I guess what I don't understand is whether the powers that be-the German bankers, the American CEO's, the oil company execs, the quisling politicians really expect that the people in the Western countries will voluntarily accept enmiseration so that their debts will be paid, their profits maintained, their privileges go unchallenged. The kind of things noted below go along unremarked and unchallenged (except by the few) so long as the pie is growing and everybody is getting a bigger piece but as soon as the pie stops growing or even starts shrinking, when economics and politics because a zero sum--if I get mine, you don't get yours--then things begin to fall apart as in Greece and what had been quiet acquiescence can get very very nasty very very quickly (Weimar Germany, Mugabe's Zimbabwe, New Orleans after Katrina) and that's when the absence of a Plan B becomes the basis for widespread social tragedy.
What exactly do the German bankers and Wall Street potentates expect the end-game to be in Greece, and then Spain and then Portugal and then France/Italy and so on... Voluntary slavery for the masses for the next five generations? Not very likely. So it looks quite likely that we will be seeing quite a lot of exploring what the alternatives can be when there are not alternatives. M -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 9:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] Re: Global Corporations Undermining Democracy Worldwide Darryl wrote: > 1) How , in the name of all that is sane, did this ever come to pass? > and > > 2) How, in all good conscience could the court of any country being > sued allow judgment against said country? Is the court in some other > country like the U.S. of A.? > > 3) Who are theinsanely greedy individuals who drew up these treaties > and why would any /sane /country vote for them or allow them to be > invoked when signing a trade agreement? > > [snip] > > http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/07-0 > By Isolda Agazzi That's what the furor over the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment at the OECD) was about 15 years ago. The police riot in Seattle was a follow-on and "anti-globalization" as a byword emerged more or less from same. Within 5 years of the defeat of the MAI (because France caved in and withdrew support) all the political movers & shakers of the OECD countries were back at proposing the same kind of thing. Essentially, these investment protection clauses make major corporations and financial institutions the only enfranchised citizens of the globe and reduce people to the status of biomass. Under that rubric, national governments exist to protect investors. Along with other New Democrats, Bill Blaikie has insisted that the investor-state procedure inappropriately gives multinational corporations a status equal to that of democratic governments and greater than that of citizens. It sets up a binding, secretive process that has not just a legal effect but also a "chilling" effect, by which governments may, out of fear of such litigation, refrain from environmental and other legislative actions intended to protect the public interest. Moreover, because only foreign investors have access to the investor-state procedure, it perversely gives foreign investors more rights in Canada than Canadian investors. -- April 7, 2000 (I've misplaced the source reference. Some newspaper, posted to misc.activism.progressive.) >From Isolda Agazzi article: "Watching these developments, countries like Brazil, which never ratified any of its investment treaties, must count themselves lucky," she added. Yes, indeed. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [email protected] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
