John Scales Avery: Apostle of the United Nations
John Scales Avery is a chemist by training and a Leftist ideologue of the old school. He was born in 1933. He lives in Copenhagen.
He has defended both the creed and the tactics of the Progressive movement for over 50 years. In continental Western Europe, the Progressives were called social democrats. In the British Isles, they were Fabians. The creed is the same. The tactics are the same. George Bernard Shaw announced the tactics in 1889.
The necessity for cautious and gradual change must be obvious to everyone here, and would be made obvious to everyone elsewhere if only the catastrophists were courageously and sensibly dealt with in discussion. What then does a gradual transition to Social Democracy means specifically? It means the gradual extension of the franchise; and the transfer of rent and interest to the state, not in one lump sum, but by installments.
It is no accident that Avery ends his free booklet, The World as It Is, and as It Could Be, with a photo of Shaw.
He is a voice out of the distant past, yet he has an audience today. There is continuity in the Progressive movement.
He still sings the praises of the United Nations. That gigantic bureaucratic dinosaur has no power that the United States government does not give it. Its blue-helmeted troops have no independent authority. It is simply the League of Nations dressed in the cosmopolitan fashions of 1945, when America's senior representative to the UN, Alger Hiss, presided over its opening as Secretary-General to the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco. Later, he became the UN's Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs. He had been a spy for the USSR in the 1930's. The Left still denies this, of course. The Washington Post ran an article declaring his innocence this year. He was sent to prison in 1950 for his perjury in the famous Chambers-Hiss hearings in 1948. The statute of limitations had run out on his crime as a spy.
The younger Progressives ignore the UN. It is seen for what it is: a place that debates endlessly, but is impotent. It is where senior bureaucrats are sent from around the world to live in US tax immunity, immunity from arrest, and free rent in luxurious quarters in New York City. From time to time some UN international conference announces a breakthrough on a big issue, but nothing changes. It has no sanctions to impose.
The Progressives, from Woodrow Wilson on, proclaimed the need to invent an international government with teeth. The League of Nations was the first attempt. World War II ended its existence. Then came the United Nations, which was allowed to use the name applied to joint military forces in World War II.
One goal of the Left has been to disarm national governments and transfer nuclear weapons to the UN. Another is to invest the UN with the power to tax corporations and nations. The goal has always been a one-world government with the UN as the apex.
This is Avery's dream.
Critics have always said that this dream is a reincarnation of the Tower of Babel. Avery accepts this designation. He reprints the most famous painting of that tower.
Here are extracts from his booklet.
In the world as it is, 40% of all research funds are used for projects related to armaments.
In the world as it could be, research in science and engineering would be redirected towards solving the urgent problems now facing humanity, such as the development of better methods for treating tropical diseases, new energy sources, and new agricultural methods. An expanded UNESCO would replace national military establishments as the patron of science and engineering. . . .
In the world as it is, gross violations of human rights are common. These include genocide, torture, summary execution, and imprisonment without trial.
In the world as it could be, the International Human Rights Commission would have far greater power to protect individuals against violations of human rights. . . .
In the world as it is, malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, cholera, schistosomiasis, typhoid fever, typhus, trachoma, sleeping sickness and river blindness cause the illness and death of millions of people each year. For example, it is estimated that 200 mil- lion people now suffer from schistosomiasis and that 500 million suffer from trachoma, which often causes blindness. In Africa alone, malaria kills more than a million children every year.
In the world as it could be, these preventable diseases would be controlled by a concerted international effort. The World Health Organization would be given sufficient funds to carry out this project. ;. . .
In the world as it is, the rate of illiteracy in the 25 least developed countries is 80%. The total number of illiterates in the world is estimated to be 800 million.
In the world as it could be, the international community would aim at giving all children at least an elementary education. Laws against child labour would prevent parents from regarding very young children as a source of income, thus removing one of the driving forces behind the population explosion. The money invested in education would pay economic dividends after a few years. . . .
In the world as it is, there is no generally enforcible system of international law, although the International Criminal Court is a step in the right direction.
In the world as it could be, the General Assembly of the United Nations would have the power to make international laws. These laws would be binding for all citizens of the world community, and the United Nations would enforce its laws by arresting or fining individual violators, even if they were heads of states. However, the laws of the United Nations would be restricted to international matters, and each nation would run its own internal affairs according to its own laws. . . .
In the world as it is, each nation considers itself to be “sovereign”. In other words, every country considers that it can do whatever it likes, without regard for the welfare of the world community. This means that at the international level we have anarchy.
In the world as it could be, the concept of national sovereignty would be limited by the needs of the world community. Each nation would decide most issues within its own boundaries, but would yield some of its sovereignty in international matters. . . .
In the world as it is, the United Nations has no reliable means of raising revenues.
In the world as it could be, the United Nations would have the power to tax international business transactions, such as exchange of currencies. Each member state would also pay a yearly contribution, and failure to pay would mean loss of voting rights. . . .
In the world as it is, young men are forced to join national armies, where they are trained to kill their fellow humans. Often, if they refuse for reasons of conscience, they are thrown into prison.
In the world as it could be, national armies would be very much reduced in size. A larger force of volunteers would be maintained by the United Nations to enforce international laws. The United Nations would have a monopoly on heavy armaments, and the manufacture or possession of nuclear weapons would be prohibited. . . .
In the world as it is, young people are often faced with the prospect of unemployment. This is true both in the developed countries, where automation and recession produce unemployment, and in the developing countries, where unemployment is produced by overpopulation and by lack of capital.
In the world as it could be, the idealism and energy of youth would be fully utilized by the world community to combat illiteracy and disease, and to develop agriculture and industry in the Third World. These projects would be financed by the UN using revenues derived from taxing international currency transactions.