Fighting a Trade Agreement That Would Change Everything
Join the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office and the Left Labor Project to welcome Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament from Germany’s Left Party and member of the Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. Scholz, who leads the European United Left group’s work on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, will provide a critical left-wing view on TTIP and other recent developments in the European Union. How are activists on both sides of the Atlantic joining together to stop this trade leviathan?
The Transatlantic Free Trade and Investment Partnership, between the United States and the European Union, would be the largest trade agreement in history if successfully implemented. Currently being negotiated in secret, the agreement threatens to undermine democratic values and human rights. Leaked drafts would grant unprecedented rights to corporations to sue governments that attempt to protect and operate on behalf of the democratic will of their own citizens. The agreement would also introduce lowest-common-denominator barriers that lessen protections around some of our most prized social standards and environmental regulations, such as labor rights, food safety rules, regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, digital privacy laws, and even new banking safeguards introduced to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
Helmut Scholz is a politician with Germany’s Left Party (Die Linke) and since 2009 a member of the European Parliament, where he works with the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL). In the European Parliament he serves as a member of the Committee on International Trade and substitute member of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Affairs. Scholz also serves as Vice Chairman of the delegation of the Left Party in the European Parliament and coordinator of the Left Group in the European Parliament for international trade policy. One of his main working topics is the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, for which he is in charge of negotiations on behalf of the GUE/NGL faction, which is focused on labor rights.
For more on TTIP, you can also check out these recent publications:
TPP AND TTIP: PARTNERS IN CRIME
Fighting the Corporate “Trade” Agenda in the United States – by Mike Dolan
ANALYZING TAFTA/TTIP
A Charter for Deregulation, an Attack on Jobs, an End to Democracy – by John Hilary
THE EUROPEAN LEFT VERSUS TTIP
Fighting a Trade Agreement That Would Change Everything
Tuesday, April 7, 5:00pm
CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress
61 Broadway, 15th floor
