Discussion · bonfire.cafe

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 2 hours ago

The secrecy surrounding negotiations is one of many reasons opponents have always called FTAs antidemocratic. They're negotiated in secret by trade delegations from participating countries, and the public only knows what's in them after they're signed.

I was part of the PublicACTA meeting that drafted the Wellington Declaration against ACTA;

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/acta/why-acta-declaration

The only reason we had a copy of the ACTA draft is that it had been leaked by a member of 1 of the delegations.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 3 hours ago

NZ has signed up to dozens of these FTAs (Feudal Tyrant Appeasements) over the last few decades, under both blue and red governments. Most recently the TPP under the Ardern government. With full support from Dogwhistle Peters, Shame Jones and Winston First, I might add.

Over the same period, both objective poverty *and* inequality have consistently increased in Aotearoa. If these FTAs had any capacity to improve life fot ordinary kiwis, we would have seen some by now.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 3 hours ago

I want to clarify that my longstanding objections to FTAs - unlike Winston First's road to Damascus (re-)conversion post-2018 -, have nothing to do with the cynical FUD that WF are spreading about immigration. In a world trade system where jobs can be arbitrarily moved from country to country, I absolutely support treaties that allow workers to migrate freely between those countries (like the freedom of travel between EU countries).

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 3 hours ago

There are sound political-economic reasons to object to FTAs. We don't need to invent racist ones. A political party would only do that (in an election year no less) to cynically bait electoral hooks with people's racism. This is who Winston First are in their current incarnation.

Which is why it's so deeply disappointing that Labour refuse to rule out a coalition with them, so people wanting a change of govt know that salivating when the redneck bell is rung won't get it for them.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · 3 hours ago

If you want good reasons for the left to keep fighting FTAs - as we have since the 1990s - just ask Te Pāti Māori;

"We haven't had an FTA that has a strong Treaty clause in it yet - that protects Māori interest, that protects Aotearoa's interests ... Tiriti o Waitangi is not just for Māori benefit, it also benefits the whole of Aotearoa to ensure that we're not subject to international and corporate exploitation."

#RawiriWaititi, 2025

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/582598/labour-greens-in-the-hot-seat-over-india-free-trade-agreement

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#TeTiritiOWaitangi #FTA

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