TTIP: people-power is working!

38 Degrees members have helped plunge a dangerous trade deal – called TTIP – into chaos. You might not have heard of TTIP before – if it gets going it could let corporations sue the government, and would mean more private companies making a profit from our NHS. In other words, the deal would mean more profit for a few people, less access to public services and democracy for the rest of us.

Yesterday, we saw a huge sign that our campaign against the deal is working. Our politicians in Europe – our MEPs – were meant to have a series of votes on the deal. But after never-before-seen levels of pressure on MEPs from members of the public across Europe, politicians behind the deal were so worried about losing the votes that they cancelled them! That’s unheard of.

MEPs aren’t used to being put under so much pressure from their voters, and it worked.

But what next? The fight’s not over; powerful politicians want this deal to happen. On Monday, a committee of MEPs will meet to decide what happens to some of the most controversial parts of the deal. So now is the time to ramp up the pressure.

Will you join the campaign? Click here if you want to help stop TTIP.

MEPs from across the spectrum have spoken out about the impact of people like us. Here’s what Green MEP Keith Taylor had to say: “The decision to cancel the vote on TTIP stinks of political parties in the European Parliament running scared of the huge public opposition to TTIP.”

And UKIP MEP Nigel Farage said: “In my 17 years as an MEP I’ve never received so much communication from the public on a proposed piece of legislation…They have bombarded their MEPs with phone calls, letters and emails and in response to this the EU is now running scared.”

Wow!

But some MEPs will be breathing a sigh of relief right now – thinking they’ve got more time to get their colleagues on side and pass TTIP quietly. And you can bet the corporate lobbyists will be pulling out all the stops to get support for a deal that puts their profits above ordinary people.

So we need to take a deep breath and jump back in – quickly.