Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Corporate power: exposing the global 1%

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Corporate power: exposing the global 1%

Click here to access article posted by ROAR Collective.

ROAR authors have posted the graphics from the Transnational Institute's (TNI) online article that is based on their publication "State of Power 2013" without including TNI's political analysis with which I was not particularly impressed. So, I suggest that you stick with this posting. The graphics included here are the most important to get a quick visual glimpse of our global masters, i.e., the global One Percent, also known as the Davos class, the ruling elite, etc.

The basis for this class is the "ownership" of huge global private enterprises that are concentrated in the hands of a tiny global elite, and interconnected through overlapping boards of directors. I have frequently used the metaphor of an onion to describe the global elite, and the charts illustrate this by showing that the financial institutions and fossil fuel industries are at the most powerful inner core of global capitalist rule.