Vice chairman of the Council of Canadians says transnational corporations have become the new "dictators

BETWEEN THE LINES Q&A
A weekly column featuring progressive viewpoints
on national and international issues
under-reported in major media
For release April 30, 2001
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Corporate Security State Protects Wealthy Elite from Citizen Dissent

* Vice chairman of the Council of Canadians
says transnational corporations have become
the new "dictators"

The week preceding the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, more than 2,000 delegates from around the hemisphere gathered at the People's Summit held in a large tent at Quebec's old port. There, they articulated an alternative vision to corporate-led globalization, the target of a growing global social justice movement in Quebec City and elsewhere. Labor leaders, environmentalists, human rights and indigenous rights activists were among the participants.

In the final session of the People's Summit, April 21st, French farmer Jose Bove, well-known for his 1999 bulldozing of a McDonald's restaurant in France, spoke to an overflow crowd. Also speaking was Tony Clarke, vice chair of the Council of Canadians, founder of the Polaris Institute and co-author with Maude Barlow of "Global Showdown," who strongly condemned the development of the "corporate security state."

Tony Clarke: Brothers and sisters, there are over 1,200 people in this room. But let me say that I have been outside in the last few moments and I have seen over 2,000 people outside this tent listening and participating in our event. We are a people on the move!

Four years ago, I wrote a book in which I talked about something called the corporate security state. Many people didn't quite understand what I was talking about then. The reason I started to write about that had to do with what had happened with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.) It was clear that after having gone through two free trade battles that we were not able to change anything by changing governments in this country. And the reason was that the corporations, through entities like the Business Council on National Issues -- which represents the 150 largest corporations in this country, had secured a lock on policy making and they were driving the agenda regardless of what party or change of government we were bringing about. And when we
talked about the corporate security state, we were talking about the role of government no longer -- if it ever did -- of serving the needs of people by providing security for its citizens, but (instead) serving the interests of transnational capital and providing security for corporations.

Since that time four years ago, we have been through the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which we defeated. We have confronted the World Trade Organization, (WTO) which was stopped in its tracks back in Seattle. And now we are confronting the Free Trade Area of the Americas at the Summit of the Americas (FTAA) and we're going to stop them in their tracks here in Quebec City!

I got to feel more deeply about the corporate security state having been on the streets of this city for the last three days. I can say that as we saw the last part of the chain link fence being put together. And as we moved around the streets throughout the afternoon and evening yesterday. And as I was engaged in an affinity group action in solidarity with some Latin Americans who were expressing resistance at a particular intersection near the wall last night. Where we had over 100 police in riot gear trying to keep us from moving. We stood together, stood in peace, exercised our right to non-violent civil disobedience and we pushed the police back!

The wall symbolizes the corporate security state. And behind that wall are not only the 34 heads of state and all of their bureaucrats and artillery, but behind that wall are the CEOs of many of the big corporations, many of whom have spent up to a half million dollars to be able to sit and have dinner and engage in the negotiations behind the wall. Shame!

But when that wall of another kind came down over 10 years ago, the Berlin Wall, it did not mean the end of the Cold War only. We did not see the end of militarization with the end of the Cold War. Instead, militarization has now become integrated into the international global economy with the trade investment and finance institutions. That is what we're up against, that is the new military force and that is why Quebec is under armed occupation today!

The new "enemy," brothers and sisters, is the people. Quite simply, the people. Not that the people have never been the enemy before, but massively, around the world, north and south, as well as within our own country here in Canada, it is the people that have become the enemy.

That's why they're tearing down our social programs and public services. That's why they're going after the right to health care, food, clothing, shelter. That's why they're going after the right to education, culture, social security and a clean environment. That's why they're doing it -- because they want to maintain this corporate security state and that requires military force.

But what we will be faced with in the next day as the leaders behind the wall come out with their pronouncements about a democracy clause, about human rights and about various kinds of humanitarian aid programs and cooperation -- all of that stuff is meant to be a smoke screen to take our eyes off the FTAA. They will tell us that the era of democracy has come to the Americas. They will say that the national security states and the military states have gone. The Pinochets, the Somozas have gone, they will say. But I say to you today that simply, what we have is the
replacement of the national security state with the corporate security state.

And furthermore, there is a new form of dictatorship emerging that we are all being faced with, and that is the dictatorship of corporations to use the investor state mechanism to strike down laws, policies and programs of democratically elected people.

And people ask why, and how can people engage in civil disobedience? People start to exercise their right to civil disobedience when they realize that there is no more moral and political authority in the institutions of governance.

That is why people are engaging in this form of resistance and this is why it is expanding and growing, led by the youth. But expanding and growing among many of our movements and sectors so that we are beginning to build a mass movement now for civil disobedience against a corporate security regime that has no more moral and political authority.

Let me close by saying that last night I felt a new style of resistance emerging, because as we were pinned down and hemmed in for several hours on all sides by the police, one fascinating and memorable thing happened -- and that is the neighbors started coming out of their homes. In some cases, they put signs up in the windows to express their solidarity. In other cases, they provided water for people that really needed it against the tear gas. In other cases, they came out and joined us, holding up the peace sign to the police! Later in the evening, when that skirmish had finished and we pushed the police back, we joined a throng of young people who were holding hands and were dancing through
the city up to a huge demonstration that occurred on Richelieu Street.
We joined with them and we sang over and over again this chant, and I'd like you to join with me in it again. You know the chant...So-so-so, solidarité. (Audience joins in) So-so-so, solidarité. So-so-so, solidarité...Thank you very much!

See related interviews from the People's Summit of the Americas and listen to an excerpt of this speech in a RealAudio segment on our Web site and archives at: REF="http://www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/btl050401.html">www.btlonline.org
for the week ending 5/4/01.

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Scott Harris is WPKN Radio's public affairs director and executive
producer of Between The Lines. This interview excerpt was featured on the award-winning, syndicated weekly newsmagazine, Between The Lines, for the week ending May 4, 2001.

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