It was World Government Day!
On September 4, 1953, in the City Hall of Ellsworth, Maine, before an audience of approximately 100 people, a new government was proclaimed by the stateless world citizen, Garry Davis. (The Ellsworth Declaration is available through the World Service Authority.)
Creation of this government had been mandated by over 750,000 individuals all over the world, exercising their sovereign right to claim a new fealty called "world citizenship." These individuals had expressed their will by enrolling in the International Registry of World Citizens, founded by Davis in Paris on January 1, 1949.
The new government was based on what the founder called "common world laws." These laws, Davis explained, were derived from three holistic principles: One God or Absolute Value; One World; and One Humanity.
The new government was immediately endorsed by the wisdom guru, Nataraja, of Travancore, South India, the first disciple of Shri Narayana Guru, one of India's greatest sages of modern times. In his Memorandum on World Government, Nataraja Guru wrote that "the World Government came into being (in principle at least) at longitude 63' 25" west, latitude 44' 32" north, on Sept. 4, 1953. Utter necessity was its justification. Very special states of stress, both personal and global, ushered it into being when a stateless person was forced into a closed territory against his own will or consent. . . . There was no government to represent him or stand by him. The World Government had therefore to be conceived as though 'immaculately,' though neither illegitimately, disloyally, nor dishonorably."
From that humble beginning, the World Government has evolved in ways already known to readers of World Citizen News. The latest testaments to its advocacy of world democracy include its sponsorship of the World Syntegrity Project, launched in July 1993 from 10 cities throughout the world, as well as the World Government's Internet site and the launching of the World Citizen Referendum.
All national leaders and heads of state have been kept informed of the World Government's activities, starting with the first issuance of its World Passport in 1954, and continuing with the release of the latest issue of World Citizen News.
Starting modestly in January 1954 in a tiny room on the third floor of 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan, the World Service Authority (WSA) assumed a sovereign character as the agency of the declared world government. The WSA was and is a global "city hall," serving its citizens but making no policy decisions of any kind.
It is this holistic position that established its uniqueness among myriad peace and one-world organizations. It is not "for" world government; it is the agent of the World Government. Each self-declared world citizen is the microcosm of the World Government.
The WSA maintains offices in Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, where it registers world citizens, issues world documents mandated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, as of January 1992, seeks to redress human rights violations by national officials through its own legal department.
The WSA Legal Department is, in addition, currently circulating a draft statute for a World Court of Human Rights for the comment and consent of jurists worldwide.
World Government currency in the form of kilowatt dollars is now being issued in denominations of 10 from the World Government Treasury Account in the Riggs National Bank, Washington, D.C. Incoming national currency is exchanged for kilowatt dollars on a par value of $1.00 U.S. for $K1.00. It should be emphasized that kilowatt dollars cannot be taxed for war purposes.
The last year has seen vast political changes throughout the world. Empires have crumbled. Ethnically based nations have proliferated, claiming "independence" while struggling to survive. National leaders huff and puff about "security" while tacitly condoning anarchy outside their borders. "International law" is a euphemism for violence-as-usual.
But above the fray, individuals everywhere somehow learn that the direction of both world and local peace is vertical, not horizontal. The old view of "us-versus-them" is giving way to the inclusive "We" that embraces all humanity.
Since its founding in 1953, the World Government has sought a method for achieving a universal, nonhierarchical, democratic decision-making process in order to develop a flexible world constitution. This new dimension of democratic decision-making, based on cybernetic principles, was introduced in July 1993 via the World Syntegrity Project and will continue its work to the end of the century.
Although its official founding dates from 1953, the World Government was actually born on May 25, 1948, when Davis renounced his nationality at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and declared himself a "citizen of the world." To choose one's political status is his-and our-inalienable human right.
United States law, as expressed through the Ninth Amendment, recognizes the innate sovereignty of the human person: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
And let's not forget the Declaration of Independence, which states "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Rights "retained by the people," are inalienable or human rights. They predate any constitutional sanction. They are the forerunner of government, the essence of the social contract. Their implementation is how governments are formed in the first place.
As the U.N. celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, it paradoxically failed to recognize that only a sovereign world government, "with the consent of the governed," is adequate to cope with global problems such as war, environmental destruction, poverty and overpopulation.
The World Government of World Citizens' formal mandate, furnished by the U.N. itself, is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically the aforementioned Article 21(3), along with Article 28: "Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized."