Consolidating Monopoly Right
The focus of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is holding its annual meeting January 20-23 in Davos, Switzerland, centres on the monopolies and the powerful private interests they represent and their desire to consolidate their power over the states and socialized economies throughout the world. The ruling autocrats, in particular those found in the U.S.-led imperialist system of states, are convinced that the way to block the people from coming to power and forcing a social revolution in the relations of production is to consolidate the ruling elite’s hold over the state institutions, the public authority and the entire socialized economy. “All power to the monopolies!” is the call of their rich owners and patrons. All power to monopoly right to deprive public right of its power to curtail monopoly right.
The world is in crisis because the ruling oligarchy who own and control the global socialized means of production and economy refuse to relinquish power and control to the actual producers, the working people who produce all goods and services and the value on which the world and masses depend for their survival. The ruling elite are determined to deprive the people of their right to establish a public authority that meets the needs of the times in harmony with the concrete conditions of a completely socialized economy.
The WEF focuses its attention on how to maintain within the grasp of the ruling oligarchy the power to deprive the people of their rights, of which the most important is the right to deprive the ruling elite of their power to block the transformation of the relations of production to bring them into harmony with the socialized means of production and economy.
Part of this campaign against the people is to deprive the working people from developing any aspect of the economy that serves to meet and guarantee the rights of the people without the control of the monopolies and their relentless drive for private profit. The WEF in its agenda scans every niche of the economy, especially social programs, public services and environmental proposals to determine how to bring them under the control of the monopolies either to serve their narrow private interests for a maximum rate of profit or eliminate them altogether as an unnecessary drain of public value away from their private coffers.
The WEF’s goal is to defeat the people in the defence of their rights and any public assets, programs or enterprises that may serve the people without giving the ruling oligarchy its pound of flesh in profits. The dialectic alive in the world and on display in Davos is between a socialized economy that guarantees the rights of the people, and a socialized economy that guarantees a maximum rate of profit for the monopolies and their rich owners and patrons.
The strengthening of the WEF as a political, economic, social and propaganda front of the monopolies within the U.S.-led imperialist system of states has been done in concert with the strengthening of NATO as its military arm, and the weakening of any public authority in the world that represents the people and upholds their rights. As the WEF and NATO have increased their presence and power internationally through forcible regime change, predatory wars and anti-social offensive, the sovereign member countries of the United Nations and their economic, political, military and social institutions have been significantly weakened.
According to its website, the WEF is an international organization “funded by its 1,000 member companies, typically global enterprises with more than five billion dollars in turnover (varying by industry and region). These enterprises rank among the top companies within their industry and play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry and region.” The right to participate in WEF deliberations is dictated mainly by how much money a monopoly commits to the organization. The greater the money given to the WEF, the higher the status and participation.[1]
The WEF says it is “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.” The WEF strives to block the leadership of the working people in finding a new pro-social direction for the economy without crises so that it can meet the people’s needs and guarantee their rights without interruption. The WEF aims to deprive the working people of their right to shape their own future and that of their societies and to develop their own thinking, theory and organizations.
The WEF has headquarters in Geneva and New York and organizes regular regional meetings and projects throughout the world culminating in the annual four-day gathering in Davos, Switzerland with more than 2,500 participants from its member monopolies and invited guests.[2] Last year, in addition to members, participants included 40 heads of state or government, 64 cabinet ministers, 30 heads or senior officials of international organizations, 10 ambassadors, 32 heads or representatives of non-governmental organizations, 225 media leaders, 149 leaders from academic institutions and think tanks, 15 religious leaders of different faiths and 11 union leaders. As many as 500 journalists from the global mass media cover the event. The WEF vets all journalists and gives them permission to attend only certain events according to their determined status.
An invitation to participate in the WEF for non-members is calculated as to what benefit it brings to the member monopolies and the U.S.-led imperialist system of states. For example, representatives of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were invited to participate in WEF 2016. Following the DPRK’s testing of a hydrogen bomb on January 6, the WEF revoked the invitation as part of the imperialist pressure against the DPRK and its sovereign right to defend itself from U.S. military aggression, regime change and predatory war.
The WEF Davos 2016 agenda contains those issues of concern to the member monopolies. They are grouped into three “program pillars.” The “pillars” deal mainly with the development of the forces of production from which the monopolies can reap profits.[3] No part of the agenda deals with how developments of the forces of production within a fully socialized economy have created a crisis in the relations of production, which are how people relate to each other at the place of work, in society generally, with nature and the material and machines they use to produce, and the social product.
The modern socialized means of production and economy have developed rapidly but are now caught in a contradiction with outmoded relations of production that have not kept pace. This unresolved contradiction is generating economic, political, social and military crises worldwide, which the ruling oligarchy cannot fail to recognize, as they are fully involved in making every situation worse by seeking to extinguish all movement towards social progress. The ruling elite driven by their class privilege and ideological backwardness stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that the root cause of contemporary problems is found in the outmoded relations of production based on private ownership and control of competing parts of the economy. The working people have taken up this problem for solution and are organizing to defend their rights, find a new direction for the economy and move society forward.
Notes
1. The WEF’s top members, known as “Strategic Partners,” are “100 leading global companies representing diverse regions and industries.” The WEF says they are “selected for their alignment with the Forum’s mission, provide essential support and are the driving force behind the Forum’s activities and the work of its communities.” WEF’s partner corporations are:
ABB Ltd; Accenture; Adecco Group; African Rainbow Minerals; Agility; Alcoa Inc.; Alibaba Group Holding Limited; Allianz SE; ArcelorMittal; A.T. Kearney Inc.; AUDI AG; Bahrain Economic Development Board; Bain & Company Inc.; Banco Bradesco SA; Bank of America Corporation; Barclays; Bazovy Element Limited; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; BlackRock Inc.; Bombardier Inc.; BP Plc; Bridgewater Associates, LP; BT Group Plc; Burda Media; CA Technologies; Centene Corporation; Chevron Corporation; Cisco; Citi; Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC; Credit Suisse AG; Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd; Dangote Group; Deloitte; Dentsu Inc.; Deutsche Bank AG; Deutsche Post DHL Group; Dogus Group; Essar Oil Ltd; EY; Facebook Inc.; Flex; Fluor Corporation; GE; General Motors Company; Google; Hanwha Energy; HCL Technologies Ltd; Heidrick & Struggles; Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Hitachi Ltd; HSBC Holdings Plc; Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd; IHS; Infosys Ltd; Itaú Unibanco SA; JLL; Johnson Controls Inc.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; JSC VTB Bank; KPMG International Cooperative; Kudelski Group; Lazard; Lenovo; LITASCO Middle East DMCC; LIXIL Group Corporation; ManpowerGroup; Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC); MasterCard; McKinsey & Company; Microsoft Corporation; Mitsubishi Corporation; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd; Morgan Stanley; MSD; Nestlé SA; Novartis AG; Old Mutual Plc; Omnicom Group Inc.; PepsiCo Inc.; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Prudential Plc; Publicis Groupe SA; Qualcomm Incorporated; Reliance Industries Limited; Renault-Nissan BV; Royal DSM NV; Royal Philips; Salesforce, Sàrl; Saudi Aramco; Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC); Sberbank; Siemens AG; SK Holdings; SOCAR; Standard Chartered Bank; Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd; Tata Consultancy Services Ltd; Tech Mahindra Limited; Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson; The Abraaj Group; The Boston Consulting Group; The Coca-Cola Company; The Dow Chemical Company; The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Wellcome Trust; Thomson Reuters; UBS Switzerland AG; Unilever; UPS; USM Holdings Limited; VimpelCom Ltd; Visa USA Inc.; Volkswagen AG; Wipro Limited; WPP Plc; Yahoo; Zurich Insurance Group.
2. The overall program has the following six co-chairs:
– Mary Barra, Chief Executive Officer, General Motors Company, USA
– Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Brussels; Meta-Council on the Circular Economy
– Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, USA
– Hiroaki Nakanishi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hitachi, Japan
– Tidjane Thiam, Chief Executive Officer, Credit Suisse, Switzerland
– Amira Yahyaoui, Founder and Chair, Al Bawsala, Tunisia; Global Shaper
3. The WEF website lists the three “program pillars” of the Davos gathering:
Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is distinct in the speed, scale and force at which it transforms entire systems of production, distribution and consumption. How is technology changing our lives and that of future generations, and reshaping the economic, social, ecological and cultural contexts in which we live?
Addressing Global Security Issues
The humanitarian tragedy of the unfolding refugee crisis and reverberations from terrorist acts are reminders of how geostrategic competition, renewed regionalism and new antagonists are eroding global solidarity. How can public and private-sector leaders prepare for a rapidly changing security landscape in which emerging technologies also play a key role?
Solving Problems of the Global Commons
“Geosecurity tensions exacerbate the challenges of governing at a global level even as the urgency increases to pursue environmental and social sustainability, financial system reform and openness of the internet. How can problems of the global commons be tackled through new models of public-private cooperation and the application of breakthrough science and technology solutions?
(With files from WEF 2016 website)
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