Pepe Escobar. NATO on trade, in Europe and Asia, is doomed

NATO on trade, in Europe and Asia, is doomed

By Pepe Escobar

The President of the United States (POTUS) is desperate. Exhibit A: His Op-Ed defending the Asian face – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – of a wide-ranging, twin-headed NATO-on-trade “pivoting”.

The European face is of course the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

POTUS frames TPP – as well as TTIP – in terms of a benign expansion of US exports, and private (US) firms having “a fair shot at competing against state-owned enterprises.” “Fair”? Not really. Let’s see how the mechanism works, focusing on TPP’s European twin.

 

With impeccable timing, almost simultaneously to Obama’s Op-Ed, Greenpeace Netherlands leaked 248 pages of classified TTIP documents that were to be re-discussed last week by negotiators in New York. There have been no less than 13 rounds of TTIP negotiations so far, over nearly three years.

The documents – negotiated in total secrecy since 2013 – represent roughly two-thirds of the latest negotiating text. An array of detailed studies, like this one, had been warning about the state of play. The veil of secrecy ended up being the ultimate giveaway to TTIP’s toxicity. Before the Greenpeace Netherlands leak, EU elected representatives could only examine these documents under a police watch, in a secure room, without access to experts, and on top of it they could not discuss the content with anyone else.

I will crush you with my GMOs

Everything civil society across Europe – for at least three years – has been debating, and fearing, is confirmed; this is a sophisticated, toxic US-led corporate racket, a concerted assault across the spectrum, from the environment and animal welfare to labor rights and internet privacy. In a nutshell; it’s all about the US corporate galaxy pushing the EU to lower – or abase – a range of consumer protections.

Hardball, predictably, is the name of the game. Washington no less than threatened to block EU car exports to force the EU to buy genetically engineered fruits and vegetables. In my travels in France, Italy and Spain over the past two years, I confirmed this to be the ultimate nightmare expressed by practitioners of top-end artisanal agriculture.

Predictably, the lobbyist-infested European Commission (EC) fiercely defends TTIP, stressing it could benefit the EU’s economy by $150 billion a year, and raise car exports by 149 percent. Obviously don’t expect the EC to connect these “car exports” to a US-led GMO invasion of Europe.

 

At least some nations have finally woken up from their (corporate lobbyist-induced) slumber. The French Minister for Foreign Trade, Matthias Fekl, said negotiations over a “bad deal” should stop. He went straight to the point, blaming Washington’s intransigence; “There cannot be an agreement without France and much less against France.”

Perennially ineffectual President Francois Hollande, for his part, has threatened to block the deal altogether. Three years ago Paris had already secured an exemption for the French film industry not to be gobbled up by Hollywood. Now it’s also about the crucial agriculture front. Hollande said he would never accept “the undermining of the essential principles of our agriculture, our culture, of mutual access to public markets.”

And what is the EC – leading the negotiations on behalf of the EU – doing? Pulling its predictable Trojan horse act; these are all “alarmist headlines” and “a storm in a teacup”. Puzzled EU citizens, en masse, may question if this is really the way for the EC – a bureaucratic Brussels behemoth – to supposedly defend the rights of EU consumers. Yet, infiltrated as it is by corporate lobbyism, the EC simply can’t protect the EU’s environmental and health standards, much more sophisticated than the US’s, from a corporate America bent on meddling with the content of EU laws all along the regulatory line.

I got an offer you can’t refuse

POTUS was heavily campaigning for TTIP last month in Germany. POTUS still hopes he may have a deal in the bag before he leaves office in January 2017. White House spokesman Josh Earnest has tried to put on a brave face, saying the leaks will not have a “material impact” on the negotiations. Wrong; they will – as they are mobilizing public opinion all across the EU.

David Cameron, in the UK, is also in a bind. He’s fiercely pro-TTIP. But Obama has already warned; this means Brexit is a no-no. Club Med nations, for their part, are leaning against. All 28 EU member nations – plus the European Parliament – would have to ratify TTIP if a deal is eventually reached.

TPP, for its part, has been negotiated. But it has not been approved by the US Congress (nor by Pacific nations). The approval process has gone nowhere. In fact it will be up to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Trump arguably is oblivious to TPP’s details; but considering the deal is being heavily championed by Obama, Trump may go against it.

A case can be made that both TPP and TTIP vow to distort markets, in Europe and Asia; prop up (US) monopolies; transfer jobs to slave labor markets (in the case of parts of Asia); trample on intellectual property rights (in the case of the EU); facilitate tax evasion; and ultimately transfer more wealth from the many to the 0.00001 percent.

And this leads us to how Hillary Clinton – the Wall Street/US establishment candidate – views both TPP and TTIP. Well, she supported both NAFTA and CAFTA, approved under Bill Clinton in the 1990s. As Secretary of State, she lobbied for the Panama trade deal. And, crucially, she has always treated the TPP as the “gold standard”. No wonder; this is the trade arm of the “pivoting to Asia” she’s been so fond of – a Pacific trade deal that excludes China, which happens to be the top trade partner of most Asian nations.

Moreover, those by now famous Goldman Sachs speeches are increasingly being seen as payments for services rendered (and promised) by Hillary Clinton to the 0,0001 percent, who are, of course, in favor of global corporate America expansion.

Yet it ain’t over till the November ballot sings. Hillary now faces serious scrutiny by working class voters in the US. So no wonder, in another flip-flopping masterpiece, she’s now leaning towards describing herself as opposing both TPP and TTIP.

Still, TPP at least may be approved during the post-election ‘lame-duck’ session of the US Congress. As for TTIP, it’s now mired in Walking Dead zone. Talk about what it takes for the Obama administration to imprint its trade “legacy” in the history books; to keep blackmailing Europeans and Asians alike as if it was just a lowly Mob extortion racket.

Direct democracy and classless society (The long March of Humanity to the social equality and Humanism)

Direct democracy and classless society

(The long March of Humanity to the social equality and Humanism)

By Kostas Lampos PhD

(Summary)

Humanity is once again at a crucial crossroads, at the point where capitalist barbarism confronts social equality.

Out of the two available choices, the first one is to follow the dictations of the hegemonic capital; this path leads, through the destruction of Nature, to disastrous wars, to the impoverishment of working society and the degradation of human civilization due to the existence of capitalist barbarism.

The other choice represents the working humanity's long-standing, historical struggles in a bid to materialize its own Utopia. Those struggles, complemented with contemporary capabilities, needs and desires, will be gradually leading towards Societal Equality, Direct Democracy, Classless Society and Ecumenical Humanist Civilization.

The first choice, as described above, was the subject of my previous book, "Americanism and Globalization. The Economy of Fear and Decline", by Papazisis Publications, 2009. The latter choice is the subject of this book, which aspires to demystify the concept of Utopia, to reconnect the missing links of societal evolution and re-assemble the shattered image which society has regarding its future, by bringing back to life our society's vision of a better world.

To this end we needed to take things from the very beginning and re-assess the course of humanity, observing its main historical landmarks, not from the point of view of the occasional winners/rulers, who got eventually defeated. Rather, we brought into perspective those who, despite being occasionally defeated, carried on with their struggle for a society of equal and free people, a society without winners and losers, a society without masters and servants.

Our journey started at the foundations, at the infancy, the start of humanity, from the egalitarian societies of innocent wilderness, which have been historically classified as 'primitive communism' and bequeathed to us the concept of social equality. Then we reached the dawn of Athenian Democracy, which passed on to humanity the concept of the Public State, also known as Direct Democracy. We made a brief stop at Plato's 'Ideal State' and Aristotle's “The  best Polis”.

We continued our journey with “Aristonicus Politeia”, which materialized Iambulus' Utopia, our next stops being the 'Early Christian Communes', the 'Civitate Dei' (City of God) and the 'Sun State'. We then carried on with the 'Thessaloniki Commune', “England's Popular Revolution” and made a new stop at Thomas More's 'Utopia'.

A fresh start led us to the Russian 'Agrarian Commune' of Mir and the 'Commune of Andros'. From there, we moved on to the 'Cooperative’s Ideal in Theory and Practice' with a brief pause at Mondragon. We carried on with Israel's captive 'Kibbutz', the Baja California commune and the Morelos communes of Mexico.

Our journey was long but exciting, so we carried on with the 'Socialist Programme', which led us to the 'Paris Commune', the 'Russian Revolution of 1905' and the 'October Revolution of 1917'.

We then attempted to sum up the projects of 'Direct Democracy and Socialism' making stops at the 'Council Democracy in Germany', the 'Council Democracy of Italy' and the 'Kronstadt Commune'. We highlighted the counter arguments, the post seismic shocks of the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' which emerged as 'actually existing socialism' but left us its true identity, i.e. the one of an actually existing state capitalism.

Following that, we moved on to the East, observing the 'Chinese communes' and their agrarian communism. We returned to the West and the attempts to 'Self-management», starting from the 'Summerhill Example', then the 'Spanish Revolution for Self-Management', then stopping at the Greek Communalism and the Popular Power/Popular Justice of the EAM. We also discussed the 'Marinaleda Direct Democracy' and made a brief stop at the 'French May' before reaching an end at the great self-management experiment that currently takes place in Latin America.

During the course of our journey, we also stopped by to check out the science of 'Networks' and made a reference to 'Alternative Social Networks' like the following: 'Networks of Exchange' of goods and services without monetary transactions, 'Time Banks' and 'Energy Banks'. Before the end of our journey, we accepted an invitation to participate in a discussion held by a circle of 600 young people from France and Germany, on the topic of 'Moneyless Society', from which we emerged stronger, ready to counter an attempt to forge our own realist Utopia, carried out using the Swiss Direct democracy myth, as well as the so-called 'Zeitgeist Movement/Venus Project. We finished our journey after a quick stop at the romantic, as well as visionary, 'Olbia City of Roses'.

Summing up the experiences from our fascinating journey, we reached the three following conclusions:

·                                 First, since the dawn of humanity, there has always been a struggle for Common Ownership and Equality, for Equality and Justice, for Direct Democracy and Freedom, for Collaboration and Freedom, for Man's liberation from every form of rule.

·                                 Second, the working humanity has been systematically obstructed by the exploitative socio-political systems which established their rule using violence in the form of ideologies, institutions, various types of obscurantism, class state and weapons. Humanity always managed, under all circumstances, to end all those parasitic formations and patiently create the conditions for its own liberation from successive ruling-exploitative systems. Reaching the 21st century, humanity is up against the capitalist barbarism.

·                                 Third, humanity gradually realizes, as proved by our journey, that its choices are not limited to a dilemma between neoliberal capitalism and state capitalism, like the kind of pseudo-socialism proposed by adherents of the 3rd or 4rth International. On the contrary, humanity is forced to adopt a continuous struggle as its contemporary choice. To this end, the forces of Working society, Science and Culture will need to break free from the ruling class' hegemony on an intellectual, spiritual, political and organizational level and put forward their own contemporary Project for the future of Humanity. This project will be developing alongside the radical demise of capitalism, due to the establishment, on the part of society-humanity, of a Socio-economic system based on Humanism: this system will feature common ownership and Direct Democracy with a view to creating a Classless Society and an Ecumenical Humanist Culture.

During the course of its long and painful journey, humanity has often faced such dilemmas. It has always managed, when the right time came, to get rid of all things rotten and corrupt, thus paving the way for the best possible future. The 21st century science and technology offers the potential. This, along with the modern working society' experience and liberating historical conscience, can bring about an anti-capitalist - humanist revolution which will turn the page of history and broaden the outlook of human civilization.

The very recent 'Movement of the Indignants', which made the demand 'Direct Democracy Now and Everywhere' part of the global agenda, is just a landmark that sets a new course and renews the working humanity's struggle for social liberation. I would argue that this movement confirmed, at the crucial moment of the collapse of the neoliberalist ideology, the historical course of Direct Democracy in its quest for social equality and Classless Society. It responded to all those who interpret history from the 'neoliberal bourgeois democracy' point of view or utilize the doctrines of social democracy and state capitalism.

The dominant ideology of winners-rulers who write, rewrite and forge history, has always been hostile -and still is- to this unstoppable, constant and long standing humanist revolution. This makes any attempt to properly record history quite difficult. For it's part, the working humanity has always managed -mainly due to the brave individual and collective efforts of certain people, which have been labelled 'mavericks', 'marginal', or even 'anarchists'- to rescue important information regarding what had happened. The modern technology of Internet allows this information to transcend the boundaries of libraries and archives, by making it social, bringing it back to life and feeding a fertile debate that sheds more light on Humanity's Yesterday and Tomorrow. This, the Light of Knowledge, helps us see how capitalist barbarism is not 'the fate of humanity'. On the contrary, societies evolve and humanity constantly changes, always finding ways to break free from the obscurantist myths. Hence, a better world is today both feasible and necessary.

NISSIDES PUBLISHING, THESSALONIKI-GREECE 2012,

www.nissides.gr, info@nissides.gr

A NEW - BETTER WORLD IS BORN

A NEW - BETTER WORLD IS BORN*

Dimtitris Lampos

dnlampos@hotmail.com,

First of all, I would like to thank the Roza Luxemburg foundation and the Journal Social History Online, as well as Mr Peter Birke and Mr Karl Heinz Rot for their invitation to this timely and important discussion.

Today, it is the 6^th of December 2011. On this day, 3 years ago in Athens, a police officer murdered the 16-year-old student Alexandros Grigoropoulos. A murder that caused an unexpectedly dramatic uprising that not only shook the Greek system of governance, but, by causing a chain reaction of supporting movements from Europe to Australia and Canada, one could conclude that this event was a turning point for the global social movements that are seeking today their identity and the elements they have in common.  

So, let’s examine the events of that period, and first of all, the cold-blooded murder of an underage student. The location was EKSARXEIA, a district in Athens that has been the centre of political osmosis for consecutive decades and the place of birth of social movements, which have affected Athens and Greece in general. Moreover (and as an after-effect within capitalism), EKSARXEIA has been a place where state and para-state violence is heavily present, where agents and provocateurs are a common phenomenon, where the “contamination” of the district with drugs, abandonment and allegedly a high crime rate continuously turns out to be a methodical attempt to spoil the image of social movements and of the left people, who often have EKSARXEIA as their launching point of action.       

So in this district, in the historical district of EKSARXEIA, with the “bad” reputation but also with the continuous political action, despite and beyond its notoriety that others have fabricated and continue to fabricate, a small group of students argued with 2 police officers (the specifics that led to the argument are still unknown to this day). The police officers left and then the one of them decided to return to the original scene of the argument and murdered the 16-year-old student in cold blood. 

It is natural for anyone to wonder how intense this argument was, especially when knowing the attitude and power of the police force in Greece. A basic experience on the subject would easily suggest that there couldn’t have been be any intense argument at all. And in any case, what could truly -not of course justify- but at least explain this hideous murder?

Only the arrogance and the fascism of power that does not accept critique or any kind of free speech could explain it. Only the longtime shaping of the representatives of power on the streets -that is the police force- not for people’s safety but for their oppression and submission could ever explain this outrageous act.

The child died on the street and in less than 2 hours, Athens became a furnace. It was burning, not by the fires started by the provocateurs, vigorously shown by the mass media, but by the voices of outrage of a people’s gathering, so massive, so spontaneous and self-organized that we hadn’t seen in decades.

And it may be that the beginning of this was the murder of the student, but the reasons were clearly much more political and deeply social and to a certain extent class-struggle generated.

Young and older people from the lower and middle class came down the streets, as well as from almost all classes of Greek society, and this was a massive uprising that in many aspects started to shape its own political, class identity, which of course was still rough and blurry.

The provocateurs (para-state) emerged on the streets almost simultaneously with the riots, showing-off the reflexes of power that proves the constant fear and belief that sooner or later the subdued people cannot but rise up. And, allow me to stress here that this knowledge -and not just belief- should one day become a realization of society itself.

The outcome was the well-known chaos that the mass media showed to the world with a somewhat religious determination.

Nevertheless, in many cases the truth came out shining thanks to numerous videos shot by protestors and citizens that showed clearly the state–organized deceit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzNXWYIXtPs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZy-nhjFswE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqQzK-jqr8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khLEJ000WAg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH6pFWmxZ18&feature=related

Gradually, and in the following years even more, a growing part of society came to realize the terrible truth: that the ruling class which uses as a mask the state and the government, also uses the provocateurs and the extreme right wing to spoil and blemish the spontaneous social struggles. And the example of Greece is extremely important to the rest of the European countries, especially the ones that now start to formulate their own social movements that express their goals by protests in the streets.

The effect of December 2008 uprising was tremendous. Demonstrations and protests started in too many countries, some of which, such as Australia, had never shown such a fighting spirit and political activism before.

It was obvious that the spark that started in the ghettos of Paris in 2006 and became a fire in Athens in 2008 wouldn’t stop there. The globalised capitalism that nowadays tries to evolve into a global hegemonism, gave birth also to a global movement of reaction that sooner or later will evolve on its own into a movement of resistance and overthrow of capitalism.

In Greece, the social movement that started to form in 2008, might have been silenced for a while but soon enough the attack of the capitalist mafias –that some prefer to call abstractly “the market”- against the Greek economy and society led to a new start of the reaction, this time with a much more dynamically political character.

What is more, the movement of the squares, the Greek “indignados”, put forward, even if not clearly yet, the question of Direct Democracy. And it might be true that the provocateurs (this time under the skin of extreme right wing or other capitalist-friendly hybrids) came to the protests trying to transform the character of the movement and managed to an extend to keep things unclear regarding what direct democracy truly means, but in any case this was a giant leap for our political consciousness and realization.

In 2008, when some of us talked about Direct Democracy, many, some of whom progressive and political human beings, rushed to characterize us utopians. Three years later, Direct Democracy was the centre of discussion. Of course, the issue of a clear view on the subject remains, but it is just a matter of time, effort, discussion and mostly of knowledge. The realization that the representative democracy is a fake democracy, established just in order to cover up the true political rule of a small oligarchy of capitalists and that it must be replaced by Direct Democracy, the only true form of democracy, is a giant historical step.

Undoubtedly, this will lead to other important realizations. There are many people out there who know today that democracy does not exist if it is not direct and that Direct Democracy cannot exist inside the limits of an exploitative, ruling system, hence that direct democracy, cannot but lead to a classless society.

The apologizers of capitalism are trying of course to disorientate us all from this direction. This is what they get paid for, or at least what they hope to get paid for someday by the ruling class whom they fear and obey. And it is also true that still a large part of our society is not ready to accept the perspective of such important changes. The social institutionalization has always been a tool of the ruling systems and it is true that capitalism has turned it into a whole new science.

But as long as the attack of globalised capitalism against the people all over the world continues, the need for solutions and understanding by the people will grow and so the realization of what changes need to be done in the economical and social structure will grow deeper. And this entails the dynamic of an irreversible situation. It might turn out that today or in the near future humanity might not be able to leave behind the barbarism of capitalism. The humanity might even become more enslaved and go through the nightmare of the new, electronic Middle Ages that the rulers have been planning for decades. But whatever happens, humanity will not go back to the illusions of our near past. This is a wall that has fallen forever.

It is most certain that the evolvement of the social movements will not stop here. Perhaps what we have seen so far is only a spark of the upcoming events. Perhaps we haven’t even seen the real start yet, but how many times in history hasn’t the flood really started long after the first weak wave?

For now, silence follows the reaction. The one million protesters went back home, not only because of the murders by the provocateurs but mostly because of the uncertain political identity of the new movement. And if it is useful to search for the reasons of these long intervals of silence, we must honestly search into the sicknesses of what we call leftism. It doesn’t have to do anymore just with the fragmentation of the leftist movement, or with the integration of the leftist movements into the ruling system. The problem is deeper and at the same time rather simple. If we do not overcome the social fragmentation created by the social division of labour, as well as the so-called ideological fragmentation of the social movement, then it will be impossible to overcome the submission to leaders, gurus and in any case rulers and exploiters of society. The new, better world cannot but contain us all. And this is a key point, I believe, closely related to Direct Democracy and classless society. We don’t need leaders or any kind of ruling authorities. We don’t need prophets or messiahs. We need to conquer the knowledge gained and accumulated by humanity to date, we need logic and courage: logic to deal with the crisis and courage in shaping the dream of a better world.

The most important and ironic thing nowadays is that for the first time, this better world is absolutely possible. Not as a compulsive consumerist paradise revealing to be hell, but as a society of real abundance for all the needs of all people. Without the paid slavery and exploitation, without the need of property, without the fear of tomorrow. And all this is not said by crazy dreamers, but it is proven by studies of the institutions of the ruling class. A small research in the statistics of the United Nations can persuade anyone that poverty, wretched living conditions, wars that take place -and may increase- for resources, all this atrocity, is not only a crime against humanity as it has always been, but today it is completely unjustified and absurd. The earth can provide everything to an even greater population than today’s population. The only reason why the capitalistic barbarism continues and still grows is that the oligarchy keeping the world wealth knows that with a few hours of creative work per day, the society may produce all the necessary goods for its members and in a descent way. But this would mean spare time and spare time means creativity and knowledge and these mean freedom. The war is not financial in the strict sense but rather political. What the power fights for is not the accumulation of wealth, as this has already taken place, but overaccumulation of ruling power. In other words, they want to finish up with society. Its goal is not just the low and middle classes but the concept of society itself. The absolute fascism dreamt by the hard core of modern, globalised capitalism would most probably impress even the most lunatic hegemonies in history. 

But the natural laws of the universe are still in force. Whenever there is action there is also reaction. Whenever there is suppression, there is also resistance, and against the absolute fascism there is today a global anti-capitalist movement of the people who dream of a free, classless world of Direct Democracy. If five years ago someone said that there would be strikes and uprisings in London, Brussels or New York, everyone would ridicule him. Today, this has already taken place. The social movements in Africa and Asia, and of course the full of promises Latin America, combined with the movements forming their identity in Europe and USA, and most of all the connection of all these in a global movement of resistance and overthrow of capitalism, is a fact. The success of this world movement greatly depends on one basic factor: whether it will manage to develop, remain independent and belong to the people or if it will be manipulated by the right or even left wing of the ruling system.

No matter what happens in the near future, the point is that the collective memory of humanity remembers today what was always known and what the rulers have tried to conceal: that the road to liberation, prosperity, happiness and freedom, the road which will place the humanity out of its barbaric prehistory and will lead it to its real history is the road to Direct Democracy and Classless Society.

Thank you.

__________________________________________

* Speech delivered at the meeting organized by the Journal Social History Online and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on 6/12/2011, in Hamburg, Germany.