They're negotiating the final text for what might be the concluding treaty surrendering state sovereignty, and democracy, to the forces of corporatism.
According to Le Monde, the deal aims to sweep away all social, consumer and environmental protections that obstruct a new corporate world order. And it's being concluded safely out of the public's eye.
I sometimes wonder if they're not being a little too clever for their own good with these latest "trade" deals. All the secrecy, to the point where big corporations get drafts but congresscritters or MPs don't . . . whatever the theory, if the average person ever gets mad about this stuff they are not going to consider it legitimate or binding. I certainly don't.
ReplyDeleteYou can't manufacture consent if you're pushing stuff so rancid you're afraid to tell the public anything about what they're supposed to be consenting to. And you can talk points of law all you want, but if the political will is ever built to put in a government that opposes this stuff, the people won't care that it was signed by someone and has stuff saying you're not allowed to leave or whatever. They'll just think "I never heard of this goddamn thing when they were making it up, I never voted for it, so just get rid of it."
I tend to agree, PLG. If anything is going to spark an effective resistance it might be eventual outrage at this chicanery. It's going to take some sort of revolt to throw this over. Either that or we might descend into an odd form of 21st century feudalism.
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