There is a growing recognition that all the problems highlighted by the global Occupy movement are related to the control of governments by a small group of the economic elite. The question is, How are we going to address the problem? In this article, I argue that we need to develop a strategy for combining our individual efforts to systematically undermine the power of the global elite to control governments.

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Plan locally, act globally by Ton Haex
 
This is the first of a series of articles that will outline a strategy for creating a world system that supports just economies and ends war in the process. Basically, the strategy rests on the recognition that the central problem in the world today is the corruption of governments, particularly the U.S. government. Its goal would be to combine the individual efforts of citizens in "democratic" countries to divest the global economic elite of the power to dictate the choices citizens have of those who will represent them. If successful, such a strategy would effectively prevent the economic elite from dictating the domestic and foreign policy of the nation, as well as of its partners and client states.

The next several essays in this series will elaborate on specific elements of this strategy.

Part 1:

When you mention the developing "New World Order" to people who still think there is a two-party system in the United States, eyes roll. Anything you have to say afterward is dismissed before it is out of your mouth. Many Republicans are closer to understanding what the "New World Order" is than are partisan Democrats. They recognize that there has been a fundamental change in the way the federal government operates, starting with the first banking bailout. They acknowledge the effects of financial manipulation of the economy, but mistake it for a socialist takeover by Democrats rather than the fascist coup that it is. Partisan Democrats believe that the only problem is Republican politicians, and the solution is merely to elect more Democrats, whom they equate with "champions of the People." Any debate about partisan politics is therefore a distraction from the real issues.

The obvious truth is that both parties have been systematically corrupted by powerful financial elites who put their interests over those of the rest of us. Therefore, one of the objectives of any strategy must be to find a way to get partisans to understand that neither party represents them. Liberals and conservatives are already beginning to work together on selected issues. If we can connect these issues to a larger agenda and convince partisans that the issues are more important than whether a candidate is a Republican or a Democrat, it is possible to develop a strategy to take back America for the People. 

Congress already ignores the clear will of the People on many critical issues. The only way we can change that is to work together. We must agree that our overarching goal is representative democracy. If we can put aside ideological differences, it is possible to pressure our elected representatives to act according to the common will. Americans have proven capable of putting the candidate over the party when given a reasonable choice. They will do it again, if they understand that it is the only way to make their votes count. We can worry about consensus on other issues after we get the attention of Congress by taking out a few entrenched corporate puppets.

With election campaigns having become largely a matter of who can generate the most funding, and with corporations and the wealthy free to spend unlimited sums to influence elections, only a fool would think that voters can influence decisions in Washington before strong campaign finance reform is instituted. We must find a way to guarantee that members of Congress know their jobs depend on supporting a Constitutional amendment to effectively ban corporate expenditures to influence elections, while limiting the amount individuals can spend to buy the candidates of their choice. The only way to do this is to make support for such an amendment the litmus test in every Congressional campaign where a candidate of any party can be found who will pledge to amend.

The first goal for assuming popular control of the United States government and restoring national sovereignty to all nations is to define the fundamental problem in a way that most people agree on. We then have to educate average Americans and citizens around the world about the danger of allowing the U.S. government to be controlled by the economic elite. This common understanding is necessary to find a solution, since Americans must speak with one voice to merit the claim of representing the will of the People, and citizens of other nations must stand with them against the same global financiers who control their governments, directly or indirectly. It is critical that those with the biggest audiences outside the corporate media understand and communicate the urgency of putting aside partisan, national, cultural and religious differences to save humanity from perpetual economic slavery. Ultimately, even the survival of human civilization as we know it may depend on reining in the global financiers. It is evident, for instance, that a failure to check the power of corporations in the fossil fuel industry, which have trillions of dollars in assets, will doom millions as a result of increasing global climate instability.

For those who question the existence of a relatively small group of individuals so powerful that they can manipulate the global economy, consider this:

1) 147 of the largest international corporations hold 40% of the assets and collect 60% of the profits of over 43,000 transnational corporations. Almost all of the top 25 are financial institutions. The most influential individuals in each are also members of the Boards of Directors of others. They are at the top of the pyramid of the global economic elite, whose power we must attack.

2) Through interlocking directorships and financial resources that dwarf those of even the United States, international financial institutions have come to control key economic sectors, including energy, telecommunications, insurance, and health care. In addition, they control a financial industry that generates 40% of U.S. GDP--wealth that the common citizen never sees.

3) Six corporations control virtually all of American mainstream media: Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, Newscorp, CBS and NBC. Moreover, corporate donors heavily influence the content of "public" TV and radio in the U.S.

4) It is estimated that there is more than enough money held offshore by wealthy citizens to pay off the U.S. debt.

Most Americans have almost no knowledge of how the economy really works, having been brainwashed into buying the myth of the free market. This is the essential assumption of the Washington consensus. The other demonstrably false tenets of this neoliberal model are that globalization is inevitable, that endless growth is possible, and that national economies struggle in it only if they do not adhere to financial and monetary policies that allow the rich to accumulate enough wealth--which magically trickles down to those who are willing to work hard enough.

This is an economic model that in the final analysis is nothing but a scheme cooked up by international financiers to consolidate their control. That consolidation, as the financiers see it, will progress until they essentially run everything through their proxies in governments and the corporate intermediaries they own.

Ironically, as taxpayers around the world accumulate massive debt owed to the very individuals who crashed the global economy, the global economic elite counsels austerity. This leads to slashing of government services, job loss in nations with no industrial base or with excess capacity in the face of reduced demand, and, finally, to the sell-off of government assets to pay the interest on the accumulated debt. As job losses mount and wages and salaries decline, the tax base is undermined--a problem that is magnified by corporate and individual tax breaks for the rich. This cycle is, moreover, ultimately self-defeating, since the worker, in contrast to paper money, is the only source of real wealth.

Americans are starting to grasp the enormity of the fraud perpetrated on them, but are far from organizing effectively to do anything about it. It is considered a major victory that Larry Summers, one of the chief architects of the global Ponzi scheme in derivatives, was not selected to succeed Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Fed, passing once more through the revolving door between Wall Street and government. A real victory, however, would have been to see both Summers and his co-conspirator, Timothy Geithner, former Secretary of the Treasury under Obama, put in prison. Yet, none of the principal criminals responsible for the global economic meltdown has been prosecuted. And, meanwhile, "too big to fail" banks have used taxpayer bailout money to buy failed financial institutions for pennies on the dollar, making them even more powerful.

Here is the difference between most socialist nations and those that by definition are fascist: In a centralized socialist system, the political class generally controls the economic elite, and they work in tandem to promote the interests of both. Venezuela and some other Latin American countries are notable exceptions to this rule.

In fascist countries, by contrast, it is the other way around, with the economic elite controlling the political class. Note, too, that fascism does not necessarily require a dictator, which is the only element missing in the U.S. to complete the common stereotype of the system. We have no dictator in the U.S., but we do have a small oligarchy of powerful individuals who have no concern for the good of the nation or its people, or for the good of any other nation. There is no need for a dictator in a fascist nation whose people willingly give control of their government to an economic elite in exchange for promises of endless wealth. The "shining city on a hill" envisioned by Reagan was built on sand. It was a mirage, becoming more distant the nearer Americans were told we were coming to it. The collapse of that shining city was inevitable, as the whole system it represented was based on credit backed only by worthless derivatives.

If fascism is defined as corporatism, then all the elements are present in the United States to make us a fascist nation. A police state apparatus is in place. People have been brainwashed into accepting an extreme version of nationalism known as "American Exceptionalism." The government has imposed the most intrusive surveillance methods ever devised. War, always regarded by most as inevitable, has become endless.

Until recently, these elements have been accepted as the price of security, false as the sense of it might be. What most activists aware of these problems have missed, however, is how the elements are related to one another. They must understand those relationships, so that they can connect the dots for the population at large. That is the basis for developing a strategy for the progressive movement as a whole. Fortunately, recent events have made such a comprehensive understanding much easier.

To reach our goal of establishing representative democracy, our strategy must build on the partnerships we are forming across ideological divides on critical issues such as domestic surveillance, the NDAA, and the pursuit of world domination by endless war. All of these are related to the global war on terror, which is in reality a global war on national sovereignty and democracy. Its economic counterparts are the Trans Pacific Partnership and the proposed Trans Atlantic Partnership with Europe.

While general recognition of the danger of these massive free-trade agreements has been slow to build, the phony outrage of European governments over U.S. corporate spying revealed by Snowden has put the brakes on expanding such agreements. That gives us a chance to make Americans realize that the ultimate goal of free-trade agreements is to make national governments subject to the demands of transnational corporations, regardless of the interests of the people of any of the subject nations. That should alarm both liberals and conservatives, who hold national sovereignty as an unshakable principle of peaceful coexistence, on the one hand, and economic self-determination on the other.

Neoliberalism and neoconservatism are two sides of the same coin. The first seeks to establish global corporate dominance by economic coercion, while the other is a policy of militarily destroying any nation that stands in the way. The majority of Democratic and Republican politicians support both.

While Americans continue to divide themselves into liberals and conservatives, and argue nonsense with one another about who is responsible for destroying the American dream, the corporate criminals responsible remain at large, laughing all the way to their respective banks. If there are an "us" and a "them," they are the 99% versus the 1%. However, we cannot claim to represent the 99%, if we cannot persuade those who fail to understand that, despite any differences, we have vital common interests. We have to abandon the model of politics as civil war and build alliances based on mutual interests, if we are going to use the power of our numbers to ensure that our children will know the real freedom that comes from the absence of economic coercion. That is the nation Americans were promised and that the rest of the world aspires to. Another world is possible, but it will require forging a united international front against fascism and war.

This article was originally published on the website of Soldiers For Peace International. It may be reproduced unedited without prior permission of the author.

Authors Website: http://www.soldiersforpeaceinternational.org

Authors Bio:

I am a former Army and VA psychiatrist who ran for the US Senate in 2010 on a campaign based on a pledge to introduce a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood and regulate campaign finance.

A constitutional amendment banning corporate campaign expenditures and limiting or abolishing individual donations spent to influence elections is an essential step to getting back on the path to democracy.

I am convinced that the only way to do this is to make support for such an amendment a campaign issue. That way, we can easily see who wants to get in Congress to represent We the People and who want to serve our interests over those of corporations who currently control the US government.

I believe that it is possible to end war, address climate change and provide health care to all if we can prove that democracy is possible. Unless we can awaken enough Americans to the fact that their government is pursuing an agenda of corporate imperialism that will enslave them along with the rest of the world if not reclaimed by We the People, we will leave our children with a legacy of pain for which we cannot be forgiven.

Ultimately, endless war is a symptom of a disease that will destroy human civilization if not eradicated. There is no "us" vs "them." Our fates are intertwined. None of us gets out alive. The question is, how will we have lived?