{"id":138737,"date":"2023-12-03T17:44:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T00:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=138737"},"modified":"2023-12-03T17:44:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T00:44:41","slug":"usa-wants-legal-right-to-overthrow-leaders-steal-resources-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/12\/03\/usa-wants-legal-right-to-overthrow-leaders-steal-resources-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Wants Legal Right to Overthrow Leaders & Steal Resources in Sri\u00a0Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 25 November \u2013 02 December 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many people know foreign courts are about to grab jurisdiction over Sri Lanka!? We often wonder why the LTTE & its footstools (TNA, etc.), dedicated as they are to a separate \u2018independent\u2019 state, would demand Sri Lanka submit to international (read: white) courts, and UN Committees hijacked by private corporations? And why are our economists so dedicated to foreign investment & exports?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It turns out that we have been (1948, notwithstanding) subject to England\u2019s and even India\u2019s courts! And now, taking advantage of the hallucinatory season of bacchanal, Parliament is set to pass a new law, which will also give other foreign courts (especially in the US & for their multinational corporations, MNCs) the right to enforce their foreign judgments on Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The timing of this act, between December 25<\/strong> (known to Christians as Christmas) and January 7<\/strong> (known to them as Epiphany<\/em> \u2013 a sudden revelation!) is not coincidental. Curiously, media recently revealed a \u2018repudiation\u2019 of Roman-Dutch Law<\/strong> in allowing banks to seize property without going to court<\/strong>! (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). It turns out all this is part of a long-term plan to be able to overthrow leaders and grab national resources \u2013 \u2018legally\u2019 of course! Also related to this is the \u2018generosity\u2019 in handing over title deeds under the guise of correcting the wrongs of colonialism. This will only increase land fragmentation and promote the USA\u2019s MCC program for MNCs to take over agricultural lands. (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 \u2018Back on K Street<\/strong> (famous for the offices of lobbyists in Washington DC), we turned a corner and within about 10 minutes found the World Bank\u2019s main campus in Washington DC \u2013 a large complex of buildings spanning several city blocks. Somewhere inside them was the ICSID (International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     ICSID\u2019s website calls itself the \u2018world\u2019s leading institution devoted to international investment dispute settlement<\/strong>\u2019, saying it had \u2018administered the majority\u2019 of these cases globally. ICSID also said it \u2018contributes to the [World Bank\u2019s] overall goal of poverty reduction<\/strong>\u2019[not elimination! \u2013 ee<\/em><\/strong>] by promoting foreign investment<\/strong> via \u2018providing confidence in the dispute resolution process<\/strong>\u2019\u2026 ICSID\u2019s offices were in the Bank\u2019s J building \u2013 across the street from its main building on Pennsylvania Avenue\u2026 We\u2019d imagined that once we were in the right building it would be enough to ask people there for specific directions. But those we stopped in the lobby & corridors also gave us puzzled looks<\/strong>. Some of them didn\u2019t even seem to recognise the name ICSID, asking us to repeat it. But when we finally found this branch\u2019s offices, we saw that it occupied an entire wing of a floor<\/strong>. It wasn\u2019t well known, but it certainly didn\u2019t look small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We went through a glass door and found the person that had answered the archive staffer\u2019s phone call. She was friendly and took us on an impromptu tour of the office, showing off its file rooms, meeting rooms and desks for what she said was the centre\u2019s rapidly growing team. \u2018Our office wasn\u2019t always this big<\/strong>,\u2019 she emphasized.\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 This ee<\/em><\/strong> continues our charting of the corporate coup d\u2019etat to overthrow \u2018independent\u2019 governments. In Sri Lanka, this attack is led by Unilever<\/strong>, one of the largest corporations in the world, who not only has captured our home market<\/strong>, but also controls our media. ee<\/em><\/strong> is therefore examining the setup of an international legal system<\/strong> to control and plunder the resources of the world, and overthrow governments that challenge corporate domination. This involves, the \u2018nefarious alliance\u2019 between so-called NGOs & corporations (Unilever also claims to be an NGO!). They seek to promote profit over justice, weakening labor laws and eviscerating workers\u2019 protections & rights. To enforce this predatory behaviour, MNCs have created a global Supreme Court<\/strong> and are raising and funding private mercenary militias (death squads) to crush labor movements, and intimidate & murder activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The mechanisms of control used to plunder the colonies always blows back and are also being used in the industrial world. Large corporations are looting and pillaging so-called \u2018independent\u2019 yet still-colonized countries by forcing them to accept international agreements & investment treaties \u2013 corporate courts \u2013 that favor multinational corporations. A shadow legal system is in operation across the world to enshrine a system where MNCs can sue states for enacting policies they don\u2019t like, which they say infringe on \u2018investor rights\u2019. This system was created \u2018in the heat of the decolonization movement and the end of formal empire\u2019. The main body where these cases are heard is actually an arm of the World Bank\u2019s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes <\/strong>(ICSID) created in 1966, when countries were supposedly getting independence. Capitalists panicked about maintaining control, how to ensure their investments in underdevelopment are protected when they don\u2019t have formal empires and garrisons of troops (like the colonial East India Company did) where they can take out a leader if he does something they don\u2019t like? The system was the brainchild of Hermann Abs, a German Nazi exonerated by the English and the US at the Nuremberg trials. (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 So why does the media not say what\u2019s going on?<\/em><\/strong> There is no transparency demanded when it comes to naming private creditors. The truth is they are not a national<\/em> media. They are controlled by Unilever<\/strong>. Media owners should be made to meet the people every week, at press conferences where people can ask questions about their priorities, their commissions & omissions, and most importantly, their<\/strong> funding sources<\/strong>. Who will make them do so? Not politicians who are provided access to the droppings of the MNCs \u2013 licenses to distribute imported fuels, foods, alcohols, cigarettes, consumer goods, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Some compare ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s function to a garbage picker scavenging at the city dump, looking through rubbish to find things for use or sale. This is what it <\/strong>is like going through their media, local & international.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We know the English media, both national (if they can even be called that!) & international (read: white world<\/em>), are thoroughly backward. Again, it is not a matter of capacity but determination. We\u2019re surprised to learn the Sinhala media is even worse. Then again, this makes sense. It would be deadly to the imperialist project if people knew what was going on in the world let alone with their own neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 Ensuring self-sufficiency in grain & basic food products<\/strong>, increasing the purchasing power of the rural home market<\/strong>, and supplying industrial workers with nutritious food<\/strong> at stable prices: This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> continues sharing the Communist Party of Sri Lanka\u2019s Alternate Program: this week examining agriculture and the much-touted Green Economy\u2026 Sri Lanka has one of the lowest arable lands per capita in South Asia, and lower than even China. This demands rationalizing the use of agricultural land, and increasing yields & productivity through modern technology & capital-intensive farming (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 Our economists are either purposely or inadvertently ignorant of what modern industrial culture is all about. Modern industrialization has its own logic. It is not only agriculture or services. Industries impart an internal dynamic, expanding markets, lowering costs. The role of industry is not to earn foreign exchange, but to multiply products<\/strong>, develop the division of labor<\/strong>, specialization<\/strong>, like in the motorcar industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In modern industrialization, the entire system becomes an integrated process<\/strong>. Garments need textiles, and involve the production of machinery & component parts, including chemicals. An integrated chain is a self-expanding process. Garments in Sri Lanka have not been allowed to go thru this change, and cannot transform the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     During the US (\u2018civil\u2019) war, the northern government contracted to produce revolvers. The invented techniques from weapons were used for making sewing machines<\/strong> & motorbikes. Such industrial organization absorbs, transforms and integrates. Without production forces, productive relations cannot develop to be more conducive to socialism, compared to what we have now (\u2013 remember SBD de Silva<\/strong>\u2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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USA Wants Legal Right to Overthrow Leaders & Steal Resources in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/blockquote>