For Immediate Release

Thursday, September 13

CONTACT

Laurel Sutherlin 415.246.0161 laurel@ran.org

Kerul Dyer,415-866-0005, kdyer@ran.org

BREAKING NEWS:

Pocahontas Star Joins Growing Movement to Expose Secretive Trade Meetings, Delivers 300,000 Signatures

Actress Kilcher joins Rainforest Action Network and Avaaz to tell trade negotiators: “The world is watching”

Interviews and High Resolution Images

Actual petition numbers continue to grow and are available at avaaz.org.

Lansdowne, VA – Actress and activist Q’orianka Kilcher, famous for her role as Pocahontas in The Lost World joined Rainforest Action Network and Avaaz today to deliver petitions signed by 360,000 people opposed to the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)trade agreement. TPP negotiators have received widespread criticism for their secrecy around the trade talks, as even high-ranking members of Congress have not seen a draft of the agreement.

“The world is watching the Trans-Pacific Partnership today. At a time when people from around the world are struggling for more democracy and corporate accountability the fact that these trade talks are being held in absolute secrecy is a disgrace. We have a right to know what’s being negotiated in our names,” said actress and activist Q’orianka Kilcher.

Kilcher continued: “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate power grab trying to be slipped in under the disguise of a trade agreement. I feel that it is absolutely essential that the American people and youth are educated on what’s at stake and what is being negotiated behind closed doors. We will all inherit whatever decisions are being made here today.”

The petition drop-off follows a week of broad-spectrum protests designed to highlight the agreement, including a bold tri-pod blockade action at the entrance to the exclusive resort hosting the talks. Last Sunday, over fifty organizations joined a large rally where speakers pressed on issues rangingfrom sovereignty and workers rights to rainforest protection, and from healthcare to food security. After three years of negotiations and after 600 corporate advisors accessing the text, only two chapters are publically available-- and only after being published on wikileaks.org.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership would enshrine new rights and privileges for transnational corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them,” said Laurel Sutherlin of the Rainforest Action Network. “This trade agreement essentially proposes to establish a parallel system of justice where companies can sue countries in a tribunal of judges composed of unaccountable international trade lawyers with little to no process for appeal; protecting the corporate right to profit at the expense of our democracy, our environment and every day workers.”

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