CETA: Playing With the Politics of Power
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By Julian Rose
So, after what appeared to be a great act of resistance, Wallonia dropped the bag. A bag that contained the grievances of millions of Europeans, not just those of Wallonia’s farmers and human rights supporters. All hoping, hearts in mouths, that this little French-speaking region of Belgium would hold firm and defy the callous might of corporate hegemony.
But it was not to be, yet. The spin, it seems, must take a further twist; the ball kicked farther down the road. This particular line of resistance lacked the fortitude to bring CETA to its knees; although by winning certain compromises, it has certainly hobbled it, and this may well prove significant in the months ahead.
Just prior to Wallonia’s intervention, we were treated to an extraordinary capitulation by all EU States to towing the line of an unamended status quo. A collective unwillingness to demonstrate any resistance to the further passage of this egregious trading deal.
It’s important to recognize here, just how much of a gap has opened up between the voice of the people and the political institutions which claim to represent them. Close to 3.5 million people had signed petitions demanding the cessation of the secret negotiations that form the basis of this Canada/EU trade deal. Pretty much the same figure as those who spoke out against the better-known TTIP. Yet, this virtually unprecedented number of voices were completely ignored by EU heads of State.
This offers a vivid picture of just how far “solidarity between thieves” operates in the inbred political institutions of the European Union. And of course it’s the same on the other side of the Atlantic.
What we are witnessing is the near complete collapse of the democratic political framework. A framework in which citizens voices were once recognized as the foundation stone of self-governing states. And from citizens’ perspectives, it also represents a rapidly waning love affair with the global neo-liberal free-market ideology, that has for so long been embraced as the center-piece of “progressive economics” in the West.
So what will happen to the CETA deal now?
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