Michel Collon
Investig’action, Belgium
Emcee:
Thank you, comrade. Our next speaker is a member of the Belgian Workers Party. A staunch political critic, journalist and specialist in the war propaganda analysis and media disinformation. He authored numerous political books, including The Liar’s Poker: The Great Powers Yugoslavia and the Wars of the Future. Let us welcome Michel Collon and please, a reminder to turn off the sound of your cell phone so we can concentrate on the speakers.
Michel Collon (MC):
Thank you. I have to correct the presentation, which is rather old. I am not a member of the Workers Party of Belgium. I’m not representing this party. I was invited as an analyst about the US war strategies and strategies of disinformation. I founded 20 years ago an independent media called Investig’action, in English: Investig’action. So we are a media, we are a YouTube channel. We are a center of analysis about disinformation. But this is completely independent.
I have also to apologize because this interesting conference is about economy, but I am not an economist and I’m honored to be invited to speak about the economic crisis. But maybe you will risk to hear a few things that are not correct. Anyway, Marxism learns to us not to believe nobody. So, if you don’t agree, make your own judgment.
I was asked to explain views about three topics – overproduction, finance and trade wars, and environment.
I think about the cause of crisis now. We hear a lot of theories, some presented by fascist authors. Like in France, Alain Soral who got a big influence on the youth. But also, theories presented by reformist left who says, well, the crisis. Okay, well the crisis is a problem of finance, of speculation. It’s speculation that is derailing the economy. And their idea is you have to correct the excess. You have to stop speculation and then the industry will be sane. And I think both these currents are manipulating the youth in order to protect the system.
And the real cause of this overproduction is, as it was well described from the beginning by Marx, the contradiction between some are able to produce more and more and are controlling more and more. Their richness is augmenting, but the others cannot buy that, because there is a link. If these people are very rich it’s because they have exploited and made the people working for them very poor. And so, this contradiction is fundamental. And it was explained from the beginning by Marx that this produced the cause.
And I think we see this also in modern times in Belgium. And it’s not – of course, that the system produces too much. There is still a lot of poverty, even in rich countries like Belgium. 400,000 children do not eat properly every day. And on the other hand, you have peasants brought to suicide because they cannot sell their things anymore. And you have supermarkets who are destroying food. So, this shows the fundamental contradiction that was correctly explained by Marx.
And if the best way to be a capitalist is to reduce the jobs, to reduce the salaries and have less people for less money producing the same, then you have a big contradiction as a capitalist. To whom are you going to sell? Because you just made very poor the people you wanted to sell to.
So, we saw the application of this in the crisis, and we saw also another factor explaining overproduction. The automobile industry got a big crisis, between 2000 and 2008, the production of the big three: Ford, General Motors, Chrysler declined quite a lot and there was a big [cut?], so people were buying less cars. But what was the reaction of Toyota, Peugeot, Volkswagen to build more factories in the USA. So, you sell less, and you build more factories to try to get the market and eliminate the others.
This was, very well explained by hidden Marxist Albert Einstein, explaining in ’49 that the economic anarchy, he said of capitalist society, is the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers, the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor. So indeed, a correct judgment that anarchy in investments will make that every capitalist sees a sector that seems interesting, “Okay, I will invest there.” But since they do, all of them, or a big part of them, the same, of course there is a big anarchy and waste of resources. And these two factors make the overproduction inevitable in the capitalist system.
Which was also explained by Henri Houben in his book. And Henri Houben is a member of the Workers’ Party and he’s an economist. He tried to explain the role of finance in this system. I shall have to translate it: The speculation. You cannot understand the crisis now. How long and no way out without analyzing speculation, because they play the role central in the important growing of the economy in the USA. The US economy knew a very big growing. And this had the consequence also for countries like Mexico, East Asia and Western Europe and certainly Germany, deciding to export for that market. The problem was to be competitive on that market you had to reduce the wages, you have to reduce the Social Security. So, in order to get the market in the USA, you make your own workers poor, so you bring the same problem: to whom are you going to sell?
There was a big evolution in the financial and banking sector because when I was young, the big giants, there was Chase Manhattan Bank, JP Morgan and that kind of banks. And we used to think they are the masters of the world, but now they have really declined, and they have been replaced by BlackRock, Vanguard, those huge funds investors.
BlackRock is controlling about 10,000 billions of dollars. Vanguard closely linked about seven billions. And they are very strong because they control a lot, and nobody knows about them. And those are the new actors in the finance sector. And they impose to the companies the famous rule of the 15%. And for example, they were very active in a very important U.S. firm with factories in Belgium, France and so on, Caterpillar. And in 2018, Caterpillar suppressed 10,000 jobs, suppressed a very big factory, very combative too, in Charleroi.
And what we saw is the holding before tried to develop industry for long term perspective. We had also, for example, a big bank and holding in Belgium called Société Générale. It was very rich because of the exploitation of Congo and so on.But they were replaced by new actors who are only interested in short term profits, which means that they imposed the rule of the 15% and some industrial sectors just disappear from that role because of that influence. I could develop more, but I think that would be too long. What we saw with finance and with BlackRock and Vanguard is that we have really new actors.
And, sorry, this is a book Investig’action published, Ukraine: War of Images because we think the role of the media manipulation, including the Secret Service, is very present, and the information is crucial to make people accept imperialist war, like the war the USA provoked in Ukraine. And after analyzing the methods of manipulation, we showed in this book the role of BlackRock and Vanguard.
And it is very interesting because BlackRock is all, and Vanguard, they work really together, they are present as first investor in practically every big firm in Wall Street, every big firm in France, Great Britain, Germany too. They are very present in the economy. They are present also in the war against Ukraine by trying to steal the agribusiness.
Ukraine, as you know, is very rich for food, and that’s very important. Kissinger once said, If you control the food, you control the world. And then you see Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock with Zelensky and explaining, “we are going to make from Ukraine a laboratory of capitalism and we are to make a beacon of capitalist power,” pushing Zelensky to suppress all international regulations of the workers international association and bringing really slaves to the European market, with examples shown there.
So, BlackRock and Vanguard and the core of the recolonization and in the economy, but also when you consider the infiltration in the politic. You have here for example four high [???] coming from BlackRock and now present in the Biden administration, in Chief Economist, Deputy Treasury Secretary to Biden, Chief Economist for Harris and Treasury Department Advisor for Russia and Ukraine. They come from BlackRock. They are in the White House and they are going back to BlackRock again. You have the same with the German follower of Merkel, Friedrich Merz, he was president of BlackRock in Europe and now again in the politic.
And also, we showed that Larry Fink goes to the Élysée with Macron once a year and here a meeting with him and actually, he gives instruction. For example, he brought a memorandum explaining, “Your Social Security. That’s a huge amount of money. I must have that. So you have to reduce Social Security so that the people, the pensioners, are obliged to invest their money in my BlackRock.” And this happened, and France had a very, very long and strong movement, but they didn’t win from the short-term.
So, BlackRock and Vanguard, present in the economy, in the politics, but also we were studying who in the weapons industry was winning from the war in Ukraine and now from Gaza. And you have the big five in the US industry: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop and General Dynamics, they win a lot of money with wars. For Lockheed in one year 67 billions of dollars with this war, so BlackRock is also number one investor in these military companies.
BlackRock is also investor number one in the US media: New York Times, CBS, CNN and so on. All the big US media, the first investor is BlackRock. Also, the weapons industry is investor in the New York Times, CBS and CNN, et cetera. So how can you imagine that media journalists are going to tell you the truth about the war in Ukraine while their boss is making a fortune with this war?
By the way, you had recently a very new and spectacular protest when 750 important journalists of The New York Times, Washington Post and Reuters and the main television in the USA made a protest saying that the editorial line of their own media was not honest in relation with Gaza and that it was a lie, actually. So, this is very new and shows the decadent aspects of the system, but also the possibility of having larger protest.
Well, I was explaining BlackRock, Vanguard, controlling the media. Then people will say, “Okay, but we have Google, Facebook, YouTube, so there we can have more freedom, you can explain the other narrative.” Well, who’s the first investor of Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon? BlackRock and Vanguard. Fifteen, sixteen, forty per cent, everywhere.
So even if you have independent media like us, or Le Grand Soir in France, or Grayzone or [???] in the USA and so on, and you open Google and you try to find the other voice. Well, you have to go to page 27 where nobody goes and there you have maybe a chance when they do not censor. For example, I made some two videos about Bucha in the first days of this and showing the contradictions and showing that it was most probably an MI6 British operation. Well, we were suppressed and many of the people like us.
So, I think there is, I saw in the description of the question that we were speaking about finance as a distinctive elite. I don’t think it’s a distinctive. I think what happens now is confirming what Lenin was explaining in 1915. The merger between industrial and banking sector in what he called the financial sector. And I think now you have that much even more because some analysts say, well, as I mentioned, industry is okay, finance is bad. Actually, the big firms, industrial firms, they are formed finance sectors. If their money is not bringing enough because people, for example, cannot buy cars anymore, then they will speculate with that money. In other sectors, the weapons industry, for example, and so on.
So industrials became speculators. And I think when you see BlackRock and Vanguard, what are they doing? It’s not their own money. They are collecting all the money of the 1%. So, and now you see, of course, you had never separation of powers, an independent policy or independent media, never. But now you have, I think, a sort of unifying the power directly in the same hands: economy, politics, information, weapons.
And this brings a new perspective. They are stronger. But on the other hand, you can better show to the people how there is no independent information, no honest information, then there is no democracy. And I think it’s an argument for the people who want to explain that we need a better world.
Very briefly, because I think I already took too much time. There was a question about the trade war and I think Henry Kissinger was right, when he said, “Globalization is another word to explain the US dominancy on economy, that’s globalization.” And that’s how, indeed, they have built it. It’s the USA who built the World Trade Organization, too, for their own profits.
The problem is they have lost the economic battles with the strengthening of the Chinese economy. And then you have now Yellen, the new Minister of Treasury, who is advancing an alternative program, Globalization Between Friends, which means no Russia, no China, no Brazil, and globalization with all good friends. Only one problem: they are not friends.
In the same book we put declaration of the USA, George Bush, explaining, “it’s a war against Europe and we are going to win it.” We show about Ukraine – very disgusting guy, but you you have to read them – for example, George Friedman of the Stratfor think tank. Friedman says in 2015, “We the USA, we have to impede German economy to exports. And to have a relation with Russia, we have to weaken the German economy.” He said that openly, and you can see that on the Internet. Francois Mitterrand, also, when he was no more in power, said, “The USA are waging a war against us. And they are very, very aggressive on that.” So, globalization between friends is not between friends, but is to try for the USA to keep their dominancy on some sector.
They tried in Latin America, but they are losing a lot of space again. And now the big question is when will the European people wake up? Because we see all very good friends, who is destroying the gazoduc [pipeline] that brings gas cheaper and that is very necessary for the economy, for the consumption? Even German industrial and the chemistry and so on are furious against that.
And in the press we hear stupid theories. “Well, the Russians have destroyed their own pipeline gazoduc, they have done that themselves.” I really think taking the people for stupid because if really the Russians want to do that, they don’t need to destroy a gas line that costs a lot, and is their life insurance that they will continue to make trade with Germany. They just have to say, “Okay, we have technical problems. It’s suspended.” And this stupid version was in all media.
And that’s why activities centered on this to educate people that images can lie. Well, not the images themselves, the commentary around, and we have made these books in English, in French and Dutch in several languages, and we hope you can help to promote them, because I think really, as I said, the media allies are really now a key element of the imperialist domination.
And very briefly, about the third question that was asked, climate. We have now a lot of very nice speeches from Ursula von der Leyen and so on about the Green Deal. Europe will become green, nice and very good for the little birds and the future. Actually, it’s complete illusion. What they want is just try to build a new economic sector to counter the crisis, to counter the recession, and to be the first in that sector in competition with U.S.A. and others.
But it’s an illusion because the key problem in relation with climate is the waste. Capitalism means waste. Capitalism is only living if she can sell more and more and more. And there is no limits. So with the publicity, with advertising, with marketing, huge amounts about that, they built a society of waste and to have a capital richness which is based not on use value but on exchange value.
And in this sense, ‘Capitalism Against Climate’ is a book showing that you cannot solve the climate problem with capitalism, and Marx said that in 1894, even an entire society, a nation, or all the societies together, they do not own the earth. They are just profiting now of the Earth, and they have to conduct themselves as a good pater familias, a good father, who has the duty to transmit the earth to the next generation in better states.
So first ecologist, one century before. I think it is fundamental to show to the youth, who have very rightly mobilized to save the future of our planet. I think it’s very important that it is impossible if you stay inside this capitalist system, and I think the COVID, the corona crisis was a very good demonstration.
First, for the causes, you have to know that in 2006 or ‘7, I think after the first corona crisis in 2002/’3, some scientists in France presented to the European Union a proposal to study all the viruses, to know them better and to know how to combat them. It was first approved and then it was answered: no money, we stop. While in China, there was a lot of research about that, and they knew better how to fight.
A second aspect why did we get so many people, victims in fact. It’s because in France Macron decided the economy must go on. We may not stop. We may not do like the Chinese who stopped everything for one month, two months, control everything. And France must continue to production. Belgium too. Then at a certain time they stopped. But Boris Johnson in the UK, Trump in the USA. No, we continue. They have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Why? It was possible to save them.
And finally, was it good for the economy? No, it was worse, because it was better to stop, make strong measures and then start again. And so, they made a lot of victims and they lost more about for the economy. So, this shows also, in my view, that another system which I didn’t develop here but is better for the economy, for the mankind, and for the earth.
To conclude, I think as I said, the capitalism cannot solve seriously problems of poverty, problems of food, starvation, problem of health, problem of climate. It brings us now a decadent culture praising the war, presenting the war as peace, continuing. And we speak now about the spectacular wars that we have studied. Ukraine, Gaza, we are preparing about the lies around the 7th of October in Gaza, but nobody speaks about the war in Yemen, criminal, the undeclared war. What France was doing in Africa. And it is wonderful to see how these people, these African youth is now in rebellion and go home.
And I just come back from Cuba, where I got it to an international colloquial patria [Patria International Colloquium] with journalists and professionals of communication. And we were discussing exchanging experience, how we can counter the narrative, the imperialist narrative about war. It’s of course, difficult because they have a lot of money, they have a lot of technology. They have experts, which we analyze their methods in manipulating the people. But I think we have something better than that. We have the people.
What I see, giving a lot of conferences and we are making video broadcasting on Internet, a lot of people come, including in rich Western Europe, well, rich for some and a lot of people now, they distrust the information, they distrust television. Of course, there is a risk that they go to extreme right theories or conspiracy theories and so on. So our duty is really to organize media education, and not passive, “oh the media. I sell my television. I don’t look at them anymore.” No, you have to look at it. But you have to produce your own information to counter this bad information, which is the key for making the people accepting war.
So I think that would be a lesson for the activity, the limited activity we have. But I think it’s a key activity if we want a world in peace, in a world where all nations will have the possibility to decide the future, to decide to choose their leaders, to decide which programs they want for their children, a world in Peace needs information, is a democracy, which means if we want to defend that, to defend our children and grandchildren, we have to be, all of us journalists. Now, immediately.
Thank you.
Emcee:
Thank you very much.