Big business calls the shots now

SILVER DONALD CAMERON

NOT LONG AGO an old friend e-mailed me, wondering why there is “so little media attention to the SPP?”

SPP? I responded. Whuzzat?

“Security and Prosperity Partnership with the U.S. and Mexico,” came the response.

That got me to digging around. And the SPP turned out to be a familiar old beast from the black lagoon, hydra-headed and slimy. SPP is the new name for the old American project of Manifest Destiny — absolute control over the whole continent.

The project has plenty of other names: NAFTA-Plus, Deep Integration, the North American Union. “North American Union” sounds groovy, sort of like the European Union. But the EU is an assembly of 27 mid-sized animals, while the NAU would be a union of two mice and an elephant.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership is largely the child of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which is about as “Canadian” as the National Hockey League. Members include such maple-draped beavers as General Electric, General Motors, Fedex, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Pratt and Whitney and Shell — all with the word “Canada” appended.

The Canadian Council of Collaborators might be a better name. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is the local chapter of the international capitalist conspiracy, and like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others, its mission is to eliminate any impediments to the ability of international capital to make money whenever and wherever it likes. National boundaries are just another impediment, along with labour unions, minimum wages, environmental regulations and consumer protections.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership has its roots in 9-11, which forced the American-Canadian border to close for a short time. Former American ambassador Paul Cellucci later commented that the new U.S. attitude toward its borders was that “security trumps trade.” To keep the border open for trade, Canadian Council of Chief Executives president Tom d’Aquino proposed “more fundamental harmonization and integration” with the U.S.

Fifteen months later, the council announced a North American Security and Prosperity Initiative. It wanted a “new deal” — shared defence and security, and a comprehensive agreement on agriculture, metal, minerals and energy. Soon afterward, the council created a 30-member CEO Action Group to advance that agenda.

Next, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations set up a tri-national Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, co-chaired by former finance minister John Manley and vice-chaired by d’Aquino. In March 2005, the task force reported, calling for a continental security perimeter, a common external tariff, a common border pass and a North American energy and natural resources strategy. Same agenda. And it wanted this done by 2010.

A group of people inside a common border, with a common tariff and a common passport, protected by a common defence force and sharing the natural wealth of the continent — that’s effectively one country, not three.

Visit Silver Donald Cameron’s website at www.silverdonaldcameron.ca

More at:
http://thechronicleherald.ca:80/NovaScotian/850197.html

(Source: http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20070730015244796)