Democratic Party newcomers organize anti-TPP protest during Obama’s Honolulu appearance
President Obama will make two public appearances on Wednesday, August 31, and anti-TPP activists from within his own political party intend to protest outside of both events. The president will appear first at the Lake Tahoe Summit in California, and second at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s 2016 World Conservation Congress in Honolulu. President Obama will speak at the East-West Center in Mānoa from 5–8 p.m. HST.
The protests are being organized by Bernie Sanders delegates who first met at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia last month. There they protested platform committee co-chair Elijah Cummings’ support on the first day of the convention and President Obama’s support on the third day for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The East-West Center protests will also reflect opposition to U.S. military buildups throughout the Pacific as part of the Obama Administration’s Pacific Pivot.
“The TPP will be devastating for Hawaiʻi’s people and our economy,” said embattled member of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi Chelsea Lyons-Kent, an organizer for the protests. “We’re all very aware how destructive these so-called trade deals can be. NAFTA [the North American Free-Trade Association] has cost the U.S. millions of good-paying jobs that were sent overseas. It has also been a major factor in the shrinking of our middle class. The TPP is NAFTA on steroids. The people of Hawaiʻi cannot afford to have any more jobs disappear overseas.”
Lyons-Kent is under fire from established members of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi after she photobombed an image taken at the DNC that included party bigwigs U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, who opposes the TPP, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, and former Hawaiʻi governor John Waiheʻe.
In the photo, Lyons-Kent can be seen flipping her middle finger. Lyons-Kent has defended the gesture as a legitimate, if ill-advised, protest over the establishment’s support of policies like the TPP and Pacific Pivot in the party platform committee debates, and out of frustration at what newcomers to the party perceive as stonewalling on the part of the establishment. State party officials are now using the photo in an attempt to expel Lyons-Kent from the Democratic Party altogether.
During his primary campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders openly opposed the TPP, saying it represents an evolution, since the NAFTA deal of the mid-‘90s, in lopsided trade deals that benefit major corporate interests and hurt workers, consumers and the environment.
Sanders-selected platform committee members were outspoken opponents of the TPP during platform debates at the DNC, and attempted to include opposition to the deal in the Democratic Party platform, which is updated by delegates at each convention. The attempt was thwarted by Clinton-appointed committee members who said they didn’t want to embarrass President Obama.
After the convention, Sanders delegates formed the TPP Action Network to organize actions against the trade deal.
Both of the major party presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, purport to oppose the TPP. However, Clinton’s chief strategist has said she would not drop the deal, but would rather renegotiate it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel has indicated that he is amenable to passing the TPP with changes during the next administration.
The East-West Center action is being cosponsored by Our Revolution Hawaiʻi, 350.org Hawaiʻi, DeOccupy Honolulu, Idle No More Hawaiʻi and World Can’t Wait.
The Tahoe event will also include a protest message against California Governor Jerry Brown, who has steadfastly refused to ban fracking since activists began petitioning and protesting the energy extraction method four years ago. Fracking has quadrupled under President Obama, causing the U.S. to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s number one producer of oil.
