The International Power Elite And Globalization

Tonight the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce held a dinner with keynote speaker, former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, addressing the gathering. At first glance, the theme of his speech appeared to be the 20th anniversary of perestroika, or the restructuring of the old Soviet notion of an enclosed economy, that could be self-regulated from within with wage and price controls, government subsidized housing, etc towards an economy more similar to the not only world market economies such as in Europe and the U.S. , but also a member of the global economic community. And that's what soon become the prevailing theme of Gorbachev's speech, the subject of globalization.

It soon became clear that Gorbachev's address was to an audience that represented not only the "captain's of American industry" who are member of the Chamber Of Commerce, but also included Colin Powell, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, and religious leader, Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller, as well others representing a bipartisan cross section of the "power elite" of America. It soon became clear, that just as Sociologist G.William Domhoff, once argued, there is indeed a "national ruling class" in America, and this "trinity" now involves an elite of the business community, politics and religion, and cuts through both political parties, and shares a common economic religion of globalization of the world economy. It is also apparent in the bipartisan approach to promotion of international trade treaties such as NAFTA or CAFTA that surrender the sovereign rights of individual states towards these international documents that are beyond the grasp of any single state to change once signed. And interational trade organizations such as WTO even organize penalty actions against states that do not follow the agreed to trade rules in these super documents. Nafta was a 1,700 page document, and CAFTA a 93 page document in which the U.S., Canada, Mexico and now Central American states sign away individual local and national economic automony towards these international globalization trade documents.

On the back of the American dollar bill is the bizarre and cryptic symbol of the all seeing eye hovering above a pryamid. This bizarre cryptic emblem that looks like something from a secret society is annoited with the Latin phrase, "Novus Ordo Seclorum", or a New Order For The Ages. Some see this as akin to the "New World Order" often spoken of by the first President Bush. However in the latest Bush Administration, this is played out in often contradictory terms. There is tremendous hardcore conservative resentment towards the U.N. as a global political order body, while at the same time the interventionalist philosophy of the Bush Administration is to force MidEast states to become members of the world community, while Al Qaeda and Muslim insurgent elements push for an Arab isolationalist vision. Yet the steady drumbeat towards an internationalist and globalized economy continues unimpeded in the basic vision of this administration more than any past administration encompasses the goals and interests of the business community.

American labor, including myself, lament at the steady flow of jobs to developing world labor cheap economies such as China , India and Vietnam. American labor would like to see wage and job security protections for American workers, yet one of their strongest political advocates, Rep. Richard Gephardt is no longer in Congress, and any philosphy that could be seen as "protectionist" seems to be crushed under the weight of both national and international business interests. There seems to be a wholesale belief in so much of the business community in the economic religion of globalization that any realization of the negative impact on American workers with declining wages or job benefits seems to be lost as the tide of the industrial revolution that once transformed first Britain, then the U.S., is ignored in the sense of American national economic interests as the internationalist globalization economic religion seeks to profit from the labor cheap economies of the world to manufacture the consumer goods while many American workers are reduced down to mere Walmart or McDonalds service worker status.

Old time social analysts such as Tonnies(1887-1957) used to describe the metamophosis from an agarian to industrial economy in percise German terms such as gemeinschaft, gesellschaft or gellenschaft, and the differences in visions from the sense of the individual and the relationship to community. Now it appears that an international power elite believes that the individual and their relationship to the community has not only expanded from beyond local to state, and now from the relationship of state to international community role. The concept of community has become a global one, far from the early concept of a village as an organization unit.

All of this brings one back to Mikhail Gorbachev. Was he a modern secret democrat or even closet Christian hidden within the old Soviet Communist Party leadership? Was his Glasnost, or openess philosophy concept for Soviet society, or his perestroika, restructuring of the old Soviet economy, two inevitable and realistc goals for a society that could not remain closed, or was it that Mikhail Gorbachev became an early Soviet subscriber to the new economic religion of globalization? Gorbachev's words at the Chamber Of Commerce dinner seemed to voice some concerns about the negative consequences of globalization of the world's economy. Yet Gorbachev seemed to play a reluctant foot soldier role in this steady march of the world states towards this supereconomy vision of globalization in which corporations and economies operate as international entities and the old Soviet empire broke down to become a part of this international community.

And on a second glance, this event was not a meeting of former past top leadership, such as Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Colin Powell or Madeline Albright, but also the integration of Hillary Clinton into a community of national and international business interests as she cements the economic network to finance her run for president and her role as an American president in this globalized economy. And with the economic ties that both the Bush and Clinton familiies have cemented in the business community, it appears that leadership alternates between these two political families that have managed to form a temporary lock on American leadership. This is at least until another major family political dynasty forges an economic marriage to the globalization forces of the international business community and becomes their new darling to promote their goals and to secure their financial support to rule America and support globalist economic goals.