TTIP: MEPs vote on the deal

Yesterday, MEPs voted on TTIP in the European Parliament, and the vote didn’t go the right way. This gives the green light to TTIP officials to keep negotiating.

The people behind TTIP want this deal done by the end of the year. So it’s time to up our fight: we just can’t give up now.

Please will you consider chipping in a few pounds each month for the rest of 2015 to make sure we can throw the kitchen sink at stopping TTIP? Please click here to set up a direct debit:

We know exactly what the corporate lobbyists writing this deal want: they want us to go quiet. But together, 38 Degrees members are making life difficult for them. We’re kicking up an absolute storm about TTIP.

And it looks like lots of our own MEPs stood strong and voted against the deal. That’s a great sign of how far we’ve come – and it proves that we’ve got it in us to win this.

So what’s next? There’s still so much to do. Here are some suggestions from other 38 Degrees members about what’s needed next:

• Another huge national day of action. Enormous public pressure has been a huge factor in causing chaos around TTIP so far. We know that as soon as people get the facts, outrage follows. The more people that know, the more worried decision makers will be.
• Commission an expert report on TTIP, to throw in the face of anyone who says this dodgy and dangerous deal is a good idea. It’d give us a valuable chance at media coverage, and we can take out adverts in newspapers and online to expose the findings.
• Meet face-to-face with all of our MPs to ask them directly where they stand on TTIP, and what they’ll do to represent the British public’s opposition. That’s over 650 meetings to get going with! For lots of new MPs, this will be their first meeting with 38 Degrees members, so what better place than to start with one of our top issues?
• Get ready for MEPs to come back from their summer holidays and be ready to pile the pressure on them again. As soon as they’re back, they need to be reminded about TTIP. We need to make sure that whenever the next vote is, we’re ready to step in.

To be honest, this is probably one of the hardest issues 38 Degrees members have ever taken on. Many people hear “trade deal” and their eyes glaze over. The acronyms and figures that fly out of the mouths of TTIP officials are designed to get people to switch off.

But when people like us hear what’s going on and choose to stand up, that changes everything. TTIP has gone from zero public awareness to huge public outrage. There’s plenty more we can do together to stop this awful deal.

Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve already achieved together:

• We’ve exposed TTIP to the public through two national days of action. More than 100,000 members of 38 Degrees have taken to the streets in nearly 600 high streets and town centres nationwide to spread the word about the dangerous deal.
• We’ve added pressure to decision makers in Europe. More than 100,000 of us have signed the Europe-wide petition against TTIP. In total, it’s got over 2.3 million signatures! 
• We’ve ensured our politicians in Europe – our MEPs – have felt the heat around important votes. Hundreds of thousands of us have emailed, called and tweeted our MEPs.Because of us, over half of all UK MEPs are now against huge parts of TTIP. This is a massive change from just a few months ago. 
• We’ve exposed TTIP in the media: more and more, this shady deal is being reported about in national and local press. That’s in huge part thanks to 38 Degrees members all over the UK writing to their papers.

We’ve come a long way, but there are still setbacks like yesterday’s vote. Let’s throw all we’ve got at stopping TTIP this summer. Please click here to chip in a few pounds a week in the fight to stop TTIP: