The World Economic Forum and the world “elite”

by Wolfgang Bittner,* Germany

(25 January 2024) (Edit.) Is the WEF really a combination of capitalist consultancy firm and gigantic lobby? From 15 to 19 January, another meeting of the highly influential World Economic Forum (WEF) took place in Davos, attended by more than 2,800 participants, including over 60 heads of state and government. This time the motto was “Rebuilding Trust”. Author Wolfgang Bittner takes a dissecting look at this construction and its efforts to create a globalised, private-law, non-democratic world order.

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The disturbing plans of this forum for a fundamental reorganisation of society are barely known to the population. They are overshadowed by a confusing chaos of information, climate anxiety and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The WEF (World Economic Forum), a foundation and globally networked lobby organisation, has its headquarters in Switzerland near Geneva and organises annual meetings, mostly in Davos, which are attended by the world’s “elite”. It has offices in New York, Tokyo, and Beijing. The power of this organization – just like that of the Bilderberg Group¹ – is often underestimated. This is because it is not a harmless society of dignitaries that meets in the Swiss mountains to have a nice chat.

According to its own statement, the aim of the Open Forum, which takes place parallel to the annual meeting, is “to allow the public to participate in discussions between decision-makers from politics, business, science and civil society”. It continues: “Our panelists’ regularly include high-ranking government representatives, business leaders, scientists, artists, and activists who share their stories and perspectives with the audience. In the spirit of Davos, the Open Forum aims to foster dialogue between decision-makers from different sectors and walks of life to find solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time.”²

That doesn’t sound like a conspiracy at all. However, the objective becomes somewhat clearer, and therefore problematic, when the WEF calls in its “Global Redesign” report from 2010 for “a globalised world to be best governed by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments (also through the United Nations (UN) system) and selected civil society organisations (CSOs)”. Governments are no longer “the overwhelmingly dominant actors on the world stage”, so “the time has come for a new stakeholder paradigm of international governance”.³

In other words, the WEF plans to replace democratic forms of organisation, in which power in the state is supposed to emanate from the people through elected representatives, with a system of governance in which a group of “stakeholders”, i.e. “leading personalities”, form a global decision-making body. Viewed positively, this would be the rule of the wise, whoever that may be. Viewed critically, it would mean a plutocratic dictatorship in a borderless, supranational world. A self-appointed “elite” would take power and form a kind of world government. In this respect, the WEF presents itself as an extraordinarily influential, quasi-mafia-like organisation that is preparing a global takeover by “leaders” who are not democratically legitimised. Phases of global instability, such as the coronavirus pandemic, famine, or the effects of the war in Ukraine, can then be used to implement the programme. Communications researcher and author Nick Buxton, who has analysed the WEF’s intentions in detail, concludes that “we are increasingly entering a world where gatherings like Davos are not ridiculous billionaire playgrounds, but the future of global governance”. It is “nothing less than a silent coup d’état”.⁴

The objectives and power of the WEF become particularly clear when you look at who participates in the WEF and how. There are around 1,000 member companies, each with a turnover of over five billion US dollars,⁵ including the most important companies in their sector, which also play a political role. The basic membership fee is 42,000 Swiss francs plus a fee of 18,000 Swiss francs for the participation of the respective president at the annual meeting. Industry members and strategic partners pay 250,000 Swiss francs and 500,000 Swiss francs respectively to play a significant role in the Forum’s initiatives.⁶ Strategic partners include BlackRock, the Gates Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Google, The Coca Cola Company, Allianz, Bank of America, BP Amoco, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL, Facebook, the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, Mitsubishi Corporation, Paypal, SAP, Saudi Aramco, Siemens and the media group Thomson Reuters.⁷

In 1992, the WEF launched a programme for “Global Leaders of Tomorrow”, which has been called “Young Global Leaders” since 2004, to promote suitable future leaders. This created a global network of important leaders from politics, business, media, art and culture, the aristocracy and so on, who are committed to the WEF’s plans. In an interview, its founder Klaus Schwab said: “What we are very proud of [...] is that we are penetrating the cabinets with our Young Global Leaders.”⁸ In this way, the WEF exerts influence on public life worldwide.

The very first programme in 1992 was attended by such well-known personalities as Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Manuel Barroso and Bill Gates. In the years that followed, hundreds more joined the programme and gradually took on important positions: Emmanuel Macron, David Cameron, Sebastian Kurz, Annalena Baerbock, Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister of New Zealand), Sanna Marin (Prime Minister of Finland), Ida Auken (former Environment Minister of Denmark), Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Larry Page (co-founder of Google), Leonardo DiCaprio (actor), Niklas Zennström (co-developer of Skype) and Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia).

In 2019, more than 400 civil society organisations and 40 international networks opposed a partnership agreement between the WEF and the United Nations. The UN Secretary-General was called upon to end the agreement as it was a “disturbing corporate capture” of the UN that was “moving the world dangerously towards privatised and undemocratic global governance”.⁹

US journalist Diana Johnstone considers the WEF to be a “combination of capitalist consultancy and gigantic lobby”, focussed on “digital innovation, massive automation through ‘artificial intelligence’ and ultimately even the ‘improvement’ of humans by artificially endowing them with some of the characteristics of robots: for example, problem solving without ethical distractions.” She warns against the “voice of would-be global governance” and writes: “From above, experts decide what the masses should want and twist the supposed wishes of the people to fit the profit schemes they peddle.”¹⁰

In 2021, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, spoke out and criticised the fact that people like Klaus Schwab were sitting “on the throne of their wealth” and were not affected by the everyday difficulties and suffering of people caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, they saw such crises as an opportunity to push through their programme of a meritocratic global “Great Reset” with increasing control over society.¹¹ Müller criticised support from areas such as transhumanism.¹² He was accused of anti-Semitism.

Klaus Schwab and the French economist and “global strategist” Thierry Malleret wrote about the intentions of the WEF in their bestseller “The Great Reset”, published jointly in 2020: “It is about making the world less divided, less polluting, less destructive, more inclusive, more just and fairer than we left it in the pre-pandemic era.” There could be changes “that seemed unimaginable before the outbreak of the pandemic”, there would be a “new normal”.¹³

Asked in an interview on 19 November 2020 about his ideas for the intended “global new beginning”, Schwab replied: “I think the word ‘reset’ is appropriate [...] Because one thing is clear: we cannot return to the old normal.” As to combating the coronavirus pandemic, he took the following view: “So what we need in our world is a more systemic approach, [...] a reform of the international system.”¹⁴

The phase of the coronavirus pandemic is therefore seen as an epochal change that should fundamentally alter conditions in the world in line with the WEF agenda outlined above. It remains to be seen how this will happen once the war in Ukraine is over. In the meantime, countries are completely indebted, economies and finances are in tatters and many people do not know which way to turn, so the ideas of the World Economic Forum’s trustees are gaining in importance, regardless of whether there will be a “great war” or not.

The optimally networked WEF is aiming for a globalised, private-law world order that is not democratically controlled. According to informed circles, the ideas are moving in the direction of comprehensive digitalisation, centralisation and surveillance.¹⁵ These plans must be prevented, and the focus must be on humane, more appropriate forms of human coexistence.

* Wolfgang Bittner, born in 1941, is a German author. He studied law, sociology and philosophy in Göttingen and Munich, passed his first state examination in law in 1970, obtained his doctorate in 1972 on a criminal law topic and completed his legal clerkship in 1973 with the second state examination in law. Since 1974, Bittner has focussed more and more on writing. He has written books for adults, young people and children and has worked as a freelancer for numerous print media (including Die Zeit, Frankfurter Rundschau, Neue Zürcher Zeitung), radio and television. Wolfgang Bittner published «Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA» in 2014, «Die Heimat, der Krieg und der Goldene Westen» in 2019 as well as «Der neue West-Ost-Konflikt» und 2021 «Deutschland – verraten und verkauft. Hintergründe und Analysen». The above article is largely an excerpt from the book «Ausnahmezustand – Geopolitische Einsichten und Analysen unter Berücksichtigung des Ukraine-Konflikts» published in 2023.

Source: https://apolut.net/das-weltwirtschaftsforum-und-die-elite-der-welt-von-wolfgang-bittner/ 17 January 2024
(Reprinted by kind permission of the author.)

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)

1 The «Bilderbergers» are also an extremely influetial, informal group that meets globally and is headed by the chairman of a streering committee. The circle of participants is like that of the WEF; see Wikipedia, Bilderberg-Konferenz, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg-Konferenz#Organisation (2 October 2022)

2 Cit. in www.weforum.org/de/open-forum/pages/about

3 Cit. in https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltwirtschaftsforum (18 August 2021); critically: Springer Link, 29 November 2019: The Role of Public and Private Actors and Means in Implementing the SDGs: Reclaiming the Public Policy Space for Sustainable Development and Human Rights; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30469-0_12

4 Cit. in Transnational Institute: Davos and its danger to Democracy, 18 January 2016; www.tni.org/es/node/22742

5 Cf. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltwirtschaftsforum (26 January 2022)

6 Cf. Geoffrey Allen Pigman: The World Economic Forum. A multi-stakeholder approach to global governance. London 2007

7 Cf. World Economic Forum: Strategische Partner; www.weforum.org/communities/strategic-partnership-b5337725-fac7-4f8a-9a4f-c89072b96a0d (20 October 2020)

8 Cit. in BITCHUTE, 25 January 2022; www.bitchute.com/video/Md4l9RsMwxr5/ (26 January 2022)

9 Cit. in Transnational Institute: 17 January 2020; Hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide condemn the takeover of the UN by the World Economic Forum www.tni.org/en/node/24855?content_language=es (20 September 2022)

10 Cit. in apolut: The Great Pretext – Der grosse Vorwand für eine Dystopie, 5 December 2020; https://apolut.net/the-great-pretext-der-grosse-vorwand-fuer-eine-dystopie-von-diana-johnstone/

11 Cit. in Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 December 2021; www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/antisemitismus-kritik-an-kardinal-mueller-1.5489031

12 Transhumanismus = Ideology for the expansion of physical, psychological and intellectual human possibilities through technological processes

13 Zit. Klaus Schwab/Thierry Malleret: Covid-19. Der grosse Umbruch. Cologny/Genf 2020, P. 293

14 Zit. in YouTube: Klaus Schwab: «Wir können nicht zur alten Normalität zurückkehren», 19 November 2020; www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3M2CjHn5N8 (21 October 2022)

15 See: Wolfgang Bittner: «Deutschland – verraten und verkauft», P. 252, 253 et seq., 260 et seq.