CREDO teams up with Fight for the Future and Tom Morello to launch “Rock Against the TPP” concert tour

One of the biggest challenges we face in the fight to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is that too many people still don’t know what it is.

That’s a real problem. And that is why, as corporate lobbyists try to quietly rush this “NAFTA on steroids” through Congress, we are ramping up our efforts, joining forces with celebrities and a coalition of progressive groups to mobilize a massive, nationwide concert tour to build opposition to the TPP.

We’re teaming up with our friends at Fight for the Future and legendary guitarist Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Prophets of Rage, and Audioslave) to organize Rock Against the TPP – a nationwide roadshow featuring high profile speakers and performers coming together to educate the public about the grave threat the TPP poses to workers’ rights, the environment, public health, and more.

CREDO members have fought to stop the TPP since day one – and we’ve engaged on all fronts:

• Hundreds of thousands of CREDO activists have signed petitions against the TPP, and against giving President Obama Fast Track authority to push the deal through Congress with a simple up-or-down vote.
• We’ve donated more than $58,000 to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Program, one of the key organizations leading the fight to stop the TPP.
• CREDO activists have made more than 15,000 calls in opposition to Fast Track authority and the TPP to Democratic congressional leadership, which includes over 9,800 calls to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden. CREDO activists have made more than 40,000 total phone calls to members of Congress in opposition to Fast Track in the past two years.
• Last year, CREDO organized a press conference and petition delivery at which more than two million petition signatures were delivered to Congress. More than 1.2 million of the petition signatures were generated by CREDO members. Less than a week later, we organized a rally against Fast Track outside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco office.
• Just this month, more than 40,000 CREDO activists have signed a petition  urging Pelosi to loudly and unequivocally join the overwhelming majority of Americans to oppose any consideration of a lame-duck vote.

The TPP is an unprecedented corporate power grab that lobbyists are looking to pass when members are least accountable to their constituents. It is a legally binding deal between 12 governments, including the U.S., that was negotiated in total secrecy with hundreds of corporate lobbyists helping draft the text. If ratified, it would be the largest backroom deal of its kind in history, and it poses a grave threat to good paying jobs, the environment, internet freedom, food safety, and our basic democratic process.

As Tom Morello says, “Corporate lobbyists want to sneak the TPP through Congress quietly; that means it’s time for us to get loud.”

The Rock Against the TPP tour is kicking off in Denver, CO on Saturday, July 23rd, with an all-star lineup including Tom Morello himself, plus Golden Globe nominated actress Evangeline Lily (Lost, The Hobbit), popular punk band Anti-Flag (acoustic), and the MCs of Denver revolutionary hip-hop outfit Flobots. A diverse coalition of organizations are working together to make this the biggest mobilization against the TPP yet. Stay tuned as we announce more dates soon, and spread the word far and wide!