The WTO and the Culture of Control

The Power Behind the UN Vision of "A Culture of Peace"

by Berit Kjos

"This is a stronger, more prosperous world because we have worked to expand the frontiers of cooperation.…When people are working together for common prosperity in a rule-based system, they have big incentives to lay the differences down and join hands…."

President Clinton, World Trade Organization (WTO) Seattle, December 1, 1999

President Clinton knows how to persuade the masses. In his well-worded speech at Seattle’s embattled WTO meeting on December 1, he promised global prosperity, unity, and peace through economic cooperation. Yet, in the midst of the assuring euphemisms, he added a revealing glimpse of another, more painful side of global agenda:

"The world of the future will be a safer place if we continue to work together in a rule-based system that offers enormous incentives for people to find ways to cooperate and to give up their old hatreds and their impulses to violence and war."1

Do you wonder what those "enormous incentives" might include? Or what those "old hatreds" imply? Considering that the WTO is a vital arm of the United Nations’ management system -- which aims to control and monitor natural, human, and social capital around the world -- you can be sure that the incentives will help quench any resistance to its envisioned reign. Hard to believe? Then look at some of the evidence.

THE WTO’S PLACE IN THE UN SYSTEM. For practical and political reasons, the WTO is not listed among the official UN special agencies. Yet, a UNESCO website describes its official purpose and position:

"It provides the principal contractual obligations determining how governments frame and implement domestic trade legislation and regulations." [i.e., it tells sovereign nations what to do]

"It serves as the platform on which trade relations among countries evolve through collective consultation, debate, negotiation and adjudication."

It is "completely independent of other international organizations, including the United Nations family."

The last statement is misleading. While appealing to leaders who disapprove of the UN agenda, the WTO is intimately involved in implementing a system of rules and standards that will hold sovereign nations accountable to the UN agenda – with no way out. Consider this statement from a UN press release dealing with trade, rule-making, incentives, and human resources:

"The three Geneva-based organizations working on trade and development – WTO, UNCTAD [UN Conference on Trade and Development], and ITC [The International Trade Center] – needed to work in a coordinated manner. The ITC was the child of the other two institutions. If there was to be coherence and coordination, it must appear first at the ITC…. And improving its working procedures would have an impact on the synergies between UNCTAD and WTO."2

Please don’t let the complexities of these globalist partnerships cloud the simple reality: Contending to be independent, the WTO is, wittingly or unwittingly, a tool of the United Nations. It fits into its assigned slot in the overall agenda. For example, a UN chart showing the assigned roles of various UN agencies on a special project in Africa included these parts:

 Priorities

Lead Agencies

Cooperating Agencies
 3iii. Capacity Building for Governance

 UNDP, ECA
  ILO, World Bank, UNHCR, UNESCO, UNEP, UNHCR
10. Substantial Dept Relief

 UNDP, UNSO
  UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNCTAD, WTO
 12. Trade Access and Opportunities

 UNCTAD
 UNDP, WTO, UNIDO, FAO, ECA, World Bank, UNESCO, IMF, ICAO

Notice that all the agencies above are part of the UN family and operating according to its rules. Finally, consider the implications of this week’s joint statement by the Managing Director of the IMF, the President of the World Bank, and the Director-General of the WTO:

"During the past two years, which have been difficult for many of our member countries, the multilateral trading system has been an anchor of strength and stability in the world economy. Its rules are an essential element of the framework for international economic policy cooperation."3

YIELDING U.S. SOVERIGNTY TO UN RULES. Rule-making and standard-setting are key to managing the global population in a "Culture of Peace" – one that forbids politically incorrect opposition, conflict, contrary facts, and biblical truth. In his Executive Order 13132, President Clinton turned American federalism upside down by indicating that states would be accountable to standards, to ambiguous "principles," and to the consensus process according to needs determined at the national level. (Click on EO 13132). This step was a prerequisite to fulfilling UN demands for worldwide compliance with the evolving system for global governance.

A broader framework for change was outlined in Sustainable America, the official report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. Ponder these references to economic incentives and disincentives. While the following examples show only "good" incentives – those that sound reasonable to most people -- they illustrate the shift from "government by the people" to a centralized management system that promises "democracy and local control," touts "civil society," but rules the masses through propaganda, "lifelong learning," the consensus process, and manipulative incentives:

"…pool resources from local property taxes to increase equity in public services… reduce local fiscal incentives for sprawl, and end competition for the tax base."4

"Federal and state governments—in consultation with local government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations—should support local planning that integrates economic development, land use, and social equity concerns and engages significant public participation…." [The latter refers to the management of human resources through the consensus process within the planned civil society, which bears an alarming resemblance to the unelected decision-making councils called "soviets" in the former Communist nations.] 5

"Tax codes and policies, if properly designed, can promote sustainability and resource conservation by creating incentives and disincentives to promote sustainability and can transfer value among various segments of society…. Tax incentives include property tax reductions for those who commit to managing property for species of concern…." 6

These environmental incentives fit right into the evolving UN rules on trade. Remember, all corporations and all trade must eventually conform to Agenda 21, the intrusive action plan finalized at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro. (See Local Agenda 21)

HUMAN RESOURCES FOR THE GLOBAL WORKFORCE. The inducements above would do little to complete the global management system. That's one reason our president called for "enormous incentives for people to find ways to cooperate and to give up their old hatreds…." Keep in mind, the UN goal for the next century is "a culture of peace." No opposition! No conflict! Everyone comes to the bargaining table, joins the consensus process, and proves their willingness to compromise. Scan UNESCO's Declaration on Religion in a Culture of Peace and ponder its new social rules. Know that the planned global society demands a human resource development system that would homogenize almost everything: beliefs, values, work skills, "lifelong learning"... even trade.

One of the architects of this seamless system of controls is Marc Tucker, President of the National Center for Education and Economy (NCEE), who leads the nationwide school-to-work program. (See workforce) In a jubilant 1992 post-election letter to Hillary Clinton, he described the new education program:

"What is essential is that we create a seamless web of opportunities to develop one's skills that literally extends from cradle to grave.... regulated on the basis of outcomes....in which curriculum, pedagogy, examinations, and teacher education and licensure systems are all linked to the national standards... a system that rewards students who meet the national standards with further education and good jobs....

"Institutions receiving grants and loan funds under this system are required to provide information... [that includes] characteristics and career outcomes for those students..."7

Others have suggested – and some states have already tried -- using the coveted right to earn a driver’s license as an incentive to conform students to subjective education standards and values-changing processes which are unrelated to safe driving. Some radical suggestions sound even more foreign to our American freedoms, but one thing is certain: the incentives needed to squeeze both ordinary people and political leaders into the new mold will "evolve" as fast as the media and our schools can build a public attitude of compliance. In his Seattle speech, Clinton only hinted at these possibilities in the context of international trade:

"I think we also have to make sure that the rules make sense and that we’re continuing to make progress, notwithstanding the domestic political difficulties that every country will face. We all benefit when the rules are clear and fair."

Some of the rules will be clear and fair. But behind the enticements to conformity lurks a system of controls that twists the nice-sounding promises into lures and lies. Clinton’s noble offer in Seattle to "open the meetings" might be a genuine criticism of the WTO's general unwillingness to show itself accountable to the public. More likely, it was a reference to the dissenters outside who were shut out of the meetings. The latter fits Clinton's continual call for a civil society with power to bring everyone into the consensus process. In this facilitated group setting, their views would be documented, their ideas challenged, their values compromised, and their minds molded to fit group consensus. Those who refuse to conform to the new standards for cooperation and mental health would be tracked through the fast-growing federal data banks. (See Mental Health)

There is nothing inherently wrong with trade or training people for work in the 21st century. Both are essential to living and sharing. But today's global governance system is being built on deception. Let’s pray that Americans wake up, take hold of the facts and truths that counter the lies, then stand firm in the convictions that God has planted in our hearts.

Endnotes:

1. "Clinton's Plea: 'Open the Meetings" (excerpts from President Clinton's speech to representatives at the WTO meeting), The New York Times, 2 December 1999.

2. "System Rewarding Merit, Achievement to Replace Seniority-Based Advancement, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Tells 5th Committee," Press Release GA/AB/3275 (1 December 1998). Scroll to the appropriate date and number.

3. Mr. Michel Camdesus, Managing Director of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, and Mr. Mike Moore, Director-General of the WTO in a joint statement posted at http://www.wto.org/wto/new/press153.htm

4. Sustainable America: A New Consensus (The President's Council on Sustainable Development, 1996), page 91.

5. Ibid., page 97.

6. Ibid., page 123.

7. From my copy of Marc Tucker's well-circulated 18-page letter, written November 11, 1992.

 

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