Letters
Globalism Is Inevitable; Lay Back & Enjoy It
By Mark E. Wilson
Sep 2, 2004 - 7:06:00 PM

I'm curious, Ken. If the paper companies didn't "die a natural death", how did they die? Does the fact that GNP died of unnatural causes mean that many other industries in the nation were somehow killed in a massive anti-industry pogrom? This country is going through a wrenching time of change - industrial manufacturing is moving overseas because it's cheaper to produce things in China, Vietnam, El Salvador, etc. That's capitalism. The same thing is happening here in Rochester with the moral equivalent of GNP: Kodak. Kodak is in the process of dismantling it's film production here and is busily sending it to China and Eastern Europe - they can't survive against Fuji otherwise. Hasn't the same thing happened to big paper in the US? Isn't paper made more cheaply in Brazil and other countries? And, I believe that a succession of owners had a huge effect on GNP. Who sold off the woodlands? Who sold off the hydro system? Do you think those actions MAY have contributed to the problems?

There is no way GNP will ever be what it once was. I think there will always be some sort of paper industry in the Katahdin Region, but it's focus will probably be specialty papers in small runs. Big steel has gone through an analogous process. The people of Millinocket would do best to put the idea of some savior company coming in and hiring thousands of people at $20.00/hour with full benefits completely out of their minds.

I myself am a software engineer. Guess where thousands of software jobs are going? India, Singapore, Russia, etc. I spend large amounts of time sharpening my skills and learning new ones to remain employed (I'm also 41, and 25 year old kids are a lot cheaper than I - just another worry). When I worked at Xerox, we had a round table meeting with the VP of our division. He told us not to count on Xerox for anything, that we should be "a corporation of one". Stirring, morale boosting words indeed! But, he was absolutely right. It's remarkable what people can do with what was before a hobby, for example. One woman I spoke with here in Rochester was laid off from Xerox and turned her love of cooking into a home cook business at which she makes a good income. It is inevitable that people are going to "discover" the Katahdin region and buy and build vacation homes there. You can hate and shun them, or you can leverage their presence into an economy that will be a hell of a lot better than now exists in reality or the wishes of the people of the region.

In summary, the people of Millinocket are feeling the effect of globalization and pure capitalism at work. The US economy is changing, as has happened in the past (think the Industrial Revolution, the invention of the assembly line, etc.). There's nothing anyone can do about it. It's going to take imagination and hard work to make a living. That's the way it is now, it sucks, get used to it.

Mark E. Wilson
Rochester, NY

Editor's Note: Do you really think it's all by accident; that, for some reason, the American people lost the ability to compete in an open market? Is it really an open market?

A Canadian company - Brascan - owns the paper mill, although it is operating as Katahdin Paper Company. This same company still owns much of the woodlands, although it is managing it through a group of subsidiaries that transfer land back and forth as if they were playing a shell game. Great Lakes Hydro, which operates the hydro system that was once a part of Great Northern Paper Company, as well as other assets that they have since purchased, is also a subsidiary of Brascan. Brascan has only recently transferred the mortgage on much of its leased land to Titanium Trust, an asset-backed trust, located offshore, that they established for that purpose. As much as they would like us to forget that these are all the same company, particularly when they plan on doing something unpopular in the next few years, if not before, I think it's important to keep that straight.

Some of Great Northern's woodlands - about 240,000 acres - were sold to The Nature Conservancy in August of 2002, not long before GNP filed for bankruptcy. One of the people involved in this scheme, then in a position as President and General Manager of GNP, now sits on the board of The Nature Conservancy, and is President of what passes for a development council around here. Our former governor, who was also instrumental in the greening of Maine, now also sits on the board of The Nature Conservancy.

The Millinocket Area Growth & Investment Council (MAGIC) was formed by Matt Polstein, Don McNeil, Richard Waller, and others. One of their stated purposes for the corporation was to transition the Katahdin region's economy to focus on tourism rather than industry. This was well before the mills closed.

As owner of New England Outdoor Center, the largest tourism business in the area, it was clear that Matt would benefit from the demise of Great Northern Paper, as he would no longer have to compete with GNP's good wages and benefits package, and because the changing economy would attract more tourists and vacationers to his businesses.

In what can only be an illegal email meeting that he held with other councilors in March of this year, Matt persuaded other members of the council to oppose an annexation proposal which would have involved land owned by Brascan, a company with which he now admits a conflict of interest.

In subsequent (legal) meetings of the council, Matt has recused himself from discussions of annexation, saying that he is in negotiations with the company over a development project, believed to be planned for Black Cat Mountain or Hammond Ridge, outside of the town limits of Millinocket. While he has since recused himself, this came only after he had persuaded the majority of the council to fight annexation, thus sheltering his project from paying taxes to the town of Millinocket.

He would have us believe that no conflict existed at the time that he initiated the email conversation that persuaded the majority of the counsel to oppose annexation, but that the conflict came into being later. I believe in coincidence but this one doesn't pass the plausibility test.

I can't think of a reason for someone who truly represented the town of Millinocket (as opposed to personal or private interests) to oppose annexation of land soon to be developed. It would add to our tax base, provide compensation for services provided, and give us room in which to grow. Currently, Millinocket is one of the smallest towns in the state, occupying an area less than one township, so we surely need annexation.

At the time that MAGIC was formed, the part that Don McNeil played in what was to lead to the bankruptcy of Great Northern was known only to those who were in on the scheme. He has since been named as a defendant in a suit filed by the GNP trustee, so perhaps the facts will come out eventually, but I won't be holding my breath. After brokering a deal that led to GNP's insolvency on the day that Lambert Bedard's Inexcon Maine took control of the paper company, and to the sale of woodlands to The Nature Conservancy, McNeil was rewarded with a seat on TNC's board of directors. Although a citizen of Canada, he has remained in this area, with his hands on the pulse of anything that might otherwise have led to economic recovery.

Richard Waller came to Millinocket as CEO of Millinocket Regional Hospital, a position he lost only after he had downgraded the hospital's level of service. While he had come here from Alaska for a position that he no longer held, Richard remained in town for over a year, then sold his house and took a job as pastor of the Nazarene Church here. Of course, this is not necessarily ominous, but it is curious, particularly when you realize that taking control of the churches is an important step in implementing the sustainable development portion of U.N. Agenda 21.

Early on, and long before Great Northern closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy, MAGIC was meeting with The Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society, and other green groups, although this did not become known to the general public until recently.

The Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society, RESTORE: The North Woods, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, MAGIC; I don't believe for a moment that these groups are at odds with one another. The regional director of the Wilderness Society founded RESTORE, and The Nature Conservancy, which controls MAGIC, invited them into this area.

You are correct to point out that this is not something that is peculiar to the Katahdin region. Industries throughout this nation are in decline; an engineered decline.

When a Canadian company cuts trees in Maine, and a Canadian trucking company transports them to Canada for processing, a government that was looking out for its own people might take steps to protect American jobs. Instead, a senator representing the State of Maine lobbies to permit Canadian loggers to cut the trees, thereby keeping Americans out of the loop altogether.

Even as they promote a tourist economy, this same senator lobbies to extend the work permits for foreigners, allowing them to take those jobs along Maine's coast.  If I were to cross the border for work, do you believe that the Canadian government would work to give me such an advantage over the Canadian worker?

Just as the demise of our paper industry did not occur by accident, neither is globalism the result of market forces. When the United States government works to extend employment rights to foreign workers, while foreign governments do not do the same for American workers, we are not dealing in a free market.

NAFTA wasn't intended to help the American worker. In January of 2005, the Bush Administration is expected to push for what will be sold as an extension of NAFTA, given the deliberately misleading name of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Designed as an open-ended process, the FTAA will, if passed, complete the destruction of the middle class in the United States.

As you have indicated, most people who are old enough to discern trends have become nervous about our nation's future, recognizing that out country is plagued by problems that have serious long-term consequences. Out of control immigration into this country, combined with the flight of American industry overseas are problems that few mature Americans are entirely oblivious to.

Unfortunately, the general public doesn't know what to do about it, and thus tends to look to government for solutions. Despite posturing by politicians up for reelection, the problems only get worse and worse. The rich get richer and the middle class gets poorer, one of the objectives being, I am convinced, to eliminate the middle class altogether; certainly to reduce one's ability to move from one class to another.

Most Americans want our government to control our borders, stemming massive illegal immigration, yet we keep hearing talk about amnesty and further opening our borders. What possible advantage does this give to the many Americans who are either out of work or employed in jobs that don't pay nearly as well as those that were available years ago.

In our entire history, this is perhaps the first generation of Americans that is worse off than the generation before it.

You are probably right, however. Unless the American people are willing to do the uncomfortable thing and, daring to be negative, say no to globalization, insisting on our constitutional form of government .. unless this happens, we will continue in our current path.

Individually; yes, we can survive. I worked for Champion Paper for twelve years before the company closed its paper bag manufacturing operations. Briefly I went to work for another paper bag company, but seeing no future in the paper bag industry, I went back to school and became a paramedic, working in all aspects of that field for more than twenty years before moving on to something else. But I was single, making things easier.

Of course, life should be about something more than survival, and could be again if only we wanted it badly enough.

Thanks for writing, Mark. I enjoy your letters.