education that students are receiving, but in reality, it amounts to a public funding of corporate control over 8 schools – with the eventual intent of the graduates of those schools working for the corporation in question.

The schools? Arthur O'Eve Elementary, Bennett, East High School, Lafayette, Riverside, South Park, and two new high schools – Montessori and the Research Lab of Life Science and Informatics.

How would these schools be transformed? The curriculum would be geared towards the “sponsoring” institution's economic needs. What does Solar City need in a worker? The paired up school, in this case South Park, would have its curriculum geared towards the science classes needed for the manufacture and installation of solar electricity. The claim is that it would be only a small part of the school. It's actually a foot in the door. And we all know what happens when a salesperson gets a foot in your door. Soon he's in the living room pawning his wares.

While this sounds good in theory, it reminds me of the OP-ED a few weeks ago where the writer spouted off about how college students need to sign deals with corporations, where the corporation pays for the student's college costs and, in return, the student works for the corporation for a given number of years as a glorified indentured servant. Same thing would happen here, only at the high school level.

And the taxpayers get to foot the bill.

While this does sound very similar to various vocational education programs, the insidious part of it is that a specific company, or series of companies in the bio-medical corridor that is opening up, will have a controlling voice in what is taught in the school.

In my graduate work in education, I had to take a class on educational philosophy. One short reflective essay that I wrote told of what I thought education was supposed to be about.

In Deborah Meier's The Power of Their Ideas I stated that I believed education was about teaching students how to learn. Not what, but how. Give them those tools, and the world is theirs. They will have the ability to walk out of “Plato's cave” and potentially free themselves from the chains that bind them.

This new arrangement that is being proposed is creating a highly specialized proletariat that will only be able to work in one specific area. And when that area goes bust, like all areas do, what then for those workers?

Education is supposed to be about freeing the minds from its chains.

The new career training plan that is being proposed is about making them tighter.

And Kriner Cash is holding the door wide open for the snake oil salesmen to come in.