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Stateof Europe State of Europe State of Europe: How the European Round Table of Industrialists came to wage class war on Europe Andrew Gavin Marshall, Occupy.com ounded in 1983, the European Round Table of The Debt Crisis FIndustrialists (ERT) quickly became – and today In February of 2010, the European Round Table of remains – one of the most influential voices of organized Industrialists (ERT) warned the EU’s political leadership corporate interests in Europe. Not quite a lobby, not quite that they needed “to act with a more unified voice on a think tank, the ERT is an action-oriented group made up economic, financial, trade and education issues or face of roughly 50 CEOs or Chairmen of Europe’s top industrial global irrelevance,” and that the supranational union of corporations who collectively push specific ideologies, states “needs to play as one single player in economic pressure political elites, and plan objectives and programs terms” if it had any hope of competing in the era of designed to shape the European Union and the ‘common globalization with the emerging market economies of Asia market’. and Latin America. The past thirty years of the ERT’s existence has What was needed to address this challenge, explained revealed it one of the most influential organizations in the CEO of Philips and Vice Chairman of the ERT, was Europe, widely known to the EU’s political, technocratic, “macroeconomic and financial discipline,” meaning: and financial elites, holding regular meetings, dinners, and austerity. The chairman of the ERT and CEO of Volvo, social events with prime ministers and cabinet officials Leif Johansson, stated that, “We need to respond more of EU member states, as well as the leadership of the aggressively... We need to make Europe more competitive European Commission itself. In the wake of the European in the global market and complete the single market” debt crisis of the past several years, the ERT has again within the EU itself.1 been at the forefront of shaping the changes within the That same month of February 2010 the ERT EU, promoting austerity and structural reforms as the released a major report, ERT’s Vision for a Competitive ‘solution’ to the debt crisis. Europe in 2025, in which they outlined the ideological As through their three-decade history, the Round and institutional objectives and plans of Europe’s top Table today continues to promote the ideologies and corporations to shape the policies of the European Union interests of corporate and financial power at the expense up to the year 2025. The report identified the erupting of the interests of labour and the population more widely. debt crisis as “an opportunity to rethink the European This paper aims to examine this highly influential group Union’s future course and to take decisive action,” and in order to shed some light on an organization very well further explained that the publication itself was directly known to those who make the important decisions within “intended to guide the EU’s policy choices in the next the EU, yet largely in the shadows to those who have to decade.”2 suffer the consequences of those decisions. 1 State of Power 2014 State of Power In the wake of the rising economic power of Asia, the “productive.” Only with a cheap and exploitable labour ERT warned that unless major reforms and changes were force would Europe be able to ‘compete’ on a global level made, Europe would become a “hobbled giant.” To remedy with regions such as Asia and Latin America. The ERT this problem for the corporate elite, the EU’s single noted the challenge of such a task, suggesting that it market would need to be completed, with major changes required a “culture change.” As in the past, such a change to the healthcare system, with an increased emphasis on – or ‘adjustment’ – must be born by the workers, and the the privatization of healthcare. population at large, not the corporations or the economic The ERT pressured for the “sustainability” of and financial elites. “sound economic, financial, education, social security Two leading figures within the ERT, the group’s and pension systems, optimized use of raw materials, chairman Leif Johansson, and Jacob Wallenberg, the, water and food, and a secure energy supply.” In other co-authored an article for the Financial Times in March words, the corporate executives ‘borrowed’ the term of 2010 in which they stressed the need for Europe to sustainability from environmental discourse to refer to “return to sustainable growth,” in which the “right path” any area which is managed or funded by the government to “economic recovery and sustainable employment is as being ‘unsustainable,’ due to the debt crisis caused by through healthy, competitive and open markets.”3 the banks. ‘Sustainability’ for the ERT was viewed as the Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of the ERT’s Competition increased privatization, deregulation, and market-ization Policy working group, is a typical example of ERT’s of all of society, undoubtedly, for their own benefit. When membership made up of western corporate, financial they use the term ‘sustainability,’ they are, in effect, and policy elites with unprecedented global reach and referring to the sustainability of their increased profits influence. Wallenberg is a prominent member of Sweden’s and power. The report itself noted that, “sustainable most influential financial dynasty – the Wallenberg policies should stimulate economic activity, based on free family – and he is Chairman of the family’s investment and fair market mechanisms, openness, entrepreneurial company, Investor AB, as well as Vice Chairman of the freedom, inclusive labour markets and smart regulation.” family-owned bank, SEB AB. Wallenberg also sits on a The road to such sustainability runs through long- number of corporate boards, including the Coca-Cola lasting and deeply painful austerity. The ERT called on Company, Ericsson, ABB and SAS AB, and the Stockholm EU Member States to adhere to the Stability and Growth School of Economics. In addition, Wallenberg holds a Pact, which demanded nations keep their budget deficits number of positions within advisory groups that have below 3 per cent of GDP, as well as encouraging budget direct access to political and policy leaders, such the surpluses, and that such an objective “should be financed International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council to the by cutting public expenditure on policies that are not Mayor of Shanghai, the International Advisory Board sustainable,” in other words austerity. The ERT called for of the U.S.-based think tank, the Atlantic Council; the “reforms” to social security and pension systems, stating International Business Council of the World Economic that the EU should place “greater emphasis on patients’ Forum,the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, responsibility for healthcare costs,” meaning that there and previously the International Advisory Board of the should be less public support for populations, and more global investment giant, Blackstone. support for corporations, and that those populations Of the 51 individuals in leadership or membership should be left to the whims of a ‘competitive’ market. positions of the Round Table, six of them are also Turning to one of the ERT’s most long-lasting members of the International Business Council of the issues of importance, the report stated: “European World Economic Forum, five are affiliated with the labour markets need to become much more inclusive, German financial giant Allianz (one sitting on its board, enabling business to mobilize employees of all ages and four others as members of the Joint Advisory and at all levels of qualification.” This requires “a new Council of the Allianz Companies), four individuals are understanding of job security – putting less focus on either members of the Steering Committee or recent preserving jobs and more on ensuring high levels of participants at Bilderberg meetings; four individuals are productive and sustainable employment,” broadly defined past or presently affiliated with Siemens and Ericsson; as “labour flexibility,” which is designed to “help raise three individuals are past or present members of the European productivity to amongst the highest in the Trilateral Commission, three hold leadership positions world.” In other words, European labour markets need at The Conference Board, three sit as members of the to become less protected, less regulated, and with International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council to the less benefits, so that labour itself becomes cheaper to Major of Shanghai, and three members also serve on the employ, less protected from exploitation, and thus, more International Advisory Board of Bocconi University and of 2 State of Power 2014 State of Europe Paris EUROPLACE. One of the more infamous projects of the Trilateral In a 2010 article for the journal, International Commission was its 1975 report on the Crisis of Sociology, William K. Carroll and Jean Philippe Sapinski Democracy, in which the authors suggested that examined the relationship between the corporate elite the industrial world was experiencing an “excess and the emergence of a “transnational policy-planning of democracy” in which corporate interests were network,” in the decades following World War II, and threatened by increasingly activist-oriented, politically speeding up the process from the 1970s onward, with awakened and activated populations who were seeking the creation of “global policy groups” and think tanks to both reduce the power of these institutions while such as the World Economic Forum in 1971 and the demanding more power and opportunity for groups and Trilateral Commission in 1973, among many others. The populations. The report identified that the cause of the objective of these groups was to create a politically “crisis of democracy” was “a highly educated, mobilized, “organized minority” of corporate and financial elites, and participant society,” and therefore, the solution to above and beyond the nation state.
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