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December 20, 2013

Thousands March Against Free Trade, Austerity on 1st Day of EU Summit 
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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 are 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 are not complicit in this. So we are here to say, 'No,
this will not happen, enough is enough,' and we are going to try and
build a Europe from below."