The last issue of Red Flag described the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" (TPP) that US imperialists hope to build to counter growing Chinese imperialist domination of Asia-Pacific trade. The TPP negotiations reflect the current global capitalist crisis of overproduction, which can ultimately be resolved only by world war.
US rulers have failed to meet their 2013 deadline for a Trans-Pacific Partnership. A document leaked from recent talks in Salt Lake City suggests why: the US refuses to compromise on key matters, like intellectual-property provisions that would give US companies long-term monopolies on medications.
The US also insists on "Investor-State Dispute Settlement" which would give US corporations broad rights to sue other governments whose laws or policies might endanger their profits. For example, tobacco companies threaten to sue over anti-smoking laws. (Huffington Post, 12/08/2013) Given this reality, leading US imperialist pundits are backpedalling. Paul Krugman blogged for the New York Times (12/12/13) that "I haven't seen anything to justify the hype, positive or negative."

"Domestic obstacles may loom larger." —Phil Levy, Foreign Policy (10/16/13)
US capitalists in some sectors (automotive, insurance, agriculture) oppose TPP because they may be hurt by lower tariffs and subsidies. Sixty senators have demanded that TPP address "currency manipulation."
Some "insider" critics want the process improved so that TPP will succeed at least in its core goal, US imperialist dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. Others want to torpedo the treaty. The Obama administration hopes to "Fast- Track" ratification (if an agreement is reached), avoiding public controversies. But this angers members of Congress, who object that "Fast- Track" gives their powers to the Executive Branch.

Ruling-class forces mobilize activists to strengthen their own hands.
The Democratic Party offshoot MoveOn is petitioning Congress "to vote no on fast track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)."
MoveOn builds dangerous nationalism by falsely claiming that "America must reserve the right to determine our own consumer, health, safety, labor, privacy and environmental regulations," as if smaller countries were the main threat. Some complain that TPP is "being secretly negotiated by 600 multinational corporations and industry trade groups." But these capitalists negotiate through the US State Department.
The US government is the organization of the US capitalist class as a whole. Yes, multi-national corporations are trying to squeeze the most out of TPP, and they are our enemies. They strive to undermine food safety, environmental protection, internet freedom, and labor laws. They are driving up drug prices and deregulating banking and finance. But the cause is capitalist crisis, not the TPP. And other, more far-sighted imperialists who try to limit them are not our friends.
We'd better understand that capitalism's global crisis will increasingly disrupt and drive down the most basic conditions of our lives. We must find our friends among the masses, everywhere in the world, for whom communism is the only solution.

Communism: Production for Use, Not for Exchange
We know no borders. Our members and friends in at least ten countries are organized as one International Communist Workers' Party. Whenever and wherever we take power, we'll start building communist society. Borders, nations, and trade agreements will immediately disappear. We will share freely all that we produce with all those in need.
But the whole world won't become communist overnight. Will we negotiate trade agreements with capitalist governments in the meantime? No!
Those governments will try to "strangle the baby in its cradle" as imperialists tried to do with the infant Soviet Union in 1918-20. But when that failed, Soviet leaders in the 1920s sought out trade relations with Britain and other imperialists. They thought foreign trade would give them "legitimacy" and finance industrial growth. That made sense because Soviet socialism was a fundamentally a capitalist system that couldn't possibly have evolved peacefully into communism.
When the US blocked trade with Cuba in 1960, Castro and other leaders thought they had no choice but to become "socialist" and tie Cuba to Russian imperialism instead.

We have learned from the heroic victories and tragic errors of 20th-century communists that our job, now and always, is mobilizing the masses for communism.
That will mean struggling to produce basic necessities like food and shelter locally, in our liberated zones, as we fight off the attacks of capitalist armies. As we grow and consolidate the communist zones, we will share (not "trade") with comrades further away, and eventually worldwide.
At times we will share scarcity. Later we will share abundance. Always we'll share communist social relations that will liberate our full human potential.