Waiting for the Apocalypse
They were there, last week, to protest what they might have witnessed for themselves but for the cordon of heavily armoured cops barring their entry to the inner sanctums of the 2007 Atlantica Conference: A bunch of middle-aged white men and women sipping coffee, munching on cakes and melons, and discussing the joint economic future of the Canadian East Coast and the New England states.
This was the second general assembly of so-called “business elites” and other “class enemies” in as many years. At the inaugural Atlantica conference in Saint John last June, more than 600 delegates from across the northeastern seaboard explored a clutch of topics, including transportation, energy, and tourism.
Last Thursday and Friday, about as many participants from precisely the same locales hunkered down to examine exactly the same issues (transportation, energy, and tourism). And like last year, they came to only the broadest conclusions: That Atlantic Canada’s and New England’s business interests are more similar than not; that the two easterly regions share common mercantile and social traditions; and that they suffer conjoined problems of crumbling infrastructure and anaemic trade growth with the rest of the developed world. Where do they go from there? Nobody really seemed to know.
All of which is to say that if, through some unlikely security failure, one or more of the passionate protestors had gained admittance to the main meeting, they would have been sorely disappointed. Where were the fanglorious demons feeding on the quivering hulk of the body proletariat? What happened to the promised orgies of excess, the secret side deals trading the rights of man for the rites of corporate dominion, the gold-crazed conquistadors, the carnage, the Apocalypse?
It is one of the exquisite paradoxes of Atlantica that those who despise everything it represents appear to know far more about its aims, intentions and tactics than those who actually operate it – if “operate” is even the right word.
In reality, Atlantica does not exist, if only because it’s not a political entity, has no more economic momentum than the money it manages to raise to create working groups and hold annual conventions, and cannot count even one major industrialist or politico – on either side of the international border – among its champions. If it could, then we might have something to talk about.
What, for example, would a newly empowered Atlantica have to say about guaranteed, minimum wages for Canadians and Americans? What would it do about the widening gulf between the working poor and the luxuriating rich? How would it protect unions, social services, arts and culture organizations, and small businesses from the juggernaut of cheap labour, goods, and debt financing from China? What would its stand be on energy self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship, and community economic development?
These are, of course, questions for duly elected governments to answer, not loose associations of fellow business travellers. But by painting the big picture, as the Atlanticans seem happy to do, they invite legitimate scrutiny from those who both support and mistrust their motives and objectives.
Any conversation about the social and economic progress of Atlantic Canada must include the voices of assent and dissent in equal measure. It’s the least that citizens of any successful democracy demand. Throw down the barricades, dismantle the ramparts, open the doors, give the cops their donuts, and start talking. Really talking.
Do it now, before omens become promises no one wants to make, or keep.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I’d have to disagree that it ‘doesn’t exist’. It very much exists. It exists in the 300 million that was just added to New Brunswickers debt to build a small stretch of highway from Woodstock to Grand Falls. It exists in the political decision of Lord to use the federal infrastructure money for that instead of harbour cleanup. It exists in the recent announcement to allow longer wheelbase tractor trailers on the road. It exists in the particular interest to build up energy while ignoring all those problems you mention. Atlantica exists with the latest ACOA announcement that it will spend half a million dollars to set up an ‘atlantica office’. Isn’t that an interesting way to spend money from a group that rarely invests in startups. And its not just politics, in fact its mostly not politics, it exists as well in UPN laying off hundreds while making more money than they did last year and shipping out New Brunswick wood to other provinces and countries to be milled. How often do you think that topic came up?
The point is simply that Atlantica exists to ensure that politicians and political groups attend to ‘business first’. Its no surprise that while you mention all those problems, in reality virtually all those groups at Atlantica, in particular the Saint John Board of Trade, have been saying for years just how wonderful everything is. Just go to their website and see it for yourself. Atlantica is not about solutions, those present are already perfectly happy and relatively wonderfully rich. The group exists for that main reason to ensure those questions you mention dont’ get asked, let alone answered. Thats exactly why unions weren’t invited. And thats why people are protesting it.
I agree with your conclusion, because essentially it is those who are protesting who have long been yelling out the answers.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
You challenge my comments and manage to miss my underlying conclusions: It’s not “Atlantica”; it’s everything that came before — corporatist ego, egregious wealth, disinterest in equitable econonmic development, etc. “Atlantica” is just the new brand plastered onto an old construct. How many times do I have to tell you: Where the rubber hits the road, we actually agree? Grab the “brand” and make it your own, and mine. Get it???
June 19th, 2007 at 9:12 am
No, sorry I don’t. I push lawn mowers and build gardens for a living and I often just don’t understand you, sorry about that. Its been a long time since I got a bad education. I dont get ‘underlying conclusions’, I can only comment on what I read. I think I sort of see what you are saying though now that you put a gun to my head, it may be something that I have said before too. I think a central problem with that though is that IF its just a ‘rebranding’, well, how do ‘we’ take over a brand that purposely excludes us? There was sort of a move toward that, with the CCPA’ s paper (which I seem to remember you not liking much:) and with Scott Sinclair showing up this year and debating Cirtwill. There point was to increase trade with europe, while AIMS says China. That is a central problem though, how do ‘we’ make either of those policy decisions? And what about the sizeable crowd, like in Miramichi, that just got screwed over by the trade agenda in the first place. That view isn’t even on the political table or even an option. That’s what protestors were trying to get across. So I see your point, if Atlantica so far means a business agenda, how do groups make it about more than business?