Rock Against the TPP Celebrity Concert Tour Draws Large Crowds in Seattle and Portland

Northwest protests the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Downtown Boys at Rock Against the TPP Portland, Director Park Photo: Courtesy Fight for the Future

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - As the White House readies a final desperate push for the unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, large crowds turned out for “Rock Against the TPP” events in Seattle and Portland.

The events were held over the weekend as part of a nationwide protest tour featuring high profile celebrities including actress Evangeline Lilly, hip hop icon Talib Kweli, comedian Hari Kondabolu, and punk band Anti-Flag.

Officially, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries. The TPP writes the rules for global trade, and advocates say the rules will help increase Made-in-America exports and grow the American economy.

Opponents call the TPP "a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement."

The final proposal was signed in February 2016 after 7 years of negotiations, and is currently awaiting ratification to go into force. The deal has to be ratified by February 2018.

TV’s Adult Swim comedian Eric Andre made a surprise appearance at the Seattle event at Showbox SoDo, while the outdoor Portland event featured a street march with an inflatable TPP “death star”.

Both events also featured teach-ins hosted by Golden Globe nominated actress Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man), and a panel of local experts. The Northwest dates follow previous successful tour stops in Denver and San Diego.

Organized by legendary guitarist Tom Morello (Prophets of Rage, Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), his new label, Firebrand Records and digital rights group Fight for the Future, the tour is sponsored by Backbone Campaign, Citizens Trade Campaign, Communications Workers of America (CWA), CREDO, Demand Progress, Friends of the Earth, the International Labor Rights Forum, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, SumOfUs, the Teamsters, United Steelworkers.

The Northwest events were organized with support from the Washington Fair Trade Coalition and Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.

In addition to the large concert events and teach-ins, the tour has brought creative protests directly to lawmakers by flying a 25 foot blimp over Congressional offices along the tour route.

So far the blimp has been sited outside the offices of Rep Scott Peters’ office in San Diego and Rep Ami Bera’s office in Sacramento.

The tour stops next in San Francisco on September 9th at Regency Ballroom with an event featuring punk legend Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Grammy winning latin alternative band La Santa Cecilia, and riot-grrrl cello legend Bonfire Madigan.

Additional tour dates are to be announced. For more information see https://www.rockagainstthetpp.org