In Belgium, protesters opposed to austerity and so-called free trade shut down traffic in parts of Brussels on the opening day of the European Union summit Thursday. Some 10,000 protesters took to the streets to oppose secretive negotiations for a massive trade deal between the United States and Europe, which they say would favor corporations and undermine protections, from food safety to workers’ rights. Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory spoke at Thursday’s action.
Pascoe Sabido: “So, we’re here today to block the EU summit, where our so-called leaders are meeting, to make sure that two treaties — the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the free trade deal with the U.S., as well as the TSCG, which is basically a treaty of austerity — make sure they don’t go forward and to make sure that actually our voices here in the streets, across society, are not just listened to, but make sure we’re not complicit in this. So we’re here to say, ‘No, this will not happen, and enough is enough.’ And we’re going to try and build a Europe from below.”
