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

Monday, May 13, 2013

Large Corporations Seek U.S.–European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from AlterNet.

This study represents a major contribution to the understanding of the current operations, goals, rhetoric, power structure, and organizations of Western capitalist elites. You will learn about all the groups through which they are pushing their policies, and you will learn the names of major individual and corporate players. 

There is so much here.  This piece should not be read as some sort of quick-written opinion piece. It is a rigorous piece of research backed by solid documentation. It is alarming. And, it is a call to action. It probably should be printed out and studied, but then you lose access to the links which are also valuable. 

If you have been following important news over the years, you have encountered so many capitalist organizations representing advocacy groups, policy formulating groups, think tanks, business associations, international trades groups, G-7, G-8, G-20, etc. The list is endless. In this study you will also learn about new ones that have recently been established to promote a major push for a trans-Atlantic trade agreement called the "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" (TTIP). You see, capitalists are always advancing their individual power and wealth interests by combining with others against others for dominance in the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism. Thus, one can regard all the above organizations as efforts at networking to establish alliances. 

A major one that is now emerging is this TTIP which, in addition to TPP, is not only a method to meet the threat posed by the ascendancy of the BRIC countries (especially China and Russia), but over what remains of any domestic "democratic" institutions that get in the way of capitalist interests.

If you think about it, it is a totally logical development following their frequent use of NATO and its application of force to extend Empire interests. An economic integration of Europe (including members of the old English Empire: Canada, Australia, and India) with the United States under neoliberal principles, directed by and serving Western capitalist elites, is the perfect complement to NATO.  
Corporations are undertaking unprecedented drives for the accumulation of profit and power, promoting agendas and projects which re-shape the world in their image, treating governments as toys, the environment as an enemy, and impoverishing populations around the world. We are witnessing a transnational social engineering project, driven by large corporations, aimed at facilitating economic, financial, political and social consolidation into their hands.

Welcome to the era of Cosmopolitical Corporate Consolidation and Colonization.