“Giants – The Global Power Elite,”
by Peter Phillips, 2018
Like those detective shows where they trace the
web-like connections within a crime family on a large wall, with pictures and
everything, left sociologists have also mapped the U.S. ruling class. The two most prominent books on that subject
are “The Power Elite” by C. Wright
Mills and “Who Rules America,” by
William Domhoff. Phillips and his
researchers have gone one better – this book maps the power matrix of what he
calls the transnational capitalist class (TCC) and the various individual
members of the global power elite (GPE) by name, 389 people in all. No pictures or addresses of this particular crime
family are included however.
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| "They Got the Whole World In Their Hands..." |
GLOBALIST FINANCIAL FIRMS
This is significant because capital has long burst
the boundaries of nation states.
Neo-liberalism as a market ideology presupposes relatively free transit
across national boundaries by capital flows, by private ownership, by propaganda,
by military force, sometimes by labor, by trade and by travel. The internet is part of the technological
structure that makes this possible, along with the software that binds the
various players together. Capitalist “globalism”
in this context is the last stage of imperialism, which is now penetrating into
every nook and cranny of the world.
This book is useful to anyone attempting to
understand who they are dealing with in a social struggle. This matrix, if presented visually, would
look like a huge spider web of interconnections between these individuals and their
non-governmental organizations, finance firms, media companies and military and
mercenary contractors across the world.
Most are centered in the U.S.,
then Europe, but outposts extend across the former British colonies, and into
various other countries like Zambia,
Kuwait, Qatar, Columbia
and Mexico. Notice, no Saudis, who don’t show up in other
groups either. Evidently they are still
trying to gain admission.
Phillips names 17 asset management financial firms
and their controlling board members.
These firms own $41 trillion in assets and control the shares of most
large corporations in the world. Prior
sociologists have not ‘named names’ but Phillips does so in this listing of the
199 directors of these various companies and institutions. “Interlocking
directorates’ was the term used by Domhoff for people who show up on board
after board. These firms are
cross-invested with one another, so any ideas of capitalist ‘competition’ at
this level are absurd Below the level of
the ‘giants’ are ‘new giants’ and ‘near giants’ who also cross-invest, all
together 69 firms controlling $74T in assets.
No small cheese.
This group has also been called the
‘superclass’. It includes ‘shadow
elites’ that make money from illegal activities like drugs, gun-running, prostitution
and slavery. Which are all part of the
capitalist economy too. In a way, these are the people that manage the money and firms for the multi-billionaires we know so well.
RUSSIA & CHINA
In these lists there is an almost total ABSENCE of
anyone from Russia,
except one NGO member. Remember, Russia was thrown out of the G8 a few years ago over Crimea. Also of note is
the limited role of the Chinese, although 5 Chinese, including a member of the
Communist Party Central Committee, are listed as members of the International
Monetary Conference, the top banking conference in the world. There is one Chinese member each on the
Trilateral Commission and the G30.
This explains quite a lot about the war drive against Russia, which is full of oil and gas, cheap labor and minerals. The EU and US would certainly like to get their hands on these riches, so sanctions and low-intensity warfare are the methods to 'make the economy scream' and weaken support for Putin or Russian products. It also explains part of the trade war against China. Russia is not in ‘the club’ while China has a very limited role in 'the club,' even given its massive economy. It is somewhat odd that Chinese banks are not listed anywhere in the 17 investment firms.
This explains quite a lot about the war drive against Russia, which is full of oil and gas, cheap labor and minerals. The EU and US would certainly like to get their hands on these riches, so sanctions and low-intensity warfare are the methods to 'make the economy scream' and weaken support for Putin or Russian products. It also explains part of the trade war against China. Russia is not in ‘the club’ while China has a very limited role in 'the club,' even given its massive economy. It is somewhat odd that Chinese banks are not listed anywhere in the 17 investment firms.
OTHER SOURCES OF POWER
Phillips goes on to name the 6 media companies that dominate
world ‘news’ and culture; the 3 public relations firms that do most of the
advertising for the corporate world; the 3 private mercenary firms that provide
armed muscle for the TCC. And lastly,
the main capitalist transnational organizations planning and acting for world
capital: – the World Bank, IMF, NATO, WTO, G7, G20. Less familiar ones are the Council on Foreign
Relations, the Group of 30, the World
Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and the Atlantic Council. These groups actually set policy for the TCC.
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| Davos 2012 - The Global Power Elite Socialize |
3 of these are most important – the G30, the Atlantic Council and the Trilateral Commission. Phillips names the members of all 3, including the G30’s Executive Group’s Paul Krugman, a liberal commentator for the NYT. Another notable on the Executive Group is Zhou Xiaochuan, member of the CCP Central Committee, two banks in China, the Bank of International Settlements, the World Economic Forum and the Trilateral Commission. Members of the Trilateral Commission are from all over the world, including a healthy contingent from the former workers’ states in Central and Eastern Europe. David Gergen, constant yapper on CNN, is a member. The Atlantic Council is a veritable who’s who of neo-cons and financial capitalists and are behind some of the anti-Russia propaganda in the U.S. today (see below). The 3 PR firms listed represent almost every major corporation you can think of, along with many governmental bodies, states and nations.
Phillips does not call these arrest lists, but it could
certainly help in the future, as this is a mapping of the capitalist world’s
‘Central Committees’ as presently constituted.
NOT A CONSIPRACY
Unlike right-wing and fascist conspiracy theories
that pretend that secretive organizations like the Masons, the ‘Jews,’ the Knights
Templar, the Illuminati, a ‘Round Table’ of British bankers, communists, aliens
or Shriners are running the ‘One World Order,’ the people and organizations
here are obvious, as long as you do the research. They are essentially right out in the open. Fascist theories want to divert people from
seeing the international capitalist class as driving increasing misery around
the world. In this the rightists provide
the useful veil of misdirection, since right-wingers love capital, the ‘free’
market and money - and can’t believe that they are actually the cause of all these
problems. In a way, right-wingers' version of politics is like seeing the truth in a particularly twisted fun-house mirror.
HIS SOLUTION
For solutions, Phillips makes the standard rhetorical
nod to ‘non-violent mass resistance.’
His actual program for this struggle against the TCC and the GPE is the
UN’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (which incidentally does not allow the working class to seize
capitalist property). Just looking at the history of the world since that document came out shows it to be polite cover to the actions of the large imperial nations. Phillips repeats the inaccurate Occupy reference to the ‘1%,’
as if they were the only people in the population that are materially invested in protecting the system as it is.
Like Ralph Nader’s plea for
billionaires to ‘save us,’ Phillips makes
an appeal to these 389 powerful and wealthy people to ‘save us’ from a world of poverty, war, hunger, inequality, unemployment
and environmental destruction. ‘Capitalism
with a human mask’ is his goal, not a sustainable economy run by the majority based on
peoples’ needs. The odds of this group
of capitalists or their masters hearing Phillips’ humanitarian plea and doing anything about it
is about nil, but then, what else is new? Most are too busy steering the Titanic, making and hiding
money and planning their bolt-holes.
Other reviews on this topic, below: “Richistan,”
“Look Who We’re Calling Comrade,” Capital in the 21st Century,” “The
Necessity of Social Control,” “Understanding
Class.” Use blog search box, upper left.
Podcast by the author on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUGh1Su7-ok
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
Red Frog
December 08, 2018
or: The Guardian on Bilderberg in 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/20/bilderberg-meeting-group-lisbon-kissinger
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