PPG | Issues | Corporatism

21st Century Corporatism

Introduction

Whereas the corporate state in Mussolini's Italy saw corporations subordinate to the state from 1922, the fascism of some of today's Trans National Corporations (TNCs) are in many cases holding a higher authority than the nation state. The "regeneration of conquest" ( Scruton 1996) which dominated Italian, German and Spanish policy for the fascist years does not fall too far short from a description of todays TNCs in which mere citizens are informed it is the globalisation era.

During this corporatism era of today, the research of international institutions, national governments and powerful individuals governance issues reveals just how much the movement from the 1922 fascist nationalist political state utilising corporations has evolved into fascist corporations using international organisations and national states. The devices used by corporations; notably fear and terror of poverty (sanctions of commodities), hunger (in the case of Iraq the oil for food programme), thirst (Middle East), lack of education (African sub sahara) and disease (AIDS) would give credit to Beveridges 1942 Report let alone a TNC looking for public funding or support in Third World countries.

The 'public' era of "Western" Governments, or to be more accurate, as Castro determined, "Northern hemispheric" governments saw the post war developments of the Welfare State installed with healthcare, education and pensions being the highest internal priorities of Northern Governments in the 20th century. They were created, installed, run and controlled by nation states.

Until the 1970s, every government assistance was given to this ideal, until the burgeoning cost of delivery became too much to bear, heightened by the 1974 oil crisis, and at a time when the ideology of the New Right came to fruit which destroyed the nation state services of welfare. The New Right saw merciless cuts to all areas of the state, including the Welfare State, to fend off national bankruptcy in the United Kingdoms case, alongside favourable loans from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF).

One theme which increased in velocity during this period was the increased inter-dependency of corporations and national governments. Quasi autonomous governance and Trusts ruled over former welfare state providers. But there was other lucrative areas of the state too. Nowhere was this more true than in the oil industry, where most Northern oil explorers deal direct with the host nation's oil company, which is, in effect, a contract supplier. The U.K. had the North Sea full of oil and gas and the flotation of British Petroleum was born.

Dealing with a countries government direct, gives oil companies a natural access power over its contemporaries by going to the heart of government. This divine, or sharia right of access to the host country also gives tremendous kudos for the home country of the oil company, and implies within a contractual need for the oil explorer's home country support. If the oil explorer is successful, after all it would mean taxation income for the explorers government, through Corporation tax directly, or via shareholders indirectly. There may be further opportunities which the explorer country may be able to exploit, such as additional engineering skills etc that could help to improve the view of shareholders, corporations, and reduce the perennial problem of the unemployment register. In short there might be votes in it.

This hierarchy of corporate / Government dynamics has increased dramatically under the New Right ideology in the Northern hemisphere and the greatest sufferers have been in the East (or as Castro would state South) with the greatest casualty the former communist states of Russia and China.

Religion

One of the reasons for the underdevelopment of the South, in comparison to the North, is not just post WW2 military might, control and colonial ties, but also involves religion. One of the largest religions in the southern hemisphere is Islam.

The cleric whose governance is constrained by religious beliefs does not necessarily translate well to the non-believer or infidel. Contrast that with the various intricate "marketing" of free market principles in the most efficient and effective search for the corporate heaven of money, materials, machinery and manpower in that ever elusive position - location. This means that you have the best expertise of unrestrained Northern capable capitalists dealing with the poorer Southern nations with the least expertise and constrained (by religious morals and beliefs) in obtaining the best for their citizens.

Another contradiction at this point is the currently in vogue materials (oil) that are in most demand together with the cheapest manpower (South) in the same location, while the money and machinery is in the North. In other words the North needs the South's materials and manpower at the right price, so it can sell its money and machinery (technology) to the same markets from which the raw materials were derived. India being a classic example at present.

Northern national governments in the meantime need to keep tight economic controls in order to keep its balance of trade payments level. The example in the United States at present means that any short term crisis of confidence (i.e. terror attacks) could further undermine capital markets and provoke a further withdrawal of investors confidence, with resulting unemployment and depression.

CO-DEPENDENCY

There is therefore, an unprecedented level of co-dependency than ever before between TNCs and nation states, both in the North and Southern hemispheres. In the North, the co-dependency between the British Government, BP and British Gas is necessary for the power that it brings, namely the security of future fuel supplies and distribution by a series of pipelines from the Middle East, and the choice of push button technology which means that for example BP/B Gas aka British Government could in theory switch off the entire fuel supply to any transit country by simply pressing the "off" switch. In return for this co-operation, the British Government could use for example political and military expertise in order to ensure the "success" of the installation.

PUSH BUTTON FOREIGN POLICY

Developing countries in Asia such as China, India or Pakistan may well soon be at the mercy of such a push button foreign policy, although of course the actual event would not be conducted by the British Government, but by the politically expedient TNC. The TNC may be ruled by shareholders who can be considered rational actors, but then the shareholders may not be in full knowledge of all the facts, as Enron demonstrated so dramatically. Alternatively the TNC may have a single majority shareholder with a bias. Such control with a single investor leads to a position where an irrational actor type could purchase or own a majority stake in such a TNC purely for the purpose of attacking a target country with huge implications, for example Israel.

TURKEY

How critical the power of push button foreign policy is, can be demonstrated in the case of Turkey. The EU has granted the Trans Caspian pipeline operator BP with special case consideration which supersedes all national law in the transit countries it goes through. Effectively the pipeline route, which cuts Turkey in half, now separates Turkey into three different states, and is ruled by two different laws; Turkish national law and BP corporate law.

Although the EU is desperate to obtain low cost oil and gas into the heart of the EU, it cannot allow Turkey EU membership at present due to the poor record of Turkish human rights, but the Trans Caspian pipeline will be ready for development in Turkey by 2004/5.

The recent "terrorist attack" against the British Consul and HSBC bank should therefore be seen with some scepticism, since enormous wills are at work, with the U.K. stating it will do "everything in its power" to get EU membership for Turkey. That would be enormously useful for the Trans Caspian pipeline to receive funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The timing of this attack gives one another clue to the cynical nature of the attack. As stated, the attacks were in time for the Trans Caspian development in 2004/5, but if I was the strategic bombing commander of a world feared terrorist organisation I would wish to create as much mayhem as possible. The most politically adept timing for that was the build up or arrival of G W Bush in London, not his leaving.

Secondly, if you take a comparative view from the Palestinian issue against the war on terror, you will note that prior to the Turkish attacks, four former Israeli secret service (Shin Bet) leaders openly criticised Israeli military use against Palestinians, raising doubts of the militaristic methods used in the "war on terror." Given that one of the key demands of the alleged perpetrators of the Turkish bombings; Al Qu'eda, is the creation of a Palestinian state and one questions why Al Qu'eda would Target Turkey at that time.

LATIN AMERICA

The corporate battlefield for the "regeneration of conquest" or power has been amplified in the former Cold War billets of Latin America. John Pilgers groundbreaking journalism on the corporate misuse of power by BP in Colombia saw how a corporation hired paramilitaries to move villages and kill protestors to build a pipeline in a disgracefully unacceptable method of fascist corporatism which embarrassed the British Government upon its public release.

The American trans national Coca Cola is now facing similar allegations in a Miami court of alleged conspiracy to murder Trade Unionists from the Coca Cola bottling plants in Colombia

SUMMARY

The weakening of nation states, and the unharnessed rise of corporate power has led to the point of co-dependency (this author asserts corporations will soon surpass it) to the extent where all single commodity countries can be deemed high risk for its citizens, with the threat of push button foreign policy, economic sanctions et al.

Chile's position as the worlds number one copper producer at the birth of the computer industry mass production cycle could easily have been as much the reason for the coup which killed its President Allende, and installed the regime of Pinochet as a Northern friendly leader in the 1970's, as the question marks over its Socialist leanings.

The paradigm shift from Socialist nationalised organisations to larger Trans National Corporations through the twentieth century, combined with the supporting New Right ideology, has brought us not a war on terror, but a welcome to twenty first century corporatism. In the U.K. the initial public offering (IPO) of the two conglomerates British Petroleum (BP) and Britsh Gas sought not just funding for the national government, but also to develop a socialisational facet to the British investor, many investors who were first time. It also transferred duties and obligations to the two bodies, which would reveal themselves as politically and socially unacceptable, as Pilger was later to reveal.

Nor was the Thatcherite Initial Public Offering (IPO) exclusive to the U.K. In Chile, Pinochet re-nationalised the banks in order to write off huge American company debts, transferring the losses to the people of Chile (A warning to Iraq)

Indeed writing cheques to TNCs by National Governments in the name of its citizens is now commonplace, by nature of tax breaks, turning blind eyes to Health and Safety of its citizens environment, or overseas, through its export credit guarantee department in what is surely one of the most corrupt areas of Government. An area in which a cleric should find himself totally out of his depth.