A handful of protesters gathered this Saturday at Place Garibaldi, at the initiative of the Stop TAFTA and CETA collective, on the occasion of the international day of protest against this treaty between Europe and the United States and Europe and Canada.
For the protesters, the mobilizations are intensifying to denounce the free trade and investment agreements, which they consider to favor multinational corporations.
According to them, the Stop TAFTA campaign has shed light on these proposed agreements and opened a public debate on the subject, leading to the creation of thousands of local collectives, an increase in public debates and actions, with 1.6 million signatories of the self-organized Citizen Initiative and more than 300 local communities in France declaring themselves “TAFTA-free.”
The negotiations, which have been ongoing for quite some time due to important and complex issues, will resume on Monday in New York. Their content is kept carefully secret because of the potential impact such information could have on the concerned economic sectors and societies.
The “Basta” TAFTA associations are thus demanding transparency in these negotiations and to be included in the process.
In this case, we would move from representative democracy (where the elected represents the citizens) to substitutive democracy (where citizens manage directly).
A step forward or merely a power juggling act?
