World federalism and peace….
EXCERPTS
From Interview with
Stephen Gill by Dr. Prof. Jaydeep Sarangi, appeared in The Atlantic Literary
Review,
July-Sep. & Oct.-Dec. 2004, Vol 5, No. 3-4, pages
164-183
J.S. You
talk of world citizenship in your writing. Don’t you think it as more abstract
and theoretical than anything else?
S.G. The
idea of world citizenship is not abstract.
I have developed this idea in my
poetry, have written about it in
my fiction and have given talks and discussed it on radio
and TV. A selection of these appearances has been put together in a two-hour DVD, titled Interviews of
Stephen Gill. I have reflected on this subject also in the introductions to Anti-War
Poems, parts one and two, released by Vesta in
1984 and 1986.
Thinkers
and social reformers have been talking of
world citizenship for centuries.
In the initial stages every idea is abstract. When people saw the denizens of
the air, they began to think of flying.
Man has reached the moon and is striving
now to go beyond. In the same way,
people saw creatures in the sea. Man has
now means to touch and sail at the bottom of these oceans. Take the cases of some nations. This idea appeared abstract when the leaders wanted to form the United
States of America (USA). Now it is reality. When people talked about uniting the
entire
The idea
of world citizenship is no more abstract, because the world has already been
shrunk to a city. In nearly every home there are goods from different corners
of the world, including computers,
clothes, shoes, cameras, medical
supplies, cars and other electronic and non electronic goods. In the matter of
taste and foods the world is one. Electronic devices spread the news in
every corner of the world within
minutes. Emails and telephone systems have united the world.
Humans
are breathing in a world that has been reduced to a city, but this city is
without its own council or parliament and its mayor. That is why there is chaos everywhere. We
need a democratically elected world government to take care of this city.
One major step that would lead to world peace is control
of the international anarchy
through international government.
The
United Nations Organization is a sort of world government but it has some defects. It is not effective because its
representatives are not directly elected by their governments; it has veto
power that is undemocratic; it has no way to raise its own finances through
taxes; it has no judiciary with power; and above all, it does not
have its own military force.
J.S. Can you list a few
important world personalities who support the idea of one-world government.
S.G. A few utopian or crazy individuals have not
launched the movement for a world government. Rather the concerned citizens of
the world, including Winston Churchill, Charles DeGaule,
Clement Attlee, Indira Gandhi, Lester Pearson, Leopold Stenghor,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Pierre Trudeau, Carlos Romulo, and
Bertrand Russell, have supported this movement.
Jawaharlal
Nehru once said, AI have long believed the only way peace can be
achieved is through world government.@ Winston Churchill
said, A unless some effective supranational
government can be set up and brought quickly into action, the prospects of
peace and human progress are dark and doubtful.@ Pope John xx111 in April 1963, speaking to the world said that the UN might eventually become Aa strong world authority.@ He argued that a supernational authority must be considered.@
English
author and actor Peter Ustinov once said, A World Government is not only possible, it is inevitable; and when it
comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the
patriotism of men who love their national heritage so deeply that they wish to
preserve them in safety for the common good.@ Above all, there is the Nobel Prize winning scientist Harold C. Urey. He was instrumental in producing the first atomic and
hydrogen bombs. He died in
The idea
of forming one-world government has been advocated also by scientific romance writer H.G. Wells and Alfred
Tennyson, a poet of the
Victorian Age. I have discussed H.G. Wells in detail in my book Scientific
Romances of H.G. Wells. Both writers envisage a global parliament in their
works. AIn Wells=s The War in the Air (1908) scientific
progress leads to a cataclysmic war, which is followed by all sorts of
miseries. This makes people aware of the futility of wars, and the necessity to
constitute an international parliament to ameliorate the human predicament and
to avert future disasters. Wells elaborates the same view in The World Set
Free@ that was released in 1914 (p. 135).
J.S. How
the world government can make the
world a better place to live?
S.G. Nearly every country has been
preparing itself for wars against real and imaginary enemies.
Even the poorest nations are spending their hard-earned foreign currencies on explosive to boost
their national pride. This waste ought
to be eliminated. Moreover, these
preparations for war
lead to unnecessary tensions with
their neighbors.
National governments have been
formed to render certain services to their citizens. One of them is to protect life and property of their people. In other words, they give security.
But when all national governments become
sovereign with no authority to control
them and when they start arming
themselves to give security to their citizens from external aggression, the
natural outcome is war. The sovereignty of several states leads to clashes. The
United Nations has failed to prevent several wars because it recognizes the
sovereign rights of national governments and resists interference
in their domestic matters.
Not
only is there waste in the presence of unethical national governments, there is also
the real danger of the annihilation of
modern civilization through the use of
nuclear weapons. It took centuries to build this civilization and now it may take minutes to destroy it. History
tells us that every weapon that was invented has been used. Therefore, the
nuclear weapons are likely to be used on
a large scale. I have written several
poems on world annihilation through the
weapons of mass destruction.
National
governments have failed to solve serious life-threatening problems, including
international terrorism. Other problems include, hunger, pollution, and weakening of
the layer of the ozone that filters out most of the harmful radiation of
the sun. The damage to ozone layer will not affect only one country. It is a concern of all
humankind. Ozone is like a roof over the airship, inhabited by all of the human race. Ocean pollution also
threatens the existence of human life. Pesticide, lead, arsenic, oil spills,
radioactive and several forms of wastes
present danger to the world=s ocean system.
Just in case of pollution only, no single
nation can cope with this problem. Sweden with the hardest antipollution
laws has discovered that it cannot solve their problem on a national basis. The
If there
were a democratically elected
world government, national
governments would l not be allowed to have their military power.
They would l have a
police force to maintain law and order situations like the cities are allowed
in any country. The military
force would be under the world government only. The citizens of the world will
feel safer this way.
These
steps will make the world a better place
to live and also save money by
eliminating waste on national military budgets. This saved money will be
used to open more schools, colleges and
universities, more hospitals and grow
more food. Scorching deserts will be changed into the smiling fields to produce
crops. The money that would be saved would be used to eliminate diseases and
poverty.
The world
government does not mean to get rid of national languages and cultures.
Countries like India and Canada are already multicultural and multilingual.
World citizenship is an extension of these realities. If languages
and cultures can survive in
these and in other nations, they can survive also under the one-world government. World citizenship does
not mean to stop loving one=s country; world citizenship is to include
everyone in the fold of its care for the sake of human survival and the betterment of life.
I would
like to admit that it is almost
impossible to form any democratically
elected world government under the prevailing situation. At the same time the
world cannot attain meaningful peace and prosperity without an international authority to take
control of the present anarchy. To reach this goal, the citizens of the world
should be educated right from the early days of their lives.
========================================
From
PCP: Would you like to
present your World Government idea? You have been delivering lectures on these
issues? D you think it is a form of new
world order that was presented by the
Dr. Gill: My philosophy behind a World Government is to stop the
future horrors and wastes. My idea of a
World government is different from the
new world order. I am fully convinced that the United Nations is a sort of a world government though it needs to be
improved. A world government would save
incredible amounts of money and energy that are being wasted by nations to defend themselves against their
imaginary foes. All the armed forces everywhere will come under the control of
the world government. Countries will be allowed to keep police forces to
maintain law and order situations. When
there are no expenditures for nations to
build their arsenals for their armies, the money of these countries would be
saved. Those savings of billions of
dollars every years will be used to improve
health and education facilities
for the rehabilitation of poor, and to work for a
better and more peaceful life on
earth. Every government will have equal powers and right to vote in this democratically elected
world government. The European common market that has united
================================
From
IDEAS
DON'T REPORT TO CUSTOMS BY Terry Koch, staff reporter
*Appeared in At Your Leisure, Ogdensburg,
There is a poster on one wall of Stephen Gill's
book-filled office…It reads "Only One Earth.
Stephen
Gill--novelist, poet, non-fiction writer, publisher and "citizen of the
world"-- is a national director of World Federalists of Canada" and
the editor of its small newspaper. There in
Gill's
own experience has perhaps broadened his views. He was born and grew up in
"I
became a world federalist," he said, "before I became a "World
Federalist." I noticed that there
was a double standard in the world. The people were the same everywhere. They
were friendly but the governments were not."
World Federalism
We believe the whole world is one country," Gill said. "We do not believe in
artificial things like passports."
World Federalists are not shadowy men in trench-coats furtively passing out
pamphlets from dark doorways in
The Canadian chapter has about 2,000 members and
is headquartered in
They believe in the abolition of all national armies except for internal
"police" purposes and promote compulsory stepwise negotiations to
settle disputes between nations.
Although they back strong efforts toward insuring human rights in all
countries, they do not support interfering with a country's economic system or
in other internal matters.
What About
While Gill works his way toward World Federalism, virtually next door to
him
"We
are of course," Gill added, "for federation, but we don't involve
ourselves in that issue because it is not important. We should think about
other problems. If there is a third world war there won't be a
Driving
a wedge between
=======================================================================
From
LITTLE
*Appeared in Advance (
June 1990.
He is a crusader for peace and is closely associated
with the movement of World Federalism. He is president of the Co-ordinating
Council of Catalyst 87 Clubs of Canada E; and the first national officer to the
Movement for Political World Union in
For a long time
I have been hearing
the dove of peace will be freed,
shortly
and for that dove's total safety
cannons have been installed
over dead bodies,
flesh-famished weapons have flown,
dirge-chanting vultures set free.
Players are engaged in fire games,
robots thirsty now for more blood
and the Animal of Hostilities
is preparing the last dance.
============================================
Every nation of the world
is free and sovereign. You say often that
their sovereignty is a danger to
world peace. How it can be a danger?by Professor Anuradha Sharma.
From the interview
that is being published in Prof. KV Dominic’s book Stephen Gill’s Poetry: A Panorma of Peace
A. National governments provide certain
services to their citizens, including the
services for protection of life and property. Problems arise when governments become sovereign with no
authority to control them. When every government starts arming itself to
assure security to its people from
external aggression, real or imaginary, wars become inevitable. The security of
the people is endangered when countries become sovereign and fully independent
of one another. This leads to clashes among them.
Sovereignty or complete independence
of national governments is the reason for the failure of the UN
to prevent several wars. The UN recognizes the right of all the nations of the world for self-determination
and to resist interference by any foreign authority in their domestic matters. As long as national
governments remain independent in the
international arena, clashes are bound to arise. To stop those clashes, there
have to be some rules and laws for all
the nations of the world to observe when they deal with one another. A
parliament of nations will make those
laws which will define clearly the limitations of national governments. A
democratically elected world parliament will see in the first place that such a
situation does not arise. If it does, it
will deal with the warring nations appropriately. Armed clashes between
nations have been taking place primarily because one of them is the aggressor
and deceitful. Or the reason could be that the one nation wanted to swallow the
land of the other nation.
Presently, the world is like a large
house which is unsuitable for living
because several workmen with the help of their individual plans and skills and
without any design have built it. The
world has international institutions but there is no world authority to organize
them. The world has become a global village, but this village is without its
mayor and councilors. National governments have failed to bring sanity to the
insane situation, primarily because they
are not based on the principal of cooperation and sharing for the good of
others. Every nation thinks of its own citizens first.
If the world is to be turned into a
safer place to live, it is vital to pass laws to control arms through
legislation. Otherwise the demonic power of sophisticated arms that humans have
created will destroy humans for ever. To avert this situation, the world needs the next step in the
development of human civilization and that is to form a democratic world
government above all the national governments. If the law of the sea, the law
of diplomatic immunity, the postal conventions and civil aviation can work,
then the parliament of the nations can
also work.
Space travel was not achieved in one
day. Other scientific and technological discoveries were not made in minutes
either. It took years of research and dedication. The same argument applies to
this parliament of the world. After the formation of nations, now is the time to form a world
parliament. This does not mean that national governments will go away. It also
does not means that national languages
and cultures will go away. They all will
continue to exist as usual. The national
governments, as provincial governments are at present, will have jurisdiction
over their marked boundaries to enforce their sovereignty. These governments
will hand over a part of their sovereignty to the international parliament to
deal with international affairs.
To maintain sovereignty, every
nation at present has armed forces and intelligence agencies. When a parliament of the world is
formed, there will not be any need for them. At present, citizens are
governed by a set of laws framed by their respective governments. They will continue to be governed this way.
However, their national governments will
be governed by the government above them
as provincial governments are governed by the federal government. The
parliament of the world will restrict the powers of the national governments to
produce and to arm themselves against any possible or imaginary aggression.
Assurance against any aggression will be the domain of the world parliament.
This is the way to make the world free from wars and to stop waste on arms
preparation. This will save billions of
dollars that every nation can invest on schools, to open hospitals and to give
better care to its citizens..
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