To: The G 20 Member-States of the World.
The New Internationalism: The Philosophic Basis For Progress In The Era Of The Gentiles, Atonement And The Brotherhood Of Man.
In the last two hundred years, disunity among various nations was prevalent and that disorder was the major hindrance to development, social progress, internationalism and unity in the international system. International relations were characterized by wars, colonial rule and imperialism.
Except amongst the oppressor states and their theocratic affiliates, there was no universal solidarity, mutual support, and co-operation.
The intellectual acceptance that states could conquer other nations and rule over them, that the powerful can oppress the weak that the capitalist can rule over the proletariat, sowed the seed of morbid discontent through the ages. The decision of the ruling and dominant groups met with ambiance, rejection and opposition. This fossilized the process of integration and social progress.
As a result, all oppressed groups tended to regard the state and the dominant class as enemies and became involved in a common struggle against the common enemies. So, they resorted to self-help.
The state, which has the duty to cater for all, was seen as providing economically for the capitalist and other dominant groups. The oppressed clan discovered that they were either marginally represented or not represented at all in the sharing of national wealth.
Economic History
In order to put this discussion in its proper perspective, a peep into world economic history is germane because we must know where we have come from in order to understand the present, which would assist us to attempt to shape a new future.
This is very important because most of the G 20 leaders are under 65 years and they should be tutored about the origin of the wealth, which has made them proud to be regarded as members of the G20 Club of the “richest nations” on Earth.
One would have thought that the members of the G20 Club are aware of that history and the burden of that history, which they carry. But because human memory is short, a quick economic historical common picture of mercantilism, of war booties, plunders and empire-building, should be an eclogite reminder as they toast their grand-standing in London, in April, 2009.
During a period of over five hundred year ago, Europe Christian states colonized many nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They also enslaved their populace, who were made to work in mines, plantations and render other menial services. The colonialist exploited and carted away treasures, gold, diamonds, coal and much natural and human resources to their metropolitan cities. With their ingenuity and hard-work, they built durable societies.
Ever since colonialism ended and other states started to compete with Europe and America, their fortunes started to decline resulting in their present predicament.
During colonial rule, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, Great Britain( as it was called then)in order to maintain their oppressive sway over the nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, armament factories sprang up all over Europe. Military academies recruited students from poor families, who could not afford to send their children to regular public or private schools and colleges.
Upon graduation, these citizens were posted to undertake punitive expeditions in far-away places and to establish colonial power bases and trading posts. Enamoured by the spirit of adventure and having been tutored in military tactics and methods of subjugation during colonial up-risings. They succeeded inexorably.
European history books inform us that these European Christian states embarked upon building empires, after the Great Geographical Discoveries and the Industrial Revolution.
Spanish plunderers invaded and sacked countries in Central and South America, e.g. Peru, the Incas and Mexico. Portugal colonized strategic regions along the sea-route to Arabia, Iran, Africa, and India. She also captured the route through the Malayan peninsular to China and Japan.
In the first half of the 17th century, Holland captured maritime routes to Africa and Asia. In 1641, she established her authority in the Malayan peninsula. They drove away the Portuguese from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1658. The Dutch Huguenots used these territories only for slave-trading and for attacks against Spanish territories.
After the Anglo-Dutch wars of the Second half of the 17th century, Great Britain became the most advanced colonial power as a result of the bourgeois revolutions, which activated the development of manufacturing industries.
The Industrial Revolution promoted the manufacturing of goods, which were shipped to the colonies. The colonies were the source of cheap raw materials. So, the fortune wheels of Great Britain turned and turned.
Britain expanded territorially, not only at the expense of France, but at the expense of other allies including Germany. In 1795, Colonial Britain relieved the Dutch of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). She later conquered Malaysia, Singapore and after temporarily occupying Java, pushed to conquer Australia, where the Australian aborigines were subjected to genocide.
Towards 1856, the British attached India and Lower Burma. With the assistance of France and America, the British attacked China, from 1839-1842. The so-called Opium War ended with the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, which almost turned China into a colony.
An eloquent Chinese history professor gave me graphic details of the war, as if he actually took part in it.
Britain carried out aggressive war against Afghanistan, (1838-1842), Iran (1856-1857) and she captured strategic points on the bank of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Colonial Powers profited from wars, shared war booties, knighted the pirates like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, with pomp and pageantry.
That today the former colonial powers regard themselves as the richest states on Earth is indisputable, but we now know the origin of their wealth.
I admit that there must have been some incarnate force that propelled a race to disregard humaneness in single-minded pursuit of their national interests, and so mobilized their population in that sovereign enterprise.
Believing that their gallantry and chivalry were acts of patriotism, they faithfully discharged their onerous tasks in jungles and dangerous terrains around the world.
The Birth of Internationalism
The Great October Revolution in Russia in 1917 gave birth to the idea of internationalism. It took hold in Asia, Africa and Latin America and national liberation movements responded to political events happening in other states with concern and often, they took action to show solidarity with other states and nations fighting for independence.
“Internationalism reflected the objective internalization of economic, social and cultural life of the world.” People from different parts of the world fraternized and formed anti-colonial, anti-imperialist movements and organisations.
In the then Soviet Union, Communist solidarity was based on proletarian internationalism, which unified socialist, progressive states and national liberation movements around the globe. The various movements were guided by the ideology which was based on the proposition that “capital was an international force. To vanquish it, an international worker’s alliance, an international workers’ brotherhood was needed” (V.I. Lenin, Vol. 30 at page 293)
The consciousness generated by the idea of internationalism created the impetus for the lengthy anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles, which dismantled those anti-people poli
tical, economic and socio-cultural impediments to development and growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
It took almost forty years, before China, India, Russia, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore developed internal dynamics to challenge the international status quo. Their economic separation from the centers of Euro-American control and manipulation caused a mighty ripple in the international system. By June 2008, the slow-down in Euro-American production, distribution and exchange hit the world with the force of a whiplash.
The deepening crises have not only affected the social well-being of citizens, but have now resulted in desperation among young people, who now kill fellow citizens out of utter frustrations and hopelessness. There is concern about the quality of mind of the future generation of governors, presidents, CEOs and managers in our world if they will come from the ranks of current college drop-outs, drug-addicts, cocaine and crack burnt-out junkies. This is the trouble I see!!! Do you?
These young men and women sit for hours on end, watching Arnold Schwarzenegger macho films, violent video games, mind-polluting Hollywood films, listening to ear-deafening punk music and are mostly on the” blue side of lonesome”. Those, who nursed high hopes, watch them dashed as they search for jobs that are no longer available, return home to find their retrenched parents wringing their hands in despair.
This is the world we now live in. It is a dangerous world, where social dislocation and misery are aggravating societal decline and cultural decay. Many people, as a result of tension can no longer dream or even sleep. These are pungent truths. What worries me is the inability of governments and their advisers, (some unqualified to governed) to proffer solutions to national problems.
In some states, every day, newspapers are filled with gory stories of corruption, of ministers stealing mind-boggling sums of money ear-marked for national development. How long can they postpone the chaos they have created? It is only a matter of time!!!
This sordid situation has imposed a social malaise to the extent that pastors, intercessors, ex-police chiefs, ex-military men and the common people are openly calling for a revolution and these affirmations are gaining momentum.
To save their regimes and them selves from their imminent dislodgement, all governors in corrupt enclaves should move ruthlessly against all “DESTROYERS, ANCIENT THIEVES, CORRUPT FORMER LEADERS, CORRUPT PRESENT LEADERS and all others.
Peopleocracy has replaced democracy as the people now openly challenge their corrupt, unimaginative leaders. I am encouraged by the Madagascan phenomenon, the recent Pakistani movement of lawyers’ the Greek people’s struggle, the recent Kenyan students’ demonstration against Odinga’s regime.
Let universal reason guide us all as we enter the Era of the Gentiles, Atonement and the Brotherhood of Man, otherwise, “ the centrifugal law will over-power us and sweep our souls out far from their source towards the cold extremities of the material and the manifold” Plotinus, Ad 204-274)
Socialist thought has invigorated the working class in Europe, Africa and Asia and class struggles have become rife. Liberation Movements in all the continents have imbibed the idea of struggle for self-determination. As the class struggles spread ever wider and become a potent political ideology, its direct manifestations will become more diverse. With hundreds of thousands of workers suffering the effects of job loss, this would affect the stability of right-wing governments. Free economies decentralize power and give it to consumers. The problem arises when most consumers are bereft of employment, by what magical conjuration will the free market economy sustain production, distribution and exchange?
It can be recalled that bogged down by colonial wars, which affected their various economies, Europeans had to grant independence to their colonies in Asia, Africa and in Latin America. Should capitalism fail, socialization of the means of production, distribution and exchange would stare Western governments in the face.
When the Nigerian delegation, headed by the Honourable Prime Minister of Nigeria, late T. Balewa met with the then British Prime Minister to demand for Nigeria’s independence in 1959, the British Prime Minster said that he did not assume office to preside over the liquidation of Her Majesty’s Empire, He said, ” What we have we hold “A Nigerian political wit, Mazi Mbonu Ojike responded,” When what you have becomes hot, you will drop it.”
If and when the present international financial system proves irredeemable and the workers of the world unite, a new way must be imposed upon the old for the “Old order must yield place to a new one.”
The entire primitive society yielded place to the feudal society, this in turn, was replaced by capitalism. So, should socialism with national characteristics thrust itself upon the ailing Western societies, man’s ingenuity will be tasked to meet the challenges.
