"They are considering legislation to remove our right to speak up against companies with poor environmental records. In other words, the Government knows just how powerful our movement can be when we work together – and they want to put a stop to it."
Why would the government, a group of elected individuals supposedly "of the people and for the people" actively seek to end any voice of the people? A voice only raised because the government is obviously failing in its duty to be "for the people".
There's only one reason - the [current] government is FOR the corporations.
A discussion I had with a friend recently touched on the issue that most cultures, communist, socialist, democratic etc are all still 'monetist'. That is they seek to get ahead through gains in paper wealth. This is most obvious in economies that allow money to not only be the main means of trade but also to allow the trading of money to be the most lucrative way to make money.
One difference between, say, communist countries and western-democratic would be that in communist countries the 'state' interferes more in the way business runs. Whilst 'the west' has less of this interference or controlling interest, of late the trend seems to be that business is now dictating *to* the state! Telling the voted representatives what they should, can, must and will do.
At least this, to me, explains why a government would try to suppress the voice of the people, when that voice is discussing what [big] business is doing to the situation of/for humanity.
If the 'job' of politicians is to 'keep' their job, rather than truly speak for the people, there are two main criteria.
1) convince the people they are the one(s) for the job - ie. campaign and
2) find money to finance such a campaign.
So the cycle is, bend over for the corporations that will finance them, ie. promise to make certain things happen for their corporate sponsors; and then bull shit on to the public about who they are and what they will do in their campaign so that the public will vote them to *not* do much of anything for the people.
Rinse and repeat every few years and we have the mess that the western world is in.
A drain hole of corporate design and intention, and of epic proportions now that it is propped atop 7 billion people.
