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Privatized Planet: “Free Trade” as a Weapon Against Democracy, Healthcare and the Environment (2019, New Internationalist ISBN 978-1-78026-501-8 ebook ISBN 978-1-78026-502-5) In Privatized Planet, T.J. Coles suggests that the concept of 'free trade' is poorly named. While the phrase sounds positive - and, one would assume therefore, beneficial to societies - 'free trade' agreements are, in fact, tools for pushing greater privatization of public resources. And, inevitably, the cost of these agreements fall to the general public. The capture of more and more public resources leads to a reduction of the tax base (as corporations find ways to evade taxes) leaving the cost of public services to be carried by the average citizen. The text of Privatized Planet takes us from World War II, when the economic world was being 'refreshed' in such a way that it favoured the United States and corporations, to the detriment of everyone else. We look at the World Trade Organization and several international free trade agreements (NAFTA, GATT, TPP, TTIP, CETA) and are brought current to the ongoing building of China's New Silk Road initiative. The book looks at the paths being followed by Russia and India and examines not just the mechanics of free trade deals, but also how they affect the world. Coles turns his attention to the environment, healthcare, food and agriculture, and the arcane world of finances to show us how these agreements - always described in such glowing terms by the government and corporate interests who expect to benefit from them - really affect you and me. Not content to merely explain how this all works, the author has some ideas about how we can - and should - seek to influence free trade deals before we find ourselves seriously compromised. He believes that the system under which we currently live is not tenable and will not survive (I agree). The task ahead of us, then, is to pick up the ball and run with it ourselves. There is little reason to believe the managers of the current failing system will help us, so the onus lays on us. Coles has some helpful ideas in his concluding chapter to get us started. As always, this author does impeccable research. The book contains substantial Endnotes (30 pages) and is full indexed. It also contains a glossary of acronyms which I found very helpful (which is tantamount to admitting, I guess, that some of them were new to me). Readers eager to know more about what is being done to them by governments and corporations will find this an easy book to understand. Best, however, is that Mr Coles offers us all some ideas about how to protect ourselves against the robber barons. I recommend this work highly.
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