Dr. Glen T. Martin
World Prout Assembly
Oct 6, 2008

10/06/08 - "WPA" - Human liberation requires spiritual awakening to compassion, financial transformation to economic democracy, and political transformation to democratic world law. Each of these three is necessary, but only together do they become sufficient for a fully human, just, peaceful, and prosperous world order. But how can this be accomplished? We have seen that the time frame available to human beings to ascend to the planetary maturity that encompasses these three is minimal at best. The growing poverty and misery of the people of Earth is aggravated by the increasing world population and the rapidly decreasing availability of arable land and fresh water worldwide. Along with global climate collapse, this combination of forces spells impending disaster for humanity in the very near future.

Ratification of the Earth Constitution according to the democratic procedures set forth in Article 17 can accomplish the second two of these necessary conditions for human liberation, but it will also set the stage for the first. In Chapter One we saw Eric Fromm point out that "a change in the human heart is possible only to the extent that drastic economic and social changes occur that give the human heart the chance for change and the courage and vision to achieve it" (1996, p. 10). Building a truly democratic community on the Earth will provide the framework for humanity to ascend to planetary maturity, which includes awakening to communicative rationality, to the sense of a planetary community, and to the spirituality of compassion. Without an institutional framework that recognizes all persons as intrinsically valuable world citizens and that protects the economic and political rights of all equally through enforceable, democratically legislated world laws, the movement to global community and compassion will be (and has been so far) seriously impeded.

Perhaps the most fundamental principle regarding what is necessary involves creating economic well being and sustainable prosperity for the people of Earth. Abstract talk about democracy and political participation is largely meaningless for the bottom fifty percent of humanity who live in dire poverty. Of course, these three and a half billion people must participate in the democratic ratification the Earth Constitution for there is no other way that it can accede to enforceable political authority. However, the motivation of the masses living in this hell of poverty will likely include the Constitution's offer of the way out of the hell in which they currently live. What, then, are the functions of the Earth Federation government and what economic principles are mandated by the Earth Constitution?

Article 1 of the Earth Constitution specifies the "Broad Functions of the World Government." These six broad functions constitute the central responsibilities of the Earth Federation and are the central justification for its creation: (1) To prevent war and secure disarmament, (2) To protect universal human rights, including life, liberty, security, and democracy, (3) To obtain equitable economic and social development for all peoples on Earth, (4) To regulate world trade, communications, transportation, currency, standards, and use of resources, (5) To protect the global environment and the ecological fabric of life, and (6) To devise solutions to all problems beyond the capacity of national governments.

Each of these articles addresses a global crisis that is clearly "beyond the capacity of national governments": (1) the problem of global militarism and wars, (2) the problem of nearly universal human rights violations, (3) the problem of global poverty and misery, (4) the problem of inequitable trade, uses of resources, currency manipulations, etc., (5) the problem of a collapsing planetary ecosystem, and (6) the problem of no planetary authority capable of protecting the people of Earth and planning for the future.

The Earth Constitution creates a democratic world commonwealth directed to the common good of humanity and future generations. It is non-military by law (Article 2) and democratic at every level, leaving economic and political self-determination to the nations and local communities insofar as these conform to universal human rights and world law (Article 14). Hence, the three non-democratic sources of the deep violence of today's world outlined in this chapter - sovereign nation-states, transnational corporations, and global banking cartels - are brought under the democratic control of the people of Earth through enforceable world law.

All nations joining the Earth Federation must demilitarize. All transnational corporations are regulated by the World Parliament. And global banking is mundialized: owned by people of Earth who are sovereign (Article 2). The Earth Federation now regulates the international actions of demilitarized nation-states through world laws legislated by the World Parliament. Conflicts are settled through the world court system and violators are subject to arrest and prosecution by the world Attorneys General and the World Police. Similarly, transnational corporations are regulated through the democratic legislation of the World Parliament. Their expertise and organizational infrastructures can now be used to promote universal prosperity while protecting the environment - precisely because there is, for the first time, genuinely enforceable world law capable of ensuring their conformity to the principle of the common good.

Finally, the Earth Federation issues debt-free, interest-free money to promote the prosperity, free trade, and well-being of the people of Earth while protecting the planetary environment. Individuals, corporations, state and local governments may all take advantage of low interest or interest-free development loans that are not premised on exploitation of the debtors in the service of private profit. Money and banking are now used in the service of the common good of the people of Earth and in protection of the "ecological fabric of life" on our planet. The rich can no longer exploit the poor through a system of loans and debt that has so far created such misery for the peoples and nations of Earth.

In an October 1, 2008 article circulated on the internet by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the following description is given of the present monetary system in the United States:

The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.

The money system in the United States, correctly described in this passage, mirrors and guides the money systems in most of the world. The key principle is that the public must not be allowed to own the money system, since under capitalism all possible functions of society must lead to private profit for the few at the expense of the common good and the many. Under this system, as Marx pointed out over a century ago, not only are democracy and economic well being for the masses destroyed, but compassion and concern for the common good of all become next to impossible. One essential feature of human liberation includes a banking system owned by the public and operated for the common good of the public.

Article 4 of the Earth Constitution, entitled "Grant of Specific Powers to World Government," item number 17, reads: "Establish and Operate world financial, banking, credit and insurance institutions designed to serve human needs; establish, issue and regulate world currency, credit and exchange." To do this effectively, Article 8 of the Constitution establishes the "World Financial Administration." Section G. 1. F. reads:
Pursuant to specific legislation enacted by the World Parliament, and in conjunction with the Planetary Banking System, to establish and implement the procedures of a Planetary Monetary and Credit System based upon useful productive capacity and performance, both in goods and services. Such a monetary and credit system shall be designed for use with the Planetary Banking System for the financing of the activities and projects of the World Government, and for all other financial purposes approved by the World Parliament, without requiring the payment of interest on bonds, investments or other claims of financial ownership or debt.

Our global monetary system today is 99% composed of privately created debt-money (Brown 2007). Because of this we live in a world of global scarcity and desperation requiring, as we have seen, massive military training for counter-insurgency warfare and massive military interventions by imperial nations designed to protect and promote the present world domination by a tiny elite. The Earth Constitution is explicit that money must be created by the Federation as debt free money addressed to the common good and planetary prosperity.

Under the authority of Article 19 of the Earth Constitution, a Provisional World Parliament has begun operating since 1982. The Tenth Session of the Parliament recently took place in Kara, Togo in June 2007. During its ten sessions, the Provisional World Parliament has passed some 42 provisional World Legislative Acts designed to implement and develop the infrastructure of the Earth Federation under both the spirit and letter of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. These acts are not binding on the final world parliament once the Constitution is ratified. However, they serve to elaborate and elucidate the content and spirit of the Constitution, and they will likely serve as a compelling model for the final World Parliament.

These acts include the creation of a World Economic Development Organization (WLA 2), an Earth Financial Funding Corporation (WLA 7), a Provisional Office for World Revenue (WLA 17), a World Patents Act (WLA 21), a World Equity Act (WLA 22), a World Public Utilities Act (WLA 38), and an act for a World Guaranteed Annual Income (WLA 42). Together they are laying the economic foundations for a global democratic market socialism based on human rights, promotion of the common good, and a democratic world order that benefits everyone, not just the present 10 percent of humanity who today own 85 percent of all the global wealth (Brown 2007, p. 271).
As early as the first session of the Parliament in 1982, when WLA 2 was passed creating the World Economic Development Organization (WEDO), the Parliament saw through the deception of debt-based money creation. Among the means of funding for WEDO is the directive to develop the financing potential and procedures defined under Article 8, Section G, paragraphs (d), (e), (f) of Earth Constitution to base finance on people's potential productive capacity in both goods and services, rather than on past savings. Even though the Constitution gives Parliament the authority to levy taxes, no such process is necessary within the sound monetary policy formulated by WEDO.

From this principle of funding under the Earth Constitution, that is, the creation of debt-free fiat money and credit based on the potential of those funded to produce goods and services, follow all the other principles of the Provisional World Parliament that are building the infrastructure for an equitable and just world order. With government-issued debt-free money, the Earth Federation will hire tens of millions of unemployed people in the Third World to restore the environment, replant the forests of the Earth, and restore the degraded agricultural lands of the Earth. Today's top ecological scientists say that it is not enough to convert to sustainability. The Earth has passed "tipping points" that portend ever-worsening conditions unless our planetary environment is restored as much as possible.

The Constitution provides a "new deal" for the people of Earth. The tens or hundreds of millions hired to restore the environment will have money to exchange in their local economies. In conjunction with interest free loans or grants for building infrastructure, sanitation systems, education, healthcare, and many private and public sustainable new enterprises, local economies will "take off" in that dynamic circulation of money within regional communities that economists speak of as economic health. Once the militarization of nation-states has been removed (alone costing the people of Earth one trillion U.S. dollars per year) along with gigantic corporate and banking institutions dedicated to maximizing private profit for the few, economic well-being will not be difficult to achieve within a democratically socialized economic system.

The Constitution guarantees everyone on Earth a minimum wage entirely sufficient to live with dignity and freedom (under Article 13). It provides every person on Earth with free health care, free education, and ample insurance in case of accident or old age. These constitutional guarantees form the bottom line for the three and a half billion persons now living in the hell of extreme poverty. Provisional world legislation enacted by the Provisional World Parliament under the authority of Article 19 of the Constitution provides every person over age 18 with a guaranteed annual income to eliminate extreme poverty and starvation from the Earth (WLA 42).

The world order can be fairly easily transformed into one of planetary peace with justice and prosperity. The present world-system of scarcity and domination results from the principle inherent in money created as public debt to private financial elites and from a global system predicated on maximizing private profit at the expense of the common good of the people of Earth. Perhaps the most fundamental secret is in "democratic money": money issued debt free in the name of the productive capacity of the citizens of Earth to produce goods and services and used to empower local economies everywhere on the planet.

But this global transformation cannot be accomplished without the ratification of the Earth Constitution and the basing of our world order on its fundamental principles of democratic market socialism under enforceable democratic world law. Democratic socialism, we have seen, most fundamentally means that individual freedom must be correlative with the common good within a community that recognizes the dignity of each person while promoting a reasonable equity and parity among all persons. We arrive once more at the related central meaning of "planetary democracy" - the freedom of all is maximized within the context of the equality and common good of all. This principle cannot work, we have seen, unless we take this "all" seriously and universalize democracy to every person on Earth.
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Secretary General, World Constitution and Parliament Association
Professor of Philosophy, Radford University

(This article is taken from Martin's forthcoming book Planetary Democracy and Human Maturity - The Coming Great Transformation of Spirituality, Nonviolence, Democratic Economics, and Earth Federation, Institute for Economic Democracy Press, 2009, copyright 2008 by Glen T. Martin.)