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policies adopted by these international institutions allowed from unique, with dozens of other corporations poised for a corporations to lower their costs in several ways. They reduced similar collapse. consumer, environmental, health, labor, and other standards. Following the outrageous and tragic attacks of September 11, They reduced business taxes. They facilitated the move to lower Bush launched a "War on Terror", raising the listed number of wage areas and threat of such movement. And they encouraged _ potential target countries from three to nearly 50, most having the expansion of markets and the ‘economies of scale’ provided by exportable energy resources. With Iraq (holder of the world's larger-scale production."* second-largest proven petroleum reserves) high on the list of All of this has led to a globalised economy in which (again enemy regimes to be violently overthrown, the Bush quoting Brecher and Costello): "All over the world, people are administration's Terror War appeared to be geared toward making being pitted against each other to see who will offer global corpo- the world safe for the expanded reach of US oil corporations. rations the lowest labor, social, and environmental costs. Their Meanwhile, new laws and executive orders curtailed jobs are being moved to places with inferior wages, lower busi- constitutional rights and erected screens of secrecy around ness taxes, and more freedom to pollute. Their employers are government actions and decision-making processes. using the threat of 'foreign competition’ to hold down wages, It remains to be seen how the American populace will react to salaries, taxes, and environmental protec- these new developments. Here again, a lit- tions and to replace high-quality jobs with tle history may help us understand the temporary, part-time, insecure, and low- options available. quality jobs. Their government officials are justifying cuts in education, health, and HURDLES IN THE PATH other services as necessary to reduce busi- The Populism of the 1890s failed for two ness taxes in order to keep or attract jobs." Corporations, main reasons: divisiveness within, and co- Corporations, no longer bound by nation- optation from without. While many al laws, prowl the world looking for the best no longer bound by Populist leaders saw the need for unity deals on labour and raw materials. Of the national laws among people of different racial and ethnic world's top 120 economies, nearly half are 4 backgrounds in attacking corporate power, corporations, not countries. Thus the power prowl the world racism was strong among many whites. of citizens in any nation to control corpora- lookin for the Most of the Alliance leaders were white tions through whatever democratic process- farm owners who failed in many instances es are available to them is receding quickly. best deals on labour to support the organising efforts of poor In November 1999, tens of thousands of and raw materials. rural blacks, and poor whites as well, thus students, union members and indige- nous peoples gathered in Seattle to dividing the movement. "On top of the serious failures to protest a meeting of the World Trade ' unite blacks and whites, city workers Organization (WTO). This mass Of the world s top and country farmers," writes Howard demonstration seemed to signal the 120 economies, nearly Zinn, "there was the lure of electoral birth of a new global populist uprising ° politics... Once allied with the against corporate globalisation. In the half are corporations, Democratic party in supporting three years since then, more mass not countries. William Jennings Bryan for President demonstrations—some larger, many in 1896...the pressure for electoral smaller—have occurred in Genoa, victory led Populism to make deals Melbourne, Milan, Montreal, with the major parties in city after Philadelphia, Washington and other city. If the Democrats won, it would cities. be absorbed. If the Democrats lost, it In January 2001, George W. Bush would disintegrate. Electoral politics and Dick Cheney took office, brought into the top leadership the following a deeply flawed US political brokers instead of the election. With strong ties to the oil industry and to the huge agrarian radicals... In the election of 1896, with the Populist energy-trading corporation Enron, the new administration quickly movement enticed into the Democratic party, Bryan, the roposed a national energy policy that focused on opening Democratic candidate, was defeated by William McKinley, for federally protected lands for oil exploration and on further | whom the corporations and the press mobilised, in the first subsidising the oil industry. massive use of money in an election campaign."* Enron, George W. Bush's largest campaign contributor, was the Today, a new populist movement could easily fall prey to the seventh largest corporation in the US and the 16th largest in the same internal divisions and tactical errors that destroyed its world. Despite its reported massive profits, it had paid no taxes in counterpart a century ago. In the recent American presidential four out of the previous five years. The company had thousands election, populists faced the choice of supporting their own of offshore partnerships, through which it had hidden over a candidate (Ralph Nader) and thereby contributing to the election illion dollars in debt. When this hidden debt was disclosed in of the far-right, pro-corporate Republican candidate (Bush), or October 2001, the company imploded. Its share price collapsed supporting the centrist Gore and seeing their movement co-opted and its credit rating was slashed. Its executives resigned in by pro-corporate Democrats. disgrace, taking with them multimillion-dollar bonuses, while Meanwhile, though African Americans, Asian Americans, employees and stockholders shouldered the immense financial Hispanic Americans, European Americans and Native Americans loss. Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in corporate history up to have all been victimised by corporations, class divisions and that time, but its creative accounting practices appear to be far _ historical resentments often prevent them from organising to Corporations, no longer bound by national laws, prowl the world looking for the best deals on labour Of the world's top 120 economies, nearly half are corporations, not countries. NEXUS ¢ 13 and raw materials. OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com