Of oligopolies and hybrid states
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Nerun Yakub
Never in the history of the world have there been such an overwhelming concentration of power, of capital and knowledge, in the hands of so few. The world economy is at the mercy of the decisions of some 5000 giant oligopolies that control power at the global, regional and national levels today. According to one estimate, through monopolies, mergers and alliances, this power-base controls more than a third of the world’s productive assets and three fourths of all world trade !
Multinational and multisectoral mergers have been going on at a hectic pace since the last quarter of the twentieth century, in fact. Just a handful of them control 90 per cent of the global trade in wheat, maize, coffee and pineapple; about 80 per cent of the tea trade; 70 per cent of the global banana and rice markets; and more than 60 per cent of the world trade in sugar.
Phenomenal mergers have taken place also within seed, agrochemicals and pharmaceutical companies. It is expected that by the next decade the world will witness the commercialisation of nano-biotechnology which will open up incredible dimensions in farming and food production and at the same time put ordinary farmers’ very livelihood in jeopardy. Theorists of nanotech claim that by the middle of this very decade, ‘We will be building our food atom by atom in a household contraption not unlike today’s kitchen microwave!’
The pharmaceutical industry, one of the fastest growing and most profitable sectors of the world economy, had, by the mid-1990s mopped up US$400 billion in mergers, ten of its leading firms controlling 35 per cent of the global market. This industry includes not only health care segments but also soaps, cosmetics and chemicals.
It has been moving into ‘managed care’ companies as well and certain kind of clinical services designed to absorb their own patented drugs and technologies. Their focus is not confined to manufacturing medicines for curing diseases alone but also on concocting drugs for people who don’t need them at all, cynics point out ! Indeed, inspired by today’s super technologies and driven by sky-high profits, these pharmaceutical giants seem to have no holds barred. Their new ‘lifestyle drugs’ —— that is, pills to alter moods, reduce stress, enhance performance, induce sleep, keep you wide awake and God-knows-what else ——- are hooking more and more consumers.
Common biotechnology is linking human genomics with pharmaceuticals, with veterinary medicines, with agrochemicals, with seeds, with cosmetics, with household cleaning agents and what not ! This concentration of corporate power, in virtually all the new technologies, means much more than the monopolisation of the world’s food, health and energy systems, warn observers. More importantly, it also means global society could and would be controlled with the technologies evolving in informatics, robotics, sensors, and their miniaturisation through nanotech. Mind boggling methods could be employed to monitor and even control dissent and to thus impose police/slave states !
Biotechnology, in conjunction with work in the neurosciences [and don’t forget the weaponisation of Tesla technologies], is said to be making it possible to control human behaviour —- make people go berserk for example, or docile. We are told, the so-called Human Performance Enhancers (HPEs) can either increase or decrease human responses and brain functions .There is no end therefore to what the merger of the ‘micros’ —— microbiology and nanotechnology —- can bring for the world.
We are told, the ‘bionic’ world, with hybrids of living and non-living materials woven together, has already begun at the lab level. Mark you, the same biotechnologies link crop production to human and animal health care. One of the most powerful oligopolies therefore is the Life Industry. When merged with the traditional manufacturing industries this is bound to result in the control of entire systems of production and distribution by a still more powerful oligopoly.
What would ‘state’ institutions, perceived as democratic, really be in such a scenario ? Nothing more than servants of the oligopoly, fear observers. Of course governments would still continue to exist, to maintain a veneer of democracy. They have no illusions and predict that ‘ .......... the world will see the rise of hybrid states ................ states with the trappings of democracy in the service of military or corporate elites.’ Isn’t it already manifest in many Third World countries where governments (so-called ) and businesses (agents) link up and play by the rules dictated by the mother countries/ companies ? A little power trickles down to maintain the agencies, but the accumulation of capital and clout remains in the hands of a limited number of large global oligopolies. And it is this kind of globalisation that has led to the recent financial crisis all across the world.
Socialist economists like the Egyptian Samir Amin, believes the core problem of the crisis rose from the extreme centralisation of capital, profits and power. This has to be addressed radically, for the global financial crisis is in essence the crisis of capitalism itself, not just ‘the result of mistakes or irresponsibilities.’ The way out for entities in both the north and the south is therefore to move out of the present monetary and financial system and start nationalising the oligopolies with the ‘objective of socialisation,’ suggests Amin. He maintains there is no alternative to it. Otherwise, ‘the world will continue to be in a serious and continuous crisis of capitalism and imperialism, and not just of the financial markets ...................... (with) key countries of the South rubber-stamping the decisions of finance capital.’
Never in the history of the world have there been such an overwhelming concentration of power, of capital and knowledge, in the hands of so few. The world economy is at the mercy of the decisions of some 5000 giant oligopolies that control power at the global, regional and national levels today. According to one estimate, through monopolies, mergers and alliances, this power-base controls more than a third of the world’s productive assets and three fourths of all world trade !
Multinational and multisectoral mergers have been going on at a hectic pace since the last quarter of the twentieth century, in fact. Just a handful of them control 90 per cent of the global trade in wheat, maize, coffee and pineapple; about 80 per cent of the tea trade; 70 per cent of the global banana and rice markets; and more than 60 per cent of the world trade in sugar.
Phenomenal mergers have taken place also within seed, agrochemicals and pharmaceutical companies. It is expected that by the next decade the world will witness the commercialisation of nano-biotechnology which will open up incredible dimensions in farming and food production and at the same time put ordinary farmers’ very livelihood in jeopardy. Theorists of nanotech claim that by the middle of this very decade, ‘We will be building our food atom by atom in a household contraption not unlike today’s kitchen microwave!’
The pharmaceutical industry, one of the fastest growing and most profitable sectors of the world economy, had, by the mid-1990s mopped up US$400 billion in mergers, ten of its leading firms controlling 35 per cent of the global market. This industry includes not only health care segments but also soaps, cosmetics and chemicals.
It has been moving into ‘managed care’ companies as well and certain kind of clinical services designed to absorb their own patented drugs and technologies. Their focus is not confined to manufacturing medicines for curing diseases alone but also on concocting drugs for people who don’t need them at all, cynics point out ! Indeed, inspired by today’s super technologies and driven by sky-high profits, these pharmaceutical giants seem to have no holds barred. Their new ‘lifestyle drugs’ —— that is, pills to alter moods, reduce stress, enhance performance, induce sleep, keep you wide awake and God-knows-what else ——- are hooking more and more consumers.
Common biotechnology is linking human genomics with pharmaceuticals, with veterinary medicines, with agrochemicals, with seeds, with cosmetics, with household cleaning agents and what not ! This concentration of corporate power, in virtually all the new technologies, means much more than the monopolisation of the world’s food, health and energy systems, warn observers. More importantly, it also means global society could and would be controlled with the technologies evolving in informatics, robotics, sensors, and their miniaturisation through nanotech. Mind boggling methods could be employed to monitor and even control dissent and to thus impose police/slave states !
Biotechnology, in conjunction with work in the neurosciences [and don’t forget the weaponisation of Tesla technologies], is said to be making it possible to control human behaviour —- make people go berserk for example, or docile. We are told, the so-called Human Performance Enhancers (HPEs) can either increase or decrease human responses and brain functions .There is no end therefore to what the merger of the ‘micros’ —— microbiology and nanotechnology —- can bring for the world.
We are told, the ‘bionic’ world, with hybrids of living and non-living materials woven together, has already begun at the lab level. Mark you, the same biotechnologies link crop production to human and animal health care. One of the most powerful oligopolies therefore is the Life Industry. When merged with the traditional manufacturing industries this is bound to result in the control of entire systems of production and distribution by a still more powerful oligopoly.
What would ‘state’ institutions, perceived as democratic, really be in such a scenario ? Nothing more than servants of the oligopoly, fear observers. Of course governments would still continue to exist, to maintain a veneer of democracy. They have no illusions and predict that ‘ .......... the world will see the rise of hybrid states ................ states with the trappings of democracy in the service of military or corporate elites.’ Isn’t it already manifest in many Third World countries where governments (so-called ) and businesses (agents) link up and play by the rules dictated by the mother countries/ companies ? A little power trickles down to maintain the agencies, but the accumulation of capital and clout remains in the hands of a limited number of large global oligopolies. And it is this kind of globalisation that has led to the recent financial crisis all across the world.
Socialist economists like the Egyptian Samir Amin, believes the core problem of the crisis rose from the extreme centralisation of capital, profits and power. This has to be addressed radically, for the global financial crisis is in essence the crisis of capitalism itself, not just ‘the result of mistakes or irresponsibilities.’ The way out for entities in both the north and the south is therefore to move out of the present monetary and financial system and start nationalising the oligopolies with the ‘objective of socialisation,’ suggests Amin. He maintains there is no alternative to it. Otherwise, ‘the world will continue to be in a serious and continuous crisis of capitalism and imperialism, and not just of the financial markets ...................... (with) key countries of the South rubber-stamping the decisions of finance capital.’