Corporate dictators plot their next move
The Morning Star of London
LONDON, England - Leaders of the top 100 transnational corporations in the world
gathered in Berlin Oct. 30 to meet with officials from the European Union (EU) and
Washington to decide its policies. The group, known as Transatlantic Business Dialogue
(TABD), then discussed how best to impose them on nation states.
According to U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Stewart Hauser, "The idea was simple: to
identify those barriers to trade or opportunities for liberalization on which both
business communities could agree as targets for government action. We should put the
business 'horse' before the government 'cart.'"
There you are - democracy is getting in the way of big business.
The Corporate Europe Observatory watchdog has warned that the primary aim of the TABD
is to "steer EU-U.S. leadership in international trade negotiations such as within the
World Trade Organization."
The annual TABD conferences present transatlantic industry recommendations, in the
words of the TABD, "to governments for implementation." They also expect
"implementation of all deliverables and expect satisfactory and positive answers from
administrations."
The Berlin gathering was indeed designed to stitch up the WTO Ministerial Conference
being held later this month in Seattle, where controversial issues surrounding a
possible new round of trade and investment liberalization will be pushed. Those
familiar with EU methods of bypassing and destroying democracy will recognize the
routine.
EU corporations will be represented, not surprisingly, by the European Roundtable of
Industrialists (ERT) who wield huge lobbying powers at the commission.
The ERT is the representative of the largest European corporations and single-handedly
drew up the agenda for Maastricht Treaty.
ERT Secretary-General Keith Richardson boasted at the time that one of their members,
Wisse Dekker representing Phillips, "pushed" through the austere economics of the euro
and the single market "bearing in mind that when it was first launched governments
were not very keen."
TABD's Global Issues Manager Reinhard Quick explained that the ERT and the European
bosses confederation, UNICE, "work together, we consult with each other."
"The ERT is part of the TABD network. Many of the CEOs in the TABD chair ERT
committees. UNICE represents EU industry and so we see what the EU industry wants
through the work of UNICE."
In the U.S. a similar coordination takes place, particularly by the European American
Business Council (EABC) - an active player, which uses the U.S. TABD process as a
channel for promoting its political goals.
Anybody interested in who rules them in today's post-democratic capitalist New World
Order should find out the names of company executive officers who sit on the ERT, EABC
or, more importantly, the TABC and they may well find the answer.
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