Viewing Message #34
Time : Fri 12-Oct-2007
From : newsletter admin
Subject : Newsletter No 27 12/Oct/07
Message :
Issue No 27. 12/Oct/07
The newsletter of the Sapiens Movement.
Dear Friends,
Be relieved! This Newsletter contains nothing on faster than anticipated climate change or on the teetering White House and Zionist decision as to whether or not to launch the yearned for assault on Iran.
It was a pleasure meeting some of you at the 25th Congress of the World Federalist Movement, which was held in Geneva in the last week of August.
The WFM is probably the oldest and most august of the many mundialist movements that now exist. The congress coincided with the 60th anniversary of the WFM’s formation at the end of WWII, when millions of Europeans saw a global federation as the best hope of avoiding future such wars. The congress took an afternoon off to attend a small ceremony, held in the lakeside hotel in Montreux, where luminaries, including Albert Einstein, signed the original founding documents.
Subsequently, membership of the WFM fell away dramatically. Once the Cold War took hold, internationalism could, in many eyes, be equated with treason. WFM’s membership melted further as the formation of the United Nations let people fondly imagine that the problem of international anarchy had been finally resolved!
In recent years the movement has started to rebuild its fortunes. Throughout its long winter, it had retained branches (its “Member Organisations”) in many countries. Probably the most effective of these has proved to be the Japanese branch, which is closely tied to a major political party and has recently succeeded in having passed into law the decision that Japan would join a global federation as soon as one became available. It also has a network of “Associate Member” organisations (of which Sapiens is one.)
Until recently, anyone who wished to join the WFM, had to join one of its national branches. At this recent congress, an international branch of the WFM was launched in which anyone can now log onto the Web and become part of an extended e-network of individual WFM members.
The WFM has a head office across the road from UN HQ in New York from where it has become a respected and formidable lobbying institution. While its income from membership fees remains paltry, it has managed to build up a significant, multi-million income, with grants from such institutions as the Ford Foundation and the European Union. It now employs a substantial secretariat.
Arguably, its most notable success has been the establishment of the International Criminal Court. This extremely important development in international law, probably could never have come about without WFM’s dedicated lobbying on its behalf.
Currently the WFM is actively promoting the global project to democratise the General Assembly of the UN. My personal judgement is that this effort is unlikely to succeed until the veto is removed from the Security Council members. (i.e. It is unlikely to succeed in the near-term future.) Why should the veto holders on the Security Council decide to ratify any proposal that could increase the democratic nature, and therefore the legitimacy, of the General Assembly? Such a move could only be at their own expense as the guardians and main beneficiaries of the status quo.
Be that as it may, it was interesting to note the extent to which the Movement had parted ways with its initial mundialist goal. Many congratulations were expressed on the Movement’s successful survival of its first sixty years of existence. Disturbingly, almost as many expressions of hope were expressed that it would still be around in another sixty years’ time. No one stated “Let’s get this World Federal Government in place ASAP and then we can all go home.”
It was almost as though the Movement has tacitly agreed to abandon hope of achieving its stated objective within current lifetimes. Instead, it seems to be content to occupy a respected position in the constellation of NGOs clustered around UN HQ, and to be concentrating on making useful and incremental contributions to piecemeal improvements in global governance.
There is no doubt that this is a useful contribution to the resolution of the global problem – but it isn’t going to solve the fundamental problem, which its founders intended it to solve. One cannot help feeling that WFM offers a salutary example to other NGOs advocating radical change to the status quo. Once an organisation becomes part of the establishment and accepts funding from establishment institutions, it can carry on with a programme of removing the odd wart or embryonic melanoma here and there. However, what it is no longer able to do is to risk rocking the boat by advocacy of any form of radical surgery to the established order.
From time to time in these newsletters, I have mentioned a group of internet colleagues who have been working away over the last few years in an attempt to form an umbrella organisation, which would act as a neutral representative and common spokesman for all the many mundialist groups struggling to achieve a more rational (or less dysfunctional form) of global governance. On the sidelines of the WFM’s Geneva congress, about ten or so members of this group managed to meet late into every night to continue their work on putting this idea into effect. By the end of the week, we were able to sign an agreement as to the fundamental outlines of “NewOrg,” its proposed functions and how it will be established. (“NewOrg” is just a temporary name of convenience. If any readers wish to make suggestions as to what it should be called, their contributions will be very welcome.)
Ken Kostyo is an international lawyer from Pennsylvania and a member of NewOrg’s founding committee. As a Dutch resident, he is also a member of WFBN, the Dutch branch of the World Federalist movement. Through Ken’s good offices, the Dutch group have agreed to host NewOrg in their office on The Hague – and to donate a substantial sum of money towards the establishment of its Website. The Website is due to go on-line in March 2008 to celebrate WFBN’s sixtieth anniversary.
Initially, NewOrg will function as a quasi-independent sub-committee of the WFBN. It will retain the freedom, should it so wish at a later date, to opt for incorporation as an independent body.
NewOrg’s function will be to accept membership from all mundialist groups worldwide. To provide an efficient inter-group information exchange through newsletter’s seminars etc.. To provide centralised training facilities for any group wishing to make use of them. To provide a central Web portal, with associated archives etc. for the whole movement. To develop a global outreach of professional advocacy for the mundialist solution in general. To provide on the Website a central point at which, would be new-comers to the movement can compare the different groups available: and from there, select which group seems the most suitable for them to contribute to or join.
NewOrg will be run by an executive committee, self-appointed initially, but democratically elected after the first AGM. Committee members undertake to be totally neutral in their roles, favouring no single member organisation over any other – no matter which organisation might have been responsible for their election to the committee.
NewOrg will not have individual members as it has no wish to compete for such membership with its membership organisations. However, the Committee is currently discussing the possibility that it will offer Associate Member status to a few selected individuals such as academics and writers. These, may not wish to be seen to be compromising their independence by joining any specific mundialist organisation. More importantly, they could provide a pool of expertise and connections able to make a significant contribution to the Committee’s outreach programme.
While sending out this newsletter, I may as well seize the opportunity of attaching the minutes of the AGM, which was held on the 11th August. No apologies were received and no one, other than myself, attended. AGM’s are a formal bore and I was not surprised by the lack of attendance. I accept that there is no serious activity going on in Sapiens at the moment and all it has become is a source of a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter sent out to fifty or so subscribers and containing an individual commentary on the mundialist scene. As I have had no requests from members to unsubscribe, I assume that it is acceptable for me to continue in this manner for a further year.
While the demands of Simpol’s establishment in New Zealand are occupying much of my time, I do not see much scope for further development towards Sapiens’ stated objective of trying to nudge New Zealand and other nation states, towards the Inter-State Treaty Process. The goal is not abandoned and I do intend, once time becomes available, to re-energise Sapiens as an active, membership organisation working towards its stated objective.
Hugh Steadman, Blenheim, New Zealand.
Determined
The newsletter of the Sapiens Movement.
Dear Friends,
Be relieved! This Newsletter contains nothing on faster than anticipated climate change or on the teetering White House and Zionist decision as to whether or not to launch the yearned for assault on Iran.
It was a pleasure meeting some of you at the 25th Congress of the World Federalist Movement, which was held in Geneva in the last week of August.
The WFM is probably the oldest and most august of the many mundialist movements that now exist. The congress coincided with the 60th anniversary of the WFM’s formation at the end of WWII, when millions of Europeans saw a global federation as the best hope of avoiding future such wars. The congress took an afternoon off to attend a small ceremony, held in the lakeside hotel in Montreux, where luminaries, including Albert Einstein, signed the original founding documents.
Subsequently, membership of the WFM fell away dramatically. Once the Cold War took hold, internationalism could, in many eyes, be equated with treason. WFM’s membership melted further as the formation of the United Nations let people fondly imagine that the problem of international anarchy had been finally resolved!
In recent years the movement has started to rebuild its fortunes. Throughout its long winter, it had retained branches (its “Member Organisations”) in many countries. Probably the most effective of these has proved to be the Japanese branch, which is closely tied to a major political party and has recently succeeded in having passed into law the decision that Japan would join a global federation as soon as one became available. It also has a network of “Associate Member” organisations (of which Sapiens is one.)
Until recently, anyone who wished to join the WFM, had to join one of its national branches. At this recent congress, an international branch of the WFM was launched in which anyone can now log onto the Web and become part of an extended e-network of individual WFM members.
The WFM has a head office across the road from UN HQ in New York from where it has become a respected and formidable lobbying institution. While its income from membership fees remains paltry, it has managed to build up a significant, multi-million income, with grants from such institutions as the Ford Foundation and the European Union. It now employs a substantial secretariat.
Arguably, its most notable success has been the establishment of the International Criminal Court. This extremely important development in international law, probably could never have come about without WFM’s dedicated lobbying on its behalf.
Currently the WFM is actively promoting the global project to democratise the General Assembly of the UN. My personal judgement is that this effort is unlikely to succeed until the veto is removed from the Security Council members. (i.e. It is unlikely to succeed in the near-term future.) Why should the veto holders on the Security Council decide to ratify any proposal that could increase the democratic nature, and therefore the legitimacy, of the General Assembly? Such a move could only be at their own expense as the guardians and main beneficiaries of the status quo.
Be that as it may, it was interesting to note the extent to which the Movement had parted ways with its initial mundialist goal. Many congratulations were expressed on the Movement’s successful survival of its first sixty years of existence. Disturbingly, almost as many expressions of hope were expressed that it would still be around in another sixty years’ time. No one stated “Let’s get this World Federal Government in place ASAP and then we can all go home.”
It was almost as though the Movement has tacitly agreed to abandon hope of achieving its stated objective within current lifetimes. Instead, it seems to be content to occupy a respected position in the constellation of NGOs clustered around UN HQ, and to be concentrating on making useful and incremental contributions to piecemeal improvements in global governance.
There is no doubt that this is a useful contribution to the resolution of the global problem – but it isn’t going to solve the fundamental problem, which its founders intended it to solve. One cannot help feeling that WFM offers a salutary example to other NGOs advocating radical change to the status quo. Once an organisation becomes part of the establishment and accepts funding from establishment institutions, it can carry on with a programme of removing the odd wart or embryonic melanoma here and there. However, what it is no longer able to do is to risk rocking the boat by advocacy of any form of radical surgery to the established order.
From time to time in these newsletters, I have mentioned a group of internet colleagues who have been working away over the last few years in an attempt to form an umbrella organisation, which would act as a neutral representative and common spokesman for all the many mundialist groups struggling to achieve a more rational (or less dysfunctional form) of global governance. On the sidelines of the WFM’s Geneva congress, about ten or so members of this group managed to meet late into every night to continue their work on putting this idea into effect. By the end of the week, we were able to sign an agreement as to the fundamental outlines of “NewOrg,” its proposed functions and how it will be established. (“NewOrg” is just a temporary name of convenience. If any readers wish to make suggestions as to what it should be called, their contributions will be very welcome.)
Ken Kostyo is an international lawyer from Pennsylvania and a member of NewOrg’s founding committee. As a Dutch resident, he is also a member of WFBN, the Dutch branch of the World Federalist movement. Through Ken’s good offices, the Dutch group have agreed to host NewOrg in their office on The Hague – and to donate a substantial sum of money towards the establishment of its Website. The Website is due to go on-line in March 2008 to celebrate WFBN’s sixtieth anniversary.
Initially, NewOrg will function as a quasi-independent sub-committee of the WFBN. It will retain the freedom, should it so wish at a later date, to opt for incorporation as an independent body.
NewOrg’s function will be to accept membership from all mundialist groups worldwide. To provide an efficient inter-group information exchange through newsletter’s seminars etc.. To provide centralised training facilities for any group wishing to make use of them. To provide a central Web portal, with associated archives etc. for the whole movement. To develop a global outreach of professional advocacy for the mundialist solution in general. To provide on the Website a central point at which, would be new-comers to the movement can compare the different groups available: and from there, select which group seems the most suitable for them to contribute to or join.
NewOrg will be run by an executive committee, self-appointed initially, but democratically elected after the first AGM. Committee members undertake to be totally neutral in their roles, favouring no single member organisation over any other – no matter which organisation might have been responsible for their election to the committee.
NewOrg will not have individual members as it has no wish to compete for such membership with its membership organisations. However, the Committee is currently discussing the possibility that it will offer Associate Member status to a few selected individuals such as academics and writers. These, may not wish to be seen to be compromising their independence by joining any specific mundialist organisation. More importantly, they could provide a pool of expertise and connections able to make a significant contribution to the Committee’s outreach programme.
While sending out this newsletter, I may as well seize the opportunity of attaching the minutes of the AGM, which was held on the 11th August. No apologies were received and no one, other than myself, attended. AGM’s are a formal bore and I was not surprised by the lack of attendance. I accept that there is no serious activity going on in Sapiens at the moment and all it has become is a source of a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter sent out to fifty or so subscribers and containing an individual commentary on the mundialist scene. As I have had no requests from members to unsubscribe, I assume that it is acceptable for me to continue in this manner for a further year.
While the demands of Simpol’s establishment in New Zealand are occupying much of my time, I do not see much scope for further development towards Sapiens’ stated objective of trying to nudge New Zealand and other nation states, towards the Inter-State Treaty Process. The goal is not abandoned and I do intend, once time becomes available, to re-energise Sapiens as an active, membership organisation working towards its stated objective.
Hugh Steadman, Blenheim, New Zealand.
