Video: I Speak to RT about the Dangers of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) + My Photos of the London Protest
12.10.14
See the video below and see my photos on Flickr here.
On Saturday October 11, 2014, I attended a protest in Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a dangerous new EU-US trade deal, which, if passed, as the organisers of the London event explained, “would grant corporations the power to sue governments, threatening to lock-in the privatisation of our schools and NHS. Rules that protect workers, the environment, food safety, digital rights and privacy would be undermined, with harmful industries like fracking encouraged.” My article published just before the protest is here.
The London event was part of a day of action across Europe and the UK, and the events across all the countries were attended by a significant number of people, although only a few hundred people attended the London event, sharing Parliament Square with Kurdish campaigners.
I was delighted to speak to RT’s Harry Fear in Parliament Square for a televised broadcast, which is available below, and if you like it I hope you share it.
As I explained to RT, the defenders of TTIP try to assure us that we have nothing to worry about, but as these are essentially the same people who, for 30 years, have been transferring power to corporations and banks at the expense of the people — and from hugely important public services like the NHS — it is foolish for anyone to think that they have our best interests at heart.
Never underestimate the greed — and the disdain for the general public — that motivate those who would stand above us, and who regard themselves as superior. The purpose of so-called “liberalising” trade agreements, after all, is to liberalise profiteering for the few, while eroding workers’ rights.
I hope, in the months to come, that more people see through the lies, and, in England in particular, will not continue to be taken in by the lies peddled by the corrupt media’s latest darlings, UKIP, and their leader, Nigel Farage, who is very much part of the problem and not the solution he pretends to be when he’s seen, as he is so often, propping up a bar somewhere. As a former international commodities trader, it is obvious where Farage’s real sympathies lie — with those in power, and not with the people. Like TTIP, he and his party of bigots should be shunned.
A link to the photos is also below:
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer and film-maker. He is the co-founder of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).
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22 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted the Flickr photos on Facebook last night, I wrote:
Here are the photos I took at the London protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a dangerous new EU-US trade deal, which, campaigners fear, will give corporations far too much unaccountable power – and with good reason, given the extent to which power has been handed to corporations and banks by politicians over the last 30 years.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Rahela Bint Jahir wrote:
True
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for the thumbs-up, Rahela. Good to hear from you.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Zarina Bhatia wrote:
Heaven help us, we want to get off from their world of destruction and massacres of masses by their war machines.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:58 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Zarina. Yes, and their corporate agenda, selling us things we don’t need 24/7, and privatising everything that is publicly owned and for the public good. Our leaders – and the overbearingly powerful corporations and banks they pimp for – are out of control.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Zarina Bhatia wrote:
Taking away our NHS we had for decades now in doldrums because of their greed for wealth and filling up their big bursting pot bellies!
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Very well put, Zarina!
...on October 12th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Eric Schwing wrote:
The Western/U.S. Fascist elites for Fascist Trade treaties HAVE TO HIDE THEIR TOTALITARIANISM from social classes opposing their class slavery.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:00 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Eric. Yes, they were operating in almost complete secrecy until people started noticing and calling attention to their scheming. As ever, everything is for profit, nothing for the common good.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:00 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Eric Schwing wrote:
Notice, the inversion of words and meanings, truly Orwellian, where expanded “liberalized” trade, means expanded monopoly class power and class slavery, is falsely conflated with social values. Monopoly, class power is not a social, “liberal” outcome, except as a class deformed definition where liberalism has meant appeasement of class slavery and even corporate fascism.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I can’t tell you how sickened I am on a permanent basis, Eric, by the way the PR and advertising people lie to us incessantly on behalf of their masters.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Aleksey Penskiy wrote:
Hi! Andy, I support your struggle against the corporations and want to invite you into their group against privatization in Russia. – https://www.facebook.com/groups/262605100465778/
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Aleksey. Great to hear from you – and thanks for the link.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:02 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I also posted the following video of Stewart Lee on Facebook, and thought I’d re-post it here, as I mention UKIP in the article above: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23yv5y_stewart-lee-on-immigration-paul-nuttall-and-ukip_fun
And here’s what I wrote:
To mark the election of UKIP’s first MP, here’s Stewart Lee’s brilliant put-down of UKIP’s racism and xenophobia. Sadly, Lee alone hasn’t been able to combat the sustained effort by all the mainstream media in this country to make UKIP seem credible rather than showing them up for what they are – a sad sack of right-wing bigots stuffed full of Little Englander prejudices and intolerance. Disgracefully, the mainstream media have given Nigel Farage more airtime than almost any other politician, and you could have been forgiven for thinking that he was actually the Prime Minister the way the media have been fawning over him rather than exposing him as the poisonous windbag he is, who only got his first MP elected yesterday.
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:07 pm
Andy Worthington says...
And some photos too.
From Ruth Gilburt, mostly of me with Harry Fear: https://www.facebook.com/andyworthingtonUK/timeline/story?ut=60&wstart=0&wend=1414825199&hash=-6708356343518413836&pagefilter=3
And one of me and Ruth from Cathy Teesdale: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152597404474213&set=p.10152597404474213&type=1&theater
...on October 12th, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Dame-Fiona Han wrote:
The TTIP and TPP economic mechanisms that see the rest of the world subsidising cheap goods for the USA. Good for them, bad for the rest of us.
...on October 13th, 2014 at 12:30 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Dame-Fiona, for the comments. Good to hear from you. It’s odd to me that every country seems to need protectionism but no one is doing anything about it, because across the political spectrum “free trade” is sacred. And that free trade? Well, it enables, as you say, Western countries to swamp poorer countries with their own goods in a skewed market. Personally, I’d like to see a return to forms of protectionism because the outsourced manufacturing that has been the profiteers’ mania since the late 80s only increases unemployment – or, at best, badly paid McJobs, with zero hours contracts and no prospect of career advancement – in our own countries, but as I say, no one in politics seems to care. They have all betrayed us, and while we’re on the topic, the people of Britain need to know that they will literally drop dead if they hold their breaths waiting for UKIP to do something about it! They’re every much part of the same problem …
...on October 13th, 2014 at 12:31 am
Andy Worthington says...
Dame-Fiona Han wrote:
When the problem is seen for what it is, makes me wonder why so few seem to GAF. Keep up the good work Andy, we’re not all as vocal as you, but we’re with you all the way.
...on October 13th, 2014 at 9:05 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Dame-Fiona. Your encouragement is very much appreciated.
...on October 13th, 2014 at 9:06 am
Andy Worthington says...
Willy Bach wrote:
Andy, thanks. As you know I am living in G20 City, Brisbane, Australia. We have the same phenomenon to contend with. Your video is a warning to Australians. Secret deals to undermine our democracy and devalue our health services and jobs – yes, the same issues. Shared.
...on October 14th, 2014 at 5:49 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for sharing, Willy. Good to hear from you. Yes, we are all in it together, to paraphrase David Cameron’s lies about austerity – except that what we’re all facing, from London to Brisbane, is, as you say, “secret deals to undermine our democracy and devalue our health services and jobs.” And everywhere, politicians who believe in the people, who believe in socialism, have been wiped out, leaving the thieves in charge to congratulate themselves and to claim that unfettered capitalism is the only way forward. It may be the only game in town, but it’s not a success story for anyone except the 1%. For the rest of us it’s a nightmare that gets worse and worse the longer it continues.
...on October 14th, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Here’s more of me on TTIP, as well as Guantanamo, on a radio show with Richie Allen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m19QcurrRkE
...on October 14th, 2014 at 5:55 pm