by Meredith M. Griffith

Staff reporter

“No TPP! No TPP!” The chant began; a banner was unfurled; and history was made as Bernie Sanders delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia voiced their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a symbol of everything the Bernie Sanders campaign stood for.

Orcas Food Co-op manager and Sanders DNC Platform Committee Member Learner Limbach helped organize the protest and raised his voice with the others at the July 25-29 convention.

“Our first choice would have been to do a minority report, with the whole convention participating, and actually vote on the issue, but that wasn’t allowed to happen, so that was our only way to draw attention to the issue,” said Limbach. “The DNC and the two campaigns had really reduced the convention down to a two-day scripted event; the only thing was, the delegates were to cast their vote for their presidential nominee.”

Limbach initially hoped to obtain permission for delegates to engage in a 10-minute pro and con debate on the TPP, but prior to the convention the Rules Committee passed an amendment saying that no amendment or resolutions could be voted on from the floor of the convention. So instead, Limbach worked with organizers and activists including Lauren Steiner (CA), Jeff Engels (WA), Rand Wilson (MA), John Laesch (IL) and others to plan an action on the floor of the convention. They planned to begin the protest as soon as the word “platform” was mentioned on stage, and it just happened to be Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) who unwittingly set off the demonstration.

“It was highly successful, and I felt we really made it clear at the convention that opposing the TPP was our number one issue,” said Limbach.

The TPP is a trade agreement among a dozen Pacific nations, including the United States. The TPP affects regulatory standards ranging from prescription drug prices to greenhouse gas emissions, and is seen by many as an expansion of corporate influence over both national and international policy decisions. Critics that claim the trade agreement removes jobs from U.S. soil to foreign countries; lowers wages for workers in the U.S.; threatens food safety; and more.

“In a nutshell, the TPP is good for large, multinational corporations,” says Limbach. “It is not good for working families, and it’s also not good for the environment. It takes power away from the people and puts it in the hands of corporations.”

While Limbach’s number one goal at the convention was to draw attention and opposition to the TPP, his overarching aim was to continue furthering the Sanders platform of power to the people.

“It felt like there were two parties within the convention; it was that divided,” he said. “It felt like two different parties with two different goals. Because we weren’t given any opportunity to debate issues on the floor, our number one goal became to make our voices heard and the American’ people’s voices heard on some of the main issues of the Bernie Sanders movement.”

Prior to the convention, Limbach helped hammer out the party’s platform as part of the Democratic National Convention Platform Standing Committee which convened in Orlando, FL from July 8-10. While there, he spoke up in support of small farmers and described the nation’s current situation as an “agricultural crisis,” saying that the average age of farmers is now 58, the highest it has ever been, and many will be retiring over the next 20 years. When they do, their farmland will change hands, and there’s a real risk the land will be lost to developers or swallowed up by large agribusiness and factory farms.

Due to inequitable federal farm subsidies, Limbach said, “It’s not a free market economy – the largest 32 percent of farms receive 100 percent of all farm subsidies; the other 68 percent receive zero. It’s not balanced, and we want to level the playing field. The system has favored larger and larger farms that are more reliant on mechanization, chemicals, monoculture, all destructive to the environment.”

As for climate change, Limbach said, “The conversation is always about switching from fossil fuels to clean energy – agriculture has been left out of that conversation, but ag lands account for nearly half of all the land in the US.”

Limbach was happy to announce that the Platform Committee agreed to adopt one of his amendments which read: “Agricultural lands account for nearly half of the total land area in the US and our agricultural practices have a significant impact on our water, land, oceans, and the climate. Therefore we believe that in order to be effective in keeping our air and water clean and combating climate change we must enlist farmers as partners in promoting conservation and stewardship.”

Once the platform work was done, it was time to look toward the actual convention in Philadelphia.

Limbach said the amount of preparation for the convention was overwhelming, as the delegates connected with each other, raised support for travel costs and discussed strategies and logistics.

Then came discouraging news.

“Bernie endorsing Hillary just before convention – it was really deflating,” said Limbach. “We didn’t know what to make of it. It took the wind out of our sails, and we had moments of, just, ‘Why are we raising all this money?’ But we did regroup. Rather than just being deflated and letting that ruin our experience, we found things that we could get excited about fighting for.”

On the second day of the convention Limbach joined Sanders delegates as they walked out of the convention following the roll call vote making Hillary Clinton’s nomination official; he said nearly all Sanders delegates walked out but their empty seats were soon filled by Clinton supporters allowed in to keep the lower level from looking conspicuously sparse. The walkout was partly a statement by Sanders delegates that they would not fall in line and also in protest to the unfair bias displayed by the media and the DNC throughout the Primary.

Despite the divide in interests, Limbach believes he can best effect change by staying with the Democratic Party and working to push key issues from the inside.

Limbach says he’s determined to continue helping bring about a government that represents the people, not corporations and big money interests.

“All those issues are issues that we feel are representative of what people want and need,” he says. “That’s what we’re fighting for, and that’s what we’ll keep fighting for regardless of who the nominee is.”