Participants and Confrontation at Bilderberg 2017

While President Trump seems to have sorted out his problems of interior authority ~ more or less ~ the conflict has now moved on to concern NATO. Washington is currently speaking against the manipulation of terrorism, while London has no intention of giving up such a useful tool for the extension of its influence. The Bilderberg Group, initially organized as a sounding board for the Alliance, has just been the stage for a difficult debate between the partisans and the adversaries of imperialism in the Middle East.

The list of attendees follows the writings of Thierry Meyssan.

Rest assured that President Trump is on the hidden agenda, precious little of that being supportive

By Thierry Meyssan

Voltaire Network

June 6, 2017

There exist no photographs of the meeting of the Bilderberg Group, whose work is confidential. Security for the meeting is not handled by the FBI, nor the Virginia police force, but by a private militia organized by NATO.

The Bilderberg Group was created in 1954 by the CIA and MI6 in order to support the Atlantic Alliance. It was intended to gather personalities from the economic and media sectors with political and military leaders in order to sensitize civil society to the « Red peril ». Far from being a place for decision-making, this very exclusive club has historically been a forum where the elders had to juggle with their fidelity to London and Washington, and the younger members were expected to show that they could be trusted with the opposition to the Soviets [1].

It was during the annual reunion of 1979 that Bernard Lewis revealed to those present the rôle of the Muslim Brotherhood in the resistance to the Afghani Communist government. This Israëli-British-US Islamologist then proposed that the « War for Freedom » (sic) should be extended to all of Central Asia.

It was in 2008, in other words two and a half years in advance, that Basma Kodmani (future spokeswoman for the Syrian opposition) and Volker Perthes (future advisor to Jeffrey Feltman for the total and unconditional capitulation of Syria [2]) explained the interest of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in order to dominate the Middle East. They stressed the « moderation » of the Brotherhood faced with the West, and the contrast offered by the « extremist sovereignty » of Iran and Syria [3].

And it was in 2013 that the chairman of the German executive board, Ulrich Grillo, made a case for the organisation of a massive migration of 800,000 Syrian workers to German factories [4].

Bilderberg 2017

The Bilderberg Group has just held its 2017 meeting, from 1 to 4 June, in the United States. Contrary to habit, the 130 participants were not all defending the same project. Quite the opposite ~ following the speeches by Donald Trump at the Arabo-Islamic-US summit, and at NATO [5], the CIA and MI6 organised a first-day debate which opposed those who are partisans of the fight against Islamism and those who support it. The point was, obviously enough, either to find a compromise between the two camps, or to acknowledge the dissension without allowing it to destroy the initial objective of the Alliance ~ the fight against Russia [6].

On the anti-Islamism side (that is opposed not to the Muslim religion, but to political Islam as formulated by Sayyid Qutb), we noted the presence of General H. R. McMaster (President Trump’s National Security Advisor) and his expert Nadia Schadlow. McMaster is a recognised strategist whose theories have been verified on the battle-field. Above all, Schadlow has worked on the ways of transforming military victories into political successes. She is particularly interested in the restructuration of political movements in conquered countries. She should soon be publishing a new book about the struggle against Islamic radicalism.

On the pro-Islamism side, we note the presence, for the United States, of John Brennan (ex-Director of the CIA) and his ex-subordinates Avril Haines and David Cohen (financing of terrorism). 

For the United Kingdom, Sir John Sawers (ex-Director of MI6 and a long-time protector of the Brotherhood) and General Nicholas Houghton (ex-Chief of Staff, who prepared the land invasion of Syria).

For France, General Benoît Puga (ex-Chief of Staff for the Elysée and commander of the Special Forces in Syria) and Bruno Tertrais (neo-conservative strategist for the Ministry of Defence). 

Finally, for the private sector, Henry Kravis (Director of the investment fund KKR, and unofficial treasurer for Daesh) and General David Petraeus (co-founder of Daesh). 

And if this imbalance were not enough, the organisers had planned for the presence of experts capable of justifying the unjustifiable, like Professor Niell Fergusson (historian of British colonialism).

The possible reversal of alliances

It will take a little time before we know what was said during this meeting, and to understand the conclusions that were reached by the various attendees. However, we already know that London is pushing for a change of paradigm in the Middle East. If the model of the « Arab Spring » (reproduction of the « Arab Revolt of 1916 » organised by Lawrence of Arabia in order to replace the Ottoman Empire by the British Empire) is abandoned, MI6 hopes to create a new agreement on the basis of political Islamism.

As a result, while Washington has renewed its alliance with Saudi Arabia, and has convinced it to break with the Brotherhood in exchange for 110 billion dollars worth of armament [7], London is pushing for an agreement between Iran, Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood. If this project were to be realised, we would experience the abandon of the Sunni/Shiite conflict and the creation of a « croissant of political Islam » encompassing Teheran, Doha, Ankara, Idleb, Beyrouth and Gaza. This new distribution would enable the United Kingdom to maintain its influence in the region.

The only thing upon which the Allies seem to agree is the necessity of abandoning the principle of a jihadist state. Everyone admits that the devil has to be put back in his box. Which means getting rid of Daesh, even if some people keep working with Al-Qaïda. This is why, worried about its survival, the self-proclaimed Caliph has secretly transmitted an ultimatum to Downing Street and the Elysée.

Choosing sides

We shall see within the next few months if Saudi Arabia’s about-face is genuine. It would be good news for the Syrians, but bad news for the Yemenites (whom the Western world would then ignore). It would offer King Salman the possibility of stimulating the evolution of Wahhabism from a fanatical cult to a normal religion. Already, the sudden conflict which opposes Riyadh to Doha on the question of Iran is doubled by an argument about the possible kinship between the founder of the cult, Mohammed ben Abdelwahhab, and the Qatari Al-Thani dynasty ~ a claim which has enraged the Saudi’s.

The project of « political Islam » consists of uniting the Muslim Brotherhood and the Khomeinists. It would mean that Iran, and even Hezbollah, would have to substitute this problem for the fight against anti-imperialism. If this were come to pass, it would most certainly lead to the withdrawal of Iran from Syria. The White House is taking this very seriously and is frantically preparing for it. In his speech in Riyadh, Donald Trump already designated Teheran as his new enemy, and has just nominated Michaël D’Andrea (who organised the assassination of Imad Mougniyeh in Damascus in 2008) as the representative for the Iranian section of the CIA [8].

Russia had already prepared for a potential new deal in the Middle East. Consequently, by supporting Syria, it pursued its ambition of gaining access to « warm waters », and by seeking rapprochement with its hereditary adversary, Turkey, of being able to navigate freely via the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus (indispensible for entering the Mediterranean). However, in the long term, political Islam could only cause it problems in the Caucasus.

As always when the players sort their cards, they all have to define their positions. The United Kingdom defends its Empire, France defends its ruling class, and the United States defends its people. In the Middle East, some people will fight for their community, others for their ideas. But things are not always so simple. Thus, Iran might follow the ideal of Imam Khomeiny, confusing the end and the means. What was in the beginning an anti-imperialist revolution led by the power of Islam could evolve into a simple affirmation of the political use of this religion.

The consequences for the rest of the world

MI6 and the CIA took a huge risk by inviting a non-Atlantist to the meeting of Bilderberg 2017. The Chinese ambassador, Cui Tiankai, who was scheduled to speak only on the fourth day of the seminar, was thus able to evaluate the positions of each member of NATO as from the first day.

On one hand, Beijing is counting on the collaboration of Donald Trump, the opening to the United States of its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the development of all its commercial routes. On the other, it is hoping that the Brexit will lead to an economic and financial alliance with London [9].

Ambassador Cui, who was the Director of the Centre of Political Research for the Chinese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, might possibly be satisfied with the simple destruction of Daesh. 

But he is not unaware

that the people who organised the Caliphate

in order to cut the « Silk Road »

in Iraq and Syria,

and then the war in Ukraine in order

to cut the « new Silk Road »,

are preparing, preventatively,

to open a third front

in the Philippines

and a fourth in Venezuela

in order to cut off other communication projects.

From this point of view, China, which, like Russia, has an interest in supporting Donald Trump, if only to prevent terrorism in its own country, will be asking itself about the possible long-term consequences of British hegemony in the « croissant of political Islam ».

Thierry Meyssan

Translation
Pete Kimberley

[1] “What you don’t know about the Bilderberg-Group”, by Thierry Meyssan, Komsomolskaïa Pravda (Russia) , Voltaire Network, 9 May 2011.

[2] “Germany and the UNO against Syria”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan (Syria) , Voltaire Network, 28 January 2016.

[3] Sous nos yeux. Du 11-Septembre à Donald Trump, Thierry Meyssan, Editions Demi-lune, 2017.

[4] “How the European Union is manipulating the Syrian refugees”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 2 May 2016.

[5] “Trump advances his pawns”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan (Syria) , Voltaire Network, 30 May 2017.

[6] « La réunion 2017 du Groupe de Bilderberg », Réseau Voltaire, 1er juin 2017.

[7] “Donald Trump against jihadism”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan (Syria) , Voltaire Network, 23 May 2017.

[8] “The CIA is preparing to take rather harsh measures against Iran”, Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 5 June 2017.

[9] “The Brexit reshuffles world geopolitics”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 28 June 2016.

LIST OF ATTENDEES

TO THE BILDERBERG MEETING 2017

 

CHAIRMAN STEERING COMMITTEE
Castries, Henri de (FRA), President of Institut Montaigne; Former Chairman and CEO, AXA

PARTICIPANTS

• Achleitner, Paul M. (DEU), Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG; Treasurer, Bilderberg Meeting
• Adonis, Andrew (GBR), Chair, National Infrastructure Commission
• Agius, Marcus (GBR), Chairman, PA Consulting Group
• Akyol, Mustafa (TUR), Senior Visiting Fellow, Freedom Project at Wellesley College
• Alstadheim, Kjetil B. (NOR), Political Editor, Dagens Næringsliv
• Altman, Roger C. (USA), Founder and Senior Chairman, Evercore
• Arnaut, José Luis (PRT), Managing Partner, CMS Rui Pena & Arnaut
• Barroso, José M. Durão (PRT), Chairman, Goldman Sachs International
• Bäte, Oliver (DEU), CEO, Allianz SE
• Baumann, Werner (DEU), Chairman, Bayer AG
• Baverez, Nicolas (FRA), Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
• Benko, René (AUT), Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board, SIGNA Holding GmbH
• Berner, Anne-Catherine (FIN), Minister of Transport and Communications
• Botín, Ana P. (ESP), Executive Chairman, Banco Santander
• Brandtzæg, Svein Richard (NOR), President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA
• Brennan, John O. (USA), Senior Advisor, Kissinger Associates Inc.
• Bsirske, Frank (DEU), Chairman, United Services Union
• Buberl, Thomas (FRA), CEO, AXA
• Bunn, M. Elaine (USA), Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
• Burns, William J. (USA), President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Çakiroglu, Levent (TUR), CEO, Koç Holding A.S.
• Çamlibel, Cansu (TUR), Washington DC Bureau Chief, Hürriyet Newspaper
• Cebrián, Juan Luis (ESP), Executive Chairman, PRISA and El País
• Clemet, Kristin (NOR), CEO, Civita
• Cohen, David S. (USA), Former Deputy Director, CIA
• Collison, Patrick (USA), CEO, Stripe
• Cotton, Tom (USA), Senator
• Cui, Tiankai (CHN), Ambassador to the United States
• Döpfner, Mathias (DEU), CEO, Axel Springer SE
• Elkann, John (ITA), Chairman, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
• Enders, Thomas (DEU), CEO, Airbus SE
• Federspiel, Ulrik (DNK), Group Executive, Haldor Topsøe Holding A/S
• Ferguson, Jr., Roger W. (USA), President and CEO, TIAA
• Ferguson, Niall (USA), Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
• Gianotti, Fabiola (ITA), Director General, CERN
• Gozi, Sandro (ITA), State Secretary for European Affairs
• Graham, Lindsey (USA), Senator
• Greenberg, Evan G. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Chubb Group
• Griffin, Kenneth (USA), Founder and CEO, Citadel Investment Group, LLC
• Gruber, Lilli (ITA), Editor-in-Chief and Anchor “Otto e mezzo”, La7 TV
• Guindos, Luis de (ESP), Minister of Economy, Industry and Competiveness
• Haines, Avril D. (USA), Former Deputy National Security Advisor
• Halberstadt, Victor (NLD), Professor of Economics, Leiden University; 
• Hamers, Ralph (NLD), Chairman, ING Group
• Hedegaard, Connie (DNK), Chair, KR Foundation
• Hennis-Plasschaert, Jeanine (NLD), Minister of Defence, The Netherlands
• Hobson, Mellody (USA), President, Ariel Investments LLC
• Hoffman, Reid (USA), Co-Founder, LinkedIn and Partner, Greylock
• Houghton, Nicholas (GBR), Former Chief of Defence
• Ischinger, Wolfgang (INT), Chairman, Munich Security Conference
• Jacobs, Kenneth M. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Lazard
• Johnson, James A. (USA), Chairman, Johnson Capital Partners
• Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. (USA), Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
• Karp, Alex (USA), CEO, Palantir Technologies
• Kengeter, Carsten (DEU), CEO, Deutsche Börse AG
• Kissinger, Henry A. (USA), Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.
• Klatten, Susanne (DEU), Managing Director, SKion GmbH
• Kleinfeld, Klaus (USA), Former Chairman and CEO, Arconic
• Knot, Klaas H.W. (NLD), President, De Nederlandsche Bank
• Koç, Ömer M. (TUR), Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
• Kotkin, Stephen (USA), Professor in History and International Affairs, Princeton University
• Kravis, Henry R. (USA), Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, KKR
• Kravis, Marie-Josée (USA), Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; President, American Friends of Bilderberg
• Kudelski, André (CHE), Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group
• Lagarde, Christine (INT), Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
• Lenglet, François (FRA), Chief Economics Commentator, France 2
• Leysen, Thomas (BEL), Chairman, KBC Group
• Liddell, Christopher (USA), Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Initiatives
• Lööf, Annie (SWE), Party Leader, Centre Party
• Mathews, Jessica T. (USA), Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• McAuliffe, Terence (USA), Governor of Virginia
• McKay, David I. (CAN), President and CEO, Royal Bank of Canada
• McMaster, H.R. (USA), National Security Advisor
• Micklethwait, John (INT), Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP
• Minton Beddoes, Zanny (INT), Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
• Molinari, Maurizio (ITA), Editor-in-Chief, La Stampa
• Monaco, Lisa (USA), Former Homeland Security Officer
• Morneau, Bill (CAN), Minister of Finance
• Mundie, Craig J. (USA), President, Mundie & Associates
• Murtagh, Gene M. (IRL), CEO, Kingspan Group plc
• Netherlands, H.M. the King of the (NLD)
• Noonan, Peggy (USA), Author and Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
• O’Leary, Michael (IRL), CEO, Ryanair D.A.C.
• Osborne, George (GBR), Editor, London Evening Standard
• Papahelas, Alexis (GRC), Executive Editor, Kathimerini Newspaper
• Papalexopoulos, Dimitri (GRC), CEO, Titan Cement Co.
• Petraeus, David H. (USA), Chairman, KKR Global Institute
• Pind, Søren (DNK), Minister for Higher Education and Science
• Puga, Benoît (FRA), Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor and Chancellor of the National Order of Merit
• Rachman, Gideon (GBR), Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, The Financial Times
• Reisman, Heather M. (CAN), Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
• Rivera Díaz, Albert (ESP), President, Ciudadanos Party
• Rosén, Johanna (SWE), Professor in Materials Physics, Linköping University
• Ross, Wilbur L. (USA), Secretary of Commerce
• Rubenstein, David M. (USA), Co-Founder and Co-CEO, The Carlyle Group
• Rubin, Robert E. (USA), Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations and Former Treasury Secretary
• Ruoff, Susanne (CHE), CEO, Swiss Post
• Rutten, Gwendolyn (BEL), Chair, Open VLD
• Sabia, Michael (CAN), CEO, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
• Sawers, John (GBR), Chairman and Partner, Macro Advisory Partners
• Schadlow, Nadia (USA), Deputy Assistant to the President, National Security Council
• Schmidt, Eric E. (USA), Executive Chairman, Alphabet Inc.
• Schneider-Ammann, Johann N. (CHE), Federal Councillor, Swiss Confederation
• Scholten, Rudolf (AUT), President, Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
• Severgnini, Beppe (ITA), Editor-in-Chief, 7-Corriere della Sera
• Sikorski, Radoslaw (POL), Senior Fellow, Harvard University
• Slat, Boyan (NLD), CEO and Founder, The Ocean Cleanup
• Spahn, Jens (DEU), Parliamentary State Secretary and Federal Ministry of Finance
• Stephenson, Randall L. (USA), Chairman and CEO, AT&T
• Stern, Andrew (USA), President Emeritus, SEIU and Senior Fellow, Economic Security Project
• Stoltenberg, Jens (INT), Secretary General, NATO
• Summers, Lawrence H. (USA), Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University
• Tertrais, Bruno (FRA), Deputy Director, Fondation pour la recherche stratégique
• Thiel, Peter (USA), President, Thiel Capital
• Topsøe, Jakob Haldor (DNK), Chairman, Haldor Topsøe Holding A/S
• Ülgen, Sinan (TUR), Founding and Partner, Istanbul Economics
• Wahlroos, Björn (FIN), Chairman, Sampo Group, Nordea Bank, UPM-Kymmene Corporation
• Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE), Chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB
• Walter, Amy (USA), Editor, The Cook Political Report
• Weston, Galen G. (CAN), CEO and Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies Ltd and George Weston Companies
• White, Sharon (GBR), Chief Executive, Ofcom
• Wieseltier, Leon (USA), Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy, The Brookings Institution
• Wolf, Martin H. (INT), Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times
• Wolfensohn, James D. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn & Company
• Wunsch, Pierre (BEL), Vice-Governor, National Bank of Belgium
• Zeiler, Gerhard (AUT), President, Turner International
• Zients, Jeffrey D. (USA), Former Director, National Economic Council
• Zoellick, Robert B. (USA), Non-Executive Chairman, AllianceBernstein L.P.

The above list surely does not include the Hidden Hand behind the play. That’s from whom they will all take their instructions from. 

It’s Time to Take Power Back: Britain Faces the Biggest Crisis of Democracy in its History

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis with devoted Talmudic Prime Minister Theresa May

By Nafeez Ahmed

The Canary

July 17, 2016 

Welcome to Prime Minister Theresa May’s new regime: it represents perhaps the most authoritarian, racist and austerity-obsessed government in British history.

Britain is now being run by an unelected leader presiding over a draconian surveillance-state, hell-bent on accelerating war on the poor and vulnerable, at home and abroad. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the official opposition to this regime is falling apart.

The fight to reclaim our democracy must be ramped up. 

 Now.

Austerity on Steroids

May launched her premiership on Wednesday with a grand speech that would not have sounded out of place if spoken by a leader of the Labour Party.

But even though she sacked George Osborne, she has already made clear she has no intention of reversing the former chancellor’s core policies. In fact, while Osborne had begun to slow down his own commitments to austerity as the economy failed to meaningfully improve, May refuses to back down from the government’s commitment to:

]…] continue with its intention to reduce public spending and cut the budget deficit.

May has given lip-service to building a “better Britain” that “works not for a privileged few but for everyone” ~ but plans to continue brutally cutting public services and even basic welfare benefits that are hitting the poorest, hardest.

As an MP, the new PM has supported the discredited ‘bedroom tax’, voted against higher benefits for people who cannot work due to disability or illness, and voted against public spending to create guaranteed jobs for young people.

She doesn’t want to increase tax against people with incomes over £150,000, voted against a banker’s bonus tax, generally voted to reduce taxes on giant corporations, and overall wants to strangle the power of workers by neutering trade unions.

Police-state

And that’s just one element of what May stands for.

In her previous incarnation as home secretary, the new PM presided over the controversial ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ (Prevent) programme, which as The Canary exclusively reported appears to have been influenced by far-right anti-Muslim extremists with ties to neo-Nazis. The programme disproportionately targets ordinary Muslims, and singles out those who criticise government foreign policies and Prevent itself.

Added to that, there is May’s notorious Investigatory Powers Bill.

So far, covert mass surveillance has continued without any legal basis. If May’s Bill is passed, the intelligence services will have wide-ranging legal authority to hack and infiltrate all electronic systems for the purposes of spying. That means covertly installing malware on computers, using keyloggers to monitor all your keystrokes, tapping into telecommunications cables, installing malware on Smartphone’s and so on.

Particularly worrying is that “bulk” surveillance ~ that is, surveillance of groups, communities and whole societies ~ can be justified on three simple grounds: national security; preventing or detecting serious crime, and threats to “the economic well-being of the UK”. In other words, it applies to basically anything.

A Corbyn-led Labour party, for instance, could be construed as “threatening” the profits of corporate lobbies with a stranglehold over the government.

If anyone has doubts about the dangerous implications for democracy, check out this essay by British intelligence expert Robin Ramsay, delivered to various Labour party branches in 1996. He uses a wealth of declassified documents to show how Britain’s national security state has for decades sought to subvert and manipulate the British left, including the Labour party ~ even using “surveillance down to the level of trade councils and union branches.”

Kill the Environment

Sources inside the Tory party have told Paul Goodman, editor of ConservativeHome, that May plans to fold the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) into the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The DECC has already been watered down under David Cameron, focusing less on tackling climate change, and more on shilling for the shale oil and gas industry.

But this would ring the death-knell on DECC’s environmental credentials, making the department entirely subsidiary to more important considerations of big business and corporate power.

The new PM’s contempt for the environment is further obvious from her own voting record. She has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change, supported selling off England’s state-owned forests, opposed regulations on fracking, and never even bothered voting on financial incentives for low carbon electricity generation.
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The latest Jews to inhabit #10. Mr. May greatly resembles Woody Allen in this one.

Deport the Foreigners

Wherever you stand on Brexit, its primary campaign promise was proper immigration controls. Even Nigel Farage promised that the Vote Leave campaign was not targeting Europeans who had already made their homes in Britain.

But May took that further by effectively threatening to deport the three million EU nationals already living in Britain ~ the same policy advocated by the neo-Nazi BNP.

The alarming undertones of this shouldn’t be underestimated. In times of economic crisis, as we saw in the 1930s, fascism invariably rears its ugly head.

I’m Not Racist, I Just Like Making Jokes About Black People

May’s lurch to the far-right is mirrored in her selection of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. But the former Mayor of London, now the face of Britain on the world stage, has a long history of openly racist statements.

Here’s a brief round-up from The Mirror:

Visiting Uganda, Johnson cheerily said to UN workers and their black driver: “Right, let’s go and look at some more piccaninnies.” (The Observer, October 5 2003)

He also wrote: “The Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag waving piccaninnies.” (Daily Telegraph, January 10 2002)

Of Tony Blair’s trip to Africa he said: “The pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief.” (Daily Telegraph, January 10 2002)

And he defended colonialism for boosting Africa’s economy saying: “Left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain.” (Spectator 2 February 2002)

More recently, Johnson declared that US President Obama has an “ancestral dislike” of Britain because he is “part-Kenyan.”

Although he has apologised for some of his previous racist ‘jokes’, he has never retracted this appalling statement. In case it’s not blindingly obvious: if you think making jokes about black people is okay and non-racist because you’re joking, you’re racist.

See: Mossad Controlling British Military Through Liam Fox (Secretary of Defence)...
 

The New Colonialism

Adding insult to injury, May’s new trade secretary is none other than the disgraced former Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, who was forced to resign from the Cabinet in 2011. Fox had allowed his friend Adam Werritty to masquerade as an official government advisor, while taking vast amounts of money from special interest groups eager to capture government defence policy.

One vehicle for these interests was Fox’s ‘Atlantic Bridge’, a sham charity ~ later investigated and exposed by the Charity Commission ~ with close ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the main lobbying arm behind the Tea Party movement in the US, funded by Big Oil, Big Guns, and Big Pharma.

As trade secretary, Fox is well-placed to apply his expertise in corruption and subterfuge to molly-coddle the web of imperial power exposed in a new report by British charity, War on Want. The report, The New Colonialism: Britain’s scramble for Africa’s energy and mineral sources, reveals that a network of British firms now controls over $1 trillion of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold and other resources across Africa through mining operations.

The British government facilitates these operations with trade policies that oppose African efforts to regulate and protect their economies from foreign corporate power. The result? While reaping massive profits for British corporations, local democracies and worker rights have eroded.

Fox is already plugged into this web of power. One donor to his joint ventures with Werritty is Mick Davis, who was CEO of the transnational mining firm, Xstrata Plc, until its merger and absorption by Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore in 2013. Glencore Plc is one of the main firms exposed in the War on Want report.

Messing up Brexit

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Brexit plan is not going to mean less austerity because we’re out of the EU.

The priority of May’s government

is to protect London’s big financiers.

May’s new chancellor, Philip Hammond, has insisted that austerity remains the right answer to the 2008 financial crash, but promises “a new phase” for the economy.

What does that mean?

In the words of the Financial Times, the new chancellor has:

promised to defend the interests of the City of London in the EU exit negotiations, admitting there was ‘no room for complacency’…  Although he said other EU countries had an interest in a strong City, he added: ‘We need to ensure access to the EU single market for our financial services industry in London.’

Observers in the City recognise that the chancellor is not implying a shift away from austerity. Sources at major bank, BNP Paribas, said that Hammond’s comments didn’t mean “fiscal prudence” would be abandoned, but merely revised in terms of timelines.

Market analyst Jasper Lawler of CMC Markets agreed Hammond’s appointment would reassure big financiers previously worried by May’s earlier suggestions that she might reduce austerity.

David Davis, May’s Brexit Minister, is also no enemy of austerity. Whatever his shambolic plan to leave the EU will be, he is committed to empowering corporate finance in the UK.

His MP voting record is similar to that of his new boss. He consistently opposes public spending to create jobs, wants reduced corporation tax, likes astronomical banker bonuses, and wants to weaken trade unions. Davis’ Brexit negotiations won’t be about a “better Britain” for all of us: they’ll be about a “better Britain” for banks and corporations.
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Ms. May on remembering the Holocaust. Of course, Israel will receive its reparations whilst the people of Briton continue to be increasingly fleeced. .

Shambolic Opposition

As this new regime consolidates itself, the opposition is in increasing disarray. The Labour party faces an escalating mutiny against its own democratically-elected leader. And ironically, one of the chief mechanisms is to suddenly rig the rules so that the party’s new membership has to pay £25 just to vote in the leadership elections.

The chief instigators of the coup against Jeremy Corbyn, whatever you think of him, invariably fail to offer any meaningful alternative to the mix of policies being pursued by the Tories: hawkish military interventionism, support for mass surveillance, fundamental agreement that austerity is the only option, to name a few.

To make matters worse, the entire media-industrial complex has united against the incumbent opposition leader.

A new study from the London School of Economics Department of Media and Communications warns that the British media can no longer meaningfully call itself a “watchdog” of political power. It has, instead, become a “bloodthirsty attack dog” against the main opposition leader. This systematically biased reporting, based on “snarling and barking” at a politician that “happens to challenge the status quo”, say the authors, is “unworthy of a democracy.”

So we now find ourselves in the extraordinary position of watching British democracy crumble before our eyes.

An emboldened Tory regime is preparing for a future of intensifying privatisation, austerity for the poor, welfare for the wealthy, extreme nationalism, institutional racism, and arrogant militarism abroad.

The most popular opposition leader in decades is facing an unrelenting onslaught not only from those in his own party who barely differ from the Tories they claim to oppose, but also from the entire establishment media.

The Tory machine’s ability to pursue an agenda at odds with the interests of the vast majority of the British public is therefore more powerful than ever.

This means that the fight to take back British democracy from regressive vested interests must be stepped up, now.

Apathy is not an option.

Apathy is what got us here in the first place.

Call to Action

Now is the time to take action: action to get educated about our politics, our economics, our societies, our different communities, and our environment.

Action to get engaged in all these areas at a grassroots level ~ no, not just stepping out to the polling booth now and again, or even just joining a party. Action by engaging critically and constructively with the institutions that claim to represent us at multiple levels ~ whether through turning up, joining, writing, speaking.

Action to show our faces at obscure meetings where vested interests would rather we don’t appear. Principled, ethically-consistent action designed not merely to show a broken system that we will not be ignored, but even more importantly to showcase the vision and values we stand for.

Along with action that creates change outside those institutions, and forces them to look and listen.

Action to change realities at a local level here and now, so we can begin empowering our communities in a way we never thought possible before: growing our own food, collectively; pooling our resources and developing local community investment funds; forming local collectives to facilitate the education of our children; and challenging the increasing encroachment of unaccountable state-corporate power in all areas of life.

We must begin mobilising

both within and beyond the existing system.

These actions won’t change our predicament overnight, but they are the baby steps we must take to begin rebuilding British democracy from the ground-up.

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is an award-winning investigative journalist, international security scholar and bestselling author. He is International Editor at The Canary. He writes the 'System Shift' column at VICE's science magazine Motherboard, and is the creator of INSURGEintelligence, a crowdfunded public interest investigative journalism project.