Bill Black: Will the Chilean People Save the U.S. by Electing Michelle Bachelet?

[marmar]

The effort by corporate CEOs to dominate the global economy and global government is reaching the end-game stage. Corporate CEOs view government and democracy as their gravest threats and are constantly seeking to discredit and hamstring government and democratic decision-making. CEOs are particularly eager to discredit, destroy, or capture regulation and they have enlisted enormous support in both major U.S. parties and many of the world’s dominant parties for these efforts. President Obama has continued and made worse the effort of President Bush to betray our nation, our democracy, and our people through the secret, draft Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. In this first column on TPP I explain that while there is no realistic chance of convincing Obama to repudiate the TPP, there is a chance that the people of Chile will save our democracy and our national sovereignty.

Chile’s national election will occur on November 17, 2013 and it is widely expected to return former President Michelle Bachelet to power. In this article I describe the disgraceful position that the U.S. has taken in the TPP negotiations in which it sides with corporate interests rather than the victims of a terrible parasitical infection that is epidemic in much of Latin America and a serious problem in the United States. Chagas is a serious problem in Chile, which is one of the countries negotiating TPP.

The failure of Chile under President Sebastián Piñera’s leadership (and the failure of Peru and Mexico) to stand up to the U.S. and expose and block its effort to block vital treatment for victims of Chagas disease represents a national disgrace by the heads of state of the U.S., Chile, Peru, and Mexico.

Progressives should urge Dr. Bachelet, should she be elected President, to make the full drafts of TPP public immediately. Dr. Bachelet is a pediatrician who doubtless treated victims of Chagas disease. She will understand fully the threat posed by the TPP to public health. I urge her to demand that the draft TPP be scrapped and fundamentally changed to build democracy and national sovereignty and to control the multinational corporations rather than allow them and their plutocrat panels to dominate and denigrate democracy and national sovereignty. ..........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/11/will-chilean-people-save-u-s-electing-michelle-bachelet.html#more-6914