====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
The State will advance the interests of any section of the bourgeoisie that have managed to capture it. Hence the intense lobbying that surrounds national and local government as each governor, MP or local councilor becomes elected. In France, Sarkozy once elected immediately started furthering the interests of Bouygues, Bolloré, Lagardère, Dassault and all the other large French holdings. Bolloré lent him his luxury yacht for his personal vacations. Bouygues gave orders to TF1, the biggest French TV network, to support Sarkozy during the run-up to elections. Lagardère and Dassault lavishley funded his campaign. Sarkozy attended the wedding of Bougue's son and Lagardère's daughter. In exchange, Bouygues kept his immensely profitable cellular phone network (Bouygues Telecom), when Sarkozy cancelled a public tender for the procurement of a fourth national cellular phone network operator. No other capitalist could enter a bid for the cellular phone frequencies. In addition, Sarkozy past a law banning TV commercials on public French TV networks, ostensibly to "reduce the pollution of national TV by advertising". Sarkozy's aims were twofold : 1) to be perceived as the defender of the "cultural integrity" of public French TV (France 2 and France 3) 2) herd all the billions in advertising income into the folds of Bouygue's TF1 TV network. Following the enactment of this law, Bouygue stocks skyrocketed. Sarkozy then proceeded to favour his billionaire buddy Bolloré by changing anti-trust laws enabling Bolloré to expand into various sectors of the construction industry. Sarkozy got his other buddy Lagardère off the hook for serious criminal charges of inside dealing connected with the Airbus (a large aeronautical industry company) scandal. Even though Lagardère had sold the 15% of Airbus (EADS) stock he controlled when Airbus was at its highest share value, only a month prior to the dramatic collapse of said stock (due to the sudden announcement that the A-381 "mega-plane" would not be completed in time and would cost more than anticipated, information Lagardère had access to before the rest of the stock-holders), Lagardère was acquitted of any charges of wrong-doing after a two year investigation by French authorities. Lagardère reportedly made off with a staggering amount of money through the timely sale of his holding's stock in Airbus, because he managed to sell it off without the other shareholders' knowledge, which would have tipped them off to the true state of affairs within Airbus. As for Dassault, the largest French defense contractor, Sarkozy himself managed to get Brazil to buy 60 French Mirages 2000 in exchange for ... Well we don't really know, it's a secret. But it appears that Sarkozy promised Lula he would help Brazil build its first nuclear submarine using French state-of-the-art submarine technology, including designing an entire submarine base near Recife, which would enable Brazil to greatly enhance its standing in the international community. In exchange for a massive Brazilian procuremnt of French weapons' technology, Sarkozy also hinted at possible transfers of military technology related to helicopter gunships (Puma and Eurocopter). ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
