WEF – the great transformation – a silent coup d’état?

Is the World Economic Forum (WEF) really a combination of capitalist consultancy and gigantic lobby?

Wolfgang Bittner

Introducing a new author

It is an extraordinary pleasure to introduce a new author to our readers – a real heavyweight. Dr. Wolfgang Bittner studied law, sociology and philosophy in Göttingen and Munich, holds a doctorate in law and has been an award-winning journalist and author over the decades. His independent and critical view of world affairs makes him one of the most interesting figures in the world of German-language journalism and we are honored to have him write for us.

We extend a warm welcome to Wolfgang Bittner.

Peter Hanseler

The population is barely aware of the disturbing plans of the influential World Economic Forum (WEF) to reorganize society, which are being overshadowed by the confusing chaos of information, climate panic and the war in Ukraine. The WEF, a foundation and globally networked lobbying organization, has its headquarters in Switzerland near Geneva and holds 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 – like that of the “Bilderberg Group”[i] – is often underestimated. After all, it is not a harmless society of dignitaries that meets in the Swiss mountains to have a nice chat.

Jahrestreffen, Open Forum, Global Redesign

The aim of the Open Forum, which takes place alongside the annual meeting, is, according to the organization, “to allow the public to participate in discussions between decision-makers from politics, business, academia 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 dialog between decision-makers from different sectors and walks of life to seek solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time.”[ii]

That doesn’t sound like a conspiracy at all. But the objective becomes somewhat clearer, and therefore problematic, when the WEF calls in its “Global Redesign” report from 2010 for “a globalized world to be best governed by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments (including through the United Nations (UN) system) and selected civil society organizations (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”[iii].

Global governance – a silent coup d’état

In other words, the WEF plans to replace democratic forms of organization, in which power in the state is supposed to emanate from the people through elected representatives, with a system of rule in which a group of “stakeholders”, i.e. “leading personalities”, form a global decision-making body.

Viewed positively, this would be a 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 organization that is preparing a takeover of power by non-democratically legitimized “leaders” on a global scale. Phases of global instability, such as the coronavirus pandemic, famines or the effects of the war in Ukraine, can then be used to implement the program. Communications researcher and author Nick Buxton, who has studied 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”[iv].

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,[v] 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.[vi] 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.[vii]

In 1992, the WEF launched a program 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 stated: “What we are very proud of … is that we penetrate the cabinets with our Young Global Leaders.”[viii] In this way, the WEF influences public life worldwide.

The very first program in 1992 was attended by such well-known personalities as Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Manuel Barroso and Bill Gates. In the following years, hundreds more joined the program 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 (ex-Minister of the Environment 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 organizations and 40 international networks opposed a partnership agreement between the WEF and the United Nations. The UN Secretary-General was urged to end the agreement as it was a “disturbing corporate capture” of the UN that was “moving the world dangerously towards privatized and undemocratic global governance”.[ix]

US journalist Diana Johnstone considers the WEF to be a “combination of capitalist consulting firm and gigantic lobby”, focused 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: e.g. problem solving without ethical distractions.” She warns against the “voice of would-be global governance” and writes: “From the top, experts decide what the masses should want, twisting the supposed wishes of the people to fit the profit schemes they peddle.”[x]

In 2021, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, spoke out and criticized 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. Rather, they saw such crises as an opportunity to push through their agenda of a meritocratic global “Great Reset” with increasing control over society.[xi] Müller criticized support from areas such as transhumanism[xii]. 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 normality”[xiii].

In an interview on November 19, 2020, when asked 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.” With regard to the fight against 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.”[xiv]

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’s agenda. It remains to be seen how this will happen once the war in Ukraine is over. In the meantime, countries are completely in debt, economies and finances are in tatters and many people do not know what to do or what to do, 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.

Conclusion

The optimally networked WEF is aiming for a globalized world order governed by private law, i.e. not democratically controlled. According to informed circles, the ideas are moving in the direction of comprehensive digitalization, centralization and surveillance.[xv] These plans must be prevented and the focus directed towards humane, more appropriate forms of human coexistence.

Wolfgang Bittner published “Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA” in 2014, “Die Heimat, der Krieg und der Goldene Westen” and “Der neue West-Ost-Konflikt” in 2019 and “Deutschland – verraten und verkauft. Background and analysis”.

The above article is largely an excerpt from the book “Ausnahmezustand – Geopolitische Einsichten und Analysen unter Berücksichtigung des Ukraine-Konflikts”, published in 2023. This book can be obtained from zeitgeist Verlag, Höhr-Grenzhausen, €19.90 ISBN 978-3756559398.

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[i] Die „Bilderberger“ sind eine ebenfalls außerordentlich einflussreiche, informell zusammentreffende Gruppierung, die global agiert und deren Leitung dem Vorsitzenden eines Lenkungsausschusses obliegt. Der Teilnehmerkreis ist ähnlich dem beim WEF; vgl. Wikipedia, Bilderberg-Konferenz, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg-Konferenz#Organisation (2.10.2022)

[ii] Zit. wie www.weforum.org/de/open-forum/pages/about

[iii] Zit. wie https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltwirtschaftsforum (18.8.2021); kritisch hierzu: Springer Link, 29.11.2019: 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

[iv] Zit. wie Transnational Institute: Davos and its danger to Democracy, 18.1.2016; www.tni.org/es/node/22742

[v] Vgl. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltwirtschaftsforum (26.1.2022)

[vi] Vgl. Geoffrey Allen Pigman: The World Economic Forum. A multi-stakeholder approach to global governance. London 2007

[vii] Vgl. World Economic Forum: Strategische Partner; www.weforum.org/communities/strategic-partnership-b5337725-fac7-4f8a-9a4f-c89072b96a0d (20.10.2020)

[viii] Zit. wie BITCHUTE, 25.1.2022; www.bitchute.com/video/Md4l9RsMwxr5/ (26.1.2022)

[ix] Zit. wie Transnational Institute: Hunderte zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen weltweit verurteilen die Übernahme der UN durch das Weltwirtschaftsforum, 17.1.2020; www.tni.org/en/node/24855?content_language=es (20.9.2022)

[x] Zit. wie apolut: The Great Pretext – Der große Vorwand für eine Dystopie, 5.12.2020; https://apolut.net/the-great-pretext-der-grosse-vorwand-fuer-eine-dystopie-von-diana-johnstone/

[xi] Zit. wie Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15.12.2021; www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/antisemitismus-kritik-an-kardinal-mueller-1.5489031

[xii] Transhumanismus = Ideologie zur Erweiterung der physischen, psychischen und intellektuellen menschlichen Möglichkeiten durch technologische Verfahren

[xiii] Zit. wie Klaus Schwab/Thierry Malleret: Covid-19. Der große Umbruch. Cologny/Genf 2020, S. 293

[xiv] Zit. wie YouTube: Klaus Schwab: „Wir können nicht zur alten Normalität zurückkehren“, 19.11.2020; www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3M2CjHn5N8 (21.10.2022)

[xv] Dazu: Wolfgang Bittner: Deutschland – verraten und verkauft, S. 252, 253 ff., 260 ff.