a bunch of assholes gather in Switzerland for annual Bilderberg meeting

[Os Cangaceiros]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jun/11/bilderberg-switzerland

Whether or not you think that people in Bilderberg are involved in sacrificing virgins before a giant stone Moloch or something, there's no denying that some pretty important power brokers of state & capital are involved in these annual meetings, including:


But as ever more information about Bilderberg edged its way into das Gehirn der Welt – sorry, slipped into German there for a moment – so yes, the more the world found out about Bilderberg, the harder it became to deny not just its existence, but its importance. Until we're where we are today: with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a team from the Treasury attending a 4-day summit of international finance ministers and businessmen, including the assorted chairmen of Fiat, Nestlé, Goldmann Sachs International, and Coca-Cola, the Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, the Executive Chairman of Google, the President of the European Council, and the co-founder of Facebook.

And it's just been leaked that Angela Merkel has arrived. And the Secretary-General of NATO, Anders Rasmussen. And Zapatero, the former Spanish PM. They're not on 'the list' that was published on the official website about 12 hours after it was leaked to a Swiss website, but you have to remember the "final list" is never complete (a single example of an unlisted delegate: the President of Madrid in 2009). Still, it seems to satisfy some folk.

So that's what's happening in St Moritz: Chancellor Osborne and his Treasury team are attending a 4 day international summit with the Swedish Foreign Minister, the Chancellor of Austria, the Director General of the WTO, the Chairman of Novartis (revenue in 2010: $50 billion), and the Chairman of Kissinger Associates. And I'm just off down the hill for a press briefing.

Apparently, someone just spotted Bill Gates.

[jake williams]

Given the attention this is getting, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years they find somewhere else to have "private" conversations. That said, fairly few important conversations for the bourgeoisie as a whole (that is, not of particular states, corporations, or banks), happen in private, simply because the work of organizing a class as a whole is too broad and important to do in private. The bourgeoisie has to have important conversations in public (at the elite universities, in the political parties, in newspapers and journals, and so on), to organize as broad as possible a political base within itself to push the right agenda forward for its interests at a particular time. This is difficult to do, especially since bourgeois ideology itself militates against class consciousness per se. If they were all sort of vulgar Marxists it would, in a sense, make their political and ideological work easier.

[Yazman]

They might not agree with us ideologically, but please quit labelling the protesters as idiots and wackos. They are there doing what they can and protesting at Bilderberg bears a degree of importance comparable to a G8/G20/WTO protest, even if many leftists refuse to acknowledge its relative influence. They may be on the wrong track politically, but there is nothing wrong with giving them a bit of support for the little bit of activism they're putting in.

[Rusty Shackleford]

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news_images/2008-6-10-alexjones.jpg
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news_images/2008-6-11-alexjonesandcompany2.jpg



this is about a bunch of assholes at bilderberger meetings right?

[Obs]

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news_images/2008-6-10-alexjones.jpg

Ahahahahahahahaha, fuck me, is that Atlee?

[Blackscare]

Ahahahahahahahaha, fuck me, is that Atlee?

Holding the camera? I thought it might be...

[Blackscare]

The dude in the shades is Alex Jones though.

[Obs]

The dude in the shades is Alex Jones though.
Oh. :(

[Rusty Shackleford]

Dont worry, Alex Jones is a pretty big douche* too.


*if douche is offensive, i can change it.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

They might not agree with us ideologically, but please quit labelling the protesters as idiots and wackos. They are there doing what they can and protesting at Bilderberg bears a degree of importance comparable to a G8/G20/WTO protest, even if many leftists refuse to acknowledge its relative influence. They may be on the wrong track politically, but there is nothing wrong with giving them a bit of support for the little bit of activism they're putting in.

Except when it comes to activism they rarely do anything but make really tacky videos and whine a lot (mostly about some Marxist Conspiracy and FEMA death camps) and their insanity (They are unavoidably dominated by people like David Estulin and Alex Jones, who both belong in mental institutions) will make it even harder to illuminate the real sickness of inter-capitalist collaboration and the flagrant corruption clearly in those meetings displayed.

[brigadista]

george osborne is there at the expense of the brit state in his capacity as chancellor of the exchequer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jun/10/bilderberg-2011-charlie-skelton

[Yazman]

Except when it comes to activism they rarely do anything but make really tacky videos and whine a lot (mostly about some Marxist Conspiracy and FEMA death camps) and their insanity (They are unavoidably dominated by people like David Estulin and Alex Jones, who both belong in mental institutions) will make it even harder to illuminate the real sickness of inter-capitalist collaboration and the flagrant corruption clearly in those meetings displayed.

While much of what you're saying here is correct, I feel that is itself a separate matter. Acting like we shouldn't be protesting events like G20, Bilderberg, WTO summits, strikes me as an odd position. We might disagree with them but thats not the point - this sort of action is still important in its own way, if only just to let the capitalists hear us say "fuck you."

I am anti-Leninist (although not as reactionary as the truth movement) but I will still support their rallies, protests, and events because ideology is a secondary concern for me in regards to activism, even if they come across as reactionary in an ideological way sometimes.

I may not agree with the ideology of the protestors here, and we may even be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but the protest itself is a justified one and its something we should be supporting, not laughing at. The very idea that there are people protesting capitalists at one of their many summits and there's people LAUGHING at them for protesting - reeks of sectarianism.

They may not all be progressive, but this protest is worthy of our support. The same goes for any protest at events the ruling class hold to discuss policy, and in fact at most of these events the vast majority of the protestors I find are usually not even remotely close to revolutionary left politics but are usually supporters of mainstream politics - in Australia often being Labor Party or Greens Party supporters, so for the most part reactionary - but it doesn't mean I simply look at them and say "LOL, reactionary assholes!" They MIGHT ACTUALLY BE reactionary assholes but it doesn't mean they don't get my support for the pressure they're putting on the ruling class, even if its a small amount of pressure. The key here is to be supportive of these sorts of protests while still being mindful of your position.