Smedley Butler and the Business Plot

How corporate America nearly destroyed democracy in the United States in 1933

It is unsurprising that powerful vested interests in business and government, as well as many within the media and academia who are devoted to these powers, attempt to shape perceptions, distort or conceal information, and do so with considerable success, even in relatively free and ostensibly democratic societies. What is almost amazing, however, is that at least one event of the greatest significance in the past one hundred years, was successfully erased from history and the peoples' awareness almost completely. I am talking about the little known "Business Plot" of 1933, in which a number of the most powerful of the American business elites, including individuals from General Motors, Prescott Bush, grandfather of George Bush Jr., J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller dynasty, attempted to seize the White House by military coup, and to install a fascist regime in America. Americans as well as people across the Western world, indeed, the world as a whole, should know about his dark scheme by the business elite to destroy democracy, a scheme which would have been successful but for the integrity and courage of U.S. Major-General Smedley Butler.

We are extraordinarily fortunate that the business elite chose the wrong man for the job - that Smedley Butler, very intelligently, listened to the plotters' plans and went along with them long enough to find out who was involved, and then went immediately to Washington, and testified before Congress as to the atrocity which was being planned by some of the most powerful U.S. citizens and business "leaders."

This was the last straw for the highly decorated General. He wrote what should be required reading for all high school students, "War Is A Racket," in which he declared he has been a "gangster for capitalism" for over thirty years, on three continents. After having been corporate America's man for so long, leading the charge to secure territory, resources, cheap labour and markets for U.S. business interests, he was asked to go one step further in the betrayal of his conscience, and perform the same function at home: destroy democracy and install a business-friendly dictatorship. His stomach turned, his conscience revolted, and the rest, is history - or it would be, if it had not been erased.

In order to correct this dark and dangerous silence, it is important that Smedley Butler's tale now be told. In his own words:

“The U.S. has routinely destroyed democracy throughout the globe while its leaders spout words about spreading democracy.

“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism....

“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

“During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

– Major-General Smedley Butler, 1933.


"According to retired Representative John W. McCormack, former Speaker of the House, if the late Major General Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps had not been a stubborn devotee of democracy, Americans today could conceivably be living under an American Mussolini, Hitler, or Franco.

"An ironic aspect of the conspiracy General Butler unmasked is that few Americans have ever heard about it, or even know anything about the general.

"Former Speaker McCormack told the author, “In peace or war he was one of the outstanding Americans in our history. I can’t emphasize too strongly the very important part he played in exposing the Fascist plot in the early 1930’s backed by and planned by persons possessing tremendous wealth.”

"The crucial events of the plot to seize the White House unfolded between July and November, 1933, with hearings before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee begun in New York City on November 20, 1934. On November 26 the committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard, and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935, the committee submitted to the House of Representatives its final report, verifying completely the testimony of General Butler.

"There is strong evidence to suggest that the conspirators may have been too important politically, socially, and economically to be brought to justice after their scheme had been exposed before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee of the House of Representatives. The largely anti-Roosevelt press of the New Deal era scotched the story as expeditiously as possible."
(From The Plot To Seize the White House, by Jules Archer)


The story resurfaces:

In July of 2007 an American investigative journalist, John Buchanan, broke through more of the fog surrounding these largely buried events of critical importance to our understanding of both history and on-going political-economic realities of power in society. What he found was that in addition to the details already outlined here, it is established beyond any doubt that Prescott Bush, George Bush Jr's grandfather, was indeed involved in this grim and sinister plot. After this reporter again broke through the icy chill of silence and forgetfulness, a U.K. newspaper picked up the story, the Guardian, followed by the BBC, which did a full documentary on the subject. Since that one brave and determined journalist sought and found the truth, and unearthed the story in July 2007, there has been a growing revelation and interest surrounding this most astonishing, or at least, striking of events. Smedley Butler should be read and honoured, and the Business Plot both studied, and more importantly, learned from. The next coup against democracy may not be so direct, but no less dangerous. The price of freedom is in truth, eternal vigilance. This is neither paranoia nor "conspiracy theory" but simply a clear and honest understanding of history.

Research summary:
J. Todd Ring
(Free use with attribution)

(My apologies for the primitive formatting of this article. I'll polish it later. Content first.)


Articles, videos and books:


The White House Coup - BBC Documentary: US Business elite attempt to install fascism in America, 1933

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml


The Plot to Seize the White House, by Jules Archer

http://www.wanttoknow.info/plottoseizethewhitehouse
http://www.amazon.com/Plot-Seize-White-House-Conspiracy/dp/1602390363/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3462640-4229555?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173652210&sr=8-1


By the way, the Bush family really does have a history of fascist sympathies and Nazi collaboration - something we might want to know: (Search "John Buchanan" Bush YouTube, if this link is deleted)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D6fxyOtVeI


In Search of History - The Plot to Overthrow FDR - History Channel

http://www.amazon.com/Search-History-Plot-Overthrow-Channel/dp/B000FKP0NM/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2


War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti-Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0922915865/ref=pd_cp_d_2?pf_rd_p=316286001&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000FKP0NM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=13W9ZK7QKVFS2SMPXX4C


Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813109574/ref=pd_cp_d_3?pf_rd_p=316286001&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000FKP0NM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=13W9ZK7QKVFS2SMPXX4C

An Important Date for the Calendar!

Stop the Serfdom for the People Program! Actually, the SPP is officially called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership," but I like my title better, and I think it's a more honest name.

Please join this important international grassroots conference in Ottawa March 31 - April 1. Activists, journalists, political representatives and academics will be in attendance from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

This is possibly the most urgent issue facing the three countries of North America at this time. If we don't stop the SPP, there will be no Canada left, no sovereignty for any of the three nations, and no democracy: this is the institutionalization of corporate rule. Let's get it together, left and right, and all who support democracy over fascism, to stop this very quiet corporate coup. Even though few have yet heard of the SPP, momentum is already building to defeat it. This can be stopped. Get involved now.

On a lighter note, ever read Horton Hears a Who, by Dr. Seuss? Well, as in the Seuss story, we need every voice if we are going to win on this one. This is not a small event. The SPP formalizes the dominant power of big business over the political process. This is, quite frankly, the next step in the destruction of democracy in the Western world. Take action now. Stop the SPP.

If you have any doubt as to the significance of the issue, please see the excellent article by Toronto lawyer Paul Bigioni, below: Power to the People (in Suits).

If you are new to the SPP, one of the best introductions can be found in the Council of Canadians' Integrate This! A Citizen's Guide to Deep Integration, also linked below. I would urge everyone to take the time to investigate this issue for yourselves. It is of utmost urgency.


INTEGRATE THIS! Teach-In

*** ZNet |Economy | Power to the People (In Suits)

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

NDP condemns Harper's push to sell out Canada

Fast-Track to Fascism: The SPP in a Nutshell

Full Implementation of Corporate Rule Via the SPP & NACC

North American Union: Time to Re-Focus

The Paranoid Right Is Partly Right

YouTube - CNN- Lou Dobbs: North American Union Update

*** YouTube - Lou Dobbs, CNN: 12 U.S. Legistatures Move to Oppose SPP

Connie Fogal: Canadians, we are losing our country - YouTube video

YouTube - Ron Paul on the North American Union

Freedom of the Press & the Internet

Why it matters, what is to be done:

The internet has become our town hall - particularly so since the mainstream media is neither a free press nor democratically controlled, but is dominated by a very few corporate voices who control the media by controlling advertising revenues, or who simply own the media outright. (When asked how corporations control the media, Noam Chomsky replied, "They own it. You don't ask how corporations control GM!") Given that free speech and freedom of the press are essential prerequisites to a functioning and authentic democracy, and given that freedom of the press cannot coexist with the present framework of corporate media monopolies, the internet, therefore, has become vital to democracy.

The Context: Media cartels do not constitute a free press

“To make informed decisions, citizens need a wide range of news and information. They also need access to a broad and diverse array of opinions and analyses about matters of public interest. Journalists are important providers of such information, as are the information media that transmit such material. This is why the freedom of the press is widely recognized as a central pillar of any democracy…

“Public debate based on differing views is the cornerstone of democracy, and the news media provide a vital space where that debate is carried out. The right of proprietors to voice their opinions on their editorial pages has long been considered fundamental to freedom of the press. Difficulty arises, however, if one proprietor owns so many media outlets that his or her opinions crowd out others…

“It is impossible to have democracy without citizens and impossible to exercise meaningful citizenship without access to news, information, analysis and opinion. The core of this report addresses crucial factors related to the exercise of citizenship. The public interest in healthy and vibrant news media is as important as the public interest in the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.”

- Final Report on the Canadian News Media,
Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications,
June 2006 (original emphasis)

“A free press, free expression – it’s the last line of defense for all the other freedoms.… No matter how imperfect things are, if you’ve got a free press everything is correctable, and without it everything is concealable.”

- Tom Stoppard, Night and Day.

Large multi-national corporations already control the vastly greatest share of the mass media. Five corporations control the bulk of Canadian media. Six corporations control over 80% of the broadcast media in the U.S. Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, satellite and cable are controlled by a handful of corporate giants, with only the periphery of media outlets left to represent or give voice to the 99.9% of the population that is not the media-dominating elite investment class. With media monopolies such as this, there is no free press, save for a few voices on the margins that reach only a small percentage of the population. The media barons effectively shut out the majority of perspectives, save for those that fit closely enough with that of the investment class. In terms of mass-communication networks, the only free press we now have in either Canada or the U.S. is the internet. And now the corporate communications monopolies want to take control of that too.

The Corporate Take-Over of the Internet Must Be Stopped

As has been said, the internet has become our town hall, as well as our town square: it is the place where open and free democratic debate and discourse can still happen, can still flourish, and does still flourish; and this is particularly important since the mainstream print and broadcast media are dominated by a handful of corporate voices, who all speak within the same extremely narrow band of opinion and perspective. What the telecom giants want, is to take out town hall and town square, and erect a twenty foot fence around it, topped by razor wire, leaving only a few gates for their friends: those who have the resources to pay the steep toll fee, and who furthermore, do not excessively offend the lords of the town square. This is unacceptable, and this is anti-democratic.

In the U.S., a legal battle is under way to preserve freedom of the press and free speech on the internet. Three corporate telecommunications giants have been busy lobbying political representatives to pass legislation that would grant them control of the internet, as effective gatekeepers, making the net, not a free superhighway of information available to everyone, but a high-fee toll highway, with the highest bidders having full access, and the rest of the populace having their voices muted by the inability to pay the steep tolls. This is one facet of a larger struggle to protect democracy, free speech and human rights from a broad-scale corporate assault. It is critical that the internet remain free and open to all.

While in the U.S. the campaign to save the internet has become a broad-based mass movement of real power, in Canada, the issue is not even on the radar. But in Canada as well, the combination of corporate lobbying by telecommunications giants, deregulation and the oligopoly of telecom corporations, is likewise threatening the free, open and democratic nature of the internet. This cannot be taken lightly. There is virtually no space for democratic debate or dialogue in Canada or the U.S. now in absence of the internet. The internet must be kept a public domain, dominated by none, and accessible to all. If we had had any sense, we would have guaranteed the same for the broadcast media of tv and radio. It’s not too late to return to that issue. And it’s not too late to save the internet, if we act now.


Save Community Access Programs

With large numbers of people having limited or no access to the internet, these people, these citizens, are functionally shut out of the democratic debate and dialog. They can be spectators, but not participants; and democracy is not a spectator sport: democracy, by definition, cannot function or exist without citizen participation. To allow large numbers of people to be shut out of the democratic forum is unacceptable for a democratic nation - or one that aspires to be so. For this reason, free, universal public access to the internet should now be regarded as a basic right in every democratic society.

The Community Access Program of Canada, which provides free, universally accessible internet access to people who would otherwise not have this, is therefore vital, and is a matter of upholding basic rights and freedoms for all. The funding, which has been eliminated, must be re-instated now.

Conclusion

Are we or are we not a democratic society? If we answer yes, or if we value democracy, regardless of how we answer that question, then words and sentiment must be combined with action. Rhetoric alone will not do. These basic values are too important to leave to speech writers and PR teams. They require commitment and they require tangible expression in our communities, nation and world. The CAP program is one such expression of the reality of our commitment to democratic values. The preservation of net neutrality and free speech on the internet is another, even more fundamental. If we do value democracy, we need action on these issues now. Otherwise, any pretense about democratic values should be abandoned.

J. Todd Ring,

March 16, 2007

Save Community Access Programs

Your Media: Preserve Freedom, Diversity, Independence

* Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

Canada Sleeps Through War to 'Save the Internet'

Tory documents cast doubt on Net neutrality

BBC Reveals U.S. Military Plans to Control Internet

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Electronic Frontier Foundation

irrepressible.info

OpenNet Initiative

CitizenLab

Psiphon

Tor Privacy Software

Journalists Question Media Ownership in Canada

CRTC delays hearing but mergers still on

Canadian Media Ownership Too Concentrated - Poll

Canada’s Media Monopoly

Concentration of Newspaper Ownership: Royal Commissions of 1970, 1981 - no action yet

Final Report on the Canadian News Media: June 2006

Defend the Press

PR Watch

Project Censored

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

The Power of Nightmares: BBC Documentary Shreds the War on Terror Myth

The Responsibility of Intellectuals

Manufacturing Consent - excerpts

Necessary Illusions; Thought Control in Democratic Societies - Noam Chomsky

Excerpts from the Final Report on the Canadian News Media,

Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, June 2006

“Watch dogs that do not bite”

“Two federal agencies administer the legislation and regulations that have an impact on the corporate practices of Canadian news gathering organizations. The Competition Bureau is responsible for matters relating to the Competition Act, including media mergers that might affect competitive markets. The CRTC regulates the broadcasting system; changes of ownership that involve broadcasting licences must have its approval...

“A history of the approach of the Competition Bureau and the CRTC in their respective treatment of news gathering organizations and news media is available in a paper prepared for this Committee by Professor Richard Schultz.[15] It concludes that the Competition Bureau has had a narrow focus on advertising markets and the CRTC has largely set aside its concerns about news and information. Instead, the CRTC focuses on “cultural” issues, i.e., policing Canadian content….

“As for media concentration and cross-media ownership, the current regulatory system offers little protection against particular adverse effects of ownership concentration on the diversity of voices….rules to prevent high levels of concentration of ownership of media properties, either in particular regions or within the country as a whole, do not exist....

“The media’s right to be free from government interference does not extend, however, to a conclusion that proprietors should be allowed to own an excessive proportion of media holdings in a particular market, let alone the national market. Yet the current regulatory regime in Canada does little to prevent such an outcome….

“As this report has pointed out several times, an important element of a free press is that there be a variety of different sources of news and opinion. This can only be guaranteed if there is a plurality of owners. The country will be poorly served if as few as one, two or three groups control substantial portions of the news and information media in particular markets or within the country as a whole….

“The Committee’s 40 recommendations are guided by the conviction that the more owners, the better. In the Committee’s view it is imperative that the Broadcasting Act and the Competition Act be amended. Without changes to these two pieces of legislation, it will be impossible to develop a mechanism that allows discussion of the public interest in media mergers…

“It is impossible to have democracy without citizens and impossible to exercise meaningful citizenship without access to news, information, analysis and opinion. The core of this report addresses crucial factors related to the exercise of citizenship. The public interest in healthy and vibrant news media is as important as the public interest in the rights and freedoms of individual citizens."

- Final Report on the Canadian News Media,
Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications,
June 2006

What Must Be Done:
When corporatism and Leninism have both failed

Part Two: Building a World Federation, from the Grassroots Up

The U.N. is failing and in need of fundamental reform - people everywhere are rightly skeptical about its present and future role in the world. Corporate and financial power is clearly out of hand, to say it mildly, and great powers, in the traditional sense of powerful nation states, clearly also have to be reigned in. In this context, it is becoming clear to all that only the global human community, the people of the earth themselves, united in solidarity across our great and wondrous diversity, joined together by some few commonly shared principles, can reign in the unwieldy and anti-democratic, anti-ecological destructive powers which now dominate the earth.

The mood of humanity, if you can make such a broad statement, and I believe one can with a fair degree of accuracy (see the World Economic Forum global poll 2002), is one of deep concern for the future; deep discontent with the present state of global power, economy and relations; deep disillusionment with existing forms of power and institutions; and showing a clear and growing realization of the need to both deepen democracy, and simultaneously build bridges of world solidarity for mutual protection and creative action.

Can humanity agree upon a few basic principles, while allowing for mutual respect of our differences and diversity? I think this is not only a reasonable proposition, but one that has already been demonstrated. We have international agreements such as the Kyoto Accord, ratified by 141 nations, the Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion, ratified and implemented around the world, the Ottawa Treaty, banning landmines world-wide, ratified by the majority of the world's nations, and the Geneva Convention, to name just a few examples of human agreement and consensus internationally. We have the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, for example, which the vast majority of the world have accepted as a basis for international unity and understanding.

The basic principles of freedom, democracy, equality, peace and sustainability are acceptable to the vast majority of the global village. It is only the rogue financial and corporate powers, along with an unfortunately large number of political elites from many countries around the world, and a relative handful of extremists, who cannot or will not accept these principles as binding. The populace, as a whole, and world-wide, in virtually every nation on earth, already accepts these principles as foundational for any decent human society. Agreement is already there. It is solidarity that is lacking. Alienation and division must be overcome. We already agree on enough to build a better world. It is the unity across diversity that is missing, but that is changing quickly.

Some form of world federalism is needed now. Before this statement can be misunderstood, it must be said that I am not advocating the further institutionalization of hyper-concentrated global power. We do not need any further centralization or concentration of power in the world - in fact, what is needed is a radical decentralization and democratization of social, political and economic power. At the same time, however, it is clear that we need a greater degree of solidarity and cooperation amongst humanity and human communities world wide. We need thus, some form of global federation in which power is democratically held and concentrated at the grassroots level.

After the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle of 1999, just such a grassroots-based global network of solidarity began to emerge. Individuals and popular movements world-wide began to recognize the need to respond to social and environmental issues in a more comprehensive, systematic and globally linked fashion, with greater international solidarity, across all lines of geography, issue-orientation, race, class, gender and religion. Seattle `99 was a watermark, a turning point. Since then, much has been done to create and develop such a decentralized, democratic and popular-based unity amid diversity: a global network of peoples' movements. This phenomenon shows great promise. It may be the only thing that can reverse the trend toward hyper-concentration of global power, the destruction of human rights, freedom and democracy, and the destruction of our home on earth.

The shining star to emerge out of this growth of grassroots global solidarity is the World Social Forum. The WSF is not a body with any direct political or economic power. It is a gathering, a place of networking and bridge-building. It is a place for individuals and popular movements to come together to exchange information and ideas, to discuss and debate, and most importantly, to generate greater solidarity and cooperation among peoples, communities and movements world-wide for the creation of a better world. It is not a centralized power, but a place where decentralized, democratic grassroots constituencies can discuss, come to certain agreements as to shared values and goals, and together, without the need for a centralized authority directing them, in the spirit of equality, freedom and democracy, bring about greater cooperative and effective action for the benefit of humanity and the earth. Noam Chomsky recently remarked that the World Social Forum is presently the most promising phenomenon on the planet.

Along with 1) the pervasive global questioning and challenging of all forms of power in society and all previously held assumptions, 2) the emerging spirit of democratic citizens' empowerment world-wide, 3) the increasing realization by humanity of the interdependent nature of our world, 4) the dawning awareness that unity and diversity are not intrinsically contradictory, but in fact can be mutually enhancing, 5) the rapidly developing and growing global solidarity among diverse peoples, groups, communities and social movements world-wide, and 6) the rapidly unfolding genuine human renaissance which is perhaps unprecedented in its depth as well as its breadth; I would have to agree with professor Chomsky: the World Social Forum is one of the most promising things happening on earth at this time.

Along with the World Social Forum, we clearly also need a renewal and a deepening of democracy world-wide, in individual communities, states, provinces and nations. And, I would say, in order for this to be possible, a federation model, rather than a model of centralized power, needs to be developed or restored: otherwise we have the outer forms of democracy, but the democratic forms hide the real nature of power in society, which is oligarchy.
This needs to be done at the local level - the level of communities - and also at the state/provincial level, the level of the nation-state, and internationally. We need, in sum, a decentralization and democratization of power in society, along with a corresponding increase in global solidarity and cooperation: we need a decentralized and democratic world federation of some form.

It must be noted that it is absolutely critical that not only overt formal political power be decentralized and democratized, linked in a global federation of democratic communities (and perhaps for a time yet, also nation-states), but also economic and cultural power. We must swiftly, peacefully, and absolutely decisively deal with the exisitng hyper-concentrations of media power, and the parallel and even more fundamental hyper-concentrations of economic power - in the hands of banks, financial institutions, large corporations, family dynasties, old boys clubs, and trade agreements and bodies that effectively concentrate global power in the hands of the international investment class (such as the WTO, NAFTA, the FTAA, the SPP and the WEF).

Although their vision and example was imperfect, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine both held a clear and sensible, and in some regards, a noble view of the world as it could be - as can be yet. Thomas Paine, the primary political theorist for the American democratic revolution, along with Jefferson, took his inspiration from the Iroquois Confederacy, not the ancient Greeks, as is commonly believed. The Iroquois Confederacy still offers perhaps the best model for the future of humanity. Five nations lived in peace in a grassroots, community-based federation for mutual protection and prosperity. The people of these nations lived with greater peace, freedom and authentic democracy than almost any other peoples before or since. Jefferson himself admitted that the new American democracy was a pale imitation of the superior, more free and equal, and more democratic form of government which he saw in these native communities. Despite their faults, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, along with the Iroquois Confederacy, offer us now among the best and clearest inspiration for a better world, as we together look to our future on earth, and together face the ominous and simultaneously hopeful trends of the present.

Jefferson saw it clearly: either keep political power decentralized and out of any one group or individual's hands (beware the ostensibly benign oligarchs), or watch tyranny arise, and freedom, democracy, human rights and even decency of life, decay and die. He also saw clearly that if the increasing concentration of economic power in the hands of the corporations is not checked, democracy will be overthrown by stealth: consumed and digested by the dominant power of money. He was right on both counts. We are late in heeding his warning, but not too late. There is still time to rescue the dream of democracy from the threats which surround her. There is still time to found a beautiful and just, free and fair world for humanity on earth. It is not to late. But we must act now.

J. Todd Ring,
February 2007

What Must Be Done: When corporatism and Leninism have both failed - part 1

A "Must-Read" Short List: Author's Picks

Overview: Geopolitics 2006-2008

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