THE RECORD
February 16, 2000

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Since I started on these series several major corporate mergers have taken place, some even dwarfing the AO/Time Warner affair. One of these was the merger between two major British - US drug companies with 105,000 employees. 15,000 of these unfortunates will get their walking papers under the usual "restructuring and downsizing" schemes, while corporate profits and the cost of their products will continue to rise.

Even a few years ago such mergers couldn't have taken place because of long lines of anti-trust laws brought in after the laissez faire debacle a hundred years ago. It wasn't too long ago when, among others, the US government forced the phone giant AT&T to sell off some of it's affiliated companies. Now they wouldn't dare to make a beep and the company is bigger than ever before and still growing. So do many others, out of control and out of sight.

According to the New York based Global Policy Forum the global total of mergers was 94 in 1980. By the next year this number grew to 1,062. By 1989 it was 10,857 and in 1999, - 32,088 to a total of 255,404 for the 20 years. Meanwhile costs, prices and poverty grew in leaps and bounds all over the globe while the mergers resulted in the firing of millions. The main object of these mergers is to increase corporate stock values and profits by expropriating the lives and properties of their employees and of the thousands of independent businesses that they ruin.

The picture of the cross border mergers is no better. In 1980 there were 14, in 1989 - 3,158, and in 1999 - 9,655 transnational mergers to a 20 year total of 68,838. The mainstream of the economic and political community rejoices over these numbers, claiming that mergers make the corporations that own them "more competitive on the global marketplace." However, the few real economists who are still left are wondering how long before the whole world will be under the dictatorial monopoly control of one corporation, or the oligopoly of a few. We can see it happening in our forest industry. Mergers, huge investments, political propagandizing with unlimited budgets while firing thousands of the real owners of their resources.

Since it has a very large resource base still left, the World Bank considers Canada to be the second richest nation on Earth with every Canadian being worth very close to $1 million US. So where is our money, you may ask? If we are so rich, why can't we have top notch universal health care, free education, generous pensions and full employment? Ask Mr. Chrétien, he might sick the Mounties on you for being a subversive.

The answer is very simple. Our wealth is in the hands of multinationals controlled from abroad, mainly from the USA. They come into the country literally penniless, borrow newly created money from Canadian banks, take over Canadian resources, Canadian industries and fire the Canadian workers. Then, with their legalized "national status," pay off governing Parties like the PCs of Mulroney and the Liberals of Chrétien and Campbell and build pipelines to siphon off the benefits from the sale of our own resources. Meanwhile their mouthpieces, like the Fraser Institute, the great Preston Manning, the head of CCRAP, and the so called business analyst Mike Campbell complain that these poor corporations are forced to pay too high taxes. So let's get rid of governments and give them free hand to build prosperity.

Sergio Marchi retired after a very undistinguished career as Canada's Trade Minister last Fall. Although the MAI talks had started under his predecessor John Competition Manley, Marchi was the sacrificial goat who was supposed to sell the benefits of the Agreement to the Canadian public. Luckily for the country, every time Marchi appeared on TV with his pro-MAI sermons he not only called attention to the potentially disastrous consequences of the MAI, but his obvious phony message made people mad.

As a reward for his pathetic efforts Mr. Chrétien appointed our Sergio as Ambassador to the Geneva based WTO over the heads of professional negotiators. On February 8 came the news that Marchi will be the Chair of the WTO Council on Trade and Services for the next year. In other words, he'll head the negotiations for the privatized globalization of all present government services, like education, Medicare and just about everything publicly owned by democratic societies, including water, sewers, prisons, and you name it.

Many of these mergers by service providers are for the purpose of global expansion and the control of resources and of the human race. Over the years US education and health service providers have been getting ready for the takeover of Canadian institutions. In their recent statements on the now progressing WTO Millennium Round they're already gloating about the profit potentials of future Canadian markets, proving their and our government's intentions, while our people line up at food banks.

We can see this Americanization beginning in the recent legalization of private health care facilities by the Klein government in Alberta, a move soon to be followed by Harris in Ontario. Canada, the second richest country on Earth, is for sale for a few directorships to quisling politicians.

How will Parliament vote when Sergio Marchi presents his great wealth creating WTO sellout packet? They can hardly wait. With the exception of the 20 or so NDP MPs, they'll break records in approving it.

Copyright (c) 2000, West's International