All right, I know it may be just a tad presumptuous for an unknown writer with little formal education to tackle a job like penning what just might be the most important document in the history of mankind, but somebody needs to do it. Given the likelihood that humans are on the verge of extinction, either by way of World War III or greed-induced climate catastrophe, it is high time for a human from the slave class (99%) to step up to the plate, take the bull by the horns, and make hay while the sun shines. So to speak. Frankly I’ve got nothing better to do, and I’m a little concerned about my grandchildren’s future.
In 1945 Ho Chi Minh penned and delivered in a public address to his people “A Proclamation of Independence of The Democratic Republic of Vietnam”. After a long sordid history of occupation, murder, mayhem, and abuse by the French and Japanese, the Vietnamese were ready for a breath of fresh air. Freedom from tyranny was long overdue. Inspiration and much of the wording for the document came directly from “The Declaration of Independence”, which led to the American Revolutionary War, eventual independence from Britain, and the creation of the USA. Also infused into Ho Chi Minh’s proclamation was “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” which led to the French Revolution.
Unfortunately for Vietnam, its cries for independence weren’t well received by the already independent countries of France and the USA. What followed was thirty years of hell and the slaughter of millions of Vietnamese. All for their crime of yearning to be free. But humans do have a deep yearning to be free. As one rice farmer said during the peak of the carnage, “We can settle this now or we can settle it in a thousand years. It’s up to the Americans.” I guess we all know how that turned out. It didn’t take a thousand years, but for some it must have seemed like it.
It’s now or never, boys and girls. The Doomsday Clock is ticking and it’s nearly midnight. It’s time to heed the words of the poet, Shelley:
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many; they are few!
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Mask of Anarchy”, August 1819
It’s time to tell our owners, overlords, and oppressors that their time has passed. It’s time to announce loudly and clearly to the captains of industry, the Wall Street CEOs, and the men behind the curtain that the jig is up. It’s time to dismantle all corrupt governments, erase national borders, and create a new world order based on human rights. It’s time for me to write it. What you do with it is up to you. Copy it, obtain a few billion signatures, take to the streets, and storm government offices. You may need to bring tar and feathers. Hopefully firearms won’t be necessary. See the chapter in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The United States titled: “The Coming Revolt of the Guards”.
An International Declaration of Independence
July 13th, 2015
The course of human events has led to a situation in which it is now necessary for the citizens of earth to dissolve all existing national governments, fire public officials, and embark upon a different plan. We declare that the rights of all the people of all countries shall from this day forward be held in the highest regard, and that these rights shall not be denied.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed at birth with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, food, shelter, education, medical care, truth, and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights governments have been established, deriving their powers by consent of the governed.
That since the established governments have become destructive to these ends, it is the right and duty of the people to abolish them and begin again anew. The history of mankind has been a sordid tale of subjugation, forced labor, rape, torture, and murder. The strong and powerful have always enslaved the weak and powerless. The countries which have used this system shall now be dissolved, their flags placed in museums, their armies disbanded, their prisons closed, and the worst of their offending public officials required to do penance for their sins against humanity. Although many countries have been blatant offenders of human rights throughout the ages, in recent history The United States of America has become the most dangerous threat to a sane and peaceful society, and the only insurmountable stumbling block to peace on earth. The history of the US Empire is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
The USA was established by wealthy whitish slave-owning men for the economic benefit of themselves and to the exclusion of darkish men, all women, and non-wealthy whitish men.
The USA and various European countries conducted a program of genocide against the indigenous people of North and South America over the course of more than 500 years, slaughtering untold tens of millions, and forcing survivors into impoverished and miserable conditions.
The USA obtained the land which now comprises all that within its borders through a systematic campaign of military subjugation against all those who formerly inhabited said land. Most notably but not limited to the Native American culture which had occupied the area for at least 10,000 years and the sovereign countries of Mexico and Hawaii. Spain, France, Britain, Portugal, and other European countries carried out the same massive land theft across the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
The USA emerged from World War II relatively unscathed and feeling invincible as the world’s only owner of atomic bombs. For the next 70 years those in power decided that all the world’s countries should do whatever they were told. Those countries which tried to rock the boat were subjected to invasions, bombings, fomented coups, bribed public officials, rigged national elections, sanctions, and planned economic ruin.
The USA has sold its government and its soul to the highest bidders, which are large corporations, banks, and the wealthiest crooks. This has resulted in the decimation of the public domain; the privatization of schools, hospitals, prisons, the military, highways, utilities, and many other entities once designed to serve the public. The public has paid the price.
The USA has become an oligarchy, a corporatocracy, and the most feared and dangerous empire in the history of earth. The poor people pay taxes to support its endless series of wars for corporate profit, while the wealthy have enjoyed the spoils of the wars with their fortunes safely tucked away in foreign tax shelters.
The USA claims to be a republic. A representative democracy. But nothing could be further from the truth. It has devolved into a political system of two parties which are, in reality, two versions of the same corporate party. The US public has been hoodwinked into believing that they have a choice in elections, but either way they lose and their wealthy overlords win.
The USA, being wholly owned by corporations, has allowed these corporations to pollute the land, seas, and atmosphere with industrial waste. It has allowed food manufacturers, agrochemical and pharmaceutical companies to poison the citizenry. It has waged wars to sell weapons. It is responsible for the climate change which now threatens all the earth’s species with extinction.
At this stage of these oppressions we now petition for redress in the most humble terms. To those who hold all the power and make all the decisions in the USA we say; submit, surrender, yield, hand over control of the government, and go away. The same goes for your coalition of cooperative stooge governments. This list includes, but is certainly not limited to, the governments of England, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Make way for a new world government of, by, and for the people. All the people. A world without social class or national borders.
We, the slave class (99%) of earth, assembled before our computer screens, appealing to all conceivable gods for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name of all the downtrodden people of all countries, solemnly publish and declare, that from this day forward we owe no allegiance to any existing flag or government, and that our intention is to disband all current governments, unless they happen to meet our soon to be established new standards of decency. A new world is possible and extinction is not an option. To that end we, the undersigned, do hereby pledge to each other our lives, our meager fortunes, and our sacred honor.