 |
| What do the
protests and riots around the world by NGOs have
to do with global taxation? Everything. Both are
key to implementing global governance. Rioting
and protesting 1) in late November at the WTO
meetings in Seattle, 2) in late January at the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 3)
in mid-February at the UN Conference of Trade
and Development in Bangkok, Thailand, and 4) in
mid-April at the IMF-World Bank meetings in
Washington, DC. |
In the final months before the September United
Nations (UN) Millennium Summit a host of outwardly
unrelated activities are occurring to prepare the
United States (US) and the world for the global
governance which will emerge from the Summit. Various
governments around the world, including the US, are
currently considering a global tax to fund global
governance. At the same time, well-funded NGOs with
interlocking boards are protesting and rioting in
concert to force world leaders at the Millennium
Summit to revamp the UN so it can administer global
governance.
Seemingly out of the blue in late November last
year, the ills of international trade came crashing
into our living rooms every night as we witnessed tens
of thousands rioting and protesting the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in Seattle. This was followed by
protests and riots against globalism at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in late January,
and the UN Conference on Trade and Development in
Bangkok, Thailand in mid-February. In mid-April the
world was again treated to protests in Washington, DCCthis
time over granting China permanent trade status in the
US and entry into the WTO, as well as the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund. These same groups
have announced they will protest the Democratic and
Republican national conventions this summer.
Less visible and seemingly unrelated is the
introduction on April 11 of Congress=
Concurrent Resolution 301 (H.Con.Res. 301), Taxing
Cross-border Currency Transactions to Deter Excessive
Speculation. The stated goal of the resolution is to
deter short-term foreign currency market speculation
where investors are basically betting on whether
currency values and interest rates will move up or
down through the Aadoption@
of a ATobin
style@ tax.
The profits of this speculation can be enormous.
Daily trading in currency markets increased from $0.2
trillion to $1.8 trillion in the period from 1986 to
1998. Today, roughly 85% of these transactions are
speculative. Congress, professing concurrence with
many other Western nations, has insisted with this
resolution that this type of trading has to be
curtailed claiming that, Asuch
volume and volatility of liberalized capital flows not
only threatens national currency devaluation and
financial crises, but disrupts the ability of nations
to establish equitable and just economic policies; to
intervene to protect their own currencies; and to
provide support for needed social and environmental
programs.@
The resolution calls for Aa
very small tax of between 0.1 percent and 0.25 percent
on each cross-border currency transaction (now
commonly called "Tobin-style taxes", as
proposed in 1978 by Nobel prize winning economist
James Tobin), or an alternate two-tiered version...@
This, however, is merely a smoke screen. In reality,
the very amount of money that is being made by
investors globally makes it highly unlikely that a tax
on the transactions would achieve much success in
limiting short range speculation of this kind.
What do the riots and the Tobin tax resolution have
in common? Both are designed to make global governance
(world government) possible. The primary obstacle to
global governance at this point is funding.
Interestingly, if today=s
daily trading in currency markets is about $2.0
trillion, the annual rate would be about $520
trillion. Simple math reveals that 0.25 percent of
$520 trillion is $1.3 trillionBand
that is only what is taxed on stock market and
currency transactions. Combining this with all the
other currency transaction from trade, vacations, etc.
and the number becomes staggering. According to the UN
Commission on Global Governance these tax dollars
would be used to fund the administration of global
governance by the UN. And, governance, as defined by
the World English Dictionary, is Athe
system or manner of government.@
The connection between anti-trade protests and
world government is less clear, at least at first
glance. The anti-trade, anti-globalism agenda of the
protestors and world government seems to contradict
each other. However, it is not international trade
that is opposed, it is free trade among
sovereign nations that is at issue. Tom Randall,
Managing Editor of the Heartland Institute, states
that these proponents are very much in favor of Atrade
within the one government they seek to control.@
The anti-trade, anti-globalism groups claim a huge
grass roots base. In reality, what appears to be a
cacophony of protest against trade with an extensive
support base is a whole lot of intertwined
organizations receiving enormous funding from NGOs
(non-governmental organizations) controlled by
relatively few select people. For instance, the Center
for Food Safety, the Turning Point Project and the
International Center for Technology Assessment are
located at the same address in Washington, D.C.
Moreover, the same person listed as the Founder of the
International Center for Technology Assessment also
serves as the Center for Food Safety=s
executive director, and sits on the Board of Directors
of the Turning Point Project, and is an Aassociate@
of the International Forum on Globalization.
There are also interlocking boards for the various
NGOs involved in the protests. For instance, Dave
Phillips holds positions on boards at the Earth Island
Institute, the International Forum on Globalization,
and the Native Forest Council; and Edward Harris is
the treasurer for both the Turner Foundation and the
United Nations Foundation. Denis Hayes is not only on
the boards of the Humane Society and the World
Resources Institute, he is also president the Bullit
Foundation which helps fund the one-world agenda and
was one of the founders of Earth Day. This list is far
from exhaustive. Nearly all of the NGOs funding the
anti-trade agenda are linked together in this way.
In addition, many of these organizations create
subsidiaries within themselves to appear greater in
number. The International Forum on Food and
Agriculture is part of the International Forum on
Globalization; the Center for Food and Safety falls
under the International Center for Technology; and the
Institute for Food and Development Policy and Food
First are the same organization. Some of these groups
were involved in the fiasco in Seattle. However, to
know who is really pulling the strings of power to
thrust us forward to global governance, one need only
follow the money.
An extensive analysis done by Truth about Trade, an
agricultural trade organization, clearly exposes the
fact that the trade protests are very carefully
organized and lucratively funded by a select few, ALess
than fifteen elite foundations seem to fund the bulk
of the anti-trade environmental extremists. A review
of twenty active anti-trade environmental groups show
each of them receive significant funding (to the tune
of more than $13 million!) from established
foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the Turner
Foundation, the Pew Trusts, the Mott Foundation and
the W. Alton Jones Foundation.@
In many cases, claims the report, Athe
foundations projects [are] aimed at establishing a
one-world government. They are joined in supporting
the hundreds of environmental, anti-trade, and
one-world government organizations by the Ford and W.K.
Kellogg Foundations as well as the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the
Packard, and Bullitt Foundations plus hundreds of
others.@
On December 7 last year, a week after the Seattle
riots, Secretary General Kofi Annan praised these NGOs
during his opening speech at the World Civil Society
Conference held in Montreal. AI
see a United nations which recognizes that the NGO
revolution, the new >global
people power,=...
is the best thing that has happened to the
organization.@
With huge funding and organization by the
one-worlders, the new global people power is flexing
its muscles in preparation for the UN Millennium
Summit starting on September 6. Armed with the NGO Charter
99: A Charter for Global Democracy, which lays out
their demands for global governance, they will attempt
to force the world leaders attending the Summit to
change the United Nations Charter, creating the world
government in the process. About the same time the
Tobin tax will be instituted to fund the global beast.
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