Corporatism Sinks Its Claws into Democracy's Throat

Anyone who thinks that democracy is not under attack in Canada and elsewhere is, frankly, delusional.  Anyone who thinks that we're not under attack by corporatism and its political allies is naive.  Anyone who thinks this is a war we can win without hitting back is steeped in nihilism.

A new report from the Washington-based, Center for Corporate Policy, reveals how corporate giants have partnered with private-sector spooks and government intelligence services to spy on activist groups and NGOs.  In Canada we know them as our federal government's spy agencies and the energy producers and pipeline operators they serve against opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline.

We are strangers, outsiders to this corporate-political state.   Within it we have no place, no voice, no vote.  We've already been labelled enemies of that state.  If we don't fight back, this fascist state will supplant our democracy and we will become, essentially, stateless.

The CCP report is entitled, "Spooky Business, Corporate Espionage against Non-Profit Organizations."  It serves as an indictment against a range of corporate malefactors from Burger King to WalMart, BAE, Bank of America, McDonalds, Monsanto and Chevron, among others.

The top target of the forces of corporatism is, not surprisingly, Greenpeace.

In the US, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have partnered with private industry via an entity called InfraGard.

But it's not just the FBI. According to the new report, "active-duty CIAoperatives are allowed to sell their expertise to the highest bidder", a policy that gives "financial firms and hedge funds access to the nation's top-level intelligence talent. Little is known about the CIA's moonlighting policy, or which corporations have hired current CIA operatives."

The report concludes that, due to an extreme lack of oversight, government effectively tends to simply "rubber stamp" such intelligence outsourcing:

"In effect, corporations are now able to replicate in miniature the services of a private CIA, employing active-duty and retired officers from intelligence and/or law enforcement. Lawlessness committed by this private intelligence and law enforcement capacity, which appears to enjoy near impunity, is a threat to democracy and the rule of law. In essence, corporations are now able to hire a private law enforcement capacity - which is barely constrained by legal and ethical norms - and use it to subvert or destroy civic groups. This greatly erodes the capacity of the civic sector to countervail the tremendous power of corporate and wealthy elites."

Gary Ruskin, author of the report, said:

"Corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations is an egregious abuse of corporate power that is subverting democracy. Who will rein in the forces of corporate lawlessness as they bear down upon nonprofit defenders of justice?"