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Western democracy and press freedom has been undermined by British prime minister Tony Blair's clandestine presence at Scotland's 1998 Bilderberg meeting.
Blair was widely thought to have attended Bilderberg back in 1993, before becoming prime minister, and rumours abound that he is a part of the West's most secretive power elite cabal. The Scottish revelation confirms the close connection.
Since 1954 Bilderberg meetings have brought together the most powerful people in the western world, bankers, the press, corporate interests and top politicians to discuss future policy. Democratic interests are in the minority. They are characterised by extremely high security and a secrecy which is almost absolute. Newspaper columnists who have mentioned Bilderberg have mysteriously 'lost their job'.
For any that might doubt Blair's presence at the 1998 Bilderberg meeting, it has been possible to obtain testimony from a reliable source who uses Turnberry Hotel. Anyone who doubts the assertion can simply ask one of the many staff on duty that weekend. [Turnberry Hotel 01655 331000]
Blair's presence contrasts markedly with his answer to a written parliamentary question from Christopher Gill MP in March this year where he denied any of his government attended Bilderberg.
William Hague, leader of the U.K. opposition appears on the 1998 Bilderberg attendance list but Blair is conspicuous by his absence.
Could the organisers have forgotten to include the British prime minister on the list? Of course not. Blair's name on the list would make it much more difficult to justify the almost complete news blackout.
This throws light upon the purpose of the issuing of an annual list of participants. These lists are marked 'confidential - not for circulation', certainly a contradiction in background for a press release. No explanation is given by the Bilderbergers for this apparent 'gagging order'.
The press releases and participant lists are almost impossible for the public to obtain and aimed only for the eyes of top media bosses. They attempt to disconnect the meetings from world events and deny connections with the most powerful people in the world, current heads of state.
Blair was supposed to have been at the G8 summit in Birmingham during the weekend of 16/17th May 1998. At the very moment 50,000 people, mainly Christians, surrounded the G8 conference centre begging 8 invisible world leaders for debt relief for the developing world, Blair may have been hundreds of miles away at the secret and concurrent Turnberry meeting.
The revelation that the British prime minister attended the 1998 conference adds credibility to various commentators who purport to obtain eyebrow-raising, sometimes extremely worrying, 'leaks'. Indeed Jim Tucker from 'The Spotlight' magazine in the U.S. testified to Blair's presence in his article on the 1998 Bilderberg meeting published immediately after the event.
This cannot but add credibility to Tucker's seemingly outlandish leaks from the Bilderberg Conferences, and adds credence to the 'colour' in articles purporting to be based on inside information.
In one such example Blair was accused in Turnberry (over his reluctance to push Britain into European Monetary Union) of being "...a Maggie Thatcher in long pants". The Bilderbergers are widely reported to have been involved in the overthrow of Prime Minister Thatcher after she returned from an EMU discussion in Rome proclaiming "I refuse to hand over this sovereign nation to thirteen unelected bankers!"
Another of Tucker's leaks this year was that Bilderbergers plan to establish "...a global criminal court that would be superior to the U.S. Supreme Court and to those of all nations"
Press examination of meetings of the power elite is absolutely crucial because of the totalitarian 'top-down' structure of corporate interests that run the conference. For business representatives, their shareholders do not know they attend and for the politicians, the electorate are also in the dark. These meetings compromise both corporate and state accountability.
One of the only participants interviewed at the Turnberry Conference sounded a note of warning when he called for more openness at Bilderberg. George Papandreou, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs told Alistair McConnachie from The Social Crediter 'Be strongly critical, whatever you write!'
So who else attends these meetings and fails to appear on the Bilderbergers' 'not for circulation' lists? And if the organisers have been caught lying about who attends their meetings how can we trust their promises about import of their discussions?
Unreliable, disturbing 'leaks' from these meetings and official disinformation are certainly not good enough. And the arrest of Mail on Sunday reporter Campbell Thomas, attempting to cover the conference in Turnberry, for 'knocking on a door' was an outrageous affront to legitimate press scrutiny.
The forthcoming venue for the 1999 Bilderberg meeting is thought to be somewhere in Portugal. Another Bilderberg conference cannot be allowed to pass without the openness and proper press inquiry that goes hand in hand with any meaningful democratic system.
The 46th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Turnberry, Scotland, May 14-17, 1998 to discuss the Atlantic Relationship in a Time of Change. Among others the Conference will discuss NATO, Asian Crisis, EMU, Growing Military Disparity, Japan, Multilateral Organizations, Europe's social model, Turkey, EU/US Market Place.
Approximately 120 participants from North America and Europe will attend the discussions. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion.
Bilderberg takes its name from the hotel in the Netherlands where the first meeting took place in May 1954. That meeting grew out of the concern on both sides of the Atlantic that the industrialized democracies in Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on matters of critical importance. It was felt that regular, off-the-record discussions would contribute to a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations.
What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum is (1) the broad cross-section of leading citizens, in and out of government, that are assembled for nearly three days of purely informal discussion about topics of current concern especially in the fields of foreign affairs and the international economy, (2) the strong feeling among participants that in view of the differing attitudes and experiences of their nations, there is a continuous, clear need to develop an understanding in which these concerns can be accommodated, and (3) the privacy of the meetings, which have no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely.
To ensure full discussion, individuals representing a wide range of political and economic points of view are invited. Two-thirds of the participants come from Europe and the remainder from the United States and Canada. Within this framework, on average about one-third are from the government sector and the remaining two-thirds from a variety of fields including finance, industry, labour, education and the media. Participants are solely invited for their knowledge, experience and standing and with reference to the topics on the agenda.
All participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not in an official capacity.
Participants have agreed not to give interviews to the press during the meeting. In contacts with the news media after the conference it is an established rule that no attribution should be made to individual participants of what was discussed during the meeting.
There will be no press conference. A list of participants is appended.
May 14-17, 1998
Chairman
Honorary Secretary General
Participants
Rapporteurs
GB - Carrington, Peter - Former chairman of the Board, Christies International PLC; Former Secretary General, NATO.
NL - Halberdstadt, Victor - Professor of Public Economics, Leiden University
I - Agnelli, Giovanni - Honorary Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
USA - Allaire, Paul A - Chairman, Xerox Corporation
E - Almunia Amann, Joaquin - Secretary General, Socialist Party
P - Balsemao, Francisco Pinto - Professor of Communication Science, New University, Lisbon; Chairman, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
S - Barnevik, Percy - Chairman, ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd
TR - Bayar, Ugur - Chairman, Privitization Administration
I - Bernabe, Franco - Managing Director, ENI S.p.A.
D - Bertram, Christoph - Director, Foundation Science and Policy, Former Diplomatic Correspondent, Die Zeit
NL - Beugel, Ernst H van der - Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings for Europe and Canada
CDN - Black, Conrad - Chairman, The Telegraph plc
INT - Bonino, Emma - Member of the European Commission
INT - Brittan, Leon - Vice President of the European Commission
GB - Browne, John - Group Chief Executive, British Petroleum Company plc
IRL - Bruton, John - Leader of Fine Gael
GB - Buchanon, Robin - Senior Partner, Bain and Company Inc. UK.
D - Burda, Hubert - Chairman, Burda Media
E - Carvajal Urquijo, Jaime - Chairman, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson S.A. (Spain)
I - Cavalchini, Luigi G - Permanent Representative to the European Union
TR - Cem, Ismail - Minister of Foreign Affairs
CDN - Chretien, Raymond A.J. - Ambassador to the U.S.
RUS - Chubais, Anatoli B. - Former First Vice Prime Minister; Chairman RAO EES
GB - Clarke, Kenneth - Member of Parliament
F - Collomb, Bertrand - Chairman and CEO, Lafarge
INT - Courtis, Kenneth S. - First Vice President, Research Dept., Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific
P - Coutinho, Vasco Pereira - Chairman, IPC Holding
INT - Crockett, Andrew - General Manager, Bank for International Settlements
GR - David, George A. - Chairman of the Board, Hellenic Bottling Company S.A.
B - Davignon, Etienne - Executive Chairman, Societe Generale de Belgique; Former Vice Chairman of the Commission of the European Communities
USA - Deutch, John M. - Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry. Former Director General, Central Intelligence Agency; Former Deputy Secretary of Defence
CDN - Dion, Stephane - Queens Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
USA - Donilon, Thomas - Partner, O'Melveny & Myers; Former Assistant Secretary of State, and Chief of Staff, U.S. Department of State.
DK - Ellemann-Jensen, Uffe - Chairman, Liberal Party
D - Engelen-Kefer, Ursula - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB
USA - Feldstein, Martin S. - President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research Inc.
INT - Fischer, Stanley - First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
USA - Forester, Lynn - President and CEO, FirstMark Holdings Inc.
USA - Gadiesh, Orit - Chairman of the Board, Bain and Company Inc.
F - Gregorin, Jean-Louis - Member of the Board of Directors, Matra Hachette
TR - Gezgin Eris, Meral - President IKV (Economic Development Foundation)
B - Goossens, John - President and CEO, Belgacom
GB - Grierson, Ronald - Former Vice Chairman, GEC
USA - Grossman, Marc - Assistant Secretary, US Department of State
F - Guetta, Bernard - Editor in Chief, Le Nouvel Observateur
GB - Hague, William - Leader of the Opposition
GB - Hannay, David - Prime Ministers Personal Envoy for Turkey; Former Permanent Representative to the United Nations
USA - Hoagland, Jim - Associate Editor, The Washington Post
N - Hoegh, Westye - Chairman of the Board, Leif Hoegh and Co. A.S.A.; Former President, Norwegian Shipowners Association
NL - Hoeven, Cees H. van der - President, Royal Ahold
USA - Hoge, Jr., James F. - Editor, Foreign Affairs
GB - Hogg, Christopher - Chairman, Reuters Group plc
USA - Holbrooke, Richard C. - Former Assistant Secretary for European Affairs; Vice Chairman, CS First Boston
P - Horta e Costa, Miguel - Vice-President, Portugal Telecom
D - Ishinger, Wolfgang - Political Director, Foreign Office
D - Issing, Otmar - Member of the Board, Deutsche Bundesbank
GB - Jenkins, Michael - Vice Chairman, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson
USA - Johnson, James A. - Chairman and CEO, FannieMae
USA - Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. - Senior Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP (Attorneys-at-Law)
GB - Kaletsky, Anatole - Associate Editor, The Times
GR - Karamanlis, Kostas A. - Leader of the Opposition
TR - Kirac, Suna - Vice Chairman of the Board, Koc Holding A.S.
USA - Kissinger, Henry A. - Former Secretary of State; Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.
INT - Kohnstamm, Max - Senior Consultant, The European Policy Center
D - Kopper, Hilmar - Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank A.G.
NL - Korteweg, Pieter - President and CEO, Robeco Group
CZ - Kovanda, Karel - Head of Mission to the Czech Republic to NATO and the WEU
USA - Kravis, Henry R. - Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA - Kravis, Marie-Josee - Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Inc.
USA - Leschly, Jan - CEO SmithKline Beecham plc.
F - Levy-Lang, Andre - Chairman of the Board of Management, Paribas
FIN - Lipponen, Paavo - Prime Minister
DK - Lykketoft, Mogens - Minister of Finance
CDN - MacMillan, Margaret - Editor, International Journal, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, University of Toronto
CDN - Manning, Preston - Leader of the Reform Party
I - Masera, Rainer S. - Director General, I.M.I.S.p.A.
USA - Matthews, Jessica Tuchman - President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
USA - McDonough, William J. - President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
D - Nass, Matthias - Deputy Editor, Zie Deit
NL - Netherlands, Her Majesty Queen of the
PL - Olechowski, Andrzej - Chairman, Central Europe Trust, Poland
FIN - Ollila, Jorma - President and CEO, Nokia Corporation
I - Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso - Chairman, CONSOB
GR - Papandreou, George A. - Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs
INT - Prendergast, Kieran - Under-Secertary General for Political Affairs, United Nations
USA - Prestowitz, Clyde V. - President, Economic Strategy Institute
A - Puhringer, Othmar - Chairman of Managing Board, VA-Technologie AG
GB - Purves, William - Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc.
CH - Pury, David de - Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turrettini and Co. Ltd.
A - Randa, Gerhard - Chairman of the Managing Board, Bank of Austria
USA - Rhodes, William R. - Vice Chairman, CitiBank, N.A.
GB - Robertson, George - Secretary of State for Defence
USA - Rockefeller, David - Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank International Advisory Committee
E - Rodriguez Inciarte, Matias - Vice-Chairman, Banco de Santander
GB - Roll, Eric - Senior Advisor, SBC Warburg Dillon Read
GB - Rothschild, Evelyn de - Chairman, N M Rothschild and Sons
D - Schremp, Jurgen E. - Chairman of the Board of Mangagement, Daimler Benz A.G.
DK - Seidenfaden, Toger - Editor in Chief, Politiken A/S
I - Siniscalco, Domenico - Professor of Economics; Director of Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei
INT - Solana Madariaga, Javier - Seceretary General, NATO
P - Sousa, Marcelo Rebelo de - Leader of the PSD Party
N - Storvik, Kjell - Governor, Bank of Norway
PL - Suchoka, Hanna - Minister of Justice
USA - Summers, Lawrence H. - Deputy Secretary for International Affairs, US Department of the Treasury
IRL - Sutherland, Peter D. - Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Chairman, British Petroleum Company plc.
GB - Taylor, J. Martin - Group Chief Executive, Barclays plc.
USA - Thoman, G. Richard - President and CEO, Xerox Corporation
N - Udgaard, Nils M. - Foreign Editor, Aftenposten
CH - Vasella, Daniel - CEO Novartis
USA - Vink, Lodewijk J.R. de - President and CEO, Warner Lambert Company
FIN - Virkkunen, Janne - Senior Editor in Chief, Helsingin Sanomat
B - Vits, Mia de - General Secretary, ABVV-FGTB
A - Vranitzky, Franz - Former Federal Chancellor
INT - Vries, Gijs M. de - Leader of the Liberal Group, European Parliament
S - Wallengerg, Jacob - Chairman of the Board, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken
USA - Whitman, Christine Todd - Governor of New Jersey
D - Wissmann, Matthias - Federal Minister for Transport
INT - Wolfensohn, James D. - President, the World Bank
D - Wolff von Amerongen, Otto - Chairman and CEO of Otto Wolff GmbH
USA - Wolfowitz, Paul - Dean, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
USA - Yost, Casimir A. - Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington
GB - Micklethwait, John - Business Editor, The Economist
GB - Wooldridge, Adrian - Foriegn Correspondent, The Economist.
Sources inform me that the Bilderberg meeting will be held in the Turnberry resort, Scotland from May 14-16 (this week folks!). The Bilderberg group is an organisation with a steering group of rich and powerful people from Europe and America. Every year they meet in secret to discuss world events.
Very little is reported in the media about the meeting: those Bilderbergers who own the media see to this. See the main Bilderberg page more info.
This year the meeting is being held at more or less the same time as the G8 summit in Birmingham (May 15-17). Immediately afterwards, from May 18-20 in Geneva, the World Trade Organisation will be hosting its 50th anniversary celebrations. No doubt many Bilderbergers and G8 delegates will be converging on Geneva for this event.
Surely the timing of these three events is no coincidence, and confirm the "Hot Spring" theory of a concerted push towards globalisation through a series of co-ordinated meetings in Spring 1998.
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My sources agree on date and venue.
Tony Gosling http://www.tlio.demon.co.uk/bilder.htm
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dears,
(whatever i write here is only my personal opinion and has nothing to do with the PGA)
having lived in germany for over 6 years, i have come accross some interesting analyses of the political effect of conspiration theories and similar simplistic explanations of complex systems. this kind of analysis is especially developed in this country due to the role that conspiration theories and similar crap (sorry for the expression) played in the build-up towards the Nazi regime.
sadly, the late 90s are witnessing very similar things than the 30s, when some well-meaning revolutionaries, for the sake of simplicity, actually supported the ascension of an autoritarian regime because the message that they were conveying was actually almost the same one that the nazis were spreading, a message that blaimed a few obscure powerful (and mostly jew) transnational capitalists for the damage created by a complex of the web of economic, political, social and cultural relations (of which these capitalists are no doubt a significant part, but by no means the most important part).
you can ask juergen the kind of response that he got when he showed the hot spring poster at the yearly meeting of BUKO (the Federal Congress of Action Groups on Development Policy, a group of very critical and well informed activists) - they basically saw the poster as very close (to say the least) to extreme-right representations of reality, at the edge of fascist propaganda. i of course do not completely agree with that, but maybe it would be good to revise the kind of positions and thesis that are defended in the "corporate rule" discourse in general. maybe we are unintentionedly supporting the appeal of authoritarian solutions to the problems created by globalisation by the way in which we convey our messages. and this is *NOT* a problem of germany only, just like defending nationalism as a reaction to globalisation is crap everywhere, not just in germany.
i would even go as far (after reading stuff like the book on the MAI) as revising very much with whom we work, or at least posing very strong and direct challenges to the nationalist wing of the anti-globalisation folks (like most of the IFG).
as for Bilderberg, working on this issue is in the best of the cases a waste of time, in my opinion. and there is so much, but really so much to do about visible bearers of power like the WTO, the ERT, the G8 etc that dealing with ghosts seems a bit irresponsible for me.
love,
sergio
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Dear Sergio
The Bilderbergers are just as visible - and mortal - as you or I if you care to wangle your way in to the conference... When the press barons ignore them does that make them ghosts?
Amongst those in the know, Foreign Office types - newspaper editors etc. it is understood that Bilderberg - and several of the other banking and multinational/media lobby groups set the agenda - and Bilderberg, they say, is the big one.
Was the MAI drawn up at the OECD? We find it was prepared by the International Chamber of Commerce, are you suggesting we should not tackle the ICC who had the idea in the first place... they will now be doing their best to pull strings behind the scenes to make sure we do not scupper it. ref: http://www.tlio.demon.co.uk/wdm.htm
Public organisations like the OECD do not set the agenda. They are a forum to legitimize tyrannical initiatives, they deflect public debate and criticism, and are a poodle's proving ground. Don't waste time with them!
I know the problem of capitalism is structural but the structure does propel powerful 'ideas people' to the top. These people organize think-tanks that spell out policy. As Observer editor Will Hutton says, who attended last years Bilderberg conference:
"No policy is made here; it is all talk, some of it banal and platitudinous. But the consensus established is the backdrop against which policy is made worldwide" (...../reports.htm)
Come on - let's expose and take on the real decision makers not their political poodles.
Nationalism is certainly not an alternative but it is only one of the voices that criticise the world elites. Nationalism is equally narrow minded as globalization- international solidarity around a charter of human and environmental rights - such as access to culture - through radio & TV and the right to land - seems like a common sense way forward.
Let's look at how sucessful - in terms of creating the kind of world we want - groups like the Brazilian Landless movement (MST) have been in demanding resources and setting up their own schools and hospitals etc. Bottom up and brilliant!
Just as with the TV news, it's the stuff that gets missed out, the Bilderbergers and the MST, that matters.
respect
Tony Gosling
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Dear Sergio, I believe the main problems with conspiracy theories is that they provide a distraction to the real issues and that they lead to paranoia in people with ego problems. However they can have entertainment value, as the X Files has shown. Aliens and ghosts can be fun for some people. Others get paranoid, however, because their ego makes them think they're so important that the authorities could be bothered to spy on them.
Bilderberg has nothing to do with aliens or ghosts. The participants are all human and the attendance list of a previous year's meeting can be found on the web site I quoted. One reason it is secret was that the founders thought people in large corporations, trade unions and politics can't say what they really think in case it affects the share price, the membership or the opinion polls. The theory was that if the media was kept away these people could talk frankly together to tackle some of the world's problems that had only been made worse by excessive publicity. However from what I've read it has failed, since many of the corporations whose leaders attend are involved in takeover battles and their leaders would never talk frankly in each others' presence, not even in secret. Perhaps the scheduling of Bilderberg at the same time as the G8 is evidence of the failure of Bilderberg to get the politicians interested in them. If so, perhaps we should be pleased about its failure.
I have no dilemmas about opposing secret societies. I do, on the other hand, have dilemmas about opposing things like the MAI which though bad in themselves could, in passing, help to remove the discrimination against co-operatives in raising investment internationally.
With regard to the timing of the G8 just before the WTO meeting, I think that there is a significance in this. Eight of the richest countries are talking about common interests immediately before going to the world organisation promoting free trade. If these eight countries manage to agree a common negotiating position, the rest of the WTO countries would have a difficult task opposing them.
As for attitudes to the left on corporate rule: we must be aware that trade unionists generally prefer transnational corporations (TNCs) to small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). There are several reasons for this:
1. Workers in TNCs in rich countries often have better conditions than in SMEs: more flexible hours, better chances of promotion, better deals for workers with disabilities etc.
2. It can be easier to organise and fight for workers' rights within TNCs, since they have a high public profile and stand to lose more from a consumer boycott than smaller companies.
3. Because of past protests about TNCs, the trade unions have won legal protection for some of their rights within TNCs. In the EU for example they must by law have works councils, whereas SMEs are exempted from this requirement at present.
4. TNC shares are mostly held by institutional investors - pensions funds etc - who invest money on behalf of large numbers of ordinary people. SMEs on the other hand are usually owned by rich individuals. Therefore TNCs have more "stakeholders" and more people have a share of their profits.
We need to be aware of these arguments and the counter-arguments to them when talking to people from a trade union background.
There are also, of course, many right-wing groups that oppose TNCs, and it is easy for people who just see a poster to mix up the left-wing and right-wing groups opposing TNCs.
Incidentally, if you don't think that TNCs and their leaders are the most important component in the push for global free trade, then who is?
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dear tony
the whole point of my message (reproduced at the end) was just that IF we "expose and take on the real decision makers" that give birth to "tyrannical initiatives" (as you say in your message) WITHOUT making the whole analysis of the structural problems of capitalism and all what comes with it (as happens most of the times), THEN our efforts, if successful, are likely to have the effect of promoting "easy" solutions to complex problems that might end up being worse than what we are fighting against.
if the MAI was there only because of some groups like the ICC, all what we had to do would be getting rid of the ICC. if international capitalism would exist only because of the Trilateral Commission, all what you would need would be applying the "final solution" to the Rockefellers, Rothschilds and similar capitalists (funny enough, many of them jew or mason) and that would be all. unfortunaltely things are not so easy, as we know, but anti-corporate rule activisim often seems to convey this message (e.g. "Hot Spring" poster).
besides that (and this is not my main point anyhow), it is neither Bilderberg nor the Trilaterals that can impose patents on life almost all over the world - it is a "poodle's proving ground" like the WTO that can do it, mainly because it is completely unknown by 95% of the population (also those with access to TV, or I would even say particularly by those with access to TV).
However, I was not trying to convince anyone about doing or not doing any kind of campaigning. if you think that targetting bilderbergs and similar folks makes sense, that's fine. i was trying to call attention about the fact that sometimes simple representations of reality can help advancing agendas that have nothing, but really NOTHING to do with bottom-up solutions like practised by the MST and similar movements.
i will not continue this discussion at this point because i'm quite busy helping out with all the mobilisations against the WTO in Geneva. if you want, we can continue it in june. looking forward to meeting you one of these days, sergio hernandez p.s. again all what i wrote here is only my personal opinion.
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That's all I want is to get some discussion on these guys going...... what do you think?!?! --
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Dear Sergio,
- whatever I write here is also my personal opinion and should not be seen as a reaction from A SEED Europe as a network-
How are you? It has been a long time since we actually had a good discussion about the way forward with social movements against globalization and corporate rule. It's a pity, but you know that I was too busy with becoming a father to attend the different meetings PGA organised in the last months.
Yesterday I came across your correspondence with Stuart and Tony, triggered off because of Stuarts' message about the Bilderberg group meeting. I noticed that you have decided to finish that discussion, as understandibly you are too busy with the preparations for the PGA activities in Geneva next month.
Still, I think that your letter needs a response, as several things in it I consider too serious to let go unchallenged, especially if these are shared with a larger group of people who might get a very strange impression from what this 'Hot Spring' campaign is all about.
So, a few words from me - I have left the original message for people who might have missed the earlier correspondence- :
(See Stuart's first note above) - ed.
Let me start by saying that I am very surprised that Stuarts note on the Bilderberg meeting triggered of such a hugely violent response from you. I think your reaction is way over the top; I personally see nothing in Stuarts rather factual message that justifies the kind of comparisons you make.
I can only conclude that the one thing that got you upset was his remark about the 'Hot Spring Theory' about the concerted push etc. (For those who didn't get it, this refers to the Hot Spring campaign -what's in a name?- that A SEED Europe started last January.)You seem to translate this immediately as a simplistic conspiration theory, but that is not what he writes.
I also don't like simplistic conspiracy theories that suggest that nothing is what it appears and that the whole world is actually run by a small elite who are firmly at the steering wheel. I agree completely with you that such theories do not reflect the complexity of what is going on.
But nobody mentions a 'conspiracy theory' here, and the Hot Spring campaign is not about this either. Yes, it IS about educating people about the 'concerted push' of institutions, TNCs, think tanks, media etc etc towards economic globalisation, but that is not a conspiracy. You don't have to believe in a conspiracy to notice that many of these actors have the same -but sometimes also conflicting!- agenda and that this is no coincidence. You know better than anybody that World Bank / IMF/ WTO policies work in the same direction and that there is a lot of mutual consultation going on, etc. no conspiracy, but for sure a concerted push!
What A SEEDs' Hot spring campaign tries to do is to make people see these links between institutions and events, that these are not separate and isolated, but mutually strengthen eachother. We urge people to take this into account when they campaign against one of the events or institutions.
> having lived in germany for over 6 years, i have come accross some
> interesting analyses of the political effect of conspiration theories
and
> similar simplistic explanations of complex systems. this kind of
analysis
> is especially developed in this country due to the role that
conspiration
> theories and similar crap (sorry for the expression) played in the
build-up
> towards the Nazi regime.
> sadly, the late 90s are witnessing very similar things than the 30s,
when
> some well-meaning revolutionaries, for the sake of simplicity,
actually
> supported the ascension of an autoritarian regime because the message
that
> they were conveying was actually almost the same one that the nazis
were
> spreading, a message that blaimed a few obscure powerful (and mostly
jew)
> transnational capitalists for the damage created by a complex of the
web of
> economic, political, social and cultural relations (of which these
> capitalists are no doubt a significant part, but by no means the most
> important part).
>
> you can ask juergen the kind of response that he got when he showed
the hot
> spring poster at the yearly meeting of BUKO (the Federal Congress of
Action
> Groups on Development Policy, a group of very critical and well
informed
> activists) - they basically saw the poster as very close (to say the
least)
> to extreme-right representations of reality, at the edge of fascist
> propaganda.
Now, here you take a few huge steps: somebody writes about the Bilderberg group and the 'Hot spring theory', you respond with a comparison of simplistic theories that allowed the Nazis get to power and then suddenly you are discussing the poster that A SEED produced for the Hot Spring campaign. Not as an example of how simplistic reasoning allows nazism to rule but even as being "very close -to say the least" (what do you mean, 'the perfect example of'?) "extreme right representations of reality, at the edge of fascist propaganda".
Somebody who has never seen this poster and reads your letter probably gets the impression that it is full of blonde people, claiming Lebensraum for their race, against a backdrop of swastika flags... It is not like that; it is certainly not the best poster we ever made and we have received more comments on it but the image is of a globe that is ruled by corporate interests, in the form of a man riding it like a horse and whipping it with papers (trade agreements). It is simple, but it lays no claim to being the all encompassing analysis of the world in all its aspects. I would say that a poster is by definition a simplification of reality.
(Having traveled for months in Brazil, where I visited several MST locations, and having lived in the Philippines for six months, where I worked with the anti IMF/WB coalition of which the KMP was a member, I could provide you with numerous pictures and slides of murals, flags and lealfets of PGA members like MST and the KMP where the 'social reality' of the world is simplified in a way that makes every A SEED poster look like a sophisticated website. This is NOT AT ALL to discredit the work of these coalitions, I only want to point out that in the political work they/we are involved in, a poster is not the way to judge an organisation.)
Your comparison I find therefore extremely unpleasant, to the point of being an insult to those who made this poster. I also wonder in all earnest why you feel such a need to portray A SEED in this way as a dangerous, almost cryptofascist organisation. I feel that such an attack is way beyond the 'Play Fair Europe' attitude you once promoted.
One more remark about simplistic representations of reality and the use of symbols that might give rise to such comparisons; We do not disagree about this at all I think, but maybe you should also be critical towards PGA; I personally find the idea of a public burning of documents in front of the WTO building a much more distasteful idea than any image of a man riding a globe on a poster; if there is any image that reminds me of nazis it is people burning books!
> i of course do not completely agree with that, but maybe it
This I find very strange; first you make a very strong mal-intentious remark and in the next line you refuse to take responsability for it. It is either .. or; if you do not agree then you should not write this in the first place.
> would be good to revise the kind of positions and thesis that are
defended
> in the "corporate rule" discourse in general. maybe we are
unintentionedly
> supporting the appeal of authoritarian solutions to the problems created
by
> globalisation by the way in which we convey our messages and this is
*NOT*
> a problem of germany only, just like defending nationalism as a reaction
to
> globalisation is crap everywhere, not just in germany.
>
> i would even go as far (after reading stuff like the book on the MAI)
as
> revising very much with whom we work, or at least posing very strong
and
> direct challenges to the nationalist wing of the anti-globalisation
folks
> (like most of the IFG).
>
> as for Bilderberg, working on this issue is in the best of the cases
a
> waste of time, in my opinion. and there is so much, but really so much
to
> do about visible bearers of power like the WTO, the ERT, the G8 etc
that
> dealing with ghosts seems a bit irresponsible for me.
Well, I could remark a lot about the rest of your letter, some of which I agree with and others not, but I think I leave that to the time when we do have the chance for a beer. I sincerely hope that instead of this kind of exchanges, which in my eyes are intended to discredit people and organisations, we can concentrate in the future on building closer links between the very few allies that we have.
I wish you all the best with the PGA work in Geneva -which I unfortunately also have to give a miss, as I will be changing diapers ;-)
greetings, Johan Frijns
(A SEED Europe office member)
>
> A SEED Europe
> PO Box 92066
> 1090 AB Amsterdam
> Netherlands
> tel: 31-20-668-2236
> fax: 31-20-665-0166
> email: aseedeur@antenna.nl
> WWW: http://www.antenna.nl/aseed/
>P.O.Box 92066
>1090 AB Amsterdam - The Netherlands
>tel. +31 20 6682236
> fax +31 20 6650166
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Responding to Stuart (2)
I am not sure about your reading of TNCs. They are huge, authoritarian structures who have no ideology except growth and and accumulation. I disagree that they necessarily are more susceptible to union pressure, after all they are international and can make medium to long term decisions about moving their power bases to areas where labour is cheaper or more compliant. It has been the British experience of destroying trade union power/organisation that has succeeded in attracting TNCs here. The only sectors of British industry in which TUs survive is in the public sector. If anything the logic os that TUs prefer STATE OWNERSHIP to TNCs!
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Did anybody see the Guardian Passnotes yesterday (Wednesday 13)?
A coy little critique of Bilderberg if ever I saw one. If anybody asks me I am willing to type it in and send it round. [yes please sent - ed.]
I must say Sergio I also disagree with you. If the work was done to pull together information on the activities of these groups and to find a way to force them into the public consciousness, people would be at least as concerned about them as about the World Bank and the IMF, which after all hardly sends the average citizen into a frenzy each time they are mentioned.
Though I do think that conspiratorial presentations have the wrong effect - turning off everyone except the hard core and therby having the opposite effect to the one we want
Jamie
Jamie Hartzell
Centres for Change
Archway Resource Centre
1B Waterlow Road
London N19 5NJ
Tel: 0171 263 9759 Fax: 0171 263 5975
E-Mail: jamiehartz@gn.apc.org
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Dear Tony - saw some of your stuff on the net and heard yesterday of the Bilderberg meeting today at Turnberry. I am a complete novice at all this but I "know" that the world wouldn't be in the state it was if there weren't some pretty nasty people in charge at the top.
I won't bore you with my opinions but wanted to tell you that I raised the topic of today's Bilderberg meeting on Radio Scotland about 10 minutes ago (10.50am). They were discussing ethical foreign policy and Robin Cook.
My point was that Robin Cook is just a small pawn in a big game and I mentioned the Bilderberg meeting in Ayr and how ironic I thought the timing of today's discussion was. Ian Black (a professional "loudmouth" - you know, the sort who makes opinionated statements and loves to defend them) was taking calls and I wanted to hear his opinion on the Bilderberg group.
Granted he listened (I did not expect Radio Scotland to call back to have me on air!) but I have never heard him so quiet! He asked whether I felt the UK Govt knew of the BB group and I pointed out that Lord Carrington was Chair, that Malcolm Rifkind attended 1996 meeting (he was Foreign Sec then I believe) and that Tony Blair attended 4 years ago (before he was Labour leader, I believe. I'm not to hot on politics!) I am involved in local environmental campaigning and read Hansard on occasion, but I think of myself as very naive.
I have seen questions on BB in Hansard (by the same MP) but they just get a negative answer.
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No one is saying CORPORATE LOBBY GROUPS should not be tackled, investigated, exposed for the position they occupy within the structures of global capitalism, and their role in directing global capitalism. Articles MAIGALOMANIA are essential. However, is Bilderburg such a corporate lobby group, or is it doing other things, is there enough evidence, or is it mere conspiracy theories? As far as the Guardian Pass notes were concerned , they didn't imply more than conspiracy theories- had it been a john Vidal article with a lot of hard evidence that would be different.
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I hold the official Press Release for the 1998 meeting in my Hand. I think it is up to you to inform people, while the meeting takes place, more or less next door to you.
The address is: Turnberry Hotel Ayrshire, Scotland
Date of meeting 14-17 May 1998
Topics are: -Asia Crisis - Japan -Turkey - NATO - EMU
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Just to let you know that I got the Toronto office of Reuters to service their London office with information on the Bilderberg meeting in Ayrshire, with full background information from our own Bilderberg report.
You may want to check the British Reuter's feed [How? ed.] over the next
day or so to see if they follow up on this, or to perhaps even call and encourage
them!
Reuter's is the only agency, with some help and encouragement, which has
even mentioned the Bilderberg meetings over the last two years - not a bad
thing to remind them of, either, since everyone loves an exclusive...!
With best wishes,
John Whitley
The Bilderberg mob. They are a group of high financiers. The story is that no one will succeed politically and in government unless they have the support of the Bilderberg's and without which their economy can be put into turmoil.
The New Unhappy Lords by A K Chesterton (founded Candour magazine and the League of Empire Loyalists and he was one of the founders of the National Front.) There is a similar group called Council of Foreign Relations (C.F.R.) and also the Federal Reserve (which I assume you know is a private bank which lends to the US government and may have resulted in the death of Kennedy for printing his own dollar bills - an activity that ceased after his timely demise. "There is no difficulty in recognising in this secret gathering the mysterious Bilderberg group of which Prince Bernhard is the official sponsor. As the author surmised after the Saint Simons Island Meeting, the purpose was to speed up the cause of internationalism and it is interesting to have confirmed the fact that these agents of the Money Power were directly concerned with the European Free Trade area. Am I write in thinking that the work undertaken by the Bilderberg group was once undertaken by such bodies as Chatham House." This is part of a chapter headed Prince Bernhard's Secret Society.
"In 1961 an article in the Toronto Star read as follows 'The tenth Bilderberg conference attended by seventy delegates from Europe and North America wound up yesterday after three days of discussion of common problems. Participants, whose names were not disclosed, included leaders of the political industrial labour and professional fields of both continents, an official statement said. Chairman of the meeting was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who left Quebec yesterday for home after making private visits to cities in Mexico the US and Canada. The statement said although the conference "followed the original Bilderberg concept of not attempting to reach conclusions or to reccomend policies, there was substantial agreement on the need to promote better understanding and more effective co-ordination among the Western nations. Points of particle concern included the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in world policy, the strengthening of both the Nuclear and non Nuclear deterrent power of the alliance and the responsibility for control of atomic weapons inside NATO.", the statement said. "The implications for Western Unity of the change in the relative economic strength of the UN and Western Europe were also discussed at some length.
In the Londoners Diary section of the London Evening Standard about ten years ago there was a lead story article with photos of Gordon Brown and John Smith who found it essential to start meeting the Bilderberg group. They were the first Labour people in many years to be invited to meet the Bilderberg group and attend their meetings which appeared to indicate that they were beginning to be considered acceptable for government.
-- The Avengers
Just to let you know that we've now posted the 1998 Bilderberg Conference summary to our Web site. It's at: http://www.inforamp.net/~jwhitley/bild98.htm
We've also posted and linked it to our detailed series of 1996 Press Releases on the Toronto Bilderberg meeting. They're at: http://www.inforamp.net/~jwhitley/bildpres.htm
Dear Tony - thanks for your message re. Radio Scotland. You may like to know that the early evening news that day did a "spoof" cover of the BB meeting (you know, James Bond theme tune in the background) but better than nothing. The name 'Bilderberg' wasn't mentioned but there were a couple of demonstrators [wow! ed.] with placards bearing the name. I think it was Scotland Today (ITV) not BBC's Reporting Scotland. Am about to look up your web site for the latest. Cheers - Angela
Yes, I do think the Bilderberg group is extremely dangerous and alarming, and it's great that you're keeping tabs on it. What I just can't buy is John Whitley's extraordinary theory that it is causing its opponents to align themselves with anti-semitism so that they can then be prosecuted. It's one of the stupidest conspiracy theories I've ever heard, and that's saying quite a bit!
There's a long and ignoble tradition in the far right of conflating shadowy and powerful financial interests with a global Jewish conspiracy. The tradition pre-dated Hitler, but was used by him to great effect, just as it is now being used by David Icke, the BNP and militia-based movements in the States. As a Jew, I find the resurgence of this tradition terrifying. I think it's essential to distance ourselves from it, and to recognise that some of the anti-Bilderbergers are using the legitimate issue of the BB's horrifying degree of control for their own, extremely dodgy ends. Please don't fall into this trap: it's really important to separate the issue from its exponents, and to condemn the aims of some of those exponents as forcefully as we condemn the Bilderberg Group.
Tony:
Thanks for forwarding this piece of arrant nonsense.
I really have to shake my head when I read this kind of response. Even a cursory knowledge of Wall Street's support of, and financing of Hitler [including finance provided by American Jewish finance houses] shows that these people pursue the great game at least in part by policies of discord and division which they can then amplify, utilize and manipulate. I would recommend that your correspondent do some hard academic study on this matter, including the solid works of Professors Anthony Sutton and Carroll Quigley. I note with wry amusement that the phrase "this is the stupidest thing I ever heard" is usually a guarantee of utter, uniformed ignorance on the topic under discussion.
Does your incensed correspondent think, for example, that the "elite" members scattered throughout the Israeli government have any more loyalty to their nation and people than the "elite" members of the British or American governments have? Not a bit - they'd sell [and are selling] their country out just as readily as Bilderbergers Blair and Clinton.
That raw, uninformed anti-Semitism exists is undeniable and regrettable. That it is then stoked and used by the elite to "divide and conquer", as well as to restrict all kinds of other lawful activities, is equally true.
For example, a Customs regulation was brought in to effect in Canada denying importation of books or materials "attributing the world's problems to any identifiable group." Within a short time it was being used to stop importation of Professor Carroll Quigley's "TRAGEDY AND HOPE", a work of impeccable and towering scholarship, which attributed [with proof] many of them to the schemes of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House, and other such elitist groups!
I never once stated that "it is causing its opponents to align themselves with anti-semitism so that they can then be prosecuted." I stated CLEARLY that the elite *encourage* and finance anti-Semitism [as they did in pre-Nazi Germany and are once again doing in that country] for their own purposes and ALSO so that they could then label or prosecute as *inferred anti-Semites* anyone who said that ANY global group was behind such activities. This fool can't even read a clear posting, and makes up his own argument to rebut as he goes along! I don't have time for that kind of intellectual dishonesty.
You may, however, cheerfully post this response of mine if you wish. You may also make it clear that I have no sympathy of any kind with any form of anti-Semitism and even less sympathy for idiots who attempt to put false arguments in my mouth.
As for saying that the US militia is anti-Semitic, your correspondent is a paramount ignoramus! That there are some anti-Semitic groups who've cloaked themselves with the "militia" label is true, but they form a mere fraction of the movement. The real rebuttal to this type of hysterical credulity is the FACT that Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership [a highly-respected US-wide organization] enjoys extraordinarily warm and cordial relations with the US militia movement as a whole, many of its members are active members also of their local militia units, and it is held in wide affection and earned respect because of its impeccable research and fearless outspokenness in defence of the individual American's constitutional freedoms.
Your correspondent, in the crowning ignominy, has thus fallen exactly into the trap that the elite intended, for does not he himself argue that "There's a long and ignoble tradition in the far right of conflating shadowy and powerful financial interests with a global Jewish conspiracy." Exactly what the global elite, who have a long tradition of financing groups who make such statement, want him and everone else to believe. Now I suppose he'd like them to take the next step and whittle away at everybody's freedoms a little more in order to reign in these groups.... How clueless!
with best wishes,
John