Alliance Programme for
Health, Peace and Social Justice
8. Extended Democracy Instead Of Restricting Citizens' Rights
Democracy is no abstract concept but must be lived, developed and protected. The greatest threat to democracy comes from global financial interests determined to restrict citizens’ rights throughout the world in order to maintain and develop their power.
The current threat to democracy
The greatest danger here derives from financial circles and vested interest groups which have earned hundreds of billions of dollars from the pharmaceutical “business with disease.” Throughout the world people have woken up to this fact and now recognise that this investment industry is intentionally hindering the prevention and eradication of diseases, since it relies on the perpetuation of these diseases for its billion-dollar profits.
Over decades this investment industry has built up an illusory business which consists, in a nutshell, of promising health but creating more illness - and thus new markets for its products. Millions of people have paid with their lives for this organised fraud by the pharmaceutical industry, and whole economies have been ruined by it.
The billion-dollar investment circles behind the pharmaceutical industry know that the fraudulent business they have built up over decades has blown up in their faces. Ever more pharmaceutical drugs are withdrawn from the market because their fatal side effects can no longer be kept secret. Increasing numbers of pharmaceutical companies are facing mass claims for billions in compensation from aggrieved patients. Ever more pharmaceutical groups are being found guilty of price fixing and other criminal machinations, and we need make no bones about calling them ‘criminal’. Increasing numbers of books unmasking the fraudulent pharmaceutical business are filling international best-seller lists.
The loss of this industry’s credibility is leading inevitably to the loss of hundreds of billions for its investors. Over and above this, those responsible will have to face criminal charges for the damage they have caused to the health of millions and to the economies of almost all countries in the world.
In this situation it is not merely the investment circles directly affected that are gripped by great alarm, but also those who represent their interests in the media and politics in the key countries of pharmaceutical business, primarily the USA, Great Britain and Germany.
The ‘terrorism debate’ as pretext for creating a surveillance state
In August 2001 the pharmaceutical company group Bayer had to withdraw the cholesterol inhibitor Lipobay from the market. Over 50 patients had already died, and a time bomb was ticking in over 6 million patients who had taken the drug. Bayer found itself faced with national rage to an extent hitherto unknown. Thousands of compensation claims and charges filed against Bayer threatened to ruin the group. But then came 11 September 2001. The terrible events of that day in New York immediately diverted media attention from all Bayer Group problems. If the fury in Germany against Bayer and the pharmaceutical groups had not been deflected by the 11 September tragedy, the fraudulent pharmaceutical business would no doubt long since have ended.
We have to recognise that the pharmaceutical industry has drawn greater financial advantage from the current terrorism debate than anyone else. This debate is intentionally used by governments and politicians representing the interests of the pharmaceutical industry in countries that are key to its business. The terrorism debate is misused for the following self-evident goals:
- To divert attention from the fraudulent business of the pharmaceutical industry and the devastating consequences of this business for millions of people and national economies throughout the world.
- To gain time for shoring up the worldwide collapse of the pharmaceutical “business with disease” and stabilising it again. This time is also being used to pass laws prohibiting available alternatives to the fraudulent pharmaceutical “business with disease” in the form of scientifically proven natural remedies. Thus, for example, the pharmaceutical lobby in Europe is initiating EU Directives and worldwide is operating a so-called ‘Codex Alimentarius’ UN commission, with the aim of prohibiting natural, non-patentable remedies whose competition they fear. Even passing on information about life-saving remedies is to be classified as a ‘criminal act’ under the pretext of disseminating ‘non-approved’ medicines.
- Massive restrictions on citizens’ rights are being implemented under the pretext of indiscriminately applied ‘emergency laws’ to counter terrorism. Thus these laws can be used to immediately quell and stifle any wave of indignation, such as that experienced in Germany following the Lipobay scandal. Increased severity of criminal laws is intended to make it possible to thwart life-saving health information about micronutrients and other natural remedies under the pretext of a ‘criminal act’.
We are not blind to the terrorism issue, but this problem too will only be solved in the long term if its root causes are tackled. Terrorism is the consequence of social injustice in many countries. Hunger and mass destitution render people susceptible to violence motivated by religious, ethnic or political ideologies.
The best protection against terrorism is to create social justice in these countries, in particular. By promoting development and eradicating mass destitution, the breeding ground for these extreme views is withdrawn. This international development programme will be funded by the hundreds of billions released when fraudulent economic dependency on pharmaceutical and oil company groups comes to an end.
Protecting democracy against the dictatorship of global financial interests
In the context of the terrorism debate, fundamental citizen’s rights are being gradually eroded in various countries around the world. Those parties which are most closely linked with the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and other big company groups are calling most loudly for further tightening of so-called anti-terror laws. This should give us pause for thought.
The aim of these vested-interest politicians is to restrict and repeal the most fundamental basic laws that are enshrined in the constitution. These include the right to human dignity, personal freedom, free expression, freedom to associate, confidentiality of letters and telephone calls, inviolability of the home and other basic rights.
It is apparent that our basic rights and normal freedoms are to be sacrificed to the development of a dictatorship serving global financial interests. In the wake of the terrorism debate surveillance states are to be constructed on a scale previously unknown. We will prevent this.
We will do all in our power to safeguard and defend the basic rights in the constitutions of our countries. We will reveal the financial interests underpinning the planned restriction of citizens’ rights. Politicians who promote the restriction of citizens’ rights in the interests of financial power and company group profits will be held to account.
Protecting democracy means learning from history
In European history a terrible event was used on a previous occasion to cancel citizens’ rights, abolish democracy and set up a dictatorship. In 1933 the Berlin Reichstag was set on fire. This event was used by politicians as a pretext to pass a whole series of Enabling Acts which would never have been agreed under normal circumstances.
We are not equating today with the world of 1933, but there are clear parallels nevertheless. Then as now fundamental citizens’ rights were revoked in the interests of big company groups and global financial interests. At that time people realised too late what was happening to be able to offer resistance. But we have learned from history and we will not permit any erosion of citizens’ rights and the destruction of democracy.
The most important step for protecting democracy is to end the pharmaceutical “business with disease”
The biggest threat to democracy is the imminent collapse of the pharmaceutical “business with disease” and the efforts of this investment industry to prevent it. Accordingly, the most important measure to protect democracy is to end the “business with disease.” Here too our Alliance programme is the sole effective and lasting means to prevent the comprehensive dismantling of democracy. No party political programme is credible that pays lip service to ‘democracy’ without naming the threat to it from global financial interests.
The development of new health systems independent of the pharmaceutical business, based on the active involvement of broad swathes of the population, is also an important step in developing democracy, and has implications far beyond the health domain.
No to patient data recording in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry
With the onward march of economic globalisation, people are increasingly degraded to mere objects. To further consolidate its fraudulent business, the pharmaceutical business is currently undertaking data recording of whole populations.
The recording of patient data on microchips and discussion of the so-called ‘transparent patient’ is also related to this. In view of the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the whole health sector, we must fundamentally question the argument that this enables a health system to run more efficiently. Patient data thus recorded are not only available to the health insurers but are also targeted by the pharmaceutical industry in order to control and develop their markets. We oppose all such recording and uncontrolled release of personal health data, which throws wide the doors to misuse serving the interests of the pharmaceutical “business with disease.”
Referendum as prime tool for direct democracy
Alongside the election of representatives, the people must also have the opportunity to exert direct influence on important social issues, and to decide on them. The tool for practising this ‘direct democracy’ is the referendum. We will work to enshrine in law this possibility of holding referendums and to promote the widespread use of other forms of people’s democracy.