Book Reviews Regional & Global
Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power" By Belen Blanya, Ann Doherty, Olivier
Hoedeman, Adam Ma'anit & Erik Wesselius - Liz Griffiths "Europe Inc." documents the privatising of public policy, and describes who is governing. Without reservation, "Europe Inc." is another of these excellent books which I strongly recommend to read and keep for reference. We know in New Zealand that the Business Roundtable (BRT) has been perhaps the most successful lobby group influencing and, more accurately, directing public policy making in this country for two decades. Who sets the agenda, who prioritises and controls it? How far can outcomes be favourably managed? What is the process of ensuring that all this happens? What, and whose, values and goals are promoted? And, most of all, who benefits?!! Democracy is a funny thing. Winston Churchill said something about it being an awful system of government - but still the best we have. The Westminster system of government, with all its checks and balances, gave rise to civil society as we knew it. It is either that or the Machiavellian "benevolent" dictator at the "better" end of government. All of it rather tenuous and wobbly. The democratic process can be so laborious, especially in a world that values quick and decisive decision making in many aspects of management. And, when one views soccer hooligans, it is easy to despair of their ilk as potential, reasoned voters holding all the priviledges of democracy. But the concentration of power into fewer and fewer hands, along with more secrecy and remoteness, and less accountability, is never in the wider public interest. People demonstrate again and again the universal and exponential capacity of human greed. Kings, dukes, bishops, mandarins, emperors, warriors, pyramid builders all rise above on the backs of the oppressed. Charles Dickens documented well the outcome of such laissez faire systems. Unfettered naked greed needs rules to constrain it. The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a voluntary group of concerned people who have tracked and studied the establishment of centralised power and decision making in Europe. The European Union (EU) is enabling more concentration of power, with proportionately far fewer people deciding outcomes for all Europe, than at any other time in history. Napoleon and Hitler will have dreamed of this. "Europe Inc." gives insight into a carefully structured and systematic drive by transnational corporations (TNCs) to influence policy setting and outcomes in the EU. They work through their own exclusive lobby groups, such as the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), along with close cooperation of the large public relations groups - the familiar Burson-Marsteller and Shandwick clique. "Brussels teems with lobbyists" (pg 3). Centralised power is both harder and easier to control and influence. It is hard to get into the inner circle - you and I have less chance of influencing busy little Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and EU Councillors and bureaucrats - but champagne and caviar and lots of yummy "right connections" can make it well worthwhile taking time out to attend wee gatherings. And, once in, it gets wonderfully easy - geographically and logistically, to maintain influence. The inner circle gets to be the same small select group of self appointed "important" people. Even our own Mike Moore has been able to transcend out of the awful morass and trivia of irritating mundanities and rude NGO's to reach the haven of this wonderful upper ether of more pure and reasoned spaces. The Rewards Of Being A Gnome So who and how are the power brokers? Their organisations and company representatives are well documented in "Europe Inc." but the authors are quick to point out that they describe only the tip of the iceberg. Behind closed doors who knows who says what and when? The neo-liberal policies are familiar - the promotion of privatising everything so that lucrative assets and services can be owned to benefit the few, along with "deregulation", so that the owners can legitimately do away with petty rules that might interfere with their profit and powers. In virtually all areas the authors have noted policy being subordinated to the rhetoric of "market forces" and "international competitiveness". Eventually big snow balls smack up all the little ones - smack them to bits or merely squash over and incorporate them. Local industry dies, local communities are weakened and become powerless, and the environment is without protection. As noted, humans have this extraordinary exponential capacity to acquire - pure, boundless, unstoppable greed. This elite, already effectively governing Europe, pays itself well with mega-salaries. Any opposition is quickly dealt with - all perks gone and all inner access denied for ever. Simple. Being a gnome can pay handsomely - and if not you, then someone else will. So easy. Control credit and the rest falls over. Remove governments and rules and it is greedy heaven. The extremes that this group will employ to embed their freedoms have already surfaced with the discredited Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which is described in the book. Also included are case studies about specific issues such as a megalomaniac transport system proposed for Europe that will benefit business ahead of communities and the environment. Biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, and patenting of life forms are some of the issues discussed. There is detail about the implications of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the TransAtlantic Economic Partnership (TEP) with the USA, and the Maastricht Treaty and subsequent Amsterdam Treaty. This is "virtual government" stuff. Citizens' mandates are simply to be ignored. In the UK now there is debate about abandoning sterling to join the Euro currency system. Some 70% of the citizens oppose this but the PR campaigners are already assuming it is going to happen. Just as Maastricht was widely opposed. There is no debate or accountability. Things just happen - as prescribed. In the foreword, George Monbiot states that this is the most important conflict of the 21st Century - the battle between corporations and democracy. Rule by a self-selected "elite" or the democratic rule of elected citizens. There are very real threats to democracy, equity, social justice and the environment. Better knowledge of this process of usurping power is a start towards recovery of our hard won rights and duties. "Europe Inc." is a valuable contribution towards a better understanding. Foreign Control Watchdog, P O Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa. December 1999. Email |
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