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A GUIDEBOOK: HOW THE WORLD WORKS AND HOW WE CAN CHANGE IT
Richard K. Moore
http://cyberjournal.org
Chapter 1:
HOW DOES THE WORLD WORK TODAY, AND WHERE IS IT HEADED?
"Globalization is not a policy choice; it is a fact."
-U.S. President Bill Clinton, UN Building, Geneva, May 1998.
"To the extent that the United States was governed by anyone
during the decades after World War II, it was governed by
the President acting with the support and cooperation of key
individuals and groups in the executive office, the federal
bureaucracy, Congress, and the more important businesses,
banks, law firms, foundations, and media, which constitute
the private sector's 'Establishment'."
- Samuel P. Huntington, The Crisis of Democracy, 1975
A. GLOBALIZATION AND THE WEST - A COVERT COUP D'ETAT
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At the center of world events today is a process called
globalization. Few topics are so frequently discussed and at
the same time so little understood. The generally accepted
view, reflected in Clinton's words above, is that
globalization is primarily a matter of economics, and that
it is inevitable - forced by revolutionary developments in
communications and other technologies. In fact,
globalization is neither inevitable nor is it primarily
about economics or technology. Globalization _is a policy
choice; the process of globalization is being carefully
managed and directed - and its economic aspects are merely
symptoms. At its core globalization represents a coup d'etat
- a covert political revolution led from above and bringing
a profound restructuring of power, globally and nationally.
Under this new global system, national sovereignty is
becoming meaningless, and real decision-making power is
being transferred to a centralized global regime dominated
by a wealthy elite - the expanded global version of
Huntington's postwar U.S. "Establishment." This centralized
regime is already established as a network of faceless
bureaucracies, the most familiar of which are the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World
Trade Organization (WTO). These agencies make no pretense of
being democratic and are dominated by representatives from
large transnational corporations and banks. This regime is
rapidly consolidating its power and systematically
establishing legal precedents for its authority. Already,
both the USA and the European Union (EU) have been compelled
by the WTO to annul various of their health and
environmental laws. Most of the third world has been forced
to adopt entire legislative agendas dictated by the IMF.
The source of this regime's authority comes from what are
called "free trade" treaties, and from conditions which are
attached to loans given to third-world countries by the
regime's agencies. "Free trade" is in fact a Trojan Horse -
in the guise of economic modernization, its true purpose is
to smuggle sovereignty away from elected governments and
deliver it to the new corporate-controlled regime. Such
transfers of sovereignty should rightfully be the topic of
intense national debates - they shake the foundations of
national constitutions - yet instead these treaties have
been adopted with little public comment, in obscure
conferences attended by little-known trade officials. It
wasn't until the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle
that most people first became aware of the World Trade
Organization - despite the immense power it already wields.
This is one reason why the globalization revolution can be
called covert.
One might wonder why Western leaders go along with this loss
of sovereignty - why they seek to diminish the constitutions
which they were elected to defend. This brings us back to
Huntington's words above about who really runs America -
words which apply equally to the leading European nations,
and to the the European Union. Western politicians depend on
corporate funding to run their media campaigns, and the top
leaders are themselves part of elite circles. It is a
corporate agenda - an elite agenda - that guides the major
policies of Western nations. The job of Western politicians
is not to decide society's agenda, but rather to find ways
to sell the elite agenda to the masses. And the elite agenda
today is globalization - the usurpation of global power by
the WTO and its sister agencies.
Protest demonstrations against globalization are becoming
frequent in the West, and these are being met with police
suppression of unprecedented brutality. In the third world,
where globalization has devastated the lives of millions,
such protests have been far more extensive and more violent.
And in the third world it is not only in the streets that
globalization finds opposition - governments themselves
often try to defend their national interests against the
encroaching global regime. Increasingly, third-world people
see globalization as simply being another name for Western
imperialism. We will return to this theme after we look into
the economics of globalization and the nature of capitalism.
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Recommended reading.
Holly Sklar ed., "Trilateralism - the Trilateral Commission
and Elite Planning for World Management," South End Press,
Boston, 1980.
This well-researched anthology explains the role in
global planning played by such elite organizations as the
Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and
the Bilderbergers. Examples from various parts of the world
are used to show what kinds of considerations go into the
formation of on-the-ground policies.
Jerry Fresia, "Toward an American Revolution - Exposing the
Constitution & other Illusions," South End Press, Boston,
1988.
If you're an American - whether on the left or the right
- then you haven't been fully awakened until you read "Toward
an American Revolution. " In 200 fully referenced and
readable pages, Fresia cuts through the matrix of American
political history - revealing a continuous pattern of elite
manipulation that began even before the Constitution was
written. Did you think "checks and balances" were designed to
prevent tyranny? Guess again. "...the Constitution was
designed to ensure that real political power in this country
would always be held by the handful of very large property
owners and it is no coincidence that that is the case today."
Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, eds., "The Case Against
the Global Economy and for a Turn Toward The Local," Sierra
Club Books, San Francisco, 1996.
This fine collection of forty-three chapters by
knowledgeable contributors analyzes the broad structure of
globalization and its institutions, and explores locally
based and sustainable economic alternatives. An excellent
introduction, textbook, and reference work.
Hans-Peter Martin & Harald Schumann, "The Global Trap,
Globalization & the Assault on Democracy & Prosperity," St.
Martin's Press, New York, 1997.
A best-selling European perspective on globalization.
Recommended for American audiences in order to understand
more about the European context.
William Greider, "Who Will Tell the People, the Betrayal of
American Democracy," Touchstone - Simon & Schuster, New York,
1993.
This best seller shows in detail how the American
democratic process is subverted at every stage by corporate
interests. Greider was a highly respected journalist for many
years at the"Washington Post and his high-level contacts
permit him to present an insider's view of how the
influence-peddling system actually operates. A chilling
eye-opener.
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