Full implementation of corporate rule via the SPP & NACC continues to be pushed ahead behind closed doors. If you're not sure what the SPP and NACC are, you need to find out. In short, they spell corporate fascism - or corporatism for short:

"Fascism should properly be called corporatism, for it is the merger of business with the state." - Mussolini (a guy who should know)

This is exactly what the SPP and NACC entail. It is the integration not only of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, but more crucially, the dissolution of all three nations' democracies, which are being replaced by one 30-member council of CEO's. Parliament and Congress will be "briefed" after the council of CEO's decides our collective fate. In other words, in the merger of business and the state, it is clearly the business elite that are on top in this consummation.

Sounds unbelievable - but it's happening. It moves us from defacto corporate rule, via a situation of corporate dominance over political processes, the media, culture and the economy, to fully institutionalized and formalized corporate rule. When the full beast is born, it will be nothing less than a fascist state run by the biggest corporations on the continent. Unless you are a big fan of Mussolini, I'd be more than a little concerned.

Fortunately, word is starting to get out. The secret cannot be contained. The back-door putsch will be challenged. This is the beginning of a very great struggle for democracy, for freedom, and for a decent life for all.

Now, let's get this on the election agenda!

There is no single more urgent issue for Canada (or the U.S. or Mexico). You could say that environmental issues, or issues of war and peace, foreign policy, health care or the economy are more urgent issues - but if we allow the SPP and NACC to be fully implemented, we will have zero say in any of these questions or issues, so they'll all be moot. Get it?!

The Security and Prosperity Partnership, signed in March of 2005 by Paul Martin, George Bush and Vicente Fox, has been called "NAFTA on steroids". It would be nice if it was only that bad. But putting aside for a moment the most pressing question about this complete sell-out to corporate rule - the question of whether we prefer fascism to democracy - let's just look at the SPP in light of an expansion of NAFTA, and what that means, for example, for our ability to decide as Canadians what we will do with the world's largest unconventional oil reserves - the tar sands - and our ability to set an independent national energy policy for the sake of environmental sustainability, as well as for the benefit of present and future generations of Canadians.

David Suzuki on the NAFTA trap:
"I think the terrible aspect of Canada is that we don't have a national energy policy that looks to long-term sustainability. We are going to need fossil fuels into the future but we have to develop those resources so we don't use them so rapidly and so we husband them for future generations.

Right now, we're rushing to ship them all to the United States and the free trade agreement says we can't step back.

If we decide, 'oh we're sending too much away, we have to save some for future generations', free trade says we can't do that. We're stuck, basically, providing for the United States. That's what the oil sands project is all about: providing the States with a more dependable source of oil than the Middle East."

And that's what the SPP is all about: securing U.S. corporate access to Canadian tar sands (remember, blood is being spilled for Middle East oil as we speak) and cheap Mexican labour. Prosperity for whom? It is also about "the new security environment." Take a guess what that means.

It is not about keeping terrorists out - the U.S. and Canada already have thousands of miles of unprotected coastline, and "Fortress North America" would not change that. It is about protecting the existing and rapidly concentrating distribution of wealth and power in the hands of the corporate elite - from....the vast majority. Who is the perceived enemy? The populace. The people of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Anyone who is not part of the elite of the business elite, or else is a happy servant of such elites.

"Fortress North America" and "the new security environment" is about locking down power in the face of a rapidly escalating crisis of legitimacy - the kind of crisis of legitimacy that brought down the other evil empire, the Soviet Union and the entire Leninist experiment. Corporate rule (neoliberalism, globalization, corporate monopoly capitalism, or however you prefer to call it) in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the entire Western world, as well as the broader world, is now in a deep crisis of legitimacy, just as authoritarian Marxist-Leninism was in a deep crisis of legitimacy in 1989.

The objective behind the SPP is to lock down power while it is still possible, while consolidating control over the biggest oil reserves in the hemisphere - the tar sands - and gaining full access to a flood of cheap labour from Mexico. It is the desperate plan of Western corporate powers who see their global dominance being slowly eclipsed by the rising BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and others) and who also see their hold on power in the heartland of the Western empire as frightfully tenuous and under threat by domestic popular discontent. This is why it is a back door putsch: it is coming from a position of weakness. The power elite are scared. If they brought this plan to the light of day, through Congress or Parliament, it wouldn't stand a chance. They know this, and have said so explicitly. It is out of fear and weakness that this is being done in secret, with near total media blackout, behind the backs of Parliament, Congress, and the people of these three nations. If we let it slip through however, it might be more difficult to reverse than we may imagine. And it might be more of a nightmare than we'd care to imagine.

In Canada, it is the Council of Canadians - the grassroots citizen's coalition that killed the MAI before 90% of the populace had even heard of it (there's a sign of hope!) - the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and the Canadian Labour Congress who are leading the fight. See their websites for further information, or look up Vive le Canada, or NotAColony.ca. There is a fast-emerging coalition arising to stop this.

Let's stand up now, or learn to live on our knees. We can start by informing ourselves, and by making this a topic that is discussed from coffee shops to churches to websites and living rooms across the continent. We can start by making this the priority issue that it is.


Rice and Chertoff in Ottawa for SPP Ministers Meeting February 23
Find out what they won't be telling you about North American integration.

INTEGRATE THIS! Teach-In - Ottawa, Canada, March 30 - April 1, 2007

INTEGRATE THIS! A Citizen’s Guide to Fighting Deep Integration

Deep Integration

» Opening up the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
By Stuart Trew, The Hill Times (02/19/2007)

* Secret Banff Meeting of CEOs and the Defense Establishment : Militarization and the Deconstruction of North America

Agenda - North American Forum Sept. 12-14, 2006

Attendees - North American Forum Sept. 12-14, 2006

Fortress North America: Deep Integration in The New Security Environment

North American Union: Time to Re-Focus

Overview: Geopolitics 2006-2008