There have been many claims and counter-claims regarding the TPPA, and whether it is overall a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ deal. I have been thinking deeply about what it’s real purpose might be, once all the hype is stripped off, and some of the implications are analysed.
Let’s examine the TPP within a historical context, and by that I am NOT referring to the usual practice of locating it within the historical mileu of ‘free trade agreements’, but as the ‘logical’ culmination of a long line of events that have manifested as part of an ongoing campaign to cement in the cult of market fundamentalism (neoliberalism) as the predominant socioeconomic system of the world, and, if its proponents succeed in their aims, as the ONLY system.
Over the past 30 or so years, humanity has been subjected to a series of events that are usually placed under the label of ‘neoliberalism’, and which I prefer to call ‘market fundamentalism’ (MF), because that label accurately reflects its purpose and ideology. The ‘market’ has been elevated to the position of being the primary ‘god’ of the postmodernist era, and all else, including people, is subservient to that god. We do not need to review all of that in detail, as it is well-known, including things like mass privatization of community-owned assets, the privileging of the ‘rights’ of ‘investors’ over the rights of the citizenry, the contracting out, for private profit, of government services, and many similar policies.
I see the TPP as, primarily, the latest event in that long line of events, only, this time, we have reached a watershed, because what the TPP is designed to do, what its real purpose is, is to CEMENT IN, in a manner that cannot ever be reversed or modified, much of those earlier ‘reforms’, especially the primacy of the ‘rights’ of ‘investors’ over the rights of the citizenry. Without the TPP, under the process of ‘democracy’, a majority of the citizens of any country can, at some future time, through that democratic process, elect a government that stands on a platform of reversing some of those (previously enacted) ‘reforms’, and, specifically, on a platform of removing the privileging of ‘investor rights’ over the common good of the community.
However, post-TPP, it will be very difficult for any government to do that. Not only will such a (hypothetical) government quite likely find themselves dragged into one of those off-shore ‘investor tribunals’, and sued for very large sums of ‘damages’, but also, even for a political party to stand for election on such a platform will be seen as an invitation for their (pro-MF) opponents to decry such a platform as being “crazy”, because of the costs of doing so, thus cementing in MF as the ONLY economic system that is vaiable, for ever.
Placing this also within a different historical context, it seems obvious to me, that the TPP can also be seen to be a form of neo-colonization, and neo-imperialism. The old style colonial and imperial system involved physical invasion and military action. The new style version is much more effective, as it is accomplished at much lower cost, and in a manner whereby it can be passed off as merely being a ‘free trade agreement’, rather than what it really is. The other difference is that the main beneficiaries of the new-style colonial-imperial venture are not governments, but a cartel of large corporations, owned by a complex array of other commercial and investment entities and individual ‘investors’. This cartel has only one objective: ever-increasing profits for themselves, and they will go to any lengths to obtain those profits.
Looking further at that historical picture, one can see a progression. First there were kings, who ruled over ‘subjects’ in their kingdoms. Eventually, the ‘royalty’ system was (largely) overthrown, replaced by ‘democratic government’, where the citizens (supposedly) all had a say in the makeup and policies of their government.
The next step in that progression, if the pro-MF oligarchs have their way, will be the Global Commercial Oligarchy. Nation-states will be pushed somewhat down the pecking-order, and will be subservient to the new global order. Market fundamentalism (MF) would have ‘progressed’ into EMF (extremist market fundamentalism), or “fully globalized market fundamentalism”, and it will have been cemented in so that it is so deeply entrenched that it will be almost impossible to get rid of. It will have cunningly imposed on the citizenry, a globalized commercial agreement that has a similar effect to a ‘Constitution’. In fact, the TPP, and its sister ‘treaties’, WILL BE the new ‘Constitution’ of the whole world, embedded in such a way, much like the constitution of the USA, that it is a permanent fixture.
Is this REALLY the new globalized system of governance and constitutional law that we wish to live under, for a very long time, with no possibility of change, even when it becomes obvious that the only beneficiaries of the system are the ‘investors’ who own the corporations?
