VIDEO: Tom Morello, Evangeline Lilly, Anti-Flag + other celebrities Rock Against the TPP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2016
Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Organizers of nationwide tour opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership release new video featuring performances and interviews with high-profile artists opposing unpopular “trade” deal

On the heels of the Republican and Democratic national conventions where the unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was a hot and contentious issue, organizers of the nationwide Rock Against the TPP tour have released a video featuring footage from the roadshow’s kick-off event in Denver, with interviews from notable artists including legendary guitarist Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Prophets of Rage, Audioslave), Golden Globe nominated actress Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man), and popular punk band Anti-Flag.

See the short, 3:30 video here: https://youtu.be/kA9nIeVvcMw

The video also features high energy performances from the Flobots, Downtown Boys, Taina Asili, Evan Greer, Lia Rose, Ryan Harvey, and Son of Nun. Upcoming stops on the tour feature hip hop icon Talib Kweli, songwriter Jolie Holland, and Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba.The next stop is this Saturday, July 30th, in San Diego. Details here.

In the video Tom Morello says, “The small Illinois town that the Morellos hail from, Marseilles, Illinois, was horribly affected by previous trade agreements like NAFTA. It used to be a thriving Mayberry-like town with factories all around. Now all the factories are boarded up – people have to choose between working at Wal-Mart or going into the army. Those jobs have all gone overseas where people now work in sweatshops at, you know, subhuman wages in environmental conditions that are awful, all because of these previous trade agreements. We’re using our guitars, our drums, our basses, our microphones our turntables, our voices, to help inform people about the TPP, so that they can stop it.”

Evangeline Lilly says, “It’s been … proven with conservatives and liberals that once people know about the TPP, they don’t like it. Canada’s democracy has been crumbling because of trade deals like the TPP. I’m standing on the other side of this, warning Americans: be smarter. Please, please, be smarter than we were on the other side of the border.”

Justin Sane, frontman of Anti-Flag, says, “We are against the TPP. It was negotiated in secret by corporate lawyers and lobbyists, and to me that is the antithesis of democracy.”

Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future and lead organizer of the tour, said,“This entire effort would not have happened without the free and open Internet. That’s why Fight for the Future has been so involved in this effort, we’re trying to protect this powerful platform that allows us to bring people together.”

The Rock Against the TPP tour features a series of large-scale concert, protest, and teach-in events designed to sound the alarm about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has little to do with trade but grants multinational corporations extraordinary new powers to circumvent democratic process and threaten good jobs, Internet freedom, food safety, the environment, access to medicine, and more.

The tour is organized by Fight for the Future and Firebrand Records, with support from Backbone Campaign, Citizens Trade Campaign, Communications Workers of America, CREDO, Demand Progress, Friends of the Earth, the International Labor Rights Forum, Private Internet Access, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, SumOfUs, and the Teamsters.

See a full lineup and list of upcoming dates here: https://www.rockagainstthetpp.org

More dates to be announced soon.

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