The Evisceration of Yugoslavia Part II: Nazis, Bilderbergers and Clinton Liars

(Part two of a five-part series excerpted from Chapter 15: Yugoslavia Bad, Greater Albania Good: Big Oil & Their Bankers …)

by Dean Henderson

Serbian Protest in the Northern Mitrovica

Modern Serb “Untermenschen”

The CIA-fed US media never once examined the shameful historical parallels to their demonization of the Serb people.  Nearly a half a century earlier Adolf Hitler used the exact same tactics to justify his genocide against Serbs.  In 1939 Hitler’s Nazis invaded Yugoslavia.  He called the Serbs untermenschen, which means “less than human”. 

Meanwhile the aristocratic families of Yugoslavia, largely Muslims who gained power during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, banded together with the largely Croat business class, to form the pro-Hitler Utashe, which committed horrific acts of genocide against the working class Serb majority.

The Serbs are largely Eastern Orthodox, while Yugoslavia’s 4.7 million Croatians are mostly Roman Catholic.  The Vatican has been accused by Jewish holocaust victims’ groups as having served as a repository for the gold which the Utashe plundered from Jews and Serbs alike during their terror campaign.  Pope Pius XII never once spoke out against the Nazis. [1]

When Hitler invaded Austria, Catholic bishops told their congregations to support the Nazis. Swastikas flew over the Vienna Cathedral.  Rudolf Hess was the SS officer at the center of the secret Nazi-Vatican-US alliance during WWII.  The Nazi business combine I.G. Farben, which made the Zyklon B poison gas used for the Auschwitz genocide, while using the prisoners there as slave labor, has morphed into Sterling Drug, Hoechst and Bayer.

In 1998 Pope John Paul II confirmed the Papacy’s position when he beatified Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who was Archbishop of Zaghreb during WWII.  When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1939 Stepinac embraced the pro-Nazi government of Ante Pavelic as “God’s hand at work”.  Pope Pius XII was apparently impressed, promoting Stepinac to Cardinal.  Marshall Tito, the great nationalist who during WWII united the Yugoslav people against the Nazi invaders, was not so enamored with Stepinac.  Tito tossed the archbishop into the poky for his collaboration with the Nazis and Utashe.  President Franjo Tudjman, who would rule the new Croatia until his death in 2000, adored Cardinal Stepinac. [2]

The international banks also backed the Nazis.  Max and Paul Warburg sat on I. G. Farben’s board, as did H. A. Metz, who was director at the Warburg Bank of Manhattan- later Chase Manhattan.  Bank of Manhattan director and Federal Reserve Board member C. E. Mitchell sat on the board of I. G. Farben’s US branch.  In 1936 Avery Rockefeller set up a combination with the German Schroeder family, who served as Hitler’s personal bankers.  Time magazine called the new Schroeder, Rockefeller & Company “the economic booster of the Rome-Berlin Axis”.  Morgan Guaranty Trust and Union Banking Corporation (UBC) also funded the Nazis.  UBC board member Prescott Bush is President George Bush Jr.’s grandfather. [3]

US corporations pitched in for the Nazi’s as well.  Farben joined forces with ITT, along with GM, Exxon, Ford and GE in sending funds and key military goods to Himmler’s SS.  ITT’s Sosthenes Behn was a director at National City Bank, now Citigroup.  ITT supplied the Nazis with radar equipment, air raid warning devices, artillery shell fuses and all the ingredients that went into the rocket bombs that later reigned down on London.  Nazi armored vehicles were manufactured by Ford and the GM subsidiary Opel.  Henry Ford was a great admirer of Hitler, who also held Ford in high regard after the 1920 publication of Ford’s treatiseThe International Jew.  Hitler’s Mein Kampf incorporated entire sections of Ford’s book.  In 1938 Ford received the highest Nazi honor possible for a non-German- the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. [4]

In 1932 leaders of German industrial behemoths Krupp, Siemens, Thyssen and Bosch signed a petition urging Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany.  A year later at banker Baron Kurt von Schroeder’s home a deal was cut to bring Hitler to power.  Attending the meeting were brothers John Foster and Allen Dulles of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which represented Schroeder Bank.  Schroeder managing director T. C. Tiarks was a director at the Bank of England. [5]

In the spring of 1934 Bank of England Chairman Montagu Norman convened a meeting of London bankers who decided to covertly fund Hitler.  Royal Dutch/Shell Chairman Sir Henri Deterding helped in this effort.  He hoped Hitler would march on the Soviet Union and return RD/Shell assets seized by revolutionaries at Baku, Grozny and Maikop.

Even after the US went to war with Germany, Exxon Chairman Walter Teagle remained on the board of I. G. Chemical, the US I. G. Farben subsidiary.  Exxon was integral in supplying the Nazis with tetraethyl lead, an important component of aviation fuel.  Only Exxon, Du Pont and GM made the stuff.  Teagle also supplied the Japanese with his product. [6]

Albanian kids playing at the remains of Serbian houses - Image by Ikuru

Albanian kids playing at the remains of Serbian houses – Image by Ikuru

Exxon and I. G. Farben were such close business associates that by 1942 Thurman Arnold, head of the US Justice Department’s Anti-Trust Division, produced documents that showed, “Standard and Farben in Germany had literally carved up the world markets, with oil and chemical monopolies established all over the map.”  As of 1998 there were still scores of lawsuits pending against Ford, Chase Manhattan, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Allianz AG and several Swiss banks for their dealings with the Nazis.

At the heart of Hitler’s inner circle were the secret societies Germanordern (brothers of Yale’s Skull & Bones), the Thule Society and Vril.  The concepts of “Great Masters”, “Adepts” and the “Great White Brotherhood” which the Nazis used to justify their idea of Aryan superiority, were ancient ideas that had been carried forth by the Egyptian Mystery Schools, the Teutonic Knights, the Illuminati, and Hebrew Cabalists.  These same concepts can be found in today’s New Age Movement, whose New Age magazine was first published by the Grand Orient Masonic Lodge of Washington.  Henry Kissinger was an early supporter of the New Age movement.  The global center of this fascist thinking can be found at the Rothschild-controlled Business Roundtables of London.

The German occultists believed ancient German tribes were the true keepers of the Ancient Mysteries which had their origin in Atlantis, when seven races of God-men were introduced to Earth, possibly by the Annunaki.  Thule was a Teutonic Atlantis believed by the Nazis to house these long-vanquished races, who had lost their godly powers by interbreeding with mere humans.  At the inner core of the Thule Society were Satanists who practiced black magic.

The Master Adept of the group was Dietrich Eckhart, who later incorporated these ideas into Heinrich Himmler’s SS.  Vril was derived from Business Roundtable spiritual guru Lord Edward Bulwer-Litton’s book Vril, which discusses an Aryan super-race that came to earth in the distant past.  General Karl Haushofer was the leader of Vril and mentor to Hitler and Rudolf Hess.  Heinrich Himmler was a Vril member.  Haushofer worked with CIA and P-2 Italian Freemasons to lay the “rat line” to South America.

Hitler became obsessed with the Spear of Destiny, used by Roman soldier Gaius Cassius to kill Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross.  Hitler believed, as do the powerful modern-day secret societies, that whoever possesses the spear controls the world.  Author Tex Marrs and others have predicted that a likely Illuminati candidate for crowning as New World Order Sangreal King is Philip of Spain, who is a Hapsburg.  The Hapsburg family is said to currently possess the Spear of Destiny.

The swastika was a symbol connected to a Sun god, which symbolized Lucifer.  Roundtable insider Rudyard Kipling spread the symbol to India, while Madam Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society spread it throughout Europe.  Hitler was once described as a “child of Illuminism”. [7]

According to Dr. Walter Langer, who did a wartime psychoanalysis of Hitler for OSS, Hitler may himself have been a Rothschild.  Langer uncovered an Austrian police report proving Hitler’s father was an illegitimate son of a peasant cook named Maria Anna Schicklgruber, who at the time of her conception was a servant in the Vienna home of Baron Rothschild. [8]

In May 1941, two years after Nazi troops stormed Yugoslavia, Rudolf Hess parachuted into the estate of the Duke of Hamilton, saying a supernatural force told him to negotiate with the British.  Hitler was ostensibly visited by this same apparition and suddenly turned vehemently against occultism.  He ordered a crackdown against Freemasons, Templars and the Theosophical Society.  Suddenly the international banker crowd pulled the plug on Hitler’s finances and began to denounce him.  Six months later the US entered WWII.

Evisceration Time

By June 1991, with the Gulf War just ended, Croat and Muslim separatists declared independence in two regions of Yugoslavia.  Arab fundamentalist fighters funded by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and trained by the CIA were arriving in Yugoslavia to help defend the new enclaves.  In 1992 1,200 UN Peacekeeping Troops arrived in newly formed Croatia.  By the end of April their ranks had swelled to 14,000. [9]

Additional UN troops were deployed to new Bosnian and Slovenian enclaves.  US Marines arrived in the Mediterranean region. An Adriatic Sea naval flotilla representing seven nations led by the US lurked off the Yugoslav coast.  US-based charities like Americares and the Maltese Cross were landing in Zaghreb- the Croat stronghold- with food, supplies and toys.  The 600,000 ethnic Serbs living within the breakaway enclave got no toys. Instead, they were terrorized. [10]

Bush Secretary of State James Baker was point man in blasting the Yugoslav government, which he was referred to as the ‘Serb’ government, as if Yugoslavia had suddenly vanished from world maps.  His imported Islamist fighters now moved on Bosnia.  The Assassins came from the likes of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the bloody Algerian Armed Islamic Group and al Qaeda.  These fanatics overtook major cities and proclaimed Alija Izetbegovic and his cronies rulers of the Bosnia-Herzegovina region.  In 1992 Slovenian right-wing nationalists followed suit and declared independence from Yugoslavia. [11]  The Yugoslav government lodged a protest at the UN, saying the US was siding with the separatists.

The US responded by flying $1 million worth of supplies to Bosnia on Air Force planes flying from Italy.  US envoy Ralph Johnson met with Bosnia’s self-declared President Izetbegovic.  The US recognized Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia as independent nations. The Bilderbergers scurried to prepare teams of athletes from these new nations to participate in their 1992 Olympic Summer Games.  The US persuaded the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on remaining Yugoslav republics Serbia and Montenegro.  Lawrence Eagleburger and the House of Saud pushed for a lifting of the UN arms embargo on Yugoslavia to get arms to the Muslim fighters which the CIA was training. [12]

Oil imports were blocked, airline service suspended and Yugoslav sports teams banned from the Olympic Games.  President Bush froze $214 million in Yugoslav assets and announced the imposition of an Iraqi-style no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. [13]  The US threw money at the campaign of Milan Panic, a millionaire living in the US who now rode his corporate media-crafted white horse back into Belgrade to be elected Yugoslav Premier.  In his victory speech Panic took a subtle whack at socialism stating, “No idea is worth dying for at the end of the 20th century”.

As Yugoslavia tried to stop the CIA-led partition of their country, the fighting intensified.  When US Marines came ashore in Somalia, CFR Director George Pratt Schultz called for a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia from his Chevron Texaco perch.  Soon NATO warplanes were bombing Yugoslav forces, who were trying to re-take Bosnia.

Russian lawmakers voiced their outrage at this first-ever NATO-led bombing effort, passing a law imposing trade sanctions on Croatia for “genocide against the Serb people”.  Boozing IMF poster boy and Russian President Boris Yeltsin vetoed the bill.  Russian media reports claimed the CIA was behind the attack on the Sarajevo marketplace, which the US had noisily blamed on the Serbs as a pretext for the bombing campaign.  Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev called the NATO bombing, “an evil path leading to the past, to nowhere.”[14]

Both the Bosnian Army of the newly created Muslim Croat Federation and the Croatian Army were trained and equipped by Turkish and American advisers.  The training was overseen by a private firm known as Military Professional Resources (MPRI), a US company made up of retired generals and colonels.  MPRI was paid $400 million to train the Bosnian Army by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brunei and Malaysia.  Many Bosnian Army members were Islamic extremists who are now al Qaeda leaders.

A service takes place at an ld Serbian monastery - Images by Ikuru

A service takes place at an ld Serbian monastery – Images by Ikuru

After receiving MPRI training, the Croatian Army launched an offensive into northwest Yugoslavia, grabbing more territory around Banja Luka and Krajina and destroying peace talks underway in Belgrade.  In the five days preceding the Croat offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Storm, MPRI General Carl Vuono, who was US Army Chief of Staff during both the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, met at least ten times with Croatian General Varimar Cervenko on Brioni Island in the Adriatic Sea. [15]

Operation Lightning Storm gave new meaning to the phrase “ethnic cleansing”.  During the bloody Croat assault on Krajina, entire Serb villages were sacked and burned, leaving hundreds dead and 170,000 more homeless.  During the Croat assault on Srbenica, US advisers backed a bloody slaughter causing 200,000 more Serb peasants to flee.  Many Croat militiamen deployed in the effort were members of the fascist Croatian National Congress (CNC), which had received funding from such international pariahs as Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza and Paraguayan strongman Alfredo Stroessner.  The leader of the CNC is convicted Nazi war criminal Janko Skrbin, who continues to avoid imprisonment from his US refuge. [16]

Yugoslav Military Commander Momcilo Krajisnik said of the Croat offensive, “We find ourselves in the position to either have the peace talks (in Belgrade) collapse, or to make it crystal clear that we shall not accept such a false cease-fire and such an approving attitude of the international community toward Muslim and Croat behavior.  If individual actors in the crisis continue to destabilize and destroy the state, the army of the Republic shall undertake measures to defend integrity, sovereignty and constitutional order”. [17]

NATO bombs rained down on Bosnia. The Croats went on a US-backed offensive. The Yugoslav government was forced into the US-sponsored Dayton Peace Accords, which rubber-stamped the partition of Yugoslavia. [18]  In 1995 President Milosevic said he had been misled at Dayton by the US delegation, which was led by Clinton envoy Richard Holbrooke, former investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, the old Eastern Establishment opium bank that served as paymaster for the Kennedy and deGaulle hits and handled Richard Secord’s Lake Resources accounts.

In December 1995, amidst a flurry of foreign troops arriving in the new nations of Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia to “keep the peace”, Yugoslav Army Commander Ratko Mladic called on the Yugoslavian people to “defend what has been ours for centuries”.  He said of NATO’s Iron Mountain-style peacekeeping efforts, “We must not allow our people to come under the rule of butchers.  Those who bombed us have now infiltrated like lambs, saying they want to protect peace.”

Mladic was later indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal (IWCT), along with Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.  Before prosecuting the Yugoslav leaders in abstentia, IWTC Chief Prosecutor Richard Goldstone met for two days with Clinton CIA Director John Deutch, former director at Citibank and SAIC.


The Grateful Unrich: Revolution in 50 CountriesStickin’ it to the Matrix and Das Kartell der Federal Reserve.
Subscribe free to Dean’s weekly Left Hook column at www.deanhenderson.wordpress.com


Footnotes:

  • [1] “Vatican’s Finances in WWII being Questioned”. Naftali Bendavid. Chicago Tribune. 8-29-97. p.A1
  • [2] “Pope Beatifies Croatian Archbishop”. AP. Minneapolis Star Tribune. 10-4-98. p.A19
  • [3] The Robot’s Rebellion: The Story of the Spiritual Renaissance. David Icke. Gateway, UK. 1994. p.168
  • [4] Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramids. Jim Marrs. HarperCollins Publishers. New York. 2000. p.165
  • [5] Ibid. p.164
  • [6] Ibid. p.178
  • [7] Ibid. p.157
  • [8] Ibid
  • [9] “Arriving UN Soldiers Carry Hope to Croatia”. AP. Missoulian. 4-15-92
  • [10] “Plane Carrying Aid, Holiday Gifts for Croatians Allowed to Land”. Reuters/Kyodo. Japan Times. 12-27-91. p.1
  • [11] “Slovenians to Choose President, Parliament”. AP. Tulsa World. 12-16-92
  • [12] Evening Edition. National Public Radio. 12-13-92
  • [13] “UN Swats Yugoslavia”. AP. Missoulian. 5-31-92
  • [14] “NATO Bombs Stir Russian Anger”. AP. Missoulian. 9-15-95. p.A1
  • [15] “Privatizing War: How Affairs of the State are Outsourced to Corporations Beyond Public Control”. Ken Silverstein. The Nation. 7-28 to 8-4, 1997.
  • [16] The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International Fascism. Henrik Kruger. South End Press. Boston. 1980. p.217
  • [17] “Supporters of Karadzic Ready to Battle in Bosnia”. Misha Savic. Denver Post. 8-23-97
  • [18] “As the War Winds Down, Troop Training Starts Up”. Missoulian. 2-11-96



The Folly of Electoral Politics and the Imperative Merger of the Humanitarian Camp

“Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.”—Lenin

By Moti Nissani, PhD, Veterans Today

Note: This new version of an older article is re-posted because it (i) is relevant to the coming revolution, (ii) contains a substantial revision, and (iii) provides background and rationale for the sixth part of my “Bird’s Eye View of Contrived Terror.”

Summary:  This essay argues that revolutionaries can draw two valuable lessons from history.  First, they must realize once and for all that electoral politics in the USA cannot possibly bring meaningful change, and hence, that a more radical strategy is required.  Second, to survive, to retain their relevance, to earn the gratitude of future generations, the liberty, environmental, social justice, and peace camps must merge into a single revolutionary movement.

 No Change Can be Expected from American Elections

“What is the use of voting?  We know that the machines of both parties are subsidized by the same persons, and therefore it is useless to turn in either direction.”—Woodrow Wilson

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” ― Mark Twain

History reinforces the view that nothing can be expected from electoral politics in America (and in most other countries of the world).  If change ever comes to our shores, it cannot possibly be brought about by politics as usual.

Many of my acquaintances, and many writers in the alternative media, put their faith in electoral politics.  They feel, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that it makes a difference whether a Republican or a Democrat is elected, that it makes sense to sue the government for one or another gross violation of the public interest or common decency.  They fail to notice that most of our presidents, governors, and mayors, most of our “elected” representatives at the local, state, and federal levels, most of our judges—are puppets of the men in the shadows (a few international banking families and their lieutenants in huge corporations, governments, armed forces, and intelligence services).

Others acquaintances, a bit more sophisticated but still profoundly misinformed about the nature of American politics, reject the corrupt two-headed party system out of hand, yet put their trust in the electoral process itself and in the ability of friends of the American people (as opposed to the traitors, swindlers, sycophants, and psychopaths who now infest most public offices of this land) to gain political or judicial office and bring about meaningful change.  That trust is touching, but it fails to acknowledge incontestable political realities.  To campaign for a Ron Paul, or a Dennis Kucinich, or a Jesse Ventura, or a Eugene Debs, or Jesus of Nazareth himself, in this system is utterly futile.  A few crystalline raindrops cannot disinfect a cesspool.

The reasons for this futility, the reasons it is misguided in principle and perhaps even immoral to take part in electoral politics are many.  For the moment, I can only offer a summary statement and some supporting documentation for the seven interacting factors (there could be more, but at this writing I can only think of seven) that render electoral politics in America a sad joke (for a more detailed review of the first three factors, please consult this).

1.  Information

“I am sure that I never read any memorable news in the newspaper.”–Henry David Thoreau (Walden, 1854)

“American Journalism is a class institution, serving the rich and spurning the poor.”–Upton Sinclair (The Brass Check, 1919)

Almost all conventional sources of information—schools, universities, books, movies, newspapers, TV, radio—are under the thumb of the men in the shadows.  Most of us, therefore, end up voting against our own convictions and interests.  For example, in 1919 Upton Sinclair (The Brass Check, p. 9) already sizzled:

media_monkeys“The social body to which we belong is at this moment passing through one of thegreatest crises of its history . . . What if the nerves upon which we depend for knowledge of this social body should give us false reports of its condition?”

Many people put their trust in experts, not realizing the centuries-long dependence of academics and intellectuals on the bankers and their lieutenants.  Arthur Schopenhauer:

 ”Party interests are vehemently agitating the pens of so many pure lovers of wisdom. . . .  Truth is certainly the last thing they have in mind. . . .  Philosophy is misused, from the side of the state as a tool, from the other side as a means of gain. . . . Who can really believe that truth also will thereby come to light, just as a by-product? . . .  Governments make of philosophy a means of serving their state interests, and scholars make of it a trade.”

This is even truer today, and especially so when it comes to disciplines that directly affect the bankers.  As just one example, an article in the left-of-center mainstream press explains “how the federal reserve bought the economics profession:”

“The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni, and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession. . . . This dominance helps explain how, even after the Fed failed to foresee the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, the central bank has largely escaped criticism from academic economists.”

HogarthScholarsListeningToALecture

William Hogarth, “Scholars Listening to a Lecture,” 1736

Prof. Anatal Fekete provides a less polite characterization:

“The light has gone out at the great American universities as far as monetary science is concerned.  Through bribe, blackmail, and attrition all upright and serious monetary economists were bumped from their academic chairs.  The Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was a picnic in comparison to the Great American Cultural Revolution eliminating monetary economics from the curriculum.”

I wish to make the point clear: Information nowadays is controlled everywhere and always.  For instance, the bankers reserve to themselves the right of censoring all academic publishing (not only in economics, history, or political “science,” but also in the natural sciences) under the guise of the referee system.  And here is another typical example, this time from the strait-jacketed world of children book publishing.   Madeleine L’Engle looks back:

A Wrinkle in Time was almost never published.  You can’t name a major publisher who didn’t reject it.  And there were many reasons.  One was that it was supposedly too hard for children.  Well, my children were 7, 10, and 12 while I was writing it.  I’d read to them at night what I’d written during the day, and they’d say, “Ooh, mother, go back to the typewriter!”  A Wrinkle in Time had a female protagonist in a science fiction book, and that wasn’t done.  And it dealt with evil and things that you don’t find, or didn’t at that time, in children’s books.  When we’d run through forty-odd publishers, my agent sent it back.  We gave up.  Then my mother was visiting for Christmas, and I gave her a tea party for some of her old friends.  One of them happened to belong to a small writing group run by John Farrar, of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, which at that time did not have a juvenile list.  She insisted that I meet John any how, and I went down with my battered manuscript.  John had read my first novel and liked it, and read this book and loved it.  That’s how it happened.”

Recommended Starting References: 1. Sinclair, U. 1919. The Brass Check. 2. Bagdikian, B. H. 1987. The Media Monopoly. 3. Huxley, Aldous, 1958.  Brave New World Revisited.  4. Carlin, George. Who Really Runs America?  5. Loewen, James, 1995.  Lies my Teacher Told me.  5. Nissani, M.  Media Coverage of the Greenhouse Effect. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 21: 27-43.

 2. Sunshine Bribery

In the USA, bribery is institutionalized.  In fact, if one looks only at the sheer quantity of wealth being stolen from the people, one can perhaps surmise that the USA is the most corrupt country that has ever existed.  Bribery is implemented principally through campaign financing, then complemented by such things as lucrative speaking and publishing arrangements after leaving office and by invitations to serve on the boards of the corporations that benefited from the ex-politician’s or ex-judge’s duplicity.  As a result, politicians and judges gain adoration and millions, while a handful of banking families and their thousands of corporations gain extraordinary power and trillions.

Over the years we have gotten used to occasional outbursts on this issue (please consult this source for countless quotations).  For instance, in 1987, Robert Byrd, then Senate majority leader, appealed to his colleagues:

“It is my strong belief that the great majority of senators–of both parties–know that the current system of campaign financing is damaging the Senate, hurts their ability to be the best senator for this nation and for citizens of their respective States that they could be, strains their family life by consuming even more time than their official responsibilities demand, and destroys the democracy we all cherish by eroding public confidence in its integrity.  If we do not face a problem of this magnitude and fix it, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the tragic results.”

Political scientists Adamany and Agree share that view:

 “[The] political finance system  . . .  undermines the ideals and hampers the performance of American democracy . . . . Officials  . . .  are  . . .  captives of the present system. Their integrity and judgment are menaced—and too often compromised—by the need to raise money and the means now available for doing it . . . . The pattern of giving distorts American elections: candidates win access to the electorate only if they can mobilize money from the upper classes, established interest groups, big givers, or ideological zealots. Other alternatives have difficulty getting heard. And the voters’ choice is thereby limited. The pattern of giving also threatens the governmental process: the contributions of big givers and interest groups award them access to officeholders, so they can better plead their causes . . . . The private financing system  . . .  distort[s] both elections and decision making. The equality of citizens on election day is diluted by their inequality in campaign financing. The electorate shares its control of officials with the financial constituency.”

A 2013 update:

“Pretty much every politician in the western world is basically an employee of the ruling class, which is made up of a handful of traditionally powerful families including the Rothschilds and Rockefellers.”

 Recommended Starting Reference:   Nissani, M.  Brass-tacks Ecology.

3. Human Nature

We are not only indoctrinable, but seem to enjoy being brainwashed (how many of us abstain from commercials and TV?).  We are not as open-minded as we need to be, nor do we readily surrender convictions in the face of overwhelming evidence against them.  More often than not, we prefer obedience and conformity to individualism and critical thinking.  Most of us lack the self-confidence, and perhaps the inborn taste, to detect quality on our own—in food, architecture, music, drama, paintings, literature, or politics.  The vast majority of the still-reading public (which is itself a small minority) depends on the bankers for their choice of books, instead of trusting their own tastes and proclivities.  Many of us have accepted the bankers’ absurd self-serving notion that crass materialism, endless accumulation of money and power, consumerism, specialization, and selfishness hold the keys to personal fulfillment.

Moreover, these failings are magnified by the diminution—probably deliberate—of our very humanity.  Our bodies nowadays are loaded with synthetic chemicals and radioactive materials.  Our brains are loaded with heavy metals (e.g., mercury, lead) and thousands of commercials, infomercials, trivialities, and lies.  It is no accident that the bankers facilitate prescription and illegal drug use in the USA, for such use clearly serves their interests.  The bankers and their allies discourage us from ever getting even close to dissident literature, classical music, folk music, critical or holistic thinking, compassion, and non-conformity.  By getting us addicted to TV and artless movies, through their control of the educational system, and by doing everything they can to suppress the love of reading, they even managed to diminish our vocabulary—and thus our capacity to detect nuances of speech and thought.

Consider Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense.  According to Wikipedia, “in relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history.”  Could 1% of today’s Americans understand and be moved by such a pamphlet?  In just 236 years, then, there occurred a remarkable decline in the intellectual and spiritual caliber of the American people.

In short, we are not as rational, altruistic, and compassionate as we should be.  On top of that, the bankers have deliberately diminished our positive qualities and amplified our failings, thus putting another nail in the coffin of our electoral process.

Recommended Starting References:

Human Failings:  1. Milgram, Stanley, Obedience to Authority.  2. Nissani, Moti.  Conceptual Conservatism: An Understated Variable in Human Affairs? Social Science Journal, vol. 31, pp. 307-318.

Human Strengths (under natural conditions, human beings prefer cooperation, freedom, and rough equality of material possessions):  1. Stefansson, Vilhjalmur.  Lessons In Living From The Stone Age.  In A Treasury of Science, 1943, p. 502.  2. Mann, Charles C. 2005. The Founding Sachems.  3. Harris, Marvin.  Life Without Chiefs.

4. Cloak and Dagger

david_rockefeller3

David Rockefeller

Occasionally, in ancient Rome or Greece, or 21st century UK or USA, a champion of the people poses a threat to the Machiavellian system itself.  In such cases, overwhelming evidence suggests, the top oligarchs resort to character—or literal—assassinations.  They routinely malign, incarcerate, poison, or blow the brains out of anyone, anywhere on earth, who threatens their control—whistle blowers, congressmen, judges, U.S. presidents, DC madams who know too much, environmental activists, businessmen who dare tell the American people the truth about the Mexican Gulf disaster, sport celebrities naïve and idealistic enough to join the neo-colonial armies yet smart enough to read the dissident literature, journalists who uncover the bankers’ collusion in the “war” on drugs, American peace activists, singers/songwriters with a huge fan base who figure out how the system works—and dare share this information with the public, movie directors who had come to know a member of the Rockefeller family a bit too well—and who are bold enough to tell the world what they have learned, British princesses who speak up against landmines, union leaders, the bankers’ own head of the International Mafia Federation, countless foreign heads of state who would not betray their countrymen.

DartGun1975

US Senator Frank Church (left) displays a Central Institute of Assassinations (CIA) poison dart gun that, depending on the poison used, causes an immediate heart attack or belated cancer, 1975. According to Congressional testimony, the gun fires a frozen liquid poison-tipped dart, the width of a human hair and a quarter of an inch long. The dart can penetrate clothing and leaves a barely-visible pin-sized tiny red mark where it enters the victim’s body. In the heart attack version, once in the body, the poison melts and is absorbed into the bloodstream and causes a heart attack. Once the damage is done, the poison denatures quickly, so that a routine autopsy is likely to trace the heart attack to natural causes. Church probably paid for his courage–and for his progressive record–with his life. By 1984, at the early of 59, he died of . . . cancer.

Once upon a time, oligarchs kept such calumnies and strangulations below the surface, following their masters Niccolò Machiavelli’s and Amschel Rothschild’s sage advice.  But now, as befits the emerging in-your-face style of oligarchy, some of these atrocities are carried out in the open.

There is a common misconception in progressive circles that America had once been the land of the free and the home of the brave, and that its decline only commenced with President Reagan.  In reality, what is happening in 2012 is merely a culmination of a centuries-long gradual march towards fascism.  I have provided numerous examples of thishere, so, for now, let me give a couple of quotations from the past (Upton Sinclair’s self-published The Brass Check, 1919):

“There was a certain labor leader in America, who was winning a great strike.  It was sought to bribe him in vain, and filially a woman was sent after him, a woman experienced  in seduction, and she lured this man into a hotel room, and at  one o’clock in the morning the door was broken down, and the  labor leader was confronted with a newspaper story, ready to  be put on the press in a few minutes.  This man had a wife and children, and had to choose between them and the strike; he called off the strike, and the union went to pieces.  This anecdote was told to me, not by a Socialist, not by a labor agitator, but by a well-known United States official, a prominent Catholic.”

“I cite this to show the lengths to which Big Business will go in order to have its way.  In San Francisco they raised a million dollar fund, and with the help of their newspapers set to work deliberately to railroad five perfectly innocent labor men to the gallows.  In Lawrence, Massachusetts, the great Woolen Trust planted dynamite in the homes of strikebreakers, and with the help of their newspapers sought to fasten this crime upon the union; only by an accident were these conspirators exposed, and all but the rich one brought to justice.  Do you think that ‘interests’ which would undertake such elaborate plots would stop at inventing and circulating scandal about their enemies?

“Most certainly they did this in Denver.  I was assured by Judge Lindsey, and by James Randolph Walker, at that time chairman of Denver’s reform organization, that the corporations of that city had a regular bureau for such work.  The head of it was a woman doctor, provided with a large subsidy, numerous agents, and a regular card catalogue of her victims.  When someone was to be ruined, she would invent a story which fitted as far as possible with the victim’s character and habits; and then some scheme would be devised to enable the newspapers to print the story without danger of libel suits.

“In extreme cases they will go as far as they did with Judge Lindsey—hiring perjured affidavits, and getting up a fake reform organization to give them authority.  Lindsey, you understand, has made his life-work the founding of a children’s court, which shall work by love and not by terror.  Love of children—ah, yes, all scandal-bureaus know what that means!  So they had a collection of affidavits accusing Lindsey of sodomy. They brought the charges while he was in the East.  A reporter went to the Denver hotel where his young bride was staying, and when she refused to see the reporter, or to hear the charges against her husband, the reporter stood in the hallway and shouted the charges to her through the transom, and, then went away and wrote up an interview!”

Recommended Starting References:  1. Pepper, William, F. 2008. An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. 2. Caldwell, Taylor, 1972. Captains And The Kings (fiction).

Self-guided internet exercise:  What’s common to all-but-one dead-in-office American presidents?

 5. Rigged Elections

Joseph Stalin reportedly said: “It is enough that the people know there was an election.  The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”  Now that the bankers everywhere in the Western World are ingeniously re-introducing their version of Stalinism, following the same script in each and every country (just to dispel any doubt about this being a coordinated attack), the Trojan Horse in modern Western elections is the counters themselves.  Such outrageous rigging provides the bankers another safety valve, and again makes a mockery of those who believe in electoral politics.

Recommended Starting Reference: Palast, Greg. Election Rigged for Bush.

6. Broken Promises

There is a vast gap between what a politician or a party promise before the elections and what they deliver after the elections.  Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, for instance, promised peace but, once elected, served the bankers and, through guile, false-flag operations, and propaganda, led their country to catastrophic wars.  Politicians lie and get away with it, again making a mockery of the people’s will and of ballot-box reformers.

Woodrow Wilson’s betrayal was, perhaps, the most disastrous of them all.  He not only dragged the American people to war–against their will and on behalf of the bankers–but also broke his campaign promises not to sell his country to the bankers:

“During the Democratic Presidential campaign, Wilson and the rulers of the Democratic Party pretended to oppose the Aldrich bill.  As representative, Louis T. McFadden, explained twenty years later, when he was Chairman Of The House Banking And Currency Committee (and before the bankers silenced him forever),

‘The Aldrich Bill was condemned in the platform . . . when Woodrow Wilson was nominated . . . the men who ruled the Democratic Party promised the people that if they were returned to power there would be no central bank established here while they held the reins of government.

‘Thirteen months later that promise was broken, and the Wilson administration, under the tutelage of those sinister Wall Street figures who stood behind Colonel House, established here in our free country the worm-eaten monarchical institution of the ‘King’s Bank,’ to control us from the top downward, and to shackle us from the cradle to the grave.’”

We may note in passing that, to his credit, Wilson would later rue his betrayal:

“I’m a most unhappy man.  I have ruined my country; a great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit.  We’re no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

One additional supporting example: Obama’s promise to end the neo-colonization of Iraq.  In another example,John Perkins documents the assassination threats, blackmail, and bribes used to turn decent elected officials into renegades.

7. Co-Option

“The best way to control the opposition is to lead it.”–Lenin

The men in the shadows often support phony dissident organizations, e.g., the so-called “Tea Party” in the USA.  Or, with their limitless supply of money, they might infiltrate and achieve partial control of a formerly genuine reform organization, e.g., the Sierra Club.  They are thus able to control their own opposition.  Also, an individual who discovers for the first time the sorrows of the biosphere might join, say, the Wilderness Society, and might never realize that this suit-and-tie organization had sold out decades ago.  If she uncovers the deception, she might give up in disgust, mistakenly believing that it is just “human nature” to deceive, look out for number one, and ignore long-term perils.  And even if she manages to find her way to a grass-roots environmental organization, she might have only few years left to put her wisdom to good use.

This applies, in particular, to some “alternative” media.  Many of these accept commercials and thus are, to a certain extent, at someone else’s beck and call.  Other media have been created, funded, and sustained in order to throw confusion into the dissident camp.  They magnify certain issues (which pose no threat to the bankers), thus deflecting attention from more pressing issues (e.g., Who is behind the ongoing destruction of the middle class, the ongoing Syrian and Palestinian genocides, the USS Liberty Massacre and cover-up, Pearl Harbor, USS Maine?  How in heaven’s name did the Rockefellers and Rothschilds manage to exclude themselves from the list of the richest people in the world?  What is money?  Is the Rothschild/Rockefeller Cartel doing God’s work, as it claims, or Satan’s?  Did this cartel accumulate its wealth and power honorably, or by sleight of hand?  Who really owns British Petroleum, Monsanto, and just about any giant western corporation?).

These phony media and websites often accept the absurd contention that our rulers never ever engage in conspiracies (relying on that standard, absurd dismissal: “He is just a conspiracy theorist”).  For them, there is no point in investigating 9/11, for the simple reason that our rulers never plot in secret!  Well, yes, the Russians, or the Chinese, or the Romans might have, but our lily-white bankers conspiring?  Are you out of your mind?  Such sites often refer to bankers’ propaganda organs (e.g., CNNNew York Times) and to government sources as as legitimate interpreters of reality.  And again, seekers of truth must laboriously sift through their contrivances before beginning to see the world as it is.

I’m writing these words, scarcely believing them myself.  My heart tells me that this is preposterous, that there cannot possibly be people out there so vicious as to not only corrupt everything they touch, but who do everything they can to diminish goodness, health, decency, and kindness in this world.  But then my cortex takes over, providing me with multiple proofs—both personal and research-based—that these people do exist.  The existence and ascendancy of pure evil is no conjecture, but fact.  There are people in this world who have enough ill-gotten money to last them one thousand and one reincarnations of obscene physical comfort, but yet give nothing, absolutely nothing, to help the thousands of children who will go blind this year because they can’t afford $1 worth of Vitamin A.  As if this is not enough, these villains steal from these children the few centavos they do have, and torture or kill them outright if they refuse to surrender these centavos.  A key step in planetary recovery is acknowledging the existence of evil, its pervasiveness, and its capacity to control human destinies.

Mike Krieger:

“We must admit to ourselves that there are truly evil geniuses out there, and in most cases these characters have taken control of the power structure (corporations, politics and factions of the military in most of the nations we reside in).”

Recommended Starting Reference: Helvarg, David.  2004.  The War Against the Greens.

To sum up.  Electoral participation, in any way, shape, or form is counter-productive because it involves opportunity costs.  As long as we accept the bankers’ myth that the system can be changed peacefully from within, the bankers and the system are safe.  Some of our best people take part in this charade either as candidates or supporters, deluding themselves that anything at all can come from their electoral toil.  Imagine all that energy and good will channeled into a strategy that could possibly work!

Electoral politics cannot work for many reasons.  To begin with, how can we tell whether our champion is indeed our champion?  How do we know that she would prefer sure death by saying no to the bankers to joining the fairly exclusive multi-millionaire club by saying yes?  What guarantees do the people have that she will not break every single promise?

Moreover, the vast majority of gullible voters would believe that she is their enemy and that the bankers’ and weaponeers’ marionette is their friend.  She cannot effect change because bankers can steal and print as much money as they want, which they can give to her opponents.  In the very unlikely event that she survives all this and becomes a threat to the bankers, they will crucify her in their media, threaten her, offer her bribes, slander her, arrest her on false charges and keep her naked and humiliated, without trial, in solitary confinement, in a freezing-cold, filthy, noisy cubicle.  In the still more unlikely event that she actually receives a majority of the votes, they will doctor the results.  If she miraculously manages to overcome all this, and if nothing else works, she will be impeached on false grounds, suicided, incinerated in the skies or roadways, or poisoned.

She will waste time and money, and never change anything, regardless of her sincerity.  Since the American people are too drugged and televised, they will not be outraged by yet one more assassination, and will accept the bankers’ version of events.  In cases that cannot be readily forgotten, the bankers will establish a commission, appoint its members—and then proceed to ignore post-mortem reports of even these carefully-screened commissioners that the investigation was a cover-up, a hoax.  The people would even permit these bankers to derisively reproduce the image of the people’s murdered champion on their fiat money.

In more general terms, putting our hopes for freedom and for a better world in the process of electoral politics is fundamentally ill-advised, if not immoral.  We must grow up, as the Ancient Athenians did, or as the American revolutionaries did, and provide for our own freedom and security.  Our system is irreparably broken and must be overthrown, one way or the other.  The contemporary ballot box is a bewitching siren, a mirage, a shibboleth, a bankers’ trap.

 The Different Branches of the Humanitarian Camp Must Unite

RussellEinstein“There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom.  Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels?  We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.  If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.”–The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955

History provides us with yet another crossroads for improving our reform strategies:  Recognizing our common humanity and goals and forming a universal, humanitarian, reform movement.

What, really, are the things that decent, politically literate, human beings care most about?  The answer, I suggest, must comprise at least these four elements:

 Freedom

“That so many of the well-fed young television-watchers in the world’s most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising.  ‘Free as a bird,’ we say, and envy the winged creatures for their power of unrestrictedbrutal-policemovement in all the three dimensions.  But, alas, we forget the dodo.  Any bird that has learned how to grub up a good living without being compelled to use its wings will soon renounce the privilege of flight and remain forever grounded.”–Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, 1958

Throughout most of their existence, human beings seemed to have lived in tribal democracies, with themselves making every major decision.  For a long time, America had been a somewhat free country, but that is no longer the case.  Here is Former President Jimmy Carter (A Cruel and Unusual Record, 6/24/2012):

“While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change . . .  In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws . . . allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications.  Popular state laws permit detaining individuals because of their appearance, where they worship or with whom they associate. . . . Meanwhile, the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, now houses 169 prisoners.  About half have been cleared for release, yet have little prospect of ever obtaining their freedom.  American authorities have revealed that, in order to obtain confessions, some of the few being tried (only in military courts) have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers.  Astoundingly, these facts cannot be used as a defense by the accused, because the government claims they occurred under the cover of “national security.”  Most of the other prisoners have no prospect of ever being charged or tried either.”

LibertyCryingIf we ignore the horrors of slavery, inequality of women, and limited rights of people of foreign origins, we can probably say that a similar system existed in the democratic phases of many ancient Greek city-states.  We can mention in passing that freedom is not only a natural right, not only good for one’s soul, but that it promotes excellence in the moral, cultural, artistic, intellectual, and commercial spheres—as shown by the astounding achievements of democracies like Athens.   Genuine democracy, it so happens, is also the political system most likely to promote environmental sustainability, social justice, and peace.

 Environmental Sustainability

“At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.” – Erich Fromm

Environmental scientists suspect that “human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.”  Cancer rates have already at least doubled; obesity, autism, diabetes, and asthma are on the rise, to name just a few human-facilitated scourges.  Shouldn’t freedom include the right to have one’s fat tissues not soaked with synthetic poisons, one’s brain not loaded with heavy metals, one’s lungs not bathed in plutonium and depleted uranium?  Are the victims of environmentally-acquired autism free?  Don’t I have a right to know if the corn kernels I’ve just ingested are laced with built-in poisons?  Shouldn’t we all share the burden of pollution equally?

Many among us dismiss environmental concerns as a swindle.  The world’s population, they believe, can forever go up by 80,000,000 a year.  We can puncture as many holes in the stratosphere as we wish; we can continue the ongoing destruction of forests, topsoil, oceans, lakes, aquifers, and air; continue to produce as many new chemicals as we wish; go on tampering with the evolutionary heritage of living organisms; persist in the creation of massive amounts of imperishable radioactive wastes; continue to reduce species diversity—and yet survive unscathed.

This is not the place to refute such scientifically naïve views.  Instead, let me just say that the majority of the people who are best qualified to judge the matter—independent scientists—are extremely concerned about the very future of the biosphere.  For example, in 1992—when the situation was less desperate than it is now—some 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including the majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences, issued this “Warning to Humanity:”

“Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.  Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources.  If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know.  Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.”

This is echoed in turn by more recent warnings.  According to the  U.N.’s 2011 World Economic and Social Survey, “humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries” and heading towards “a major planetary catastrophe.”

And that is exactly the threat we face now.  For those of us capable of simple extrapolation of past trends into the future, the conclusion is inescapable:  We are an almost-extinct species, give or take a couple of centuries.  We treat the earth, our only home, with reckless abandon.  We have been warned, time and again, by our best and brightest about the peril, the absurdity, for example, of relying on nuclear fission to boil water (a process which, when analyzed in all its complexity and throughout its entire period of relevance, paradoxically consumes more energy than it produces), but the psychopaths totally ignore the absurdities and warnings.  As of now, humanity has forever lost land to the 1957 Kyshtym disaster in the Urals, to the Chernobyl catastrophe in the Ukraine and Belarus, and to the Fukushima cataclysm (including, perhaps, Tokyo).  How many more such disasters before we reach the tipping point?

More worrisome is not one or another tipping points, but the multiplicity of threats, the daily arrival of new anthropogenic threats, our inability to predict the impacts of these threats on something as complex as the biosphere, and our RussianRoulettefailure, in Paul Watson’s words, to give precedence to natural laws.  We may survive a dozen threats, but we are unlikely to survive thousands, and yet our scientific and political systems excel at introducing new ones.  We shall have to be extremely fortunate, or the earth must be exceedingly resilient, to be forever lucky and reckless.  You can’t play Russian roulette forever.

It takes a science fiction writer to fully grasp the irony and hopelessness of our situation. In Karel Capek’s humorously pessimistic War with the Newts, sentient and prolific salamanders are encountered in some far-off bay.  At first their discoverers offer them knives and protection from sharks in exchange for pearls.  Gradually, however, many of the world’s nations avail themselves of these creatures for other purposes, including war.  In a few years, the salamanders run out of living space.  To accommodate their growing numbers, they flood countries, one at a time.  To do this, they need supplies from other countries and from merchants of the soon-to-be ravaged country itself.  Needless to say, the salamanders have no trouble securing everything they need.  At the end, humanity is on the verge of sinking and drowning; not so much by the newts, but by its greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity.

A similar conclusion is reached in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle:

 ”And I remembered the Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before.  The Fourteenth Book is entitled, “What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?”

It doesn’t take long to read, The Fourteenth Book.  It consists of one word and a period.

This is it:

“Nothing.”

Social Justice

Throughout most of human history—in humanity’s hunter-gatherer phase—rough egalitarianism (as well as freedom and sustainability) probably prevailed.  Our ancestors rightly believed that no one fellow tribesman should starve in the midst of plenty, suffer cold, no sick person should be left unattended by the local shaman because she was poor, no one should be denied access to local traditions because she couldn’t afford to hire a teacher.  We look down on these “savages,” but in this we’re mistaken—we are the top practitioners of savagery the world has ever seen.  A few among us— psychopaths, sycophants, misers, swindlers, or their heirs—have untold riches, while billions of us are starving, lack access to decent housing and water, or are trampled upon and imprisoned by some feudal lords.

According to Joseph Stiglitz, once seen as the land of opportunity, the U.S. today is grappling with rising inequality and a political system that benefits the rich at the expense of others.

“The U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity.  But today, that dream is a myth . . . we are paying a high price for inequality: it contributes to social, economic and political instability.”

Is that the best we can do?  What does political freedom mean to the 18,000 children under five who will die today because of malnutrition and hunger-related diseases, while humanity produces more than enough to comfortably feed everyone?  What does it mean, freedom, to the 215 million children trapped in child labor around the world?  What does our indifference say about us?  Have they stopped assigning Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” in college, or are recent graduates too televised to get the irony?  What is the meaning of this, that we can readily create a system where every child, every adult, every old and infirm person, has all that is needed for a dignified existence, yet we pretend that the present system gives us the best of all possible worlds?

Thankfully, some of us (and not surprisingly, such people tend to die prematurely, under suspicious circumstances) ask themselves the same question.  Here is Michael Jackson:

 ”I see the kids in the streets,

With not enough to eat

Who am I to be blind,

Pretending not to see their needs?

 

A summer disregard, a broken bottle top

And a one man’s soul

They follow each other on the wind ya’ know

‘Cause they got nowhere to go

That’s why I want you to know

 

I’m starting with the man in the mirror

I’m asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

 

I’ve been a victim of a selfish kind of love

It’s time that I realize

That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan

Could it be really me, pretending that they’re not alone?”

Peace

Most people pay at least lip service to the notion that war, military or economic occupation, and violence are undesirable because they kill and maim countless human beings, degrade both perpetrator and victim, destroy the earth and its inhabitants, squander valuable resources that could help close the gap between rich and poor, and, nowadays, pose potential risks to continued human survival.  War is clearly a racket, evidently avoidable.  The Swiss and Swedes escaped it for centuries, because they have a greater measure of control of the political process than most other nations on earth.  We could avoid war too, if we wanted to.

James Miller:

“Then and now, wealthy special interests are a driving force behind American imperialism.  Lies will be spun till they are seen as facts.  When the truth comes out, the irreparable damage will already be done.  Like anything the state lays its filthy hands on, war is a racket.  The beneficiaries of the ruling class’s gleeful foray into mass murder are few in number.  The masses, still brainwashed into feverish nationalism, end up paying the costs with their pilfered income, eroded liberty, and, ultimately, their own lives.”

But that is not all.  War is intimately linked to freedom, the environment, and social justice.  Thucydides graphically described the blood-curdling cultural transformation of Athens during the Peloponnesian War.  In times of war, classical Rome turned itself from a republic into a dictatorship.  In the USA, one of our greatest champions of freedom, Thomas Jefferson, refused to be dragged to war despite numerous Rothschild Family provocations (acting through their underlings in the British Parliament), because he clearly understood the inverse relation between freedom and war.  During the Civil War, World War One and Two, freedom in the USA was cynically made subservient to security.  And once you let the tyrants and the bankers grab some of your freedoms, they never again, if they can help it, let you have these freedoms back.  Likewise, the never-endingbogus war on terror is the chief excuse for dismantling the Constitution, Bill of Rights, privacy, presumption of innocence, and the Posse Comitatus Act.  That same bogus war likewise facilitates the bankers’ plan of destroying the middle class, bringing the pleasures of hunger and scarcity to an ever-increasing number of human beings, further stretching the wealth gap between the parasitic bankers and militarists and the rest of us, and accelerating the pace of planetary rape.

There is a better way, Pete Seeger sings:

“One blue sky above us,

One ocean, lapping our shores.

One earth so green and brown,

Who could ask for more?

And because I love you

I’ll give it one more try

To show my rainbow race

It’s too soon to die.

 

Some folks want to be like an ostrich;

Bury their heads in the sand

Some hope for plastic dreams

To unclench all those greedy hands.

 

Some want to take the easy way:

Poisons, bombs! They think we need ‘em.

Don’t they know you can’t kill all the unbelievers.

There’s no shortcut to freedom

 

Go tell, go tell all the little children!

Go tell mothers and fathers, too:

Now’s our last chance to learn to share

What’s been given to me and you.”

 Closing Remarks

Freedom, sustainability, justice, and peace begin with us.  We must strive to open our minds to new ideas, subordinate our selfish desires to the interests of humanity and the biosphere, and try to understand the world in all its complexity and interconnectedness.

We must also strive to liberate our minds, beginning by disconnecting ourselves, as much as possible, from the bankers’ propaganda system.  We must actively fight such ingrained but palpably false notions that America is a democracy, that our economic institutions come even close to genuine capitalism, that our president is “the most powerful man in the world,” that we should write letters to “our” representatives, that the only qualification a reformer needs is an avowal of reforming sentiments, that our dear bankers never conspire against us.  We should condemn such Punch and Judy shows as contemporary elections, political debates, the mendacious 9/11 and Warren “Commissions,” or trials by judges.  We ought not to send our children to the bankers’ indoctrination centers, nor allow the bankers’ propaganda to intrude into our living rooms while masquerading as news or entertainment.  We must grasp that Hollywood is part of the bankers’ propaganda system and look for entertainment, uplifting art, or comic relief elsewhere.  We must give the slip to that artful National Propaganda Radio, and all other radio programs provided to us by our masters.  We must see how vulnerable we all are, and how any exposure to political and commercial propaganda pollutes our most cherished asset—our minds.  We ought to be doubly careful when it comes to our children.

We must carefully and open-mindedly study the political process.  Such a study will show that we ought to abandon all hopes of the system reforming itself.  Our real rulers have wrested every bastion of power within our republic, and will cling to it come hell or high water.  At this advanced stage of decay, electoral politics can accomplish less than nothing.

We must overstep the ideological boundaries that divide us.  Instead of aspiring to just one or two of the following—genuine freedom, environmental sustainability, social justice, peace—we ought to embrace them all.  We ought to do so because all four are interdependent, and because this is the right thing to do.

If a sufficient number of us grasps these urgent truths, the world may yet turn towards the morning.  The hour is late but perhaps not too late; our chances admittedly slim, but still above zero.  If, on the other hand, we let our rulers and our own delusions, close-mindedness, and ignorance partition us into countless disparate or even hostile ideological camps, if we go on diverting precious resources to the corrupt electoral masquerade, if we go on waiting for a knight in shining armor to conduct the revolution for us instead of conducting it ourselves, if we fail to establish direct democracy within our own organizations and set it up as one ofutah the revolution’s primary goals, if we fail to subject the records of our more prominent spokespeople and strategists to dispassionate analyses, if we fail to embrace the only strategy that could possibly overthrow the bankers, then we shall have no chance at all.

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=268535

The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT or any other VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors or partners. Legal NoticePosted by  on Sep 12 2013, With 857 Reads, Filed under EditorLiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Moti Nissani’s partially-successful interdisciplinary journey has led him to acquire B.A. degrees in philosophy and psychology, a Ph.D. in genetics, and to teach and publish in a variety of fields, including genetics, environmental biology, astronomy, cognitive psychology, animal behavior, elephant and chimpanzee cognition, mathematics, computer science, English, history, and media studies. In his spare time from farming, he is now assembling a Revolutionary’s Toolkit (http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/revolutionarystoolkit/RevolutionarysToolkit.htm).




The Kochs Can’t Control the Monster They Created

The billionaire conservatives join the ranks of business interests trying to rein in the populist right, but they’re no longer in a position to dictate to the movement.

The Atlantic
atlantic-teapartykoch.banner.reuters
Robert Galbraith/Reuters

care little for the pleas for sanity from banking lobbyists and the Chamber of Commerce; indeed, they wear their disregard for Big Business as a badge of honor.

Where does that leave the Koch brothers? The billionaire industrialists have funded a sprawling empire of libertarian-conservative activism; they’ve been dubbed the bankrollers of the Tea Party. Liberals frequently accuse them of seeking deregulatory policies to further their company’s financial interests. But what happens when the Tea Party’s ideological warfare threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into chaos?

The answer: The Kochs appear to be distancing themselves from the movement they’ve helped to create. In a letter released Wednesday, Koch Industries’ chief lobbyist, Philip Ellender, says the company does not favor the House’s push to defund Obamacare as a condition of keeping the government open. Koch Industries would prefer to see Congress focus on fiscal issues: “We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future,” Ellender writes.

Ellender’s letter came in response to Democrats’ attempts to pin the shutdown on the Kochs. Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid said: “Very rich people in America who don’t believe in government have used Obamacare as a conduit to shut down the government …. This has been led by, according to the news article, a former attorney general of the United States, Ed Meese, and the Koch brothers, who have been raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get us where we are right now,” Reid said. He added, “By shutting down the government—and that is what has happened—we are satisfying the Koch brothers and Ed Meese, but millions of people in America are suffering.” Reid cited a front-page New York Times article on Sunday that traced the government shutdown’s origins in a network of right-wing pressure groups opposed to Obamacare, many of them funded by Charles and David Koch.

But Ellender, in his letter, accuses Reid of distorting Koch’s stance. “Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care in America, and raise taxes,” he writes. “However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacrare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.”

In addition to keeping spending at sequester levels, Ellender adds, “We also believe that Congress should work to rein-in rampant government spending so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling.”

Even as the Kochs attempt to disavow the defund movement, their money has supported it. The brothers have given half a million dollars to Heritage Action, which toured the country rallying support for defunding Obamacare over the summer, Politico reported Wednesday. Heritage Action continues to insist the way to end the shutdown must be defund or nothing: Talk of a fiscal deal constitutes “losing focus,” according to a Heritage Action blog post on Tuesday, and “the House should use its leverage to battle President Obama’s failed health care law.” The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity officially supports repealing Obamacare, not defunding it, but state chapters inNew JerseyNew MexicoOhio, and Virginia have voiced support for defunding.

Like others in the business community, the Kochs appear to believe that the push to defund Obamacare is a doomed and destructive distraction and that the Republican-led House should refocus on fiscal issues. A bigger fiscal deal is the goal House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan pushed in a pair of op-eds Wednesday. But it’s adamantly opposed by many conservative activists who still see defunding as achievable, and who see the threat of default not as a looming calamity but as a politically motivated ruse. It’s this insistence that Obamacare be gutted at all costs, backed by thearchconservative faction in the House, that’s keeping the shutdown from ending.

The bigger picture here is the continuing splintering of the mainline GOP from its restive, angry base. Many in the Republican establishment hailed the Tea Party when it seemed like merely a source of grassroots enthusiasm for GOP politicians. But now it has turned on them, and even the Koch brothers find they are powerless to stop it.

___________________________

MOLLY BALL is a staff writer covering national politics at The Atlantic.




Financial Core of the Transnational Corporate Class

The Following is a Chapter from the Newest Book Project Censored Project Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times

By Peter Phillips and Brady Osborne, Project Censored

Introduction

In this study, we decided to identify in detail the people on the boards of directors of the top ten asset management firms and the top ten most centralized corporations in the world. Because of overlaps, there is a total of thirteen firms, which collectively have 161 directors on their boards. We think that this group of 161 individuals represents the financial core of the world’s transnational capitalist class. They collectively manage $23.91 trillion in funds and operate in nearly every country in the world. They are the center of the financial capital that powers the global economic system. Western governments and international policy bodies work in the interests of this financial core to protect the free flow of capital investment anywhere in the world.

A Brief History of Research on the
American Power Elite

A long tradition of sociological research documents the existence of a dominant ruling class in the United States, whose members set policy and determine national political priorities. The American ruling class is complex and competitive, and perpetuates itself through interacting families of high social standing with similar lifestyles, corporate affiliations, and memberships in elite social clubs and private schools.

The American ruling class has long been determined to be mostly self-perpetuating,2maintaining its influence through policy-making institutions such as the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council, Business Roundtable, the Conference Board, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Council on Foreign Relations, and other business-centered policy groups.3 These associations have long dominated policy decisions within the US government.

In his 1956 book, The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills documented how World War II solidified a trinity of power in the US that comprised corporate, military, and government elites in a centralized power structure motivated by class interests and working in unison through “higher circles” of contact and agreement. Mills described how the power elite were those “who decide whatever is decided” of major consequence.4 These higher-circle decision makers tended to be more concerned with interorganizational relationships and the functioning of the economy as a whole, rather than with advancing their particular corporate interests.5

The higher-circle policy elites (HCPE) are a segment of the American upper class and are the principal decision makers in society. Although these elites display some sense of “we-ness,” they also tend to have continuing disagreements on specific policies and necessary actions in various sociopolitical circumstances.6 These disagreements can block aggressive reactionary responses to social movements and civil unrest, as in the case of the labor movement in the 1930s and the civil rights movement in the 1960s. During these two periods, the more liberal elements of HCPE tended to dominate the decision-making process and supported passing the National Labor Relations and Social Security Acts in 1935, as well as the Civil Rights and Economic Opportunities Acts in 1964. These pieces of national legislation were seen as concessions to the ongoing social movements and civil unrest, and were implemented instead of instituting more repressive policies.

However, during periods of threats from external enemies, as in World Wars I and II, more conservative/reactionary elements of the HCPE successfully pushed their agendas. During and after World War I, the United States instituted repressive responses to social movements, for example through the Palmer Raids and passage of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. After World War II, the HCPE allowed and encouraged the McCarthy-era attacks on liberals and radicals and, in 1947, passage of the National Security Act and the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act. In the past twenty-five years, and especially since the events of 9/11, the HCPE in the US has been united in support of an American empire of military power that maintains a repressive war against resisting groups—typically dubbed “terrorists”—around the world. This war on terror is much more about protecting transnational globalization, the free flow of financial capital, dollar hegemony, and access to oil, than it is repressing terrorism. Increasingly, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a partner with US global dominance interests.7

The Transnational Capitalist Class

Capitalist power elites exist around the world. The globalization of trade and capital brings the world’s elites into increasingly interconnected relationships—to the point that sociologists have begun to theorize the development of a transnational capitalist class (TCC). In one of the pathbreaking works in this field, The Transnational Capitalist Class(2000), Leslie Sklair argued that globalization elevated transnational corporations (TNC) to more influential international roles, with the result that nation-states became less significant than international agreements developed through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international institutions.8 Emerging from these multinational corporations was a transnational capitalist class, whose loyalties and interests, while still rooted in their corporations, was increasingly international in scope. Sklair wrote:

The transnational capitalist class can be analytically divided into four main fractions: (i) owners and controllers of TNCs and their local affiliates; (ii) globalizing bureaucrats and politicians; (iii) globalizing professionals; (iv) consumerist elites (merchants and media). . . . It is also important to note, of course, that the TCC and each of its fractions are not always entirely united on every issue. Nevertheless, together, leading personnel in these groups constitute a global power elite, dominant class or inner circle in the sense that these terms have been used to characterize the dominant class structures of specific countries.9

William Robinson followed in 2004 with his book, A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World.10 Robinson claimed that 500 years of capitalism had led to a global epochal shift in which all human activity is transformed into capital. In this view, the world had become a single market, which privatized social relationships. He saw the TCC as increasingly sharing similar lifestyles, patterns of higher education, and consumption. The global circulation of capital is at the core of an international bourgeoisie, who operate in oligopolist clusters around the world. These clusters of elites form strategic transnational alliances through mergers and acquisitions with the goal of increased concentration of wealth and capital. The process creates a polyarchy of hegemonic elites. The concentration of wealth and power at this level tends to over-accumulate, leading to speculative investments and wars. The TCC makes efforts to correct and protect its interests through global organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the G20, World Social Forum, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, Bank for International Settlements, and other transnational associations. Robinson claimed that, within this system, nation-states become little more than population containment zones, and the real power lies with the decision makers who control global capital.11

Deeper inside the transnational capitalist class is what David Rothkopf calls the “superclass.” In his 2008 book, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, Rothkopf argued that the superclass constitutes 6,000 to 7,000 people, or 0.0001 percent of the world’s population.12 They are the Davos-attending, Gulfstream/private jet–flying, money-incrusted, megacorporation-interlocked, policy-building elites of the world, people at the absolute peak of the global power pyramid. They are 94 percent male, predominantly white, and mostly from North America and Europe. Rothkopf reported that these are the people setting the agendas at the G8, G20, NATO, the World Bank, and the WTO. They are from the highest levels of finance capital, transnational corporations, the government, the military, the academy, nongovernmental organizations, spiritual leaders, and other shadow elites. (Shadow elites include, for instance, the deep politics of national security organizations in connection with international drug cartels, who extract 8,000 tons of opium from US war zones annually, then launder $500 billion through transnational banks, half of which are US-based.)13

Rothkopf’s definition of the superclass emphasized their influence and power. Although there are over 1,500 billionaires in the world, not all are necessarily part of the superclass in terms of influencing global policies. Yet these 1,500 billionaires possess two times as much wealth as the 2.5 billion least wealthy people, and they are fully aware of these vast inequalities. The billionaires inside the TCC are similar to colonial plantation owners. They know they are a small minority with vast resources and power, yet they must continually worry about the unruly exploited masses rising in rebellion. As a result of these class insecurities, the TCC works to protect its structure of concentrated wealth. Protection of capital is the prime reason that NATO countries now account for 85 percent of the world’s defense spending, with the US spending more on military than the rest of the world combined.14 Fears of rebellions motivated by inequality and other forms of unrest motivate NATO’s global agenda in the war on terror.15

NATO is quickly emerging as the police force for the transnational capitalist class. As the TCC more fully emerged in the 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO began broader operations. NATO first ventured into the Balkans, where it remains, and then into Afghanistan. NATO started a training mission in Iraq in 2005, has recently conducted operations in Libya, and, as of July 2013, is considering military action in Syria. Superclass use of NATO for its global security is part of an expanding strategy for US military domination around the world, whereby the US/NATO military–industrial–media empire operates in service to the TCC for the protection of international capital anywhere in the world.16

The most recent work on the TCC is William K. Carroll’s The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class (2010).17 Carroll’s work focused on the consolidation of the transnational corporate-policy networks between 1996 and 2006. He used a database of the boards of directors of the global 500 largest corporations, showing the concentrated interconnectedness of key corporations and a decreasing number of people involved. According to this analysis, the average size of corporate boards has dropped from 20.2 to 14.0 in the ten years of his study. Furthermore, financial organizations are increasingly the center of these networks. Carroll argued that the TCC at the centers of these networks benefit from extensive ties to each other, thus providing both the structural capacity and class consciousness necessary for effective political solidarity.

A 2011 University of Zurich study completed by Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology reported that a small group of companies—mainly banks—wields huge power over the global economy.18 Applying mathematical models—usually used to model natural systems—to the transnational corporations in the world economy, the study found that 147 companies controlled some 40 percent of the world’s wealth.19

Project Censored Research on the 2013
Transnational Capitalist Class

Although sociological theorists conduct studies of the world’s power elite, these researchers rarely identify specific members of the transnational capitalist class, preferring instead to build theory for other academics to read and discuss, while avoiding the particulars of who is actually involved.

The world’s corporate media pay absolutely no attention to academic concepts like “transnational capitalist class.” Thus, a LexisNexis search of news coverage, completed on June 3, 2013, using the term “transnational capitalist class,” returned only three news stories in the past decade—two from foreign media, and the third a letter to the editor by Leslie Sklair. The concept of a transnational capitalist class is absent from corporate news coverage, which also does not address who constitutes this most elite, powerful group.

We think that the world needs to know who comprises the TCC and thus who makes the financial decisions regarding global capital.

This is actually a fairly straightforward—if labor-intensive—research effort: most of the information is not only public but also online. We started with the top ten most centralized companies from the previously cited 2011 Swiss study.20 This identified the world’s most centralized and interconnected financial organizations. We also wanted to consider those groups managing the largest volumes of financial capital, so we added the top asset management firms from 2012 to our data set.21 The following chart shows the rankings in trillions of dollars of assets managed for the top thirty-five asset management firms in the world.

Table 1: The World’s Top 35 Asset Management Firms, in Trillions of Dollars (2012)

1 BlackRock US $3,560

2 UBS Switzerland $2,280

3 Allianz Germany $2,213

4 Vanguard Group US $2,080

5 State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) US $1,908

6 PIMCO (Pacific Investment
Management Company) US $1,820

7 Fidelity Investments US $1,576

8 AXA Group France $1,393

9 JPMorgan Asset Management US $1,347

10 Credit Suisse Switzerland $1,279

11 BNY Mellon Asset Management US $1,299

12 HSBC UK $1,230

13 Deutsche Bank Germany $1,227

14 BNP Paribas France $1,106

15 Capital Research and Management
Company US $1,071

16 Prudential Financial US $961.0

17 Amundi France $880.0

18 Goldman Sachs Group US $836.0

19 Wellington Management Company US $719.8

20 Natixis Global Asset Management France $710.9

21 Franklin Resources (Franklin
Templeton Investments) US $707.1

22 Northern Trust US $704.3

23 Bank of America US $682.2

24 Invesco US $646.6

25 Legg Mason US $631.8

26 Nippon Life Insurance Company Japan $600.0

27 Legal & General Investment
Management UK $598.5

28 Generali Group Italy $581.5

29 Prudential UK $570.2

30 Ameriprise Financial US $543.6

31 T. Rowe Price US $541.7

32 Wells Fargo US $534.9

33 Manulife Financial Canada $513.8

34 Sun Life Financial Canada $496.3

35 TIAA-CREF US $481.0

Seven of the top ten asset management firms were in the top ten of the most centralized firms from the Swiss study. We decided to identify the people on the boards of directors of the top ten asset management firms and the top ten most centralized corporations. With overlaps there is a total of thirteen firms in our study: Barclays PLC, BlackRock Inc., Capital Group Companies Inc., FMR Corporation: Fidelity Worldwide Investment, AXA Group, State Street Corporation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Legal & General Group PLC (LGIMA), Vanguard Group Inc., UBS AG, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Group AG, and Allianz SE (Owners of PIMCO) PIMCO-Pacific Investment Management Co. The boards of directors of these firms, totaling 161 individuals, represent the financial core of the world’s transnational capitalist class (for more details see Appendix). Collectively, they manage $23.91 trillion in funds and operate in nearly every country in the world. The $23.91 trillion does not include the equity balances—which number in the billions of dollars—that each of these firms holds in company assets. Nor does it include the $18.8 trillion controlled by the next twenty-five most valuable asset management firms.

The bank Barclays, the most wealth-centralized corporation in the world, sold its global asset management division to BlackRock in 2009. The result is that BlackRock is now the single largest asset management firm, though Barclays remains one of the most wealth-centralized firms with company assets of $2.42 trillion.22

Understanding the Financial Core of the
Transnational Capitalist Class

The 161 directors of the thirteen mostly centralized/largest asset management firms represent the central core of international capital. As such, these 161 people share a common goal of maximum return on investments for their clients and will seek to achieve returns sometimes by any means necessary—legal or not.

Authorities have deemed the largest banks “too big to fail,” and have responded to the banks’ criminal activities with weak reforms and no prosecutions.23 The American government has refused to prosecute any officials from the multitude of banks who have laundered billions of dollars for illegal drug cartels. Powerful banking corporations, such as JPMorgan Chase, have continually refused to comply with American anti-money laundering (AML) laws.24

This refusal to prosecute is often hailed as an honorable move that serves to protect all individuals from devastation. Thus, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer explained the refusal to prosecute the bank HSBC:

Had the US authorities decided to press criminal charges, HSBC would almost certainly lost its banking license in the US, the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilized.25

Not only are these powerful corporations considered “too big to fail,” they appear to have become too big to tell apart. Traditionally, banks have been understood as separate entities, competing against one another in order to entice consumers to deposit funds and invest. Such competition theoretically forces banks to compete to offer the best rates. However, in reality, these banks found that competing against one another was less profitable than working together. Realizing that their interests lie side by side, the financial core of the TCC have been highly motivated to join forces—legally or not—to manipulate laws, policies, and governments to their advantage.

The ramifications of the lack of competition in the banking industry are devastating. Consider, for example, price-fixing scandals such as Libor or ISDAfix. JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and Barclays (among thirteen others) were implicated in the Libor scandal, falsifying the data that was used to create benchmark rates.26 Based on faked data, those rates affected the prices of everything from auto, home, and student loans to credit cards to mortgage and commercial loans, and even the price of currencies themselves. The Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom fined Barclays $450 million, and several other banks are still under investigation.27

The ISDAfix scandal looks a lot like the Libor case. The same superpower banks are currently under investigation to determine whether or not they manipulated ISDAfix, a benchmark number used to calculate the prices of global interest rate swaps.28 Because cities and sovereign governments use interest rate swaps to help manage their debts, manipulation of those rates has far-reaching impacts, particularly for the poor and working classes, as economic safety nets are subject to “austerity” measures—i.e., budget cuts—that favor protection of financial capital.

Not only were rates illegally fixed and data falsified, but the offending banks also used individual consumers’ investments to engage in criminal activity. The Vanguard Group was accused of investing its clients’ money into illegal offshore gambling sites, prompting a class-action lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Vanguard did not deny such wrongdoing, but a judge determined that when the plaintiffs (Vanguard’s clients) were harmed, they lost their money due to the government’s crackdown on such illegal gambling, rather than due to Vanguard’s investing in such sites.29 However, it is clear that if Vanguard had not invested client money in illegal ventures, there would have been no negative repercussions from such a government crackdown. As journalist Matt Taibbi declared, “Everything is rigged.”30 Indeed it seems that the superpower corporate elite will never be made to pay for their crimes against consumers—we have yet to see such a prosecution.

Vanguard Group and BlackRock are major investors in Sturm, Ruger & Co., a leading firearms manufacturer.31 Though there is nothing illegal about such investments, we can wonder about the consequences of such a pairing. With the expansion of private police and military companies, the power elite seemingly are investing in the violent means with which to maintain and further their power.

With money comes power, influence, and propaganda. BlackRock and numerous other banks and Wall Street institutions are financially backing groups like Parent Revolution and StudentsFirst, whose agendas are to privatize and subsequently corporatize the public school system.32 The transnational capitalist class is laying the foundation for the privatization of the world. If public, democratic institutions—including schools, post offices, universities, the military, and even churches—become privately owned entities, then corporate interests will truly dominate. Then, we become neo-feudal societies where the reign of kings is replaced by private corporate ownership and the people serve as peasants.

We do not claim that any single person identified in this study, as one of the 161 individuals at the financial core of the TCC, has done anything illegal. We only point out that the institutional, structural arrangements within the money management systems of global capital relentlessly seek ways to achieve maximum return on investment, and that the conditions for manipulations—legal or not—always hold. As these institutions become “too big to fail,” their scope and interconnections pressure government regulators to shy away from criminal investigations, much less prosecutions. The result is a semi-protected class of people with increasingly vast amounts of money, seeking unlimited growth and returns, with little concern for consequences of their economic pursuits on other people, societies, cultures, and environments.

Estimates are that the total world’s wealth is close to $200 trillion, with the US and Europe holding approximately 63 percent of that total; meanwhile, the poorest half of the global population together possesses less than 2 percent of global wealth.33 The World Bank reports that in 2008, 1.29 billion people were living in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, and 1.2 billion more were living on less than $2.00 a day.34 Thirty-five thousand people, mostly young children, die every day from starvation.35 So while millions suffer, the TCC financial elites seek returns that speculate on the rising cost of food, and they do this in cooperation with each other in a global system of TCC power and control.

Who are the financial core of the transnational corporate class? As indicated above, the financial core of the TCC are directors of banks and asset management firms. The 161 directors who manage the top thirteen firms have very similar backgrounds and training. (See Appendix for names and affiliations. The full, detailed list is online at: http://projectcensored.org/financial-core-of-the-transnational-corporate-class/).

Financial Core of the Transnational
Corporate Class

One hundred thirty-six of the 161 core members (84 percent) are male. Eighty-eight percent are whites of European descent (just nineteen are people of color). Fifty-two percent hold graduate degrees—including thirty-seven MBAs, fourteen JDs, twenty-one PhDs, and twelve MA/MS degrees.

Almost all have attended private colleges, with close to half attending the same ten universities: Harvard University (25), Oxford University (11), Stanford University (8), Cambridge University (8), University of Chicago (8), University of Cologne (6), Columbia University (5), Cornell University (4), the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (3), and University of California–Berkeley (3), which is a public institution. Forty-nine are or were CEOs, eight are or were CFOs; six had prior experience at Morgan Stanley, six at Goldman Sachs, four at Lehman Brothers, four at Swiss Re, seven at Barclays, four at Salomon Brothers, and four at Merrill Lynch.

People from twenty-two nations make up the central financial core of the TCC. Seventy-three (45 percent) are from the US; twenty-seven (16 percent) Britain; fourteen France; twelve Germany; eleven Switzerland; four Singapore; three each from Austria, Belgium, and India; two each from Australia and South Africa; and one each from Brazil, Vietnam, Hong Kong/China, Qatar, the Netherlands, Zambia, Taiwan, Kuwait, Mexico, and Colombia.They mostly live in or near a number of the world’s great cities: New York, Chicago, London, Paris, and Munich.36

Members of the financial core take active parts in global policy groups and government. Five of the thirteen corporations have directors as advisors or former employees of the IMF. Six of the thirteen firms have directors who have worked at or served as advisors to the World Bank. Five of the thirteen firms hold corporate membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in the US. Seven of the firms sent nineteen directors to attend the World Economic Forum in February 2013. Seven of the directors have served or currently serve on a Federal Reserve board, both regionally and nationally in the US. Six of the financial core serve on the Business Roundtable in the US. Several directors have had direct experience with the financial ministries of European Union countries, the G8, and the G20. Almost all of the 161 individuals serve in some advisory capacity for various regulatory organizations, finance ministries, universities, and national or international policy-planning bodies.

These 161 directors are part of Rothkopf’s superclass. Given their control over $23.91 trillion, Western governments and international policy bodies serve the interests of this financial core of the TCC. Wars are initiated to protect their interests, and to promote the free flow of global capital for investment anywhere that returns are possible. Identifying the people with such power and influence is an important part of any democratic movement seeking to protect our commons so that all humans might share and prosper.37

You can here an extended interview with Peter Phillips about this article here.

appendix

Financial Core of the Transnational Capitalist Class (2013)

 Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA,  PC-World Economic Forum-2013, Confindustria-Italian Employers’ Federation, E- University of Rome La Sapienza,

Ashok Vaswani Brysam, India,  CB-Brysam Global Partners, PE-Citibank, Consumer Bank, US Cards Business,  PC-S. P. Jain Institute of Management Singapore, E-Bombay University, Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Diane de Saint Victor, French, CB-ABB Limited, Baldor Electric Co., PE-EADS, SCA Hygiene Products, Honeywell International, General Electric, Thales, Lyon-Caen, Fabiani & Thiriez, PC-International Bar Association, E- Pantheon-Assas University, Paris Law School-JD,

Shaygan Kheradpir Ph.D., UK, PE-Verizon Communications, GTE PC-National Institute of Standards & Technology E-Cornell University-Ph.D. Electrical Engineering,

David George Booth, US, CB-East Ferry Investors Inc., PE-Morgan Stanley, Discount Corporation of New York E-University of Kansas, University of Chicago-MBA

Simon John Fraser, UK, CBFidelity International, Fidelity European Values PLC, Fidelity Japanese Values PLC., Ashmore Group Plc. H. Lundén Kapitalförvaltning AB, The Edinburgh Investment Trust Plc, PE-FIL Investments International, Investment Solutions Group Ltd. E-University of St. Andrews, Columbia University-MBA

Reuben Jeffery III, US, CB-CEO of Rockefeller & Co, PE-US Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, Goldman Sachs & Co, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, PC-National Security Council, Council on Foreign Relations, World Economic Forum, Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington DC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), E-Yale University, Stanford University-JD,

Dambisa Moyo, Ph.D., Zambia, CB- SABMiller PLC, Barrick Gold Corporation, Lundin Petroleum AB, PE-World Bank, Goldman Sachs, PC-World Economic Forum, Bilderberg Group, E-St Antony’s College, Oxford-Ph.D., Harvard-Kennedy School of Government-MPA, American University-MBA

Sir Michael Rake, UK, CB-BT Group PLC, easyJet PLC., PE-KPMG International, McGraw-Hill Companies, PC-World Economic Forum-2013, The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, Chatham House-Royal Institute of International Affairs, British-American Business—International Council,  Confederation of British Industry, UK- Department of Trade and Industry, International Business Leaders Forum, Oxford Advisory Board, E-Wellington College

Sir John Sunderland, UK, CB-Chancellor of Aston University, Merlin Entertainments Limited, AFC Energy plc., PE-Cadbury Schweppes PLC, CVC Capital Partners, PC- Confederation of British Industry, Financial Reporting Council, Chartered Management Institute, Business in the Community, Governor of Reading University, E-University of St. Andrews.

Maria Ramos, South Africa, CB- Absa Group Ltd,  PE-Transnet Limited PC- Director-General of the National Treasury, Business Trust (South Africa), International Business Council, World Economic Forum-2013, World Bank Chief Economist Advisory Panel, Business Leadership South Africa, Banking Association of South Africa, E-University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), University of London-MS, Fortune-World’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business

BlackRock Inc. (Inc. Assets $22.3 billion)

Assets in management: $3.7 trillion

Laurence Fink, US, CB- PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Innovir Laboratories Inc., York Stock Exchange, Inc., PE-The First Boston Corporation, VIMRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., E-University of California Los Angeles, Awards-CEO of the Decade-Financial News 2011

Robert S. Kapito, US, CB-icruise.com, PE-Bain & Co ,PC- Trustee, University of Pennsylvania, International Monetary Conference, The Financial Services Roundtable, E- Harvard Business School-MBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

James Rohr, US,  CD-CEO, PNC Bank, EQT Corporation (Equitable Resources Inc.) Mercantile Bankshares Corp.,  PC-Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, The RAND Corporation, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Bohemian Club, E-Notre Dame, Ohio State-MBA,

Hsueh-Ming Wang, Taiwan, PE-Goldman Sachs, The Paulson Institute

Murry S. Gerber, US, CD-Halliburton, United States Steel Corp, PE-CEO of EQT,  Corporation, Shell Energy North America, PC-Pennsylvania Business Council, Trustee-Augustana College, E-Augustana College, University of Illinois-MA Geology

Thomas H. O’Brien, Jr., US, CB-CEO-PNC, McMahon Capital Advisors, LLC, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., US Airways Group Inc, Confluence Technologies Inc., Verizon New England Inc., Porcelain Industries Inc., HMR Acquisition Company Inc., Cavert Wire Company Inc., Viasystems Inc., PE-Pittsburgh National Bank, Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, Westinghouse Credit Corp. Co, PC-Trustee of University of Pittsburgh. E-Boston College, University of Notre Dame, Harvard-MBA, University of Pittsburgh

Sir Deryck Charles Maughan, UK, CB-Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Nikko Securities Co., Glaxosmithkline PLC, Thomson Reuters Corporation, PE-Salomon Brothers Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Salomon Smith Barney, Citicorp., PC- Trilateral Commission, British American Business Inc. British-American Business Council, New York Stock Exchange, Advisory Councils at Harvard and Stanford Universities, E- King’s College, University of London, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University-MS

David Komansky, US, CD-Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, AEA Investors LP, AEA Investors LLC, Burt’s Bees, Discover Financial Services, Schering-Plough,  PE-BofA Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, EP Technologies, Inc., Automated Security (Holdings) PLC., New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, Inc., WPP Group PLC,  PC-British American Business Council, Trustee of Tsinghua University in Beijing, E-University of Miami

James Grosfeld, US, CB-Copart, Inc. Interstate Bakeries Corporation, Addington Resources Inc.,  PE-Pulte Homes, Inc., Championship Liquidating Trust, PC- Federal National Mortgage Association, E-Amherst College, Columbia Law School-JD

William S. Demchak, CB-CEO-PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Hilliard Lyons Research Advisors, The RBB Fund, Inc. Senbanc Fund, PE-J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., PC-World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, The Financial Services Roundtable, E- Allegheny College, University of Michigan-MBA

Susan Lynn Wagner, US, CB- RBB Fund, Inc.. Bogle Small Cap Growth Fund, Director of DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, India, PE-Lehman Brothers, Founding Partner BlackRock,  E-Wellesley College, University of Chicago-MBA Finance

Dennis D. Dammerman, US, CB-Capmark Financial Group, Inc., General Electric Capital Corp., Swiss Re Ltd., PE-Kidder Peabody Group Inc., Montgomery Ward Holding Corp., Genworth Financial Inc., PC-Trustee of Skidmore College, E-University of Dubuque.

Mathis Cabiallavetta, Swiss, CB-Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Re Ltd, Philip Morris International, Inc., General Atlantic Partners, Altria,  PE-Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., PC-US Federal Reserve, Swiss American Chamber of Commerce, British-American Business Council, E-University of Montreal, Queen’s University, Kingston-MA-Economics, Ontario,

Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Kuwait, PD-Morgan Stanley, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., American International Group, Inc., National Bank of Kuwait, PC-Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab Planning Institute, Banking Advisory Board Group (World Bank), Minister of Finance and Minister of Planning of Kuwait, United Nations Committee for Development Planning, Commission on Global Governance, E-Claremont College, Harvard International Affairs Program,

John Silvester Varley, UK, CB-CEO-Barclays PLC, British Grolux Investments Limited, Rio Tinto Ltd. & Rio Tinto Plc, Astrazeneca PLC, PC-International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Trustee-Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, E- Oriel College, Oxford, London’s College of Law.

Ivan Seidenberg, US, CB-Perella Weinberg Partners LP, PE-CEO-Verizon Communications, Cellco Partnership, Inc., American Home Products Corporation, Wyeth, LLC Honeywell Technology Solutions, Viacom,  PC-Chairman of Business Roundtable, New York Academy of Sciences, President’s Export Council for U.S., E-City University of New York, Pace University-MBA,

Thomas Montag, US, CB-Bank of America Corporation/Merrill-Lynch, GS Financial Products, PE- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., First National Bank of Chicago, PC-World Economic Forum-2013, The Partnership for New York City, Director of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, E-Stanford University, Northwestern University-MBA,

Marco Antonio Slim Domit,* Mexico, CB-CEO-Grupo Financiero Inbursa, S.A.B. de C.V, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleoen America Latina, S.A.B. de C.V, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleoen America Latina, S.A.B. de C.V, Afore Inbursa, S.A. de C.V., Arrendadora Financiera Inbursa, S.A. de C.V., Operadora Inbursa de Sociedades de Inversion, S.A. de C.V., Seguros Inbursa, S.A., Sears Roebuck, America Telecom, America Movil, S.A. the C.V., Carso Global Telecom S.A. de CV., U.S. Commercial Corp., S.A. the C.V., CompUSA and Grupo Carso S.A. de C.V. PE-Director of Telefonos de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V, E-Universidad Anahuac, *Son of Carlos Slim Helú rated as richest person in the world by Forbes Magazine—estimated wealth $70 billion.

Fabrizio Freda, Italy, CB-CEO-The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., PE-Procter & Gamble Company, P&G/The Coca-Cola Company LLC, E-University of Naples,

Jessica P. Einhorn, Ph.D., US, CB-Dean at Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University, Time Warner Inc.,  PE-Clark & Weinstock, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United States Treasury, United States State Department, International Development Cooperation Agency of the United States, Pitney Bowes Inc.,  PC-Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Trustee for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund., Peterson Institute for International Economics, Center for Global Development, National Bureau of Economic Research, E-Barnard College at Columbia University, SAIS-John Hopkins-MA, Princeton University-Ph.D. Political Science

Capital Group Companies Inc.
Assets Management: $1.07 Trillion

David Isador Fisher, US, CB-Colonial First State (FirstChoice), Capital International Global Share, Capital Guardian and Trust Company, AEGON/Transamerica Series Trust-Capital Guardian Global Portfolio, JNL Series Trust-JNL/UBS Large Cap Select Growth Fund, Vantagepoint Growth & Income Fund, Pacific Select Fund-Equity Portfolio; John Hancock Trust-Overseas Equity Trust, PE-Smith Barney & Co, General Electric Company,  PC-International Monetary Fund Retirement Plan, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Trustee-Lowe Institute, Harvard-Westlake School, Claremont McKenna College, UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research, E-University of California at Berkeley, University of Missouri-MBA,

Martin E. Diaz Plata, Columbia, CB-Managing Partner Capital Group, PE-Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (now Credit Suisse), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Corporacion Financiera del Valle in Bogota E-Universidad Externado de Colombia, Columbia University Graduate School of Business-MBA

Ashley Dunster, Australia, CB-Managing Partner Capital Group, PE-European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, L|E|K Partnership, E-University of Melbourne, Oxford University

Koenraad Foulon, Belgium, CB-Managing Partner Capital Group, PE-Shearson Lehman Global Asset Management, Posthorn Global Asset, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company Banque DeGroof in Brussels, E-University of Louvain, Belgium.

Shaw B. Wagener, US, CB-Capital Group International, Capital Guardian Trust Company, PC-Los Angeles Society of Financial Analyst, E-Claremont McKenna College

Leonard L. Kim, Singapore, CB-Managing Partner Partner Capital Group, PE-Peregrine Capital Limited, Kimbaco Limited-Korea, The First Boston Corporation, E-Stanford University

Guilherme Lins, Brazil, Managing Partner Capital Group, PE-JPMorgan, Matuschka Group, E-Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, École des Hautes Études Commerciales-HEC

Lam Nguyen-Phuong, Vietnam (US), CB-Managing Partner Capital Group, PE-Ermgassen & Co. Ltd,  JP Morgan & Co., RepublicBank Dallas. École Centrale (Paris, France), Stanford University-MBA

FMR Corporation: Fidelity Worldwide Investment (Family Controlled)
Assets Management: $1.7 Trillion

Edward Crosby Johnson III, US, CB-CEO-Fidelity, Trustee of Fidelity Commonwealth Trust, FMR Corp, ARI Holdings Inc., Greenery Rehabilitation Group Inc., Premier BanCorp Inc, Crocker Realty Investors Inc, Dr. Solomon’s Group PLC, and ForSoft Ltd., Regal Communications Corp., E-Harvard,

Abigail Pierrepont Johnson, US, CB-President-Fidelity Financial Services, L.L.C. PE-Booz Allen & Hamilton, PC-Trustee of Fidelity Commonwealth Trust, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E-Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Harvard Business-MBA

Ned C. Lautenbach, US, CB-Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc., PE-IBM, Covansys Corp., Acterna Corp., Providian Corp., Eaton Corp., Italtel Holding S.p.A, Axcelis Technologies Inc., Sony Corp., PC-Council on Foreign Relations, Trustee of Fairfield University, University of Cincinnati Foundation, Board of Governors State University Florida, E- University of Cincinnati, Harvard Business-MBA,

 

AXA

Assets Management: $1.4 Trillion

Claude Bébéar, France, CB-Honorary Chairman of AXA, Vivendi, BNP Paribas, Schneider Electric, PC-Institut Montaigne, E-Institute of Actuaries of France

Henri de Castries, France, CB-CEO-AXA, Nestlé,  PE-French Treasury Department, Rhône-Poulenc Group,  E-Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, 

Norbert Dentressangle, France, CB-Financière Norbert Dentressangle, Dentressangle Initiatives (SAS) (formerly Financière de Cuzieu (SAS)), ND Investissements (SAS), SEB SA, Vivendi, SOFADE.  PE-FINAIXAM.

Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, France, CB-Solvay, Rhodia. Faurecia, SNCF,  PE-Ministry of Labour, PC-World Economic Forum 2013, Franco-Brazilian Business Council, Int’l MEDEF. European Chemical Industry Council. Member, Int’l Chemical Industry Council;  E-Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines of Paris, Ingénieur du Corps des Mines, Awards: National Order of Merit, 2009,

Denis Duverne, France, CB-MONY Life Insurance Company, PE-Corporate Taxes Department for the French Ministry of Finance, Compagnie Financière IBI., Banque Colbert, E-École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC), École Nationale d’Administration (ENA),

Jean-Martin Folz, France: CB-Eutelsat Communications,. Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, ONF-Participations (SAS), Société Générale, Solvay (Belgium), PE-Peugeot SA

E-École Polytechnique and ingénieur des Mines

Anthony Hamilton, UK, CB-MONY Life Insurance Company (United States), Tawa plc (United Kingdom), Binley Limited (United Kingdom), Swiss Re Capital Markets Limited (United Kingdom) PE- Schroders, Morgan Grenfell, and Wainwright, Fox-Pitt & Kelton, PC- The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (United Kingdom), E-Oxford University

Isabelle Kocher, France, CB-Arkema, Suez Environnement,  International Power Plc (IPR) (United Kingdom), PE-GDF SUEZ., PC-Advisor on Industrial Affairs of the French Prime Minister Office, E-Ecole Normale Supérieure, Rue d’Ulm, Paris, France; Engineer of the Corps des Mines; DEA (postgraduate degree) in quantum optics and aggregation in Physics

Suet Fern Lee, Singapore, CB-Stamford Law Corporation (Singapore), Sanofi, Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund Ltd (Bermuda), Rickmers Trust Management Pte Ltd (Singapore), Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore Business School, PE-IPBA (Singapore), China Aviation Oil, Corporation Limited, ECS Holdings Limited, Richina Pacific Limited (Bermuda), SembCorp Industries Limited (Singapore), Sincere Watch (Hong Kong) Limited (Hong Kong), Transcu Group Limited, E-Cambridge University-Law

Stefan Lippe, German, CB-German Insurance Association for Vocational Training (BWV) (Germany), Acqupart Holding AG, Acqufin AG., Extremus Insurance Ltd. PE- Bavarian Re., Swiss Re., PC-World Economic Forum, E-University of Mannheim,

François Martineau, France, CB-SCP Lussan & Associés, Associations Mutuelles Le Conservateur, Bred Banque Populaire, Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM), PE- Law and Political Sciences School of Lima , Peru, PC-Council of Europe, Law Consultant Eastern Europe,, E-University Paris IV (Philosophy Degree), University Paris I (Law Master), l’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris,

Deanna Oppenheimer, US-UK, CB-CameoWorks, NCR Corporation, Tesco PLC (UK) PE-Washington Mutual, Barclays, Catellus, Plum Creek, E-University of Puget Sound, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Ramon de Oliveira, France, CB-Investment Audit Practice, LLC, JACCAR Holdings SA (Luxembourg), MONY Life Insurance Company, Quilvest (Luxembourg), Taittinger-Kobrand, PE-Logan Pass Partners LLC, Kauffman Foundation, American Century Company, Inc., JP Morgan, SunGard Data Systems, The Hartford Insurance Company, The Red Cross, E-University of Paris, Institut d’Études Politiques (Paris)

Michel Pébereau, France, CB-BNP Paribas, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, Total, Banque Marocaine pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (BMCI) (Morocco), BNP Paribas SA (Switzerland), EADS N.V. (Netherlands), Pargesa Holding S.A. PE-Crédit Commercial de France, BNP Paribas, PC-Conseil d’Orientation de l’Institut de l’Entreprise, Aspen Institute, Fédération Bancaire Européenne, Institut de l’Entreprise, Lafarge, E-École Polytechnique, École Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

Dominique Reiniche, France, CB-ECR Europe (Belgium), PE-The Coca-Cola Company Europe, Procter & Gamble, PC-MEDEF (French Employer Federation), UNESDA (Union of European Beverages Associations) (Belgium), Vice-Chairman, FDE (Food & Drink Europe) E-ESSEC Business School in Paris

Marcus Schenck Ph,D,. Germany, CB- E.ON AG (Germany), Commerzbank AG (Germany), SMS Group GmbH (Germany), HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG (Germany), PE-Goldman, Sachs & Co., oHG, McKinsey & Co, PC-Berlin Center of Corporate Governance (Germany)Capital Markets Advisory Council to the German Finance Minister (Germany) E-University Bonn, UC Berkeley, University of Cologne,

State Street Corporation 
Assets management: $1.9 trillion

Joseph (Jay) L. Hooley, US, CB-President-State Street Corp., Boston Financial Data Services, National Financial Data Services, PC-Boston College Center for Asset Management, Corporate Advisory Board, The Boston Club, E-Boston College

Kennett F. Burnes, US, CB-CEO-Cabot Corporation, Watts Water Technologies, PE- Choate, Hall & Stewart, E-Harvard University BA-JD

Peter Coym Ph.D., Germany, PE-Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Salomon Brothers AG, Magix AG, (Börsenrat), Eurex, PC-Association of Foreign Banks, German Deposit Protection Fund, German Central Capital Market Committee, Advisor-German Bundesbank & German Minister of Finance, E-University of Hambur

Patrick de Saint-Aignan, US-France, CB-European Kyoto Fund, Allied World Assurance Company Holdings AG, PE-Morgan Stanley, IXIS Corporate and Investment, Bank of China Limited, Natixis Corporate & Investment Bank, E-Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Harvard University-MBA,
Dame Amelia C. Fawcett, US-UK, CB- Guardian Media Group plc, Investment AB Kinnevik, PE-Morgan Stanley, Sullivan & Cromwell, Pensions First LLP, PC-Hedge Fund Standards Board, Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, Governor, London Business School, Commissioner, US-UK Fulbright Commission, E-Wellesley College, University of Virginia-JD,  Awards-Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire-2010

David P. Gruber, US, CB-Stone Panels, Inc., Nanocomp Technologies Inc., PE-CEO-, Wyman-Gordon Company, Cambridge Semantics Inc., PC-Trustee, Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, E-Ohio State University

Linda A. Hill Ph.D., US, CB-Harvard Business School: Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration, Cooper Industries, Harvard Business Publishing, PC-Trustee, Bryn Mawr College, The Bridgespan Group, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund USA, E-Bryn Mawr College, University of Chicago-Ph.D.

Robert S. Kaplan, US, CB-Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School, Berkshire Partners LLC, Indaba Capital Management, LLC, PE-Goldman Sachs Group, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Inc, PC-Harvard Management Company, Draper, Richards, Kaplan Foundation, Trustee, Ford Foundation, E-MIT-MS-Electrical Engineering, Cornell University-Ph.D.

Richard P. Sergel. US, CB-Emera, Inc., PE-CEO-North American Electric Reliability Corporation, New England Electric System (National Grid USA), PC-Director of The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Consortium for Energy Efficiency, E-Florida State University, North Carolina State University, University of Miami-MBA,

Ronald L. Skates, US, CB-Raytheon Company, Courier Corporation, Gilbane, Inc., PE-CEO-Data General Corp., PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cabot Microelectronics Corp. E-Harvard, BA-MBA

Gregory L. Summe, US, CB-Global Buyout, Carlyle Group, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., PE-Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, PerkinElmer, Inc., General Aviation Avionics, AlliedSignal (Honeywell International), General Electric, McKinsey & Co. PC-Conference Board, E-University of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania-MBA

Robert E. Weissman, US, CB-Pitney Bowes Inc., Information Services Group, Inc., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Shelburne Investments, Nielsen Media Research Inc., Director of Gartner Group, Inc., EntreCap Financial LLC, PE-IMS Health Inc., of Dun & Bradstreet Corp., E-Babson College,

 

J. P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Assets management: $1.34 Trillion

James A. Bell, US, CB-The Boeing Company, PE-Rockwell, Dow Chemical,  PC- Trustee at Center for Strategic and International Studies Inc, World Business Chicago, Chicago Economic Club,  E-California State University at Los Angeles.

Crandall C. Bowles, US, Springs Industries, Inc., Deere & Company of Sara Lee Corporation, PE-Wachovia Corporation, PC-The Business Council, Trustee-Brookings Institution, Global Research institute of UNC-Chapel Hill, The Committee of 200, Economic Club of New York, The University of North Carolina Press, E-Wellesley College, Columbia University-MBA,

Stephen B. Burke, US, CB-NBCUniversal, LLC, Comcast Corporation, Berkshire Hathaway, PE-Walt Disney Company-ABC Broadcasting-President, E-Colgate University, Harvard Business School-MBA,

David M. Cote, US, CB-Honeywell International Inc., Advisor-Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., PE-CEO-TRW Inc., General Electric, PC-Business Roundtable, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, U.S.-India CEO Forum, E-University of New Hampshire

James S. Crown, US, CB-Henry Crown and Company, General Dynamics Corporation, 
Sara Lee Corporation, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A, Bank One Corp., First Chicago NBD Corp., PE-Salomon Brothers Inc., Capital Markets Service Group, Hillshire Brands Company, PC-World Business Chicago, PEC Israel Economic Corp., The Aspen Institute-trustee, University of Chicago-trustee, E-Hampshire College, Stanford University Law School,

James Dimon, US, CB-CEO-JP Morgan Chase, PE-Citigroup Inc., Travelers Group, Commercial Credit Company, American Express Company, PC-The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, World Economic Forum-2013, Trustee-New York University School of Medicine, E-Tufts University, Harvard Business School-MBA,

Timothy P. Flynn, US, CB-Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., PE- KPMG LLP, PC-World Economic Forum’s International Business Counsel, Business Roundtable, Financial Accounting Standards Board, The Prince of Wales’ International Integrated Reporting Committee, E- University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota,

Ellen V. Futter, US, CB-Consolidated Edison, Inc., PE- President of Barnard College, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, American International Group Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Viacom, AIG Aviation Inc., CBS Inc., PC-Council on Foreign Relations, The American Ditchley Foundation and NYC & Company, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, President of the American Museum of Natural History, E-Barnard College, Columbia Law School

Laban P. Jackson, Jr., US, CB- Clear Creek Properties, Inc., Gulf Stream Home, Garden, Inc., TBN Holdings, PE-Home Depot, SIRVA, IPIX Corporation, Bank One, PC-Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, E-United States Military Academy

Lee R. Raymond Ph.D., US, CB-Advisor-Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Decision Sciences Corporation,  PE-CEO- ExxonMobil, PC- Business Council for International Understanding, National Petroleum Council, American Enterprise Institute, Roundtable’s Policy Committee, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, Council on Foreign Relations. President’s Export Council, National Petroleum Council,  E-University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota-Ph.D. Chemical Enginnering,

William C. Weldon, US, CB-Chairman-Johnson & Johnson, PE-Korea McNeil, Ltd, Ortho-Cilag Pharmaceutical, Ltd., Janssen Pharmaceutica, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, PC- US-China Business Council, The Business Council, Business Roundtable, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, E-Quinnipiac University

 

Legal & General Group PLC (LGIMA)
Assets management: $598 Billion

John Morrison Stewart, Australian, CB-Chairman-Legal & General Group PLC, Telstra Corporation, Court of the Bank of England, PE-CEO-Woolwich, Deputy CEO-Barclays, National Australia Bank, PC-Australian Federal Attorney General’s Business Advisory Group, Scottish Enterprise’s International Advisory Board, Australian Prime Minister’s Task Group on Emissions Trading, Business Council of Australia, E-BA, ACII and FCIB Degrees
Nigel Wilson Ph.D., UK, CB-The Capita Group plc, PE-United Business Media PLC,  Halfords Group Plc, Dixons Group Plc, Guinness Peat Aviation (G.P.A.), Stanhope Properties Plc, McKinsey & Co, Deloitte Haskins & Sells,, E-Warwick University, MIT-Ph.D. Kennedy Scholar,

Mark Zinkula, US, CB-CEO-LIGMA, PE-Principal Financial Group, Cornell College,  PC-Investment Management Association, E-University of Iowa, BA-MBA, London School of Economics.

Mark Gregory, UK, PE-Kingfisher Plc and ASDA. E Chartered Accountant with PwC.

John Pollock, UK, E-Strathclyde University.

Henry Staunton, UK, CB-Standard Bank Plc, The Merchants Trust Plc, New Look Retailers Limited and Capital & Counties Properties Plc., WH Smith PLC,  PE-Price Waterhouse, Media Ventures at ITV plc., Box clever Technology,  ITV Plc, Granada Group Plc, Ashtead Group Plc, EMAP PAP Plc, Independent Television News Limited, Vector Hospitality Plc, Ladbrokes Plc., New Look Group Limited, PC-Xfi Centre for Finance and Investment, E-Exeter University

Mike Fairey, UK, CB-Horizon Acquisition Company Plc, Vertex Data Science, Northern Rock Plc, Danske Bank AS, Vertex Group Limited,The Energy Saving Trust Limited,  Lloyds TSB Group Pension Trust Ltd.-Chairman, PE-Deputy Group Chief Executive, Lloyds TSB Group Plc, Barclays Bank, Northern Rock plc, PC-British Quality Foundation, Trustee-Consumer Credit Counselling Service, E-AIB -Associate, Chartered Institute of Bankers

Rudy Markham, UK, CB-Standard Chartered Plc United Parcel Service Inc, UCL Partners Ltd, AstraZeneca Plc, Legal & General Group Plc, A Brain Co., Ltd., JohnsonDiversey Holdings, Inc.,  CSM nv,  PE-CEO-Unilever Plc-Japan-Australia, PC- Financial Reporting Council, NHS Foundation Trust, E- Christ’s College, Cambridge University MS-Natural Sciences

Stuart Popham, UK, CB-EMEA Banking for Citigroup Inc, Legal & General Insurance, The Barbican Centre Trust, PE-Senior Partner of Clifford Chance LLP, PC- Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI), Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chairman of City UK, Advisor-Saïd Business School-University of Oxford, Council of the RNLI, Birkbeck University of London, Member of Chatham House, London Council of the CBI-Chair, E Southampton University-Law

Nick Prettejohn, UK, CB- Brit Insurance Limited, Legal & General Group Plc, Egg Plc., Brit Insurance Holdings N.V. PE-Chief Executive of Lloyd’s of London, CEO-Prudential UK & Europe, Prudential Plc., Bain and Company, Director of Anglo & Overseas PLC, PC-Oxford Union Society, Financial Services Practitioner Panel, E- Taunton School, Somerset, Balliol College, Oxford

Julia S. Wilson, UK, CB-3i Group plc, PE-3i Group plc, Finance at Cable & Wireless Communications Plc., Arthur Anderson, Hanson PLC , Tomkins PLC., PC-ICAEW TheInstitute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ACA), Chartered Institute of Taxation. E-University of Surrey

Lindsay Tomlinson, UK, CB- BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited. PE-Barclays Global Investors, BZW Asset Management, Provident Mutual, Woolwich Unit Trust Managers Ltd, PC-Chairman of the Code Committee of the Takeover Panel, Limited Chairman of the UK’s National Association of Pension Funds, Investment Management Association-Chair, Financial Reporting Council, National Association of Pension funds-NAPF, Investment Council, E-Cambridge University

 

Vanguard Group Inc.

Assets management: $2.1 Trillion

F. William McNabb III, US, PC-Investment Company Institute’s Board of Governors. Zoological Society of Philadelphia,  United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, E- Dartmouth College, M.B.A.-Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Emerson U. Fullwood, US, CB-Minett Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, North Carolina A&T University, SPX Corporation, Amerigroup Corporation, PE-Xerox Corporation, General Signal Corporation, PC-United Way of Rochester, University of Rochester Medical Center, Monroe Community College Foundation, Urban League, Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School, E-North Carolina State University, Columbia University-MBA

Rajiv L. Gupta, India-US, CB-New Mountain Capital, Delphi Automotive LLP, Tyco International, Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Company, PE-President-Rohm and Haas Co., Scott Paper Company, Ducolite International,  PC-The Conference Board-Trustee, American Chemistry Council, Society of Chemical Industry, Drexel University-Trustee, E- Indian Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Drexel University-MBA

Amy Gutmann Ph.D., US, CB- President of the University of Pennsylvania, PC- Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. National Constitution Center-Trustee, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, Global Colloquium of the University Presidents-advisors to the Secretary General of the U.N., E-Harvard-Radcliffe College, London School of Economics, Harvard University-Ph.D. Political Science

JoAnn Heffernan-Heisen, US, CB-Skytop Lodge Corporation, PE-Johnson & Johnson, Primerica Corporation. Kenmill Textile Corporation, Chase Manhattan Bank, PC-Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, University Medical Center at Princeton, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Center for Talent Innovation, E- Syracuse University

F. Joseph Loughrey, US, CB-Hillenbrand, Inc., SKF AB, PE- Cummins Inc., PC- National Association of Manufacturers, Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Lumina Foundation for Education, Oxfam America, E-University of Notre Dame,

Mark Loughridge, US, CB-CFO-IBM,  IBM’s Retirement Plan Committee, IBM Credit LLC., E-Stanford University, University of Chicago-MBA, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Mecanique in Nantes, France,

Scott C. Malpass, US, CB-Manager-Notre Dame’s $3.5 billion endowment, PE-St. Joseph Capital Corp. The Bank of New York Mellon, Irving Trust Company, PC- Round Table Healthcare Management, LLC., The Investment Fund for Foundations, E-University of Notre Dame-BA-MBA

André F. Perold, US-South Africa, CB-HighVista Strategies, Rand Merchant Bank, PE- Professor of Finance and Banking at the Harvard Business School, Author-The Global Financial System: A Functional Perspective, 1995, E-University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Stanford University Ph.D.,

Alfred M. Rankin, Jr., US, CB-CEO- NACCO Industries, Goodrich Corp., Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc., The Kitchen Collection, LLC, The North American Coal Corporation, PE-Eaton, McKinsey and Company, Standard Products Co., Reliance Electric Company, PC- National Association of Manufacturers, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland-Chairman, E-Yale-BA-JD,

Peter F. Volanakis, US, CB- SPX Corporation, CCS Holding, Inc.,  PE-CEO-Corning Incorporated, PC-Overseer School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, E- Dartmouth College-BA-MA,

 

UBS AG
Assets management: $2.3 Trillion

Axel A. Weber Ph.D., German, PE-German Bundesbank-President, Professor for international economics University of Cologne, Professor for monetary economics Goethe University, PC-European Central Bank, Bank for International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, G7, G20, World Economic Forum-2013, European Systemic Risk Board, Financial Stability Board, German Council of Economic Experts, E-University of Constance, University of Siegen-Ph.D.

Michel Demaré, Belgian, CB-ABB-CFO, Syngenta AG, Global Markets, PE-Baxter International Inc., Dow Chemical Company, Continental Illinois National Bank of Chicago, PC-IMD Foundation, E-Université Catholique de Louvain, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven- Belgium-MBA

David Sidwell, US-UK, CB-Apollo Global Management-AGM LLC, MSCI Inc. Oliver Wyman, PE-Morgan Stanley-CFO, Investment Bank, J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, PC-Director of Fannie Mae, National Council on Aging, Federal National Mortgage Association, International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, E-Cambridge University, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Rainer-Marc Frey, Swiss, CB- Horizon21 AG, DKSH Group, PE-RMF Investment Group-CEO, Man Group plc, Invision Private Equity AG., Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Capital Dynamics AG, PC-World Economic Forum-2013,  Frey Charitable Foundation, Freienbach, E-University of St. Gallen

Ann F. Godbehere, UK-Canada, CB-AllSource Global Management AGM-LLC., Prudential plc, Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto Limited, Atrium Underwriters Ltd., Atrium Underwriting Group Ltd., Arden Holdings Ltd., Bermuda. British American Tobacco plc., PE-Northern Rock-CFO, Swiss Re Group-CFO, Sun Life Financial, Canada) E- Certified General Accountants Association of Canada

Axel P. Lehmann Ph.D., Swiss, Zurich Financial Services, Farmers Group, Inc., PE- Zurich American Insurance Company-CEO, Swiss Life in Zurich, PC-World Economic Forum-2013,  International Financial Risk Institute Foundation, Economiesuisse, E- University of St. Gallen, Wharton Advanced Management Program-MBA-Ph.D. Post-grad-Harvard Business School, Arizona State University

Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Austrian, CB-Infineon Technologies AG, Munich Re Group, BMW Group, Lufthansa Technik AG, Austrian Airlines AG., HEICO Corporation, PE- Deutsche Lufthansa AG-CEO, PC-Acatech (Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften), American Academy of Berlin-Trustee, Technical College in Steyr, Austria, E-Bloor Collegiate Institute in Canada-Mechanical Engineer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Management Training

Helmut Panke Ph.D., German, CB-Microsoft Corporation, Singapore Airlines Ltd., Bayer AG., PE-BMW Group-CEO, McKinsey & Company, E- University of Munich, Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research_Ph.D.

William G. Parrett, US, CB-Eastman Kodak Company, the Blackstone Group LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., PE-Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu-CEO, PC-United States Council for International Business, United Way Worldwide, E-St. Francis College, NY-CPA,

Isabelle Romy Ph.D., Swiss, CB-Law Professor-University of Fribourg, Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), SIX Swiss Exchange,  PE-Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California,  E- University of Fribourg-Ph.D., University of Lausanne-Law JD,

Beatrice Weder de Mauro Ph.D., Swiss-Italian, CB-Professor of Economics-Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Roche Holding Ltd., Basel, ThyssenKrupp AG, Essen, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, Köln, PE-International Monetary Fund (IMF), National Bureau of Economic Research, Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, World Bank, PC-Federal Reserve Board-NY, World Economic Forum 2013, German Council of Economic Experts,  E-Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, University of Basel-Ph.D.

Joseph Yam Chi-kwong,, Hong Kong, CB-China Society for Finance and Banking-VP, Advisor- People’s Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Macroprudential Consultancy Limited, Johnson Electric Holdings Limited., PE-Hong Kong Monetary Authority-CEO, PC-Global Economics and Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Bankers, China Society for Finance and Banking, E-St. Paul’s College, University of Hong Kong

Luzius Cameron Ph.D., Swiss and Australian, PE-Investment Bank Warburg Dillon Read, Global Rates Business in Zurich, Swiss Bank Corporation, Institute of Astronomy at the University of Basel and European Southern Observatory, E-University of Basel-Ph.D. Astrophysics,

Sergio P. Ermotti, Swiss, CB-CEO-UBS AG, Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, Bank Austria Wohnbau Gewinnscheine. PE-UniCredit, Milan, Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spolka Akcyjna , Merrill Lynch, Darwin Airline SA, Corner Bank SA, Citibank, BofA Merrill Lynch, PC-London Stock Exchange GroupWorld Economic Forum 2013,  E-Oxford University, Swiss Certified Banking Expert

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch

Assets management: $2.3 trillion

Charles O. Holliday, Jr., US, CB-DuPont Qualicon Inc.-CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc, CH2M HILL Companies, Ltd, John Deere Credit Company, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., HCA Inc., Lafarge SA., PE-EI DuPont de Nemours & Co.-CEO, Catalyst Inc., PC-The Business Roundtable, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Business Council, Society of Chemical Industry, International Business Council, National Infrastructure Advisory Council, National Infrastructure Advisory Council, E-University of Tennessee-Engineering,

Susan S. Bies Ph.D., US, CB- Horizon National Corp.-VP, Zurich Financial Services AG, PE- Professor of Economics, Rhodes College Professor of Economics at Wayne State University,  PC- Securities and Exchange Commission, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,  Financial Accounting Standards Board, Financial Executives Institute, End Users of Derivatives Association, American Bankers Association, Bank Administration Institute, American Economic Association, Institute of Management Accountants, International Women’s Forum, American Economic Association, E-State University College at Buffalo, Northwestern University-Ph.D.

Frank P. Bramble, Sr, US, CB-MBNA Corp., Constellation Energy Group Inc., Lecturer-Towson University,  PE-Maryland National Bank, MNC Financial Inc., Allfirst Financial Inc., Allfirst Bank-CEO, Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c, Wilmington Trust Retirement and Institutional Services Company, E-Towson University

Arnold W. Donald, US, CB-Atlas Holdings LLC., Wind Point Partners., Russell Brands, LLC, Carnival plc, Crown Holdings, Bridgewell Resources LLC., BJC Health System, Inc., BMO Financial Corp.,  PE- Monsanto Company-VP, TransCanada Corp.-CEO, Merisant Company-CEO, Tabletop Holdings-CEO, Bank of Montreal, Harris Financial Corporation, Efficas, Inc. Scotts Miracle-gro Co., Belden Inc., The Laclede Group Inc., DHR International, Inc., Oil-Dri Corp., Global Velocity Inc., PC- Boards of Carleton College & Washington University, Grocery Manufacturers of America, United States Russia Business Council, Eurasia Foundation, President’s Export Council, Kennedy School of Government-Dean’s Council,  E-Washington University, Carleton College, University of Chicago Graduate-MBA,

Charles K. Gifford, US, CB-FleetBoston Financial Corp.-CEO, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Stone Canyon Venture Partners, LP.,  CBS Corporation, PE- BankBoston, N.A., PC-Presiding Trustee at NSTAR, Trustee of Northeast Utilities, Trustee of Northeastern University, WGBH Public Broadcasting,  E-Princeton University

Monica C. Lozano, US, CB-ImpreMedia, LLC. S, CEO-Publisher-La Opinión L.P., Lozano Communications, Inc., The Walt Disney Co., UnionBanCal Corporation, SunAmerica Asset Management Corporation,  PE-Tenet Healthcare Corp., PC-Council on Foreign Relations, Trustee of the University of Southern California, Regent-University of California, California HealthCare Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, National Council of La Raza, President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, E-University of Oregon

 

Thomas J. May, US, CB-CEO-President Northeast Utilities, NSTAR Electric & Gas Corporation, NSTAR Communications, Inc., BEC Funding II, L.L.C., Connecticut Light and Power Company, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, Liberty Mutual Holding Company, Inc., Liberty Financial Companies Inc., New England Business Service Inc., DELUXEPINPOINT,  PE-Cambridge Electric Light Company-CEO, Boston Edison Company-CEO, Bankboston Corp., RCN Corporation, PC-Financial Executives International, E-Stonehill College, Bentley College-MS Finance, Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program

Brian T. Moynihan, US, CB-CEO-President-BofA, Chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc., General Partner of BofA Merrill Lynch Preferred Capital Trust III, BofA Merrill Lynch Preferred Capital Trust IV, BofA Merrill Lynch Preferred Funding V LP and BofA Merrill Lynch Preferred Funding IV LP, BlackRock Inc., PC-Brown University-Trustee, E-Brown University, University of Notre Dame Law School-JD, Miami University-MA,

Lionel L. Nowell, US, CB-Pepsico, Inc.-VP, Reynolds American Inc., American Electric Power Service Corporation, AEP Texas Central Company, PE-RJR Nabisco, Inc., Diageo PLC, Pillsbury North America-CFO, Pizza Hut, Church & Dwight Co. Inc., Bottling Group, LLC, PC-Executive Leadership Council, Financial Executive Institute, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, E-Ohio State University

Sharon Allen, US, PE-Deloitte LLP, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Catalyst, Inc., PC-National Board of the YMCA-Chair, President’s Export Council, Women’s Leadership Board at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, E- University of Idaho

Jack Bovender, US, CB-HCA Holdings, Inc., HCA Realty, Inc., EP Health, LLC, Montgomery Regional Hospital, Inc., Brookwood Medical Center of Gulfport, VH Holdings Inc. and Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Inc., PE-HCA Inc.-CEO, Tennessee Valley Ventures, L.P. PC-Business Council, Committee for the Preservation of Capitalism, American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Healthcare SystemsDuke University-Trustee, E- Duke University-BA-MA,

Linda Parker Hudson, US, CB-BAE Systems Inc.,-CEO, Tanzania at BAE,  PE- General Dynamics Corp., Martin Marietta, Lockheed Martin, Ford Aerospace, Harris Corporation, PC-Aerospace Industries Association-Board, International Women’s Forum and C200 E-University of Florida-Engineering

David Yost, US, CB-AmerisourceBergen Corp.-CEO, Exelis, Inc., Tyco International Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., HP Enterprise Services, LLC, Aetna Inc., PC- International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, University of Pennsylvania-Trustee, E-United States Air Force Academy, University of California at Los Angeles-MBA,

Credit Suisse Group AG
Assets management: $1.8 Trillion

Urs Rohner, Swiss, PE-ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, Unterfoehring, Lenz & Staehelin, Attorneys at Law, Zurich, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, New York, PC-Institute for International Finance, World Economic Forum 2013, Institute International d’Etudes Bancaires, E-University of Zurich,

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Austrian, CB-Chairman-Nestlé SA L’Oréal SA, Paris, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Delta Topco (Formula 1), PC-World Economic Forum 2013, European Round Table of Industrialists, E-University of World Trade, Vienna.

Jassim Bin Hamad J.J. Al Thani, Qatar, CB-Chairman-Qatar Islamic Bank, QInvest, Damaan Islamic Insurance Co. (BEEMA); Q-RE LLC, CEO-Al Mirqab Capital LLC, Qatar, Qatar Navigation Company, Qatar Insurance Company, Arcapita Bank, Bahrain, E-Royal Military Academy in England.

Iris Bohnet, Swiss, PC-World Economic Forum, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, Massachusetts, Academic Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Advisory Board of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, E-University of Zurich

Noreen Doyle, US, CB-Newmont Mining Corporation, QinetiQ Group Plc., Rexam Plc, Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund, Macquarie Renaissance Infrastructure Fund,  PE-European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Bankers Trust Company, PC-Women in Banking and Finance in London E-College of Mount Saint Vincent, New York, Dartmouth College-MBA, Marymount International School, London

Jean-Daniel Gerber, Swiss, CP-Lonza Group, Swiss Investment Fund, PC-World Bank Group, World Trade Organization, Economic and Financial Affairs at the Swiss Embassy in Washington D.C. Swiss Swiss Federal Council to State Secretary, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Swiss Federal Office of Migration (1994 to 2004), E-University of Berne, Switzerland,

Walter B. Kielholz, Swiss, CB- Corsair Capital Ltd. Avenir Suisse, PE-General Reinsurance Corporation, Zurich, PC-World Economic Forum 2013  International Business Council, European Financial Services Roundtable, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Advisory Council of the Mayor of Shanghai, Credit Suisse Research Institute, E-University of St. Gallen, Switzerland,

Andreas N. Koopmann, Swiss, CB-Georg Fischer AG, CSD Group, Nestlé SA, Alstom (Suisse) SA,  PE-Bobst Group S.A., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, International Institute for Management Development (IMD), PC-Swissmem—Association of Swiss Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Industries

Jean Lanier, French,  PE-Euler Hermes, Pargesa Group Lambert Brussells Paribas Group, PC-La Fondation Internationale de l’Arche, Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris, E-Cornell University, Awards-Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France

Kai S. Nargolwala, Singapore, CB-Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Prudential Plc., Clifford Capital Pte. Ltd, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School of Singapore, PE-Bank of America, Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., E-University of Delhi,

Anton van Rossum, Dutch, CB-Fortis, Royal Vopak NV, Solvay SA PE- McKinsey and Company, PC-Netherlands Economics Institute, American European Community Association, European Roundtable of Financial Services, E-Erasmus University-BA-MBA

Richard E. Thornburgh, US, CB-Corsair Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Reynolds American Inc., Winston-Salem, McGraw-Hill, New Star Financial Inc., PE-First Boston Corporation, E-University of Cincinnati, Harvard Business School-MBA Finance

John Tiner,  UK, CB-Lucida plc, Friends Life, Corsair Capital, PE-FSA, PC-Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Regulators, European Securities Regulators E-Kingston University, Awards-2008-Commander of the British Empire

 

Allianz SE (Owners of PIMCO)

Assets Management; $ 2.3 Trillion

and

PIMCO-Pacific Investment Management Company

Assets Management; $1.8 Trillion

Michael Diekmann, German, CBAllianz SE (CEO) Siemens AG, BASF Wall Systems Inc., Lufthansa AG PE- Dresdner Bank AG, Linde AG, BASF SE., Riunione Adriatica Di Sicurta Spa, PC-World Economic Forum 2013, Geneva Association; European Financial Services Round Table (EFR), EVIAN (Franco-German Roundtable), International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC), Pan-European Insurance Forum (PEIF), Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), E-Göttingen University

Oliver Bäte, German, CB-Allianz SE-CFO, PE-Westdeutsche Landesbank, McKinsey & Company, New York, Professor at University of Cologne, German Air Force, PC- Chairman of CFO Forum, E-University of Cologne, New York University-MBA.

Manuel Bauer, German, PE-Zagrebacka Banka D.D., Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd., ROSNO Group, E-Technical Engineering College-Vienna.

Gary C. Bhojwani, India, PE-Intercargo Corporation & Intercargo Insurance; Trade Insurance Services, Avalon Risk Management-CEO, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Lincoln General Insurance Company-CEO, E-University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, University of Chicago-MBA.

Clement B. Booth, South Africa, CB-ACORD Corporation, PE- Chairman and CEO, Aon Re International, London, PC-Director of Association of British Insurer, E- University of Witwatersrand Business School-Executive Development Program

Dr. Helga Jung, German, CB-UniCredit S.p.A. PE-Professor at the University of Augsburg, E-University of Augsburg, Administration Doctorate.

Christof Mascher JD, Austrian, E-University of Vienna, University of Innsbruck-Doctorate Law.

Jay Ralph, US, PE-Arthur Andersen & Company, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Centre Re Bermuda Ltd., Zurich Re, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. E- University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago-MBA Finance.

Dieter Wemmer Ph.D., Hope you are doing well.

Werner Zedelius Ph.D., German, CB-Europe General Insurance-CFO, PEZurich Financial Services AG-CFO, Zurich Re, Agrippina, Zurich Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, Oxford, PC-Economiesuisse E-University of Cologne-Ph.D. Mathematics.

Maximilian Zimmerer Ph.D., German, CB-Allianz Dresdner Bauspar AG, Allianz Immobilien GmbH and Hauck & Aufhäuser Banquiers Luxembourg S.A., PE-Dresdner RCM Global Investor, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg,  PC-Federal Finance Ministry, World Economic Forum 2013, German Equity Institute, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (Federal Security Authority) E-University of Cologne-Law.

__________________

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Peter Phillips is professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and president of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored.

Brady Osborne is a senior level research associate at Sonoma State University.

Sonoma State University’s Kimberly Soeiro, Katelyn Clatty, and Garrett Lyons provided research assistance with this study. Portions of the literature review in this chapter were previously published in earlier Censored yearbooks.

Notes

1. See G. William Domhoff, Who Rules America?, 5th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2006), and Peter Phillips, “A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club,” 1994, http://library.sonoma.edu/regional/faculty/phillips/bohemianindex.php.

2. Early studies by Charles Beard, published as An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), established that economic elites formulated the US Constitution to serve their own special interests. Henry Klein, in a 1921 book entitledDynastic America and Those Who Own It, argued that wealth in America had power never before known in the world and was centered in the top 2 percent of the population, which owned some 60 percent of the country. In 1937, Ferdinand Lundberg published America’s Sixty Families, which documented intermarrying, self-perpetuating families, for whom wealth was the “indispensable handmaiden of government.” In 1945, C. Wright Mills determined that nine out of ten business elites from 1750 to 1879 came from well-to-do families (“American Business Elites,” Journal of Economic History, December 1945).

3. See Robert A. Brady, Business as a System of Power (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943); and Val Burris, “Elite Policy Planning Networks in the United States,”Research in Politics and Society, 4th ed. Gwen Moore and J. Allen Whitt (Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1992), 111–134, http://pages.uoregon.edu/vburris/policy.pdf.

4. C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956).

5. See Michael Soref, “Social Class and Division of Labor within the Corporate Elite,”Sociological Quarterly 17 (1976); and two works by Michael Useem: “The Social Organization of the American Business Elite and Participation of Corporation Directors in the Governance of American Institutions,” American Sociological Review 44 (1979), andThe Inner Circle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).

6. Thomas Koenig and Robert Gogel, “Interlocking Corporate Directorships as a Social Network,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 40, no. 1 (1981); and Peter Phillips, “The 1934–35 Red Threat and the Passage of the National Labor Relations Act,”Critical Sociology 20, no. 2 (1994).

7. For a discussion of principals inside the HCPE who pursue US military domination of the world as their key agenda, see Peter Phillips, Bridget Thornton, and Celeste Vogler, “The Global Dominance Group: 9/11 Pre-Warnings & Election Irregularities in Context,” http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/the-global-dominance-group.

8. Leslie Sklair, The Transnational Capitalist Class (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2001).

9. Leslie Sklair, “The Transnational Capitalist Class and the Discourse of Globalization,”Cambridge Review of International Affairs 14, no. 1, (2000), 67–85,http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/globalDimensions/globalisation/theTransnationalCapitalistClassAndTheDiscourseOfGlobalization.

10. William I. Robinson, A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2004).

11. Ibid., 155–156.

12. David Rothkopf, SuperClass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008).

13. Peter Dale Scott, American War Machine, Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010). See also Censored story #22, “Wachovia Bank Laundered Money for Latin American Drug Cartels,” Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution, Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012), 66–68.

14. David Rothkopf, Superclass, Public Address: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 9, 2008.

15. “Defense Against Terrorism Programme of Work (DATPOW),” North Atlantic Treaty Organization, September 24, 2012, http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-EBFFE857-66071109D/natilive/topics_50313.htm?selectedLocale-en.

16. Nazemroaya, Mahdi Darius, The Globalization of NATO (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2012).

17. William K. Carroll, The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class: Corporate Power in the 21st Century (London and New York: Zed Books, 2010).

18. Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston, “The Network of Global Corporate Control,” PLoS ONE, October 26, 2011,http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.113711%2Fjournal.phone.0025995. See also Censored story #6, “Small Network of Corporations Run the Global Economy,”Censored 2012, 69–70.

19. More details on this University of Zurich study, and the list of the top twenty-five of the 147 super-connected companies, is printed in full in Mickey Huff and Andy Roth with Project Censored, Censored 2013, 247–248.

20. Vitali, et al., “Network of Global Corporate Control.”

21. “The Top Asset Management Firms 2012, Banks around the World,” June 30, 2012,http://www.relbanks.com/rankings/largest-asset-managers.

22. “Barclays Total Assets: 2.426T for Dec. 31, 2012,”http://ycharts.com/companies/BCS/assets.

23. See the Censored News Cluster, “Iceland, the Power of Peaceful Revolution, and the Commons,” in this volume, for coverage of Iceland as a notable exception to the international trend of banks not being held accountable for systemic misconduct.

24. Dylan Murphy, “Money Laundering and The Drug Trade: The Role of the Banks,” Global Research, May 7, 2013, http://www.globalresearch.ca/money-laundering-and-the-drug-trade-the-role-of-the-banks/5334205. See also Scott, American War Machine.

25. Ibid.

26. Kylie MacLellan and Matthew Tostevin, “Factbox: Banks drawn into Libor rate-fixing scandal,” Reuters, July 11, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/111/us-banking-libor-panel-idUSBRE86A0P020120711.

27. “Barclays Fined for Attempts to Manipulate Libor Rates,” BBC News, June 27, 2012,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/buisness-18612779.

28. Matthew Leising, Lindsay Fortado and Jim Brunsden, “Meet ISDAfix, the Libor Scandal’s Sequel,” April 18, 2013, Bloomberg Businessweek, http://businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-118/meet-isdafix-the-libor-scandes-sequel.

29. Dan Margolies and Ross Kerber, “Vanguard Sued again for ‘Illegal Gambling’ Investments,” Reuters, April 8, 2010,http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/08/vanguard-lawsuit-idUSN0818833420100048.

30. Matt Taibbi, “Everything is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever,” Rolling Stone, April 25, 2013, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425.

31. John Rudolf and Chris Kirkham, “Gunmaker Investments Under Review By California Teachers’ Fund After Newton Massacre,” Huffington Post Business, December 18, 2012,http://huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/118/gunmaker-investments-newton_n_2325323.html.

32. Yasha Levine, “Exposed: The Billionaire-Backed Group Strong-Arming Parents into Destroying Their Kids’ Public Schools,” AlterNet, April 26, 2013, http://www.alternet.org/education/exposed-billionare-backed-group-strong-arming-parents-destorying-their-kids-public. On efforts to privative public education, see also, Adam Bessie, “GERM Warfare: How to Reclaim the Education Debate from Corporate Occupation,” Censored 2013, 271–296.

33. Tyler Durgen, “A Detailed Look at Global Wealth Distribution,” Zero Hedge, October 11, 2010, http://www.zerohedge.com/article/detailed-look-global-wealth-distribution.

34. “World Bank Sees Progress Against Extreme Poverty, but Flags Vulnerabilities,” The World Bank, February 29, 2012, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/02/29/world-bank-sees-progress-against-extreme-poverty-but-flags-vulnerabilities.

35. Mark Ellis, “The Three Top Sins of the Universe,” http://www.starvation.net.

36. Please see http://projectcensored.org/financial-core-of-the-transnational-corporate-class/for a searchable chart of the members of the superclass.

37. On the heritage of the commons, see http://www.fairsharecommonheritage.org.




Challenging the Blockade of Cuba

Arnold August’s “Cuba and Its Neighbors”
by W.T. WHITNEY Jr.
US-embargo_caricature

The publication of Arnold August’s book “Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion” is an event. The author establishes that democracy is alive in Cuba. He views Cuban democracy as a process moving ahead, but with course corrections. Democracy, he suggests, is really democratization. The process has relied upon political participation by all citizens, progress toward unity and consensus, and exclusion of those bent on accumulation.

August took on a big job. Not only does he detail workings of Cuba’s national parliament and municipal assemblies and explain how elections work – a signal contribution – but he also traces the origins and evolution of democratic stirrings from colonial and slavery times to the present. He summarizes varying approaches to building socialist democracies in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela, plus points out limitations of U.S. – style democracy. With its rush of themes playing out both simultaneously and over many years, August’s narrative is slow-moving at times, yet remains coherent, factual, and non-polemic in tone. He made effective use of interviews with Cuban activists and analysts.

Discussions in the United States about democracy in Cuba often stumble on the absence of elections following the victory of the revolution in 1959. August explains that revolutionary leaders concurred with most Cubans then that corrupt multi-party elections of the past had no place in the new Cuba.  Democratization materialized as the Federation of Cuban Women, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, and the 1961 literacy campaign.  A new Constitution in 1976 instituted elections for municipal assemblies, provincial assemblies, and the National Assembly.

Soviet Bloc parliamentary and electioneering precedents were rejected.  Constitutional reforms in 1992 barred the Communist Party from designating members of nomination commissions and provided for popular election of deputies to the National Assembly.

August’s book tells of nationwide community meetings attended by almost all adults where national problems were discussed and action possibilities debated. Recommendations from these episodic meetings often ended up as government decrees and legislation. Such meetings took place prior to the referendum approving the 1976 PrintConstitution and again while constitutional changes were being considered in 1991.  In 1994, they centered on the economic crash following the fall of the Soviet Bloc; in 2007-08, on social security, low food production, and low wages; and in 2010, on the Communist Party’s new “Guidelines” for bringing about changes in the economy.

August sees participatory democracy playing out in municipal assemblies, which are tools for achieving decentralization, a prime goal of ongoing transformations. He indicates some local assemblies are unable to respond to local needs. Specialists and local delegates are involved in attempts to overcome these weaknesses. Entities known as “People’s Councils” are governing in sub-municipal districts.

Arnold August highlights obstacles for democratization, chief among them corruption and bureaucracy. And tension remains between discontent and consensus, between traditions of centralized authority and notions of popular sovereignty, the latter ironically enough having been endorsed by the government.  Uncertainties, suffering, and scarcities at the hands of U.S. economic blockade receive scant attention, yet few would argue they are good for democracy.

The book gets high marks for covering the democracy movement’s deep historical roots. Independence wars in the 19th century fought by poor, racially-oppressed rebels took on social justice, particularly equal rights for black people and equitable land distribution. The 1976 Constitution incorporated words and concepts from constitutions of that era and from ideas of José Martí, Cuba’s national hero.  The author honors the mentoring and ideological legacies of Martí, who fell as a martyr in the liberation struggle.

Cuba’s alliance with the former Soviet Union and the Communist Party’s role in propelling political change are hardly reassuring to northern neighbors susceptible to red- scare. For Arnold August, Cuba’s Communist Party is a special case. Martí’s Cuban Revolutionary Party served as its model, that of a single national party.  And in 1965, the present Communist Party was brand-new, formed of two non-communist revolutionary organizations and the old Communist Party. The Party runs no candidates in elections and operates in a spirit of innovation.  

August wanted “to provide readers with some tools for following the future situation [in Cuba] independently, without the blinders of preconceived notions.” He achieved that.  His main point, that Cuban democracy is a moving force and seems to be gaining strength, is convincing.  It may be unique on that account, and also for priority given to participation, unity, and consensus as tools for building socialism. If true, that may help explain why Cuban socialism survived the disappearance of the Soviet Union and how Cuba has withstood siege from the neighboring superpower.

Imbued with an understanding of democratic realities in Cuba that this book surely provides, readers in the United States and elsewhere – especially those who are progressive but silent on Cuba – may now see fit to speak out and act in solidarity with a people victimized for 50 years by every stratagem short of open war.

W.T. Whitney Jr. is a retired pediatrician and political journalist living in Maine.