Harlow SEZ 2024 – 24 x 18cm, acrylic on canvas
How to kidnap a country. Create division and sow chaos in the economy. Exit social democracy and start replacing it with corporate governance, the nation-state will quickly atrophy and wither away. Deregulate laws and worker’s rights that protect people from predatory capitalists. Engineer insolvency across all councils. Always blame the ‘other’ for the problems this creates. Establish dozens of Special Economic Zone subsidized with billions in public money given by the govt to their favoured companies, allowing them to asset strip all councils and public services. Replace collective sovereignty with corporate sovereignty. Dismantle big govt and remove the obstacles of ‘intervention’ and fair redistribution of GDP. License the SEZs and Freeports for +25 years, future proofing them from any incoming govts that may wish to revoke contracts. Should a new govt pursue revocation of SEZ licenses and contracts, hit them with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), sue the govt. Establish private courts, security forces, education curricula, and a new system of legalized lawlessness within the zones. Rebuild towns, cities, and villages not with concrete or glass but with private laws. Ensure by corporate lobbying that the main political parties mirror each other’s policies but take care to fool the public that whoever is in power maintains a pseudo-adversarial role, buoyed by a compliant press. By privatising an entire country, its population will become desperate and fatigued as crises mount, they will become dependent on whatever jobs are available to feed their families, this is how you exit democracy and pave the way for a total corporate coup.