The Ruling Elite Never Get It

Editorial / Peacewire  21jul01

The ruling elite never fully understands what is happening around them. Whether it's Marie Antoinette or Jean Chretien they live in an elite ghetto believing their power and prestige is what makes them right.

History is our witness to the indifference of the powerful elite: whether it is Berliners tearing down the wall; Philippinos ousting a corrupt regime; South Africans fighting apartheid; black Americans fighting slavery, racism and segregation; or Spaniards and internationalists fighting fascism, those in power will use whatever force they can to subdue the protests and to protect their own wealth and power.

Today's events in Seattle, Quebec City and now Genoa are part of the history of democratic uprisings. We are part of a long historical movement that has been moving all of us toward democracy over the centuries. Today's battles are against a corporate tyranny that wants to privatize and profit from life itself.

The battle of Seattle is the modern storming of the Bastille. It launched a global democratic movement. Quebec City is where the movement and its tactics were tested and legitimized. It is also where we began to believe that, just maybe, a global revolution was forthcoming.

The killing of Carlo Giuliani in Genoa will galvanize the belief that the fight is now on between corporate tyranny and global democracy.

Yes, revolution. And, with the killing of Carlo it will be difficult to make it a non-violent revolution.

Here in Canada and around the world people have come to a stark conclusion we do not live in a democracy, it is a corporate ruled world. Thus, we are compelled now to either dramatically and quickly take control of the power structures governing our countries, societies, our lives and our world, or we will soon find ourselves living in an undemocratic corporate ruled world with an environment that can no longer sustain us.

But the ruling elite and those who benefit from the current power structures do not get it. How can they get it when their lives seem just fine? For those of us who do not benefit from global capitalism we are mocked, patronized, suppressed, attacked and even killed when we rise up for what is our fair share.

Our leaders mock us when they say they are meeting to improve democracy. What does the right to vote mean when you have no home? What does democracy mean when basic health care or education is privatized? What does democracy mean when you lose your job because a corporation moves shop to find cheap labour? What does democracy mean when you pay a third or a quarter of your income to taxes while corporations and the rich pay little or nothing? What does democracy mean when corporations can buy political power while we must stand outside the Forbidden City? What does democracy mean when our countries spend more on preparing for war and cracking down on protests than they do on caring for our children? What does democracy mean when our choices are reduced to Coke or Pepsi?

It's our right to have water, food, a home, health care, education, childcare, a clean environment, a job, and to live in peace with our neighbours around the world. We will not let those rights be taken away from us. We will not pay compensation for lost profits to corporations in order to protect our environment from toxic waste. We will not pay global corporations billions to build a Star Wars system at the expense of our children's future.

Let's get it straight, today's fight is about who is in control - global corporations and a few hundred billionaires, or people. The fight is about freedom, the right to make a living, to protect our environment. Reminiscent of the struggle to separate church and state this struggle is about separating corporate interests from democracy.

The elite always under-estimate democratic resolve. In Seattle, Quebec and Genoa we resolved that the current state apparatus -- its parliaments and senates, and its militaries and police -- is no longer legitimate. Jean Chretien, Pierre Pettigrew, George Bush, Thomas d'Aquino, George Soros, Conrad Black or whomever else you might name in this business elite are not serving the public interests. They serve their own private and corporate interests.

Today we resolved that the WTO, the IMF, NAFTA, the FTAA, NATO and even the United Nations are illegitimate structures ruled by corporations. These institutions no longer have our consent. How can they when they only serve the private interests of global corporations?

Seattle, Quebec and Genoa are where we decided to no longer participate. For us there is no choice. If you believe, as many of us do, that private interests own our governments then what is there left to do but to fight back? That, my friend, is a revolution.