Warren’s anti-Pacific trade pact speech shows party division at California convention

For a few hours on Saturday morning, a convention center near Disneyland became the hub of opposition to President Barack Obama’s authority to negotiate a trans-Pacific trade deal.

Outside the Anaheim Convention Center, union members demonstrated against the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Inside, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., rallied California Democratic Party activists with a speech that criticized the trade deal as a gift to corporations.

The annual convention of California’s dominant party revealed rifts in the Democratic base, as many activists parted ways with Obama over the trade pact. The party is on record opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Many of the same activists said they would prefer a progressive candidate like Warren to challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton has not expressed a definitive position on the trade deal.

“Of all the candidates running, Elizabeth Warren is the only one I have any faith in,” said Donna Gilmore, of San Clemente, who said she expects Warren to seek the nomination even though the Massachusetts senator has said she’s not interested. “This should not be a secret. Obama is saying it will be better for us. I voted for Obama but that doesn’t mean I take everything he says on blind faith.”

Warren devoted only three sentences of her 15-minute address to the trade deal. That part of her speech drew the loudest applause.

“Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to dominate secret trade negotiations,” she said. “Before Congress votes on any trade deal, we want to see that trade deal out in public and we’re willing to fight for it.”

On Thursday the Senate voted to proceed on a bill to grant Obama and his successor authority to fast-track trade deals. Obama has said the authority is vital to concluding negotiations on the TPP agreement, which would cover about 40 percent of the world’s commerce.