Re: the world party

Sun, 03 Mar 1996 14:02:03 -0800
Christian (harlowc@tidepool.com)

Greetings Nikolai,

I have heard your pleas for a legal system that would insure equity throughout the
world system on a few different occassions and now I have assembled a few
questions for you regarding this suggestion.

Nikolai S. Rozov wrote:
>
> there is another alternative: to preserve monopoly of legitimate
> violence of nation-states (or their united regional forces) on their
> territories but only if these states (or unions) are appropriate to definite
> globally accepted values and correspondent legal standards
> (see my yesterday reply to Chris Robinson).
> So not a world party but maximally wide coalition of all kinds of social,
> political, economic, and cultural(f.e. religious) forces is needed for
> working out and accepting this set of values and standards.

Wasn't this done after WWII and isn't it called the UN? The subsequent global
organzations such as the IMF, World Trade Council, etc. have also contibuted to
legally institutionalizing the standards of the worlds core powers. Unfortunately
their manifest missions correspond quite closely to to what you are calling for
(development, education, human rights etc.) yet there actions perpetuate the
globabl economic system which is responsible for the underdevelopment and
immiseration so prevalent in the periphery. So in your global legal system what
kind of state (or state-like apparratus, tribunal?) would be responsible for
deciding the values and standards of the system and how would these values be
enforced (consensus of all participants? majority rule? or a majority of the core
powers? BTW this option is once again reminiscent of the UN Security Council).

Notwithstanding your earnest desire to see this legal system be more humanistic
than our current world system, this whole idea doesn't sound like anything new.
And frankly, its a nice idea but it smacks of the neo-liberalism which is failing
to change anything for the better and is actually maintaining the system by
providing the the neccessary adaptations for the perpetuation of global
capitalism. How on earth are you going to convince the capitalists to accept a
global legal system which thwarts (halts?) accumulation and uneven development
when these are the lifeblood of the entire sytem?
>
> to struggle now for ceasing warfare - yes, but to hope that having
> destoyed capitalism we solve this problem seems to me now very naive. In the
> eve of XX Bolshevics in Russia just in this way hoped that they cease
> ALL warfare, ALL exploitation, ALL corrupcy, ALL classes, ALL crimes,
> ALL prostitution, and even adulter by destroying capitalism, because they
> considered all these sins to be its products.

Aren't they? If not where do all these sins come from?

>
> To think so in the end of XX ? - strange...

Its neither strange nor incorrect. If the distribution of surplus throughout the
world system were more equitable these problems would be greatly alleviated, not
solved immediately but perhaps eventually. I don't actually see this happening
but I'm too young to throw in the towel just yet. If we do see a mass proletarian
type movement I would argue that it will occur in conjunction with the imminent
ecological disaster, which is likely within the next A phase of the Kwave and the
concurrent rush to accumulation. Unfortunately, I see much more social/political
movement towards fascism right now then socialism. (Prop 187, Clinton calling for
school uniforms and curfews, three strikes etc...).

Actually I think the achilles heel of Nikolai's proposal is shared with Wagar's
and other's "world party" idea. It ain't gonna happen! There is simply no
evidence of such movements or signs that the ideology of the current world system
is being countered sufficiently to plant the seeds of systemic transformation
caused by the subjects of said system.

So heres my question to all who feel that any of the options we've been discussing
are possible: How? And what is the role of WS (or those that share similar views)
scholars in the carrying out of these missions? What is our praxis?

Best Regards,

Christian Harlow
UC Santa Cruz
harlowc@tidepool.com