"Beyond Iraq, Surviving Globalization"
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Chapter 2

Globalization - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

"Globalization is both the promised utopian age
and the evil empire."

The Good - Globalization is a two-sided coin- it is both the world's savior and its demon. The basic concept of Globalization is a good one. It is the world joining together as a community dedicated to improving the lives of all. It is responsible for improvements in the lives of people especially in the areas of travel, trade, communications, universal technology and cultural exchange. The global exchange of culture and information demonstrates that a world can live in diversity and prosper. The promise of a global village has given humanity: Nobel Laureate Awards, the Olympics, the United Nations, the space station, Earth Day, and the Internet. Globalization has also aided the world in watershed events such as: the fall of the Iron Curtain, the end of apartheid, the rise of the World Social Forum, and global environmental cooperation in the Kyoto Accord. When viewed from the perspective of the global village, these things are natural manifestations of Globalization.

The Bad- There is a distinctive chasm between healthy globalization and those that take advantage of global power. The demon of Globalization is the globalists' pushing the Market Economy. They employ jungle rules and dictator co-conspirators to force the powerless into subordinate roles to the powerful. These forces are guilty of: manipulating and circumventing laws, and issuing predatory loans that created a worldwide debt economy. They have taken advantage of hardships in unstable countries to install puppet governments that have nothing to do with promoting democracy and meeting the needs of the people. Instead the Globalists seek to destroy

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democracy in their quest to wrestle power away from the people and consolidate it into the hands of a few. In this book, in order to differentiate the healthy from the ill uses of Globalization, let's call the life promoting affects `Globalism' and leave Globalization to describe the illnesses we must overcome. We will read more about Globalism in Section 4 of the book. For clarity sake let's call the people that are promoting globalism `the movement', (the organizers of the World Social Forum, The World Parliament etc.) and the people that are promoting Globalization as `the globalists'.

The Ugly - The urgent fact remains; if the people of the world allow Globalization to continue, the divide between the wealthy and the poor will be so great that civilization and the Earth's environment will be in tatters. Globalization, we are told, is built upon the ideals of the capitalist system with democracy at its core. This is not true. In reality it is an insidious economic system that targets free enterprise (competition) and democracy (government that serves the people). This no holds barred form of Capitalism hates competition as it preaches its virtures.

Our constitution warns us as much as it protects us. Our forefathers were warning us about a system that concentrates the excessive power of the executive branch and promotes injustices not believed possible by a majority of unsuspecting citizens. They also warned us about domestic tyranny, encouraging us to change our government if necessary in order to sustain our freedom.

Globalization is a system that has invaded our country, our minds, and our lives. It does this by redefining old secure words such as: freedom, individual, profit, wealth, private property, Capitalism, conservative, Republican, and even religion such as Christianity. The lexicon of Globalization is leading the citizens down the path toward double-speak.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
- Reagan talking about the Contras in Nicaragua in 1985

These are all good words, but they are being reinterpreted and used as the sheep's clothing for the trickery of a treacherous wolf. The arguments put forth by the wolf for promoting and excusing the new Globalization system are often so thinly veiled that the hypocrisy is obvious and laughable. The CIA creates the evildoers, the Pentagon kills the evildoers, the US strangles countries with sanctions that harbor the evil-doers, and then calls them failed nations. The US must inspect the world to be safe, inspect Iraq, inspect North Korea, inspect my house, inspect your house, and inspect grandmother's underwire bra. This is the US government of the absurd. With so much hypocrisy who can we trust?

"America has never sought to dominate, has never sought to conquer. We've always sought to liberate and to free. Our desire is to help Iraqi citizens find the blessings of liberty."
- George W. Bush, explaining the Iraq War.

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Did Bush take a different history class than the rest of us? Did America not dominate the American natives? America has sought to dominate the world since it embraced its Manifest Destiny in the 1840's. This manifesto is a depraved philosophy that justified the theft of lands belonging to the indigenous people throughout the world. Bush is now resurrecting this bankrupt philosophy to claim the land of the weaker "failed nations" by using the hypocritical reasoning that we are liberating them from terrorism. David Povdin states coldly, "that Manifest Destiny permits the US to be morally compelled by God Almighty to kill weaker people and steal their land". Whose God almighty is giving Bush and America the right to continue in its empire building quest to dominate the world? Attila the Hun's God?

At the heart of Globalization is a rigid way of doing business which amounts to an economic fundamentalism that I call ultra-capitalism. This is business on steroids conducted with a religious zeal that has a sense of majesty to it. In ultra-capitalism we see an economic form that has grown beyond national corporations into transnational corporations. The off-balance sheet accounting system from Anderson Accounting is one reason why this is true.
One source of power for the ultra-capitalists is in world trade agreements that go above national law (NAFTA - North American Free Trade Americas) and creates a planetary political format resembling Fascism. Mussolini, the creator of Fascism, defined Fascism as the corporate state, a world run by corporations. We can see that we are living in such a world at this time. It is not that all corporations are bad, it's that they have no business running our government. If the fox is watching the hen house who will we have to govern the foxes waiting to misuse governmental power at the expense of the people and the environment; those overly ambitious CEOs and greedy profiteers. Those with an agenda for disaster.

The chain of command goes even higher than corrupt transnational corporations. There is enough evidence in the world today to see a plan unfolding, an agenda by the corporate rulers to convert regional economies into one grand system called the `market economy'. Two important documents that will be discussed later in this book, "Grand Chessboard" and the "National Security Strategy", spell out the role of the US in this grand scheme in. The goal is to have a corporate state running the world with the US at its head.

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"The poor in the third world view the wealthy countries as materialistic fools that are unaware of the consequences of their consumption and bewildered by the backlash when the Free Market Economic system enslaves the masses to the point of rebellion." - Tivana

As we Americans go about our day we believe that we love and respect life, and we care for our fellow human beings all over the globe. This is what the matrix would have us believe. But the truth is written in the eyes of the disenfranchised classes of the Free Market Economy churning out a society of great poverty and gated communities. The fact remains that our American lives revolve around our daily consumption, a consumption that relies on products made from business practices that are creating despair in the world.

We Americans are addicted to a material God and our prayer has become, "Give me this day my daily consumption, lead me not into poverty, and keep me far from the bill collectors". Regardless of our personal innocence we must face the rest of the world as a nation and deal with the "Ugly American" image of over consumption and hoarding. Where else but in America would we see this headline, "Drug Maker Seeks to Treat Compulsive Shopping with a Pill". Reuters, NY - Toni Clarke. If only it were that easy.

A key problem in Globalization is the promotion of an over-consumptive life-style. Globalization uses capitalism as its engine and this requires a market that consumes products. Through Madison Avenue advertising Americans are led to believe that they need everything under the sun, right now or they will not be happy. I am not advocating an end to consumption, but rather I am encouraging aware consumption. For example, consuming products that are sustainable and renewable. With awareness individuals can join campaigns or find their own solutions. There are ways to consume without ruining the planet (recycle), ways to maintain our standard of life without enslaving others (fair trade not controlled free trade), ways for everyone to contribute to the well-being of the planet. The New World begins when an individual feels a part of the greater whole of humanity.

In 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped upon the moon and said,

"this is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

That was a great moment for all humanity. The astronauts gave the world a guiding symbol - the Earth from space, an Earth without borders, one world, one village, Gaia. The Gaia principle speaks volumes about our one world, one global village, steeped in humanitarianism. Gaia is the overriding point of agreement that gives promise for peace and stability in this time of chaos. This symbol of a planet without borders brings true security, true hope, and faith in the future.

The people within the global village have the opportunity to live in a world where peace and love prevail over fear and loathing. It's about reclaiming and redirecting the power of our individual selves and our collective will. In the end it will be told as a story of unity, and the coming of age of a diverse global community.

History of Globalization

"He who does not learn from history is doomed
to repeat it."
- Santanyana

The history of Globalization is understood by many to be a continuation of the US conquest of the world. Whether it is excused by Manifest Destiny or the War on Terror the results are the same; the devastation of cultures and oppression of people ie: slavery, the massacre of American Natives, the Phillipines, Iraq.

Now we have the Globalization story and it reads like a James Bond movie. Complete with good guys and bad guys, sordid underground characters, wild adventures, assassinations, and government coups. When the main characters end up being royalty, presidents, philosophers, assassins, arms dealers, and drug smugglers, and we examine their escapades, then its the stuff that novels are made of. The writers of the plot stay hidden behind the veil of the ultra rich and super powerful. Secure in the knowing that if the truth were exposed it would be unbelievable.

The story line includes nefarious characters like Kissinger, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Perle, Condelezza, Blair, and Ollie North to name a few. The plot is a good guys vs. bad guys western where the advantage goes to the most machismo. "Bring `em on", says the leader of the gang. "This is all out war", chants the Sheriff. "We have done nothing wrong", pleads the land grabbing rancher. Most of the time the story is so poorly written that it is laughable if it weren't so serious. Presidents and world leaders are assassinated, elections are rigged, economies are ruined, lives devastated. After ahwile the plot gets so twisted that there is a thin line between good and bad and it ends up all butt ugly.

There are many pseudonyms and acronyms to define the different functions of Globalization. The `Free Market Economy' is a pseudonym for the invading economic structure of Globalization. The Free Market Economy is better described as the Free For All Economy because of the uncontrolled grabbing of markets by transnational corporations. Free for a few and bondage for the many is what it really means. Do not be confused by the array of labels that mislead and shield the workings of Globalization behind a veil of secrecy. Below is a glossary of terms to help you understand the primary functions of this system.

· Neo-liberalism _ a set of economic policies that claim the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs.

This also defines Free trade and is seen by the globalists as the best way for a nation's economy to develop. Although the economic system gains ground rapidly after the initial injection the high soon wears off followed by ever increasing poverty and unemployment. This is no different than a cheap drug high that soon leaves the victim helplessly looking for another fix; only in this case a cash infusion with a high interest loan is the fix.

· GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), the WTO (World Trade Organization), NAFTA (No. America Free Trade Agreement), FTAA (Free Trade America Agreement) are all international trade agreements. These agreements have authority over national and state laws. If it is in the treaty it is law in each country.

The Globalists like to work in secret and out of public view. One of the successes of the demonstrations against the WTO (World Trade Organization) in Seattle 1999 was making the WTO a household word. Prior to this the public was basically in the dark about its existence. `The Battle In Seattle' has become the Bunker Hill of the movement, a flashpoint to rally around. Now the WTO has been exposed and the education process about its nefarious nature is in full swing.

· The IMF (International Monetary Fund) & WB (World Bank) are the institutional banking vehicles for carrying out international business deals. 50% of the World Bank and 80% of the IMF are funded by US treasury bills, thus linking the US to the effects of these institutions.

· The G8 (Group of 8) are the core ruling countries that make trade decisions on an international basis. The G8 countries represent the world's wealthy and powerful and include: The United States, Canada, England, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan.

· On the other end of the spectrum are the people, the citizens, and the non-government organizations or NGOs. They meet in the World Environmental Forum and the World Social Forum. These forums represent humanity's attempt to right itself in troubled waters.

· World Economic Forum

http://www.weforum.org/ - "The Forum provides a collaborative framework for the world's leaders to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship". This forum is made up of many of the world's wealthiest people and offers hope in a world that needs the rich and powerful to become allies in the forces of change. Some of the wealthy such as Paul Soros, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates Sr. see that the people are suffering under current Globalization policies and are working for progressive change.

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· The World Social Forum

http://www.portoalegre2003.org/publique/

http://www.wsfindia.org/

This forum is a challenge to leaders of the world to listen to the needs and concerns of the people. Many NGOs (non-government organizations) attend with a few government leaders and masses of common people.

The World Social Forum developed as a response to the growing international movement against neo-liberal economic policies and capitalist led globalization. For decades, international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been making decisions that affect the lives of people all over the world, without being subject to any sort of democratic control. This forum is important to give the power of self-determination to the masses.

The impoverished in the Third World, as well as in the industrialized countries are suffering the devastating effects of economic globalization. The World Social Forum was conceived as an international stand against neo-liberal Globalization and it is built around the slogan: "Another World Is Possible". It seeks to provide a space for discussing alternatives, for exchanging experiences and for strengthening alliances between social movements, unions, and NGOs.

· World Environmental Forum

http://www.ecosustainable.com.au/forum.htm - this site has many links to other forums and conferences on the environment.

The Kyoto accord came out of this forum in 1997 and is being ratified by almost every country in the world except the US. The United States, the world's largest polluter, shunned the treaty shortly after President Bush took office, arguing it would harm the U.S. economy. I guess Bush just doesn't see the light on this one. Does this man even see the moon or does he need more scientific evidence?

In 1944, the Allied countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to discuss the post WWII economy. The US had the votes to establish what is now known as the `Free Market Economy'. It was birthed from Neo-liberal parents with the United States being the mother and Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992), the single most influential individual to shape what is now understood as neo-liberalism, was the father. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), was the mid-wife of the birth. It is a giant global lending institution created to safeguard the control of the world's economy. Disguised as a rebuilding fund, the IMF offers the world a poison apple credit system that hooks countries on compound interest loans, the SAPs them of their life's blood. Structural Adjustment Plans (SAP) are how the banks want to own more of the countries to pay off a debt that they will never be able to pay off. Countries are drowning in a sea of debt. Poverty is the result

of investors reaping money from enslaved debtors through the policies of corrupt governments. Yes there is corruption that creates poverty in the world and it is in the heart of the IMF and their Free Trade globalization policies.

The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) also came out of Bretton Woods as the first world trade agreement. This agreement shaped international trade policies for decades. Then in 1995 the WTO came along to further implement the Market Economy into the world. The world trade agreements define the shape of the global economy and are decided upon by a few non-elected people, which is the foundation of a world oligarchy. I repeat that these trade agreements are above the laws of the individual countries, even the US Supreme Court. The loss of sovereignty is why people around the world are protesting the WTO, NAFTA, FTAA; the acronyms of Globalization.

In 1995, Clinton signed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA, the grandchild of Neo-liberalism, has proven to be all that it was intended to be; a means by which global corporations can operate without government interference in the mindless pursuit of endless profits. The corporations' normally illegal acts work because they are sanctioned by international agreements which usurp the laws of the nations. The citizens are just now waking up to the horrible mistake of giving unlimited power to corporations and then trusting them to do the right things concerning their welfare. NAFTA is a serious breach of that trust.

NAFTA's key points reads like a Christmas list for corporations and are a microcosm of the way globalization works:

NAFTA's Chapter 11 entrenches a set of rules protecting private property rights (investments) of investors (individuals, corporations, banks, mutual funds) with disputes settled by a tribunal of three in a boardroom where business deals are cut, not in a courtroom where legal disputes are settled.

· NAFTA guarantees investors the right to prompt compensation for lost property, including future profits. Nafta uses an obtuse term, "tantamount to expropriation", to describe the regulations placed upon industry to protect the people and the environment. For example, requiring companies to clean up their pollution. However, because of this clause in NAFTA, cleaning up the pollution means a loss of profits which in turn means that the investors are compensated for the loss. This loss is compensated for by the taxpayers of the losing country.

· The tribunal rulings from NAFTA and the WTO favor foreign corporations over the laws of the people. Metalclad, a US company that refused to clean up a toxic waste dump in Mexico, won a $16 million lawsuit with Mexico because of lost profits when ordered to clean up their mess. This was a clear case of the "tantamount to expropriation" clause where investors' money was shown to be more important than a community that is dying from cancer due to a polluted environment.

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· Codification of NAFTA agreements into a treaty that rules over law has the effect of making environmental protection laws expensive and highly improbable because of the likelihood of a lost lawsuit. This has reduced governments imposing protective regulations (laws) on corporations to practically none.

· NAFTA enables portfolio & money market managers to freely transfer assets and income into and out of member countries, creating instability in communities.

· Financial controls of trade and payments - governments having balance of payment difficulties have to consult with the IMF and adopt only those measures which the IMF prescribes.

· Removes tariffs and non-tariff barriers on all goods and services, thus impeding a government's ability to protect their industry from import competition and their environment from pollution.

NAFTA is the trial run for runaway corporate power and now that it is advertised as a success we have the Free Trade Americas Agreement coming down the tracks. This agreement will be the death of laws that protect the general population from pollution and unethical trade.

The US Economic System

In the United States we live in a hybrid economic system made up of Keynesian Social Democracy, cooperative communism, socialism, and the Market Economy. It has worked for the most part for many decades because each system agreed to co-exist. But now the Market Economy is attacking the other systems. The Market economists are privatizing the Keynesian public infrastructure, have infiltrated and destroyed the co-op movement, and demonized the socialist unions. John Keynes believed that government action was needed to alleviate the Great Depression in the 1930's. He led the world to understand how government has the ability to stabilize an economic system and should do so through a number of measures still in use today. His nemesis at the time was US Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon who believed in Liquidationism. This calls for policies that allow an economy to tumble through cycles of inflation and deflation. "When government doesn't get involved", he argued, "then the hard times purge the rottenness out of the system". This survival of the fittest attitude is still around and finds a home in Globalization.

The Keynesian system brings us government that establishes and regulates our soft and hard infrastructure: transportation, health, education, and human service programs that support the common good of society.

The Keynesian system also brings financial stability through banking regulations and regulated utilities that protect the consumer.

These programs are the stable tilled fields from which our businesses and way of life grow from. Business thrives in these fields and fertilizes them through their taxes. With government spending on venture capital, research, and infrastructure, business prospers. But these services are under attack from the neo-conservatives and their mindless promotion of no taxes for government programs that serve the people and more taxes for government programs that grant money to corporations is taking the progress of our civilization back to the days of feudalism. We are now determining what role government plays in our lives. Will we have a representative government that serves the people or a market driven government for the corporations?

Government programs act as tools to meet the needs of society and work for the common good by stabilizing costs and guaranteeing delivery of resources and services. They are the public works projects that build our roads, schools, and libraries. They are the projects that supply our water and electricity and guarantee their availability at affordable prices for all. They are governed by trusted commissions that serve the public. These public works are our sacred public domain and they have become the targets of commercialization by the Market system to serve large private corporations.

In the 80's the `Free Market' child came of age and was unleashed upon our world in the Reagan / Thatcher era. The Reagan administration united the right wing into a military and ideological offensive on the world. Margaret Thatcher did the same in England. This right wing offensive asserted that there are no alternatives to the Free Market Economy. The new military and secret service spy buildup has become the foundation for the global power trip of George W. Bush.

In 1981, Reagan went to work on deregulating the US economy, and we saw a number of scandals as a result of his zeal for deregulation. The worst scandal led to the disappearance of the 11,000 US Savings and Loans and the consequent $30 billion a year for 30 years payback was loaded onto the US taxpayer to cover the failed banks.

When Reagan signed the law that deregulated the banks he had this to say, "All in all boys, I think we've hit the jackpot", quoted in Business Week, March,1983. Indeed they did hit the jackpot and banks were allowed to go into business. The favored business was the construction business building overpriced office towers which bankrupted the S&Ls. The money went to the construction company owned by the bank presidents that were playing a shell game with the people's money. The profits from the construction companies were sent offshore to wait for the Resolution Trust Corporation (the Feds) to come in and shut down the banks and auction off the assets. Then the crooks brought the money back into the country and bought those same office towers for 10 cents on the dollar. A few of the crooks went to golf prison and the rest got away including Neal Bush (son of a Bush) for his part in the $billion dollar rip-off of the Lincoln Trust in Denver.

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Further corruption in the S&L industry was seen in improper audits and inflated appraisals of real estate. The fact that even the profitable S&Ls were shut down was a suspicious reminder of a symptom of Fascism - strict regimentation of finance with only a few banks left standing. The S&L industry was wiped out and banking laws were changed to allow for the destabilization of the finance industry and hence its reorganization into a government regimented industry.

In 1985 Margaret Thatcher went to work on globalizing Great Britain by attacking labor. She broke the coal miners strike and changed the way unions do business. Since then the coal mining work force has dwindled from 180,000 to 3,000, and the suffering in these communities takes place to this day. If a system can run more efficiently with fewer workers fine, no one can argue with that. But Thatcher left no alternative as she launched her working class into competition with the labor of third world countries. When so many workers are thrust into unemployment for decades, then there is truly something wrong with the system.

"The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones."
- John Keynes

Keynes was a revolutionary that promoted and set in place techniques that stabilized our current economic system. He felt it was good for society to have stable prices and secure employment. He wanted to protect the working class from bearing the brunt of the attitudes of the wealthy that saw the bottom of society as cheap labor or worse as failures that needed to be purged from the system, not unlike taking out the trash.

As we enter a new century and a new millennium, we have reached an endgame in world politics. The battle to decide the fate of the world is set between two systems - the Keynesian system, the system the US is currently living with, is being invaded by the Hayekian Free Market system. In the world of Keynes we live with ultimate freedom. We have free public domains, free thoughts and artistc expression, free rights to travel most anywhere we want without unlawful searches and seizures, and freedom to congregate and say whatever we want. In the world of Hayek all our freedom is bought and sold. No money no freedom. Money can even buy you a get out of jail free card. In a market driven system everything is marketable, even our thoughts are intellectual property. This is the real war beyond Iraq, the sale of everything we are. What picture do you want to draw for your future?

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