It may be said that the multinational corporation is the highest expression of capitalism. What such a corporation is, is a huge body of investment capital, led by high-powered executives, technocrats, lawyers and accountants, which roams planet earth seeking opportunities for ever increasing profits. Multinational corporations are totally predatory and rapacious. But, they benefit in their relations with the various populations of the world from the fact that multinational corporations are faceless. Perhaps it may be more accurate to say, rather than that they are faceless, that multinational corporations can take on many faces, indeed any face which will help to accomplish whatever are that corporation’s specific objectives. And those objectives are, to speak overall, penetration, control, and exploitation.

Great multinational corporations are to be marveled at and given maximum, maximum respect. We are not economic historians, but it is for sure that these companies display the ability of the European enslavers, colonizers and imperialists to pool their money and resources, to cooperate and be patient, and thereby to generate profits. Remember now, there was this specific point in world history, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the explorers and adventurers of European nation-states came out from Europe to enter Asia, Africa, and America in search of various forms of wealth – silks, spices, tea, slaves, gold, silver, precious jewels, and so on and so forth. As we understand it, It was in order to equip these violent expeditions that the original, relatively primitive form of corporate organization began taking place in Europe.

In his speech last month in Jamaica, Minister Louis Farrakhan said that his teacher, Hon. Elijah Muhammad, had told him that if a man does not treat you right, you cannot expect him to teach you right. This is the rub in Belize: we Belizeans were not taught the real truth and the whole truth because our schools were and are run by white supremacists, white supremacist sympathizers, and white supremacist collaborators.

So then, what would we say is a white supremacist? In the first instance, “white” and “European” are functional synonyms. The European peoples of the world consider themselves “white” human beings. Probably the most racist of the European peoples are the British and the German peoples, who consider themselves “Aryan.” The British and the Germans are the two most vicious colonizers and imperialists of our world. In the beginning of slavery, colonialism and imperialism in Asia, Africa and America, the Spanish and the Portuguese peoples were prominent: they were trend setters. But the British, the Germans, and even the French, who are right up there in the racist rankings along with the British and the Germans, have felt that the whiteness of the Spanish and the Portuguese, even that of the Italians, is tainted by their proximity to North Africa. The Scandinavian peoples, who live in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, are considered pure white, in the sense that they feature more blond hair and blue eyes, on the average, than any other European people, even the racist British and Germans. The Dutch, who live in Holland, which is also known as the Netherlands, were early slavers and colonizers and imperialists along with the British, but they have become the most liberal of the European peoples where their culture and lifestyle are concerned.

In the above paragraph, we have given you a rudimentary sense of the peoples who introduced, imposed, and sustain white supremacy in the world. It is from Europe that the portrait of Jesus Christ as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Son of God originated, and became the core image of the European version of Christianity which Europe has exported to Africa, America, and Asia. And it was during the eras of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism that the Europeans originated and developed the concept of the multinational corporation, the engine of finance which now dominates the Western world. Ironically, these European engines of finance are worshipped by neoliberal politicians in the oppressed Third World, a world in which you can include Belize. In the oppressed Third World, the native instruments of white supremacy have a Third World name for the multinational corporation: they call it FDI – foreign direct investment. Belize’s neoliberal politicians say that Belize cannot live without FDI.

Well, a few days ago American Sugar Refining (ASR), the multinational corporation which has penetrated Belize’s sugar industry in the Northern Districts of Orange Walk and Corozal, made a move designed to smash the unity of the cane farmers of Belize by offering them incentives to negotiate with the multinational on an individual basis. The cane farmers grow sugar cane in their own fields which is processed into sugar and molasses by the factory, which is owned by the multinational corporation. The crop grinding season is about to start, the cane is ripening in the fields, but a dispute between ASR and the cañeros over the rights to bagasse, which is the by-product after the sugar cane is ground up and becomes sugar, has not been resolved. Last year the cane farmers delayed the delivery of their cane to the factory in order to establish greater leverage for their association in its negotiations with the ASR multinational. This is the supreme weapon of the cañeros: they control most of the sugar cane which ASR needs to grind in order to make money.

The supreme weapon of ASR is the cash they have in hand to buy the sugar cane for their factory. They are using this cash to tempt the individual cane farmers to sell to ASR directly and bypass their own association. This move by ASR, in our opinion, ultimately constitutes an attack on Belizean nationalism, because the power to organize ourselves into trade unions and negotiation associations is the most important power we Belizeans consolidated when we achieved self-government and independence.

The sugar factory is scheduled to start grinding cane in two weeks time. ASR has made a power move to weaken the association and assure prompt cane deliveries for their factory. The association has responded by seeking the intervention of the Government of Belize. With national municipal elections less than four months away, the power struggle between ASR and the cane farmers’ association has electoral political implications. But, the elected politics is really none of our business.

For us at this newspaper, we regret that there is no national population solidarity on this matter. This was as our white supremacist enslavers and colonizers designed it. The colony was divided into six districts. The colony was divided along geographic, ethnic, and religious lines. In 1981, however, we theoretically became one Belizean nation-state.

The cane farmers of the North must understand that they now carry the Belizean flag, and they must seek and gain the support of the rest of Belize. In the rest of Belize, we must understand that when U.S. Capital Energy did what it did to SATIIM, and when ASR tries to do what it seeks to do to the BSCFA, the true Belizean nationalist must support the organization of Belizeans.

We Belizeans have yet to arrive at our Aguascalientes 1917 moment in Belize, but one day we surely will. Until that time, this newspaper stands for all indigenous, authentic organizations of Belizeans. We support the cane farmers on the philosophical principle that we have, throughout the 45-year course of our history, always and unconditionally condemned all forms of white supremacy. In the Western world of 2014, the multinational corporation is a very sophisticated version of white supremacy. Business is business. Everybody does business. But when we submit to white supremacy’s embrace in any form, we sacrifice our national dignity and all that our African and Maya ancestors fought for in Belize.

Power to the people.