Dear friends,
It's been very difficult to find time to write over here on
Kauai, what with such lovely distratctions as family & xmas
& some contracting work. But there are a few things I want
to say about Seattle, the WTO, Y2K, and police states.
After that I probably won't be posting very much for a
while... in addition to everything else, there are two
deadlines coming up for magazine articles.
re: WTO
^^^^^^^
The WTO (World Trade Organization) is the equivalent of a
global parliament. However, unlike European parliaments or
the U.S. Congress, the WTO is not an elected body. On paper
the WTO includes representation from all member nations and
is concerned only with trade & investment. But that's not
how it really works.
There is very little national legislation that could not be
considered to be an 'impediment' to trade or investments.
There is no strict Constitution or Bill of Rights that
delimits WTO authority. It can consider any case it wants
to consider and decide that case on any basis it wants to
decide it. The limits on WTO authority have more to do with
political considerations... our global masters don't want to
come down with too heavy a foot while there is still
anything we could do about it.
For example: the WTO would be well within its charter to
declare that France has no right to run a national railway,
that the USA has no right to build public highways, and that
public schools are illegal. These kinds of 'government
interference', you might say, prevent RAILWAYS
INTERNATIONAL, TOLLROADS 'R US, and SCHOOLS INCORPORATED
from making an adequate profit. The goal of the WTO - and
its various affiliated institutions - is to overthrow two
centuries of Western progress toward democracy and replace
it by global corporate rule.
It is not easy to say when the movement toward a global
corporate government began. My own analysis is that there
were three major milestones. The first was in 1945 when the
U.S. achieved, in essence, global military hegemony. That
caused a cessation in centuries of intra-Euro military
competition and led to a global system of collective Western
imperialism. The second milestone was 1980 when the wave of
neoliberalism began - shifting the political balance within
Western nations overwhelmingly in favor of corporations.
The third milestone was in the period 1990-1993 when the
USSR fell, Desert Storm was launched, and the WTO was
created in the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations.
The 1945 milestone ended the fundamental connection between
CORPORATE PROSPERITY and NATIONAL STRENGTH. French &
British corporations no longer needed a French or British
fleet to protect their trade routes & neo-colonies. That
job was now being done by Uncle Sam, under the pretext of
defending the world from communism. In this new global
environment, transnational corporations (TNCs) came into
their own.
By the end of the 1970s these TNCs - that is, the elites who
own and control them - began to realize that the bond
between NATIONS and CORPORATIONS was fundamentally severed.
The bond had existed for centuries, and the full
significance of the 1945 paradigm shift took a while to sink
in. SP Huntington's 1973 article (THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY)
serves as public notice of the shift in elite thinking. The
reigns of Reagan & Thatcher (beginning 1980) mark the
beginning of the well-funded and well-organized effort to
overthrow democracy and replace it with corporate rule.
Once the USSR crumbled, that created the final conditions
for a global governemnt - what George Bush dubbed the NEW
WORLD ORDER (NWO). Desert Storm served primarily as a
weapons test and as an example of the brutality of the NWO's
iron boot. The global regime was fully prepared to bomb any
nation back to the stone age, splatter it with uranium
poison, and then starve it to death with sanctions - this is
the NWO's version of INTERNATIONAL LAW. In fact it is a new
and vicious form of direct corporate imperialism. What the
IMF or the WTO cannot achieve with the pen, the Pentagon &
NATO will achieve with cruise missiles and stealth weaponry.
And if anyone believes the Pentagon & NATO are controlled by
other than corporate power, I will now say a prayer for
them.
Thus in 1990 the NWO's EXECUTIVE BRANCH / MILITARY ARM was
put in place - as always, under the cover of several levels
of propaganda and humanitarian cover stories. We can thank
Bush for being arrogant enough to tell us what it was all
about with his cryptic NWO comment. With that established,
the legislative branch was fleshed out in 1993 when the WTO
was formed and added to the IMF & World Bank.
Let us now review the accomplishments of this conscious
movement to create a global corporate regime:
(1) The governments of the USA & Britain were taken over by
neoliberal / corporate forces. The accompanying propaganda
campaign was so successful that most people in the U.S. and
Britain still associate Reagan & Thatcher with something
other than a corporate takeover - both those who liked and
disliked them.
(2) The British Labor Party was destroyed from within by
traitor Tony Blair and turned into a corporate-agenda party
even worse than the Tories.
(3) The American Democratic Party, under Bill "I don't
inhale" Clinton abandoned its roots and became the primary
proponent of the global regime.
(4) International law - and a fundamental respect for
national sovereignty - has been replaced by the iron fist of
a merciless corporate regime. The only limit on this
regime's power is the ability of the global corportate media
to convince the public that NATION X is a BAD GUY.
Yugoslavia was destroyed, Kosovo was ruined, and most
Westerners think something good was done there!!
(5) The NWO was created and began to rule the world and
hardly anyone noticed. Even the famous anti-MAI campaign
(centered in Canada) hardly ever mentioned the WTO. To a
large extent the WTO maintained its anonymity from the general
public until Seattle - 12/99.
So in 1999 in Seattle there was finally - TWENTY YEARS LATE
- A _SINGLE PUBLIC UPRISING against the global regime - an
uprising that received global media attention. BIG DEAL!!!
In the sixties and seventies there were HUNDREDS of
demonstrations and uprisings and even bombings of on-campus
military facilities in the USA and there were equivalent
uprisings in Europe. 1968 became a milestone year in Europe
regarding public dissent. AND YET THE VIETNAM WAR WAS NOT
ENDED UNTIL THE POWERS-THAT-BE WERE GOOD AND READY TO END
IT.
The most we can say about Seattle is that WE FINALLY WOKE
UP! To say we won a victory is simply silly. Ole Fjord
Larsen <•••@••.•••> tells us:
To save the planet, the STRONG MOMENTUM OF THE GREAT
HISTORIC VICTORY IN SEATTLE is released in fullfilling of a
series of major objectives based on the decisive
continuation and broadening of the coalition between
workers, farmers and NGOs... [emphasis added]
Are these guys crazy or propagandists??
I have more sympathy for my friend Brian Hill who said:
It looks like powers are making concessions because of
Seattle, but I think we should still challenge the
legitimacy of the WTO. Note paragraphs on the ILO and the
environment.
I disagree with Brian, but at least he didn't go overboard
about declaring a victory. Let's look more carefully at the
EU Commission letter that he is referring to - message #1
from cj#1042. First of all, who is it from? It is from:
European Commission, DG Trade, INFORMATION UNIT
That is to say, it is from a public-relations (PR) agency.
The job of PR people is to lie. That's what they're hired
for, kind of like politicians only higher paid. The TRUE
PART of this letter is when they say:
The United States and the European Union consider the
multilateral trading system one of the world's principal
bulwarks of peace, sustainable development, and economic
growth; and a primary engine for rising living standards and
broad-based prosperity in the future.
That is to say, they are ignoring every fact about
globalization and adhering strictly to the neoliberal
propaganda line. When they say:
As we approach the new century, we must ensure that the
trading system retains its dynamism and ability to respond
to changing needs of an increasingly diverse membership.
what they are really saying is this:
We aren't going to give an inch on our agenda so we're going
to need to spend a lot more on propaganda and advertising to
overcome those uppity people who are trying to stop us.
Please understand: Seattle was a single volley in a battle
which for twenty years has gone entirely to the wrong side.
There may not even be a second defensive volley - we don't
know yet. To declare any kind of victory at this point -
either strategic or tactical - is SILLY BEYOND MEASURE.
TACTICALLY, the only thing that happened at Seattle was that
some _new corporate initiatives were slowed down. There
were no rollbacks of already-estabalished WTO rules.
STRATEGICALLY, there were two things that happened. First:
the people PERHAPS FINALLY woke up to the threat of a global
government. Second: the establishment made it clear that
BRUTAL POLICE TACTICS will be the response to attempts at
significant peaceful demonstrations.
This is an heroic victory??? Seattle COULD BE the beginning
of a counter-revolution - but not unless people GET REAL
about the magnitude of the problem at hand. I do not give
up hope. If I did I wouldn't be writing. But that hope is
at the end of a long thin thread - a narrow path - it is not
attached to a pollyanic belief in easy victory.
re: Seattle
^^^^^^^^^^^
Message #2 ("My time in Seattle") is more encouraging. It
shows the depth of feeling of some of the protesters. It is
this depth of feeling and commitment that will finally
prevail - IF it spreads, IF it is well-informed, IF it is
not co-opted, etc. etc. etc. Take heart from it but DO NOT
CONFUSE HOPE WITH VICTORY. The first step is not the last
step. Turning on the video is not being the hero.
re: Y2K
^^^^^^^
Message #3 is about RUSSIA'S WARNING TO U.S. We are numb to
apocalyptic warnings by now, but these are indeed apocalyptic
times nonetheless. A global corporate regime is apocalyptic;
intentional genocide in the third world is apocalyptic; AIDS
is apocalyptic; and an end to democracy is apocalyptic. A
nuclear war will also be apocalyptic.
On July 13 a series of articles began on cj with "CJ#771>
WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER". The point of this series
was that the global regime is now going through a
RAPID-CONSOLIDATION PHASE. The ducks have all been lined up
and the time has finaally come to knock them all down. Or
at least that's how it appears to this humble observer.
China & the Soviet Union are a hindrance to the global
regime. Yes they are being destabilized and seduced, etc.
etc. Nonetheless the global regime would be better off
without them. Without Russia: because it still possesses a
credible nuclear threat. Without China: because it is
building national strength and power and has designs on
Asian hegeomony. Y2K might well provide the excuse to do
away with both of them.
I won't paint you a scenario, because sci-films have been
doing that for years. Let's just say it's possible, and
that if it happened you'd think it was something else. What
was planned in adavance would be blamed on 'antiquated
Russian computers'. The U.S. would probably shed
hypocritical tears and rush aid to the survivors in China
and Russia.
The other thing that threatens the global regime - besides
Russia & China - is the Internet. If it were not for the
Internet the public consciousness of Seattle would be
entirely different than it now is. Perhaps the massive
demonstrations would not even have happened. The Internet
provided organizational infrastructure. And the Internet
can easilily be taken away.
The net has been demonized in the media for years. Child
porn, bomb recipes, and all that. One of these days there
will be some major TERRORIST EVENT blamed on the net - most
likely funded by the CIA - and instantly hundreds of
listservs will be shut down. The net will be santized the
way television is and never again will we have a clue what's
going on outside of shouting distance of our own homes. I
have serious doubts as to whether I will be communicating
with you after y2k.
Have you noticed the recent FBI 'fears' regarding y2K 'hate
groups'? This is obviously cover-story stuff. The examples
given in the media are silly small things. If there are big
plans for terrorist activities the FBI would have been
following them for a long time and they would have said
something earlier. Terrorism is not the problem -
terrorism is the solution. It gives the FBI and whoever
else the excuse to do whatever it is they are planning to
do.
Perhaps I am being overly paranoid. Given the confusion
coming out of Seattle perhaps our global masters have no
need of such drastic measures. Perhaps they can destabilize
Russia, seduce China, and fool the rest of us into believing
we already are winning. IF SEATTLE IS NOT THE BEGINNING
THEN IT IS THE END. One way or the other. Wake up or
prepare to submit.
re: police states
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I was THOUROUGHLY DISGUSTED by the responses Frank Scott
sent in - both his own and the one forwarded from a "Mike
Smith". Notice this from "Mike":
The war on drugs has been fought largely to put a
superfluous population behind bars, not to form a new
Gestapo for use on middle class protests against neo-liberal
economics. The whole idea of equating non-lethal crowd
control technology with the vast apparatus of death
constructed by the Nazis is an insult to those who were
liquidated by the real Gestapo. Let's get a grip here!
"Mike" - if that is his name - is willing to admit that the
war on drugs was phony - that hundreds of thousands of
people are in jail on false pretenseses. That doesn't
bother him. In fact he seems to agree that a SUPERFLUOUS
POPULATION was put behind bars. If that isn't a fascist
attitude then I don't know what is.
Yes I realize the Seattle police didn't march in goose-step
and didn't say "Heil Hitler" and that they don't hate Jews.
No they are not actually the Gestapo, per se. The point is
that the USA was supposed to be a nation of laws instead of
people, and that the people were to have civil rights
guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Instead, search-and-seizure are violated on a daily basis.
And police act as brutally as they can get by with. First
they came for Blacks, and Hispanics, and Immigrants, and now
in Seattle they have announced that they are not prejudiced
- they will clobber anyone of any color whether they're
actually protesting or not. To this Frank Scott has to say:
Pepper spray is designed to be sprayed in the eyes, not to
flavor chili...
Police states are necessary if the WTO global regime is to
be able to rule. People like Mike Smith, Frank Scott, and
the "EU Information Unit" have taken on the job of distracting
us from that fact. F... them. Wake up or prepare to submit.
Talk to you again,
y2k willing,
rkm
============================================================================
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 01:35:58 -0800
To: •••@••.•••
From: •••@••.••• (Lee van der Heiden)
Subject: Re: cj#1041,rn-> Frank Scott: "Enough already, with
the gas chambers and nazis"
dear cj,
Thanks for posting Frank Scott's letter. Yes, I believe as
you do, he speaks for many others. And yes, I also believe
you were spot on in your reply to him.
A bit of my family history will tell you why I flat out say
bullshit! to "enough already, with the gas chambers and
nazis, okay". My father survived a Nazi concentration camp
during WWII. He was part of the Dutch Underground Resistance
Forces, was arrested for sabotage in Holland by the Nazis
and sent to Germany for slave labour. Luckily he escaped the
camp and Germany three months later. I grew up hearing about
"the Great Escape" and all about Nazis, gas chambers, and
the horrors that human beings can do to one another.
We don't need to find "conspiracies and nazis and mass
murder and plots and cabals every time something important
happens", but we do need the ability to bear witness and to
circumvent, whenever possible, 'evil' when it is taking
place. 'Evil' being defined as human rights abuses,
inappropriate and malevolent violence, abuse of priviledge
and authority, and especially when "the established
authority kicks some butt".
As you point out, the same kinds of people who comprised the
Nazi party- heads of state, storm troopers and
einsatzgruppen, are the same kinds of people who, today,
given license, will commit the same or similar atrocities.
Anywhere at anytime.
It is only the public eye and their outcry that draws the
line in the sand which says to these very same people
"enough already, no more!" and one hopes, before it is too
late.
We must be ever vigilant, history and current affairs, as
Mr. Scott so aptly reminds us, is replete with malevolent
and dangerous forces. Let us make sure then we do what we
can to, first, not be desensitized to these very same
forces, and second, to then also not be afraid to call out
and very loudly too when a spade IS indeed a spade.
I recommend to Frank Scott an excellant book broaching this
argument: "Hitler's Willing Executioners" by Daniel Jonah
Goldhagen.
And I leave you cj with Goldhagen's prelude to the very same
book, a quote by Alexis De Tocqueville:
"No man can struggle with advantage against the spirit of
his age and country, and however powerful a man may be, it
is hard for him to make his contemporaries share feelings
and ideas which run counter to the general run of their
hopes and desires".
A sobering thought.
You're doing a terrific job! Let us hope the spirit of our
age is with you.
All the best,
LVDH
========================================================================
•••@••.••• - a political discussion forum
crafted in Ireland by rkm - (Richard K. Moore)
To subscribe, send any message to •••@••.•••
•••@••.••• - an activists forum
To subscribe, send any message to:
•••@••.•••
A public service of "Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance"
•••@••.••• http://cyberjournal.org
**--> Non-commercial reposting is encouraged,
but please include the sig up through this paragraph
and retain any internal credits and copyright notices.
Copyrighted materials are posted under "fair-use".
To see the index of the list archives, send a blank message to:
•••@••.••• or to:
•••@••.•••
To sample the book-in-progress, "Globalization and the
Revolutionary Imperative", see:
http://cyberjournal.org/cdr/gri/gri.html
Help create the Movement for a Democratic Renaissance!
A community will evolve only when
the people control their means of communication.
-- Frantz Fanon
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful
committed citizens can change the world,
indeed it's the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead
Share: