CONTENTS
(1) THE ILLUSION THAT WE FIGHT DIFFERENT BATTLES
(2) WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US
(3) THAT THE BATTLE IS ONE: WILL IT BE THE PUBLIC INTEREST OR THE CORPORATE INTEREST THAT PREVAILS?
(4) INTRODUCTION TO THE NEXT QUICK SKIRMISH: BASF’S HERBICIDE-TOLERANT WHEAT IS ON THE MARKET FOR SPRING SEEDING, THE CORPORATE FOOD SUPPLY
(5) ALL OUR COWARDICE AND SERVILITY
See also: Connections: WHICH corporate interests?
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(1) THE ILLUSION THAT WE FIGHT SEPARATE BATTLES
We are fighting a war, yes.
IT SEEMS as though we are fighting for water, or for good governance, for health, for human rights, for peace, for the environment, for justice, or whatever. … WRONG. That’s an ILLUSION.
Look at the last emails. It is clear that we are fighting against corporate takeover of the public interest. THAT ONE THING lies behind our work; each battle is very much a contribution to the defeat of the corporate interest in favour of the public interest.
– the weapons we use are nonviolent resistance and information
– the war is being fought here in Canada, not “overseas”
– the same battle is being fought equally hard by people in the U.S.A.
– in wars past (and present) the young men are sent off to fight the fight
– in this war, adults are rightfully assuming responsibility, side-by-side the youngsters
– we fight in comfort, from our homes and computers
– I hate to tell you this, but you are a guerrilla – “a person who engages in irregular warfare”!
– some, like Elizabeth May, Maud Barlow, and others (me, if I have the chance!) protest peacefully (potently) in the streets or on Parliament Hill.
– we do not fight under one great leader like Field Marshall Montgomery in World War 2. Leadership is dispersed. We take our turns. We engage here, there. We teach. We learn. We create opportunities and also take advantage of opportunities.
– it is non-violent resistance “so rich in ideas”, in the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela.
– I propose that we adopt the “white shirt” as our uniform, as the East Germans did in their resistance, following the model of Gandhi whose unarmed multitudes brought down the military forces of the British Empire. Dressed in their home-made white cotton. A hard and lengthy battle with relatively little killing and bloodshed brought down the Empire.
– the “killing” ways of war require no creativity. It is the way that people with very few “smarts” fight, as far as I can see.
Although lacking in bloodshed, our fight is as deadly serious as any.
As discussed in earlier emails, corporatization is what fascism is all about. Militarism. The corporate interest wants to appropriate what belongs to everyone. In the end it resorts to force to get what it wants.
… But really it’s us. The corporation is people, many with good intentions. It is a SYSTEM that WE have helped to create. We have believed in it, worked in and profited by it, bought its products and continue to buy its products.
Now it’s up to us to bring about correction, before it destroys us.
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(2) WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US
Under “EMPOWERMENT” (“Categories, right-hand sidebar) is the quote from Pogo:
“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US
… Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. …
There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us. Forward!”
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(3) THAT THE BATTLE IS ONE: WILL IT BE THE PUBLIC INTEREST OR THE CORPORATE INTEREST THAT PREVAILS?
Look at our recent work.
1. Troop Exchange Agreement: Corporate control of the American military through “contracting out” makes the Agreement doubly worrisome.
Accountability is lost under contracting out to corporations. Access to information also disappears when public services are contracted out, as has been found in Canada with water (e.g. Hamilton ON).
2. Attempted corporate control of the water resource in Canada (B.C. Rivers) leads to anger and protest.
3. The Multiple Sclerosis initiative highlights corporate intrusion into Government: the Government-established CIHR funnels money to the pharmaceutical companies by the simple mechanism of funding “research that has the potential for commercialization”. The huge public interest in the removal of cause of disease is not funded.
4. The MS initiative reminds us yet again of corporate intrusion into the knowledge base of the society. It is citizens who built up the universities over the decades. Citizens own them and are responsible for them. But corporations have walked in and are helping themselves. The society is absolutely dependent upon a sound knowledge base; corporate interests are professional propagandists. The “communications specialists” in Government now mimic them.
5. As Peter Lougheed, former Premier of Alberta said in the Tar Sands documentary, “The Tar Sands belong to the people of Alberta, not to the oil and gas companies“.
6. The rivers and water that are being depleted and poisoned by the corporate interest – another form of takeover of the water supply, enabled by complicit Governments. The water belongs to the people, not to the corporate interests. It is up to us to defend and protect.
And so on. I don’t think there is any doubt about what we’re fighting. It’s ONE thing, corporatization, in various guises.
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(4) INTRODUCTION TO THE NEXT QUICK SKIRMISH: BASF’S HERBICIDE-TOLERANT WHEAT IS ON THE MARKET FOR SPRING SEEDING, THE CORPORATE FOOD SUPPLY
Hah! Why do I remind you of the connectedness of what we do? … So you will not think I am a jack rabbit, hopping from issue to issue.
We are needed, quickly, in another skirmish. There is a brief, open window — between today and the onset of spring seeding of crops (our food supply).
The snow is quickly disappearing off the fields; seeds are being purchased.
I hate to even tell you, because we fought with others so hard and for months, to stop the introduction of Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant wheat (“GMO wheat”, or “Roundup Resistant Wheat”) a couple of years ago. …
At the time we knew, that although we were successful against Monsanto, the Federal Govt (CFIA (Cdn Food Inspection Agency)) had quietly licensed the herbicide-tolerant wheat of the giant chemical company, BASF. It’s called “Clearfield Wheat“. The promoters say it is not “GMO”; it is created through a process called “muta-genesis“.
I was hoping because there is much else to do – I was hoping that BASF and the CFIA would take a lesson from the Monsanto experience and not dare to proceed with the Clearfield wheat. No such luck!
I tuned in to a rural radio station on the weekend. BASF is advertising its herbicide-tolerant wheat for this spring’s seeding. This is very much about the corporate takeover of the food supply, a battle being fought ferociously around the world. … more in the next email. … IF you still have some fight left in you!
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