This week, leaders of twelve pacific rim countries signed the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in the Sky City Casino in Auckland, New Zealand amid mass protests.  Thousands of people turned up early in the morning to shut down major intersections and a bridge in the Central Business District. In the evening, tens of thousands marched through the city.

There were also protests throughout the United States and in five other TPP countries (see reports here). Popular Resistance and allies kicked off the actions with a ‘TPP is Betrayal‘ protest in front of the White House. What began as a call in the US for nationwide actions around the signing spread through social media to become international. Anti-TPP activists in the US connected with activists in other countries and worked together to amplify the actions. Following the signing, a dominant theme in the media was the opposition to the TPP.

Global Solidarity is Possible

A key ingredient of previous successful campaigns to stop ‘free trade’ agreements is cross-border solidarity. Uniting struggles globally, as well as locally, is critical for other issues as well. Via Campesina, a movement started by peasants in 1993, has grown to become a global movement that recognizes the intersectionality between food security, land rights, the climate crisis and transnational corporate power. They work together to both resist harmful policies and to create necessary alternatives by organizing seed exchanges and impacting public policy.

Similarly, global solidarity is increasing around the climate crisis. Following on the networking and collaboration of climate justice activists in Paris last December, there will be a week of global actions to break free of fossil fuels in May. Locally, activists will hold an action camp in Cove Point, Maryland to bring together people whose fights against fracking, compressor stations and pipelines (and allies) are connected to the gas refinery and export terminal being built in Southern Maryland. Support is needed for local activists who are being intimidated by county sheriffs who are paid by the gas company, Dominion Resources.

Throughout history transformational global moments have occurred, e.g. to end serfdom, end monarchy, populism against banks, ending colonialism; we are once again in a global moment and the internet and social media are new powerful tools that allow us to easily communicate and form relationships with people around the world. Jeremy Gilbert encourages us to embrace the technology available to us and use it for social change. He presents the idea of “potent collectivities”, which are “groups on various scales that are capable of making some shared decisions and acting on them in ways that change something”, and says that the internet is a powerful tool for enabling them.