THE RECORD
April 25, 2001

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

The famous words of showman P.T. Barnum: " A sucker is born every minute", come into my mind every time I see Gordon Campbell making his nonsensical promises on his TV ads. His words bring back the same promises of "wealth and prosperity" by Brian Mulroney in 1984 and again while selling the FTA in 1988. In 1986 we saw Bill Vander Zalm making the same promises. Both made a mess of things and departed in scandal and disgrace, leaving destruction and destitution in their wake. Now it is Gordon's turn.....

Mulroney's FTA, later increased to the NAFTA by Chretien, ruined whole industries with up to half million Canadians and about the same number of Americans losing their livelihoods. When NAFTA was being negotiated some US economists calculated that Mexico will get about sixteen times the benefits from the deal. Indeed, a lot of American and even Canadian industries moved to Mexico, in most cases into the free trade strip adjacent to the US border, called the Maquiladores, a cesspool of crime, prostitution, drug addiction, filth and violence. Our corporations love it, because they can forced the destitute people to work for peanuts, there are no environmental, or sanitation laws, and if workers try to organize they can easily end up dead in a ditch, without even an investigation.

The World Bank may be one of the world's greatest problem and poverty creators today, but even they can't ignore the numbers. They reported in March that the bottom 10 percent of Mexico's population earned 1.5 percent of the total income, while the top 10 percent made 42.8 percent. The report also shows that the number of working people living under the poverty line is 36 million, or 62 percent of the population. At the same time, economist Julio Bolvitnik of the Colegio de Mexico claims that the real figure is 71 million and 73 percent of the population. Other authorities claim that NAFTA has eliminated 1.5 million jobs with the closure of thousands of local businesses.

Some 2 million subsistence farmers have lost their lands, forcing them into cardboard shacks in city slums. Up till then they may have been dirt poor, but still could feed their children somehow with produce they grew, now they have nothing. This is what our economists call "the competitive equilibrium of the market place."

Much of that land has been picked up by major corporations who are holding them in reserve, waiting for the flow of irrigation waters from Alaska and Canada under the long planned NAWAPA scheme, enforced by NAFTA, the hoped for FTAA and GATS. This is where our friend Gordon Campbell and his crew come in with Ralph Klein of Alberta to open up the taps of Canadian waters flowing through a major artificial lake in the Rocky Mountain Trench and pumping stations in BC and Alberta to irrigate the US West and ultimately the US owned corporate lands in Mexico.

Those of us who fought against the original FTA in 1988 have predicted even then that the main purpose of this phony free trade has always been the impoverishment of Canada to cause panic and force access to our waters. Our dollar has been devalued so the multinationals can pick up and close down our industries, fire the workers and force them to beg for the sale of our resources.

Mr. Campbell and people who believe in his promises, many of whom also supported Mulroney and Zalm, keep on repeating how the Liberals will turn the BC economy around and create prosperity already enjoyed in the USA and in other parts of Canada under the same neo-liberal governments.

The problem with the BC economy, as it stands now is that it can not be turned around, because free trade ruined the many small industries that employed the majority of people. Even now, 90 percent of the people are employed by companies with less than 100 employees. I learned this from little bother Mike Campbell on BCTV some time ago.

Resource and export based industries are at the mercy of the so called markets, which are controlled by a few speculators. Then, if the buyers go broke the link is broken and the suppliers follow them. As it happened to us with the speculator caused Asian Flu, of course, blamed on the BC government.

Just last week there was a big coffee burning protest in Mexico by destitute coffee producers. Two years ago they were getting $1.40 for a pound of coffee, now it is .40 cents, while it sells for $5.50 in US stores. This is free trade and globalization. Break the small farmers and businesses, pick up the pieces for pennies and enjoy the profits.

The Liberal plan for BC is very simple. Sell off Crown corporations and privatize the civil service. Then, when the NAFTA ruling on the $900, million Sunbelt claim comes out in favour of Sunbelt, start selling BC waters and with the WTO rulings against public ownership of forests and resources, sell off the whole province. They can do it, because the regulations covering the rights and privileges of the BC Lands department already state that the "Minister may...." sell any part of the province without any public consultations, without hearings and against any opposition.

If anybody doubts this, please go to the nearest BC Lands office and ask for a set of their rules and regulations. The deregulated and privatized services and vehicle insurance will cost far more than now, but they won't be paid from taxes and like in the case of natural gas, the politicians who push these schemes argue that people should be proud to be part of that great wealth creating marketplace.

By the way, child poverty in the great economic miracle of Harris' Ontario jumped 92 percent during his regime. The figures for the USA are even worse. In Canada the lowest child poverty figures are in Prince Edward Island at 12.4 percent, next is BC with 13.8, Alberta 17.1, Ontario 17.5, New Brunswick 18, Saskatchewan 18.7, Nova Scotia 19.1, Manitoba 23.6, Quebec 23.8, Newfoundland 25.1.
Yet, according to propaganda BC has the worst economy in Canada.

Copyright (c) 2001, West's International