The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is a free trade and investment treaty currently being negotiated in secret between the European Union and the USA, which aims to remove regulatory 'barriers' which restrict the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic.
TTIP, if implemented, will give transnational companies the right to bid for all government spending, including on health, and will change the whole emphasis of NHS health care from patient priority to the rights of transnational organisations.
The treaty will also give corporations the right to claim massive compensation if the government introduces initiatives that could potentially reduce transnationals' future profits. It will also make it virtually impossible for governments of the future to reverse the privatisation of the NHS even if this proves to be a disaster.
TTIP will also affect environmental regulations, workers' rights, food safety rules (including restrictions on GMOs), regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, digital privacy laws and even new banking safeguards introduced to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
TTIP is huge, and today, condemnation of it was apparent with over four hundred events going off worldwide. In Manchester this afternoon there was an anti-TTIP happening in Albert Square, and in Salford this morning TUSC had its own event outside Salford Royal Hospital to draw attention to possible TTIP effects on the NHS.
"It's full steam ahead with privatisation and as the working classes we have to come together globally and defeat this" said Eric Thorpe, who is standing as a TUSC candidate in Irlam "Salford Royal is in the same position, the health service is very much part of it but it's capitalism that's the problem."
`Save Our NHS' leaflets were handed out to hospital staff, while passing cars beeped their horns in support.
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