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What Does a World Governed by Humanistic
Socialism Look Like?
Reshaping the International Order
Part 1
Brent Jessop
Knowledge
Driven Revolution.com
Monday, April 7, 2008
"The establishment of a New International Economic Order entails fundamental
changes in political, social, cultural and other aspects of society,
changes which would bring about a New International Order." - RIO:
Reshaping the International Order, 1976 (p5)
The Club of Rome is a premiere think tank composed of approximately
100 members including leading scientists, philosophers, political advisors,
former politicians and many other influential bureaucrats and technocrats.
This series of articles describes the major conclusions of the 1976 book
Rio: Reshaping the International Order: A Report to the Club of Rome
[1] coordinated by Nobel Laureate Jan Tinbergen. The RIO report "addresses
the following question: what new international order should be recommended
to the world's statesmen and social groups so as to meet, to the extent
practically and realistically possible, the urgent needs of today's population
and the probable needs of future generations?"
From RIO: Reshaping the International Order:
[Italicised text is original emphasis and bolded text is
added by author.]
"Many in the RIO group believe that this equitable social
order could best be described as humanistic socialism..." - 63
So what exactly does a new social order based on "humanistic
socialism" look like? Below is the RIO group's own description of what
the future should look like.
(Article continues below)
Collective Workers and Full Employment
"Society must also deliberately aim at creating employment
for all those seeking it and at ensuring that the distribution over different
types of jobs achieves a balance between the satisfaction derived from
the job and the satisfaction of the needs of society. The latter necessitates
that certain unpleasant (heavy, dirty, dangerous) activities be performed.
If these activities can be learnt relatively easily, they could be
performed by all citizens. Their efforts could be organized in the
form of 'land' or 'neighbourhood armies' for work in rural areas,
in the field of environmental care..." - 69
"A full employment policy should be adopted by all governments as part
of their development plan." - 145
"As a counterpart to these rights, a number of duties must be accepted,
especially the duty to use one's capacities in the interest of an adequate
level of production..." - 63
"Public power should be used to ensure that education is geared to meet
the needs of individuals and the needs of society, that is, all individuals.
The supply of qualified types of labour should be so planned as to
equal, to the greatest extent possible, the demand for them by society
(i.e. by the 'organizers of production')." - 69
A Planned World Economy
"Effective application of public power implies the need
for middle and long-range planning at different levels... The UN
Economic and Social Council might be best suited for undertaking such
a task, perhaps assisted by the UN Development Planning Committee." -
70
"At the highest level, the level of world affairs, international institutions
must form the prime movers of planned change." - 100
"... the optimum utilization of human and physical resources in the world
as a whole." - 140
"One of the basic questions which today faces the international community
is whether it should accelerate the process of this evolution and consciously
put in place the various elements of a system for global planning and
the management of resources...
The achievement of this global planning and management system calls for
the conscious transfer of power - a gradual transfer to be sure
- from the nation State to the world organization. Only when this transfer
takes place can the organization become effective and purposeful." - 184
Private Sector and Global Free Trade
"New forms of cooperation between private initiative and
public authorities will have to be characterized by a certain balance
of power..." - 280
"In the trade field, an International Trade and Development Organization,
formed by expanding the responsibilities of UNCTAD [United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development], should be set up with a very broad mandate
for overall coordination of policy issues relating to international trade
in primary commodities and manufactured goods. Likewise, UNIDO's [United
Nations Industrial Development Organization] responsibilities should be
increased to enable it to participate in the planning of a more equitable
world industrial order;..." - 184
"This [Third World development] implies that, if a new international order
is to be created, the rich nations must be prepared to give up part of
their future productive capacity. To be able to do this smoothly they
will need to resort to adjustment policies and such policies must
form part of their development strategies... The creation of an optimal
international division of labour, and as such the selective development
of economic activities in Third World countries, calls for the substantial
extension of such adjustment policies...
It is no longer desirable that the industrialized countries adopt policies
of protecting their labour-intensive industries in the manufacturing sector.
Rather, they should seek, as must the Third World, to develop those industries
in which they have a comparative advantage...
The process described, albeit with distortions, is already taking place:
some sectors of Western manufacturing industry are moving to Third World
countries. The movement of Western European garment industries to North
Africa is a case in point. As such, private initiative will no doubt prove
responsible for a large part of the adjustment required. That adjustments
are at present insufficient is witnessed by the millions of workers who
migrate from the Third World to seek employment in the Western industrialized
nations. To the extent that the adjustments brought about by private initiative
on the strength of international market forces will be inadequate, and
in view of the fact that private enterprises may not be sufficiently creative
nor responsive to the needs of countries, adjustment must be stimulated
and guided by selective taxes and subsidies. Subsidies should be offered
to those industries with a clear potential for contributing to a country's
or a regions' development efforts. Such subsidies could aim at supporting
changes, where necessary, in the production mix of enterprises...
To ensure the effectiveness of adjustment policies, there is a clear need
for coordination of policies both between the industrialized countries
and between public authorities and the private sector..." - 112
"The industrialized countries, on their part, will have to introduce policies
of adjustment, develop specialization in knowledge-intensive products
and gradually introduce and enforce environmental protection standards."
- 143
"In the long term, transnational enterprises will still form part of the
world structure, in either their present form of private enterprises or
in a renovated form comprising genuine international ventures." - 160
Public International Enterprises
"The possibility of genuine internationalization of some
transnational enterprises or transnational operations should be further
investigated. They could be owned, controlled and managed by an international
development authority. The pharmaceutical industry could be used as
an initial test case for analysis because of its international social
implications." - 281
"Active sharing of benefits [of the ocean], with particular regard to
the needs of the less developed countries, through a variety of devices
including international public enterprises, especially for fishing
and offshore oil production; international tax on ocean uses, etc."
- 175
Consumption Patterns
"The rich nations... must develop new consumption styles
which are less wasteful, less resource - intensive and geared to the consumption
of social services rather than of superfluous consumer durables."
- 183
"Growth in equality would make it less difficult for people to accept
the principle of self-restraint in the satisfaction of material needs,
the ideological cornerstone of the future 'steady state'. It would
equally create the necessary social conditions for self-control of family
size and the consequent reduction in population pressure; birth-control
campaigns are likely to remain largely ineffective (unless enforced by
coercion, which is clearly unacceptable) up to the time that peasants
are freed from material insecurity, that infant mortality rates go down,
and that the use of unpaid child labour is no longer necessary to make
ends meet." - 162
"Ultimately, they must aim to construct their policies on a series of
'maxima' which define an appropriate style of civilized living in a world
of deprivation and declare that all consumption beyond that fixed maxima
is not only waste but a conscious action against the welfare of large
numbers of poor and disprivileged, their own children, and the prospects
for a peaceful world." - 76
Financial and Monetary Change
"(a) The gradual introduction of a system of international
taxation which should be handled by a World Treasury, both to meet
the current as well as the development needs of the poorer nations;
(b) The creation of an international reserve currency by an international
authority, such as an International Central Bank, which should be
under international management without being dominated by the interests
of one particular group of nations;" -184
"The statutes of transnational enterprises should be under the supervision
of, and their profits taxed by, an inter- or supranational authority."
- 160
More on the proposed changes to the financial system in part
2 of this series entitled: Reshaping
the International Financial Order.
International Control of All Mineral Resources - The Common Heritage
of Mankind Concept
"In the long term, and assuming progress towards the creation
of an equitable international economic and social order leading to a
pooling of material and non-material resources, mineral resources will
need to be viewed as a common heritage of mankind. This concept implies
both a real world market for all mineral resources and a system of world
taxation to replace national mining taxation. The revenues collected should
be redistributed among Third World countries - possibly through such an
agency as IDA [International Development Association - World Bank group]...
This tax could, for instance, be introduced as one of a moderate rate
and gradually be raised to something in the order of 70 per cent of profits
on fossil fuels and 50 per cent of the value of production of ores (including
uranium).
Such a tax would, like the present taxes on oil products, in fact be paid
by the consumers...
Such a tax, at the rates proposed, would probably induce consumers to
restrict their consumption of mineral raw materials..." - 148
"It is now recognized that a more elaborate system of careful husbandry
and management of raw materials and scarce resources is inevitable." -
244
The redefinition of sovereignty from "territorial sovereignty"
to "functional sovereignty" as well as the establishment and expansion
of the concept of the "common heritage of mankind" is discussed in more
detail in part 3 of this series entitled: "Functional"
Sovereignty and the Common Heritage of Mankind.
Reshaping Public Opinion
"Public opinion is no phenomenon sui generic.
It is in part the result of government policies and by definition politicians
cannot hide behind their own creation. If some sectors of public opinion
in the industrialized countries are immersed in the rhetoric and slogans
associated with misunderstanding, then much of this may be inherited from
their political leaders. And if these leaders are in part responsible
for a situation which impedes acceptance of the need for change, then
they themselves must be held responsible for changing this situation."
- 110
The reshaping of public opinion and the importance of the
scientist and experts is further described in part 4 of this series entitled:
Reshaping
Public Opinion and the White Coated Propagandists.
World Food Authority
"A number of measures have been proposed which should bring
greater planning and coordination in the field of domestic food production
and international supplies of food, including the establishment of world
grain reserves... In the last analysis, it may require the setting up
of a World Food Authority to supervise this vital area of human
activity and survival" - 184
More on the establishment and functioning of the World Food
Authority in part 5 of this series entitled: Population
Control and the World Food Authority.
A Glimpse into the New Order
The
final article in this series will examine a wide range of topics including:
regional unions, world solidarity, foundations of the international legal
system, freedom and the establishment of an standing United Nations military.
[1] Quotes from Jan Tinbergen, RIO: Reshaping the International Order:
A Report to the Club of Rome (1976). ISBN 0-525-04340-3
Related Articles
Reshaping
the International Order Part 2: Reshaping the International Financial
Order (April 14)
Reshaping
the International Order Part 3: "Functional" Sovereignty and the Common
Heritage of Mankind (April 21)
Reshaping
the International Order Part 4: Reshaping Public Opinion and the White
Coated Propagandists (April 28)
Reshaping
the International Order Part 5: Population Control and a World Food Authority
(May 5)
Reshaping
the International Order Part 6: A Glimpse into the New Order (May 12)
Also
see series on Mankind at the Turning Point: The Second Report to The Club
of Rome
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