Will Liberals and Conservatives Unite to Defeat Fast Track and the TPP?

By Alison Rose Levy

    Activists in Dallas oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and “fast track.” (Backbone Campaign / CC BY 2.0)

In Ralph Nader’s recent book, “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State,” the longtime labor- and consumer-rights activist predicts that shared agendas will forge new alliances between liberals and conservatives that could defeat crony corporatism.

 

An upcoming congressional vote on whether to give President Obama the power to secretly negotiate controversial international trade deals may have the potential to prove Nader right.

Obama has asked Congress to grant him trade promotion authority—also called “fast track”—over two deals. One of them, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, would be with a group of 11 other nations; the other, called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, would be with the European Union. The authority would allow him to negotiate and finalize the pacts without giving congressional lawmakers any input.

 

In fact, the specific provisions will not be revealed until after lawmakers have already voted on fast track. In addition, if the authority is granted, debate would be very limited, and members of Congress would not be able to amend the agreements; they could only vote yes or no on them.

Consequently, the fast track proposal is being opposed on both ends of the political spectrum—for different reasons.

 

For some on the left, the agreements themselves would “mean fewer jobs, lower wages and a declining middle class,” according to a letter signed by more than 60 labor unions, including United Steelworkers, the American Federation of Teachers and other members members of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win coalitions.

 

In an interview in January—aired on my radio show, “Connect the Dots,” on Progressive Radio Network—William Waren, a trade policy analyst at the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth, told me that the deals would supersede local, state and national regulations that protect health, food and the environment.

 

They would establish “a set of international rules that really work as what I would call a constitution for the world economy,” he said, “because what they do is limit the capacity of government to be proactive to deal with health problems, environmental problems or a whole variety of things.”

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