President Obama has confirmed again that he intends to use Fast Track provisions to force a vote in Congress on TPP late this year, after the election, but before the new Congress begins in January. Many of the members of Congress will not be returning in January, so conventional wisdom makes those members and their colleagues more persuadable during the lame duck session that normally ends right before Christmas.

Not only is TPP potentially the largest multilateral agreement ever, it is also forever. The incoming president and Congress and all of their successors cannot ever change a single word unless all 12 nations agree. Amazingly, we are being set up for a vote on TPP at a time when most Americans have shut down on politics, but also a time when corporate lobbyists will be fighting fiercely for adoption.

Iowa CCI Action has been sounding the alarm on TPP for years. Once again, Iowa family farmers will get a back seat compared with pesticide giants. Once again environmental issues will be subject to corporate lawsuits governed by ISDS if Iowa or the U.S. or any nation raises its environmental standards and a foreign corporation can claim that their future profits are hurt. For example, Trans Canada is suing the U.S. for $15 billion for denying the permits for the Keystone Pipeline and using the ISDS provisions of NAFTA to trigger the secret tribunal process that is above our own courts.

When Iowa CCI Action convenes its convention on Aug. 20 in Des Moines, we cannot simply focus on politics as usual, or the dangers of Donald Trump. We need to focus on the dangers of the TPP and the enormous coalition of the White House, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the thousands of corporate lobbyists that profit by politics as usual in Washington, D.C. As we organize for election day on Nov. 8, we need to mobilize Americans across the political spectrum to Stand Up and Fight Back to defeat the TPP and continue the political revolution that Iowa helped start.

Larry Cohen is the political director of Our Revolution, a successor organization to Bernie 2016. He is also the chair of the Democracy Initiative and the immediate past president of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America. Contact: lcohen@cwa-union.org

People-Powered Politics

Larry Cohen will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa CCI Action Fund “People-Powered Politics” convention, Aug. 20 in Des Moines. The event will be held at First Christian Church and run from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information or to register, call 515.255.0800 or go to www.cciaction.org

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2016/08/14/political-revolution-can-stop-trans-pacific-partnership/88622710/