Taking Action Against War
Alanna Hartzok
[An e-mail communication by Alanna Hartzok, September
2002,
with comments by Ole Lefmann]
Dear Georgist friends worldwide, I forward this letter published in
the Guardian/UK to you with urgency. I ask you, what do you think
Henry George, our great mentor, would do today if he were living in
these times?
Published on Monday, September 16, 2002 in the
Guardian/UK "Action Can Stop the War: First Believe That You
Can Prevent Hostilities, And Then Do Something About It. It May Just
Work" by Gary Younge
Progressive politics demands a mixture of optimism and realism.
Without the optimism you would never believe a better world could
ever be built. Without the realism you would never be able to engage
with the world as it actually is, in order to build it. Allow too
much imbalance between the two and you either undervalue your
potential to imagine what might be or undermine your ability to
improve what already exists.
Keeping the two in equilibrium over the past 20 years - my entire
politically conscious lifetime - has meant lowering standards to
maintain a sense of perspective. Unsustained by the prospect of
victory, optimism becomes little more than wishful thinking and
realism curdles into defeatism. "The greatest tool in the hands
of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed," argued the late
South African black consciousness activist, Steve Biko.
In the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher told us there was "no alternative",
and though we fought anyway, deep down some of us actually believed
it. A culture of protest emerged that has been informed more by duty
in the face of the inevitable - "We should oppose this even
though we know it is going to happen" - than determination in
the pursuit of the possible - "We must stop this before it
happens". Losing has become a habit, being in a minority has
become a mindset.
As the military matériel stacks up in the Gulf, poised to
bomb Iraqis into shreds, we need a rapid and radical change in
thinking. Unlike the last Gulf war, the Kosovo war or the ongoing
war in Afghanistan - in fact unlike any war in recent times - those
who oppose Britain's participation in the western bombing of a poor
country are part of a large majority. Between 52% and 72% of the
public in Britain oppose Britain's involvement in the bombing of
Iraq. This is a war that we can stop before it starts. Opposition to
it is popular. We must work out how to make sure it both persists
and prevails.
The case against the bombing has been made by others on these
pages, including Roy Hattersley today. Given the volatile situation
in the Middle East and the certain power vacuum left by Saddam's
ousting, even the ramifications of a successful mission could be
catastrophic. Answers to the key questions - why him? why now? and
what next? - are either unavailable or unconvincing.
You do not have to be particularly progressive to agree with or
understand this. Far from it. Both the pacifist and the military
strategist can see the barbarous folly of going to war. The array of
people who are against action without the backing of the United
Nations - from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Bill Morris and from
Storming Norman Schwarzkopf to Nelson Mandela - itself tells a
story. On just about every front - moral, legal, military, economic,
human, strategic - bombing Baghdad would be an utter disaster.
To sense the breadth of opposition we need look no further than
Germany where, according to pollsters, Gerhard Schröder's
anti-war stance has done more than anything else to reverse the
flagging fortunes of his campaign to remain chancellor. His
rightwing challenger, Edmund Stoiber, has resorted to what has been
one of Europe's most popular policies of late - bashing foreigners.
"Four hundred million people are threatening to come our way,"
he told crowds in Wiesbaden on Thursday. "We must prepare
ourselves."
However, with as many as 80% of Germans against the war, according
to the head of one polling institute, Schröder has decided
there are more votes to be gained to his left than to his right. "Germany
has no reason to allow itself to be lectured by others," he
told cheering crowds at a rally in the University of Munster last
week. "On the existential questions that decide general
politics the decisions are made in Berlin - in Berlin and nowhere
else."
Having trailed for most of the campaign, Schröder is now in
front. The forward march of the right in Europe, it seems, will be
obstructed not by pandering to popular prejudice over immigration -
à la David Blunkett - but by confronting American military
hegemony. Germany's particular history gives it a deeper pacifist
current than the rest of Europe. None the less, the strength of
public opinion in Britain and America has made a difference. US
president George Bush may have strode to the podium of the UN with
the arrogance of an emperor and the ignorance of a knave last week,
but he would not even have bothered if he didn't think he had to.
Similarly, Blair would not have recalled parliament for next week or
brought forward the publication of his dossier if he did not feel
pressured.
None of these steps, however, suggests that either of these leaders
is seriously considering peace. The extent of their concession to
electorates who feel no threat from Iraq and have no desire to see
innocent Iraqis killed, is that they are moving towards war more
gingerly. They do so in the hope that the closer we come to the edge
of conflict the more likely we will be to buckle under the weight of
the inevitable.
So the fact that the polls are with us at present is heartening,
but little more than that. Now we must make them count -
transforming passive discontent into active opposition. We could
begin by widening the debate to encompass the domestic agenda.
During last year's election campaign we were told the government's
priority would be the delivery of improved public services and we
were lectured on the importance of prudence in the management of
public finances. What is prudent about spending up to £4bn on a
war few people want? Why should we have to wait for teachers,
trains, hip replacements and heart valves because Bush won't wait
for a diplomatic solution and Blair won't stand up to him?
There will, of course, be meetings, petitions and marches - like
the one in London on September 28. But this week, ahead of the
recall of parliament, there must also be letters, phone calls,
emails and text messages to MPs, local newspapers and radio
stations. Wars do not stop themselves. They are prevented by the
mobilization of large numbers of people, each of whom does what they
can. If the bombs drop then, yet again, they will be in our name and
paid for by our taxes.
In recent times "Stop the War" has been a useful and
commendable slogan - three words that fitted on a placard and
rallied the faithful. This time it is a distinct possibility. The
difference between wanting it to happen and making it happen may
well be believing that it can happen. And then doing something about
it.
[Henry George] was a populist and he was thoroughly engaged in the
issues of his times, bringing his great perspective on justice to many
tables and podiums. What would he be doing and saying today, do you
think?
The *Peace, War and Land Rights* (some of the papers will be
published in Georgist publications) session at our recently held
Council of Georgist Organizations conference was well received with
much positive feedback.
This theme is completely relevant to our times, as the forces of
American empire building are gearing up to grab territory in west
Asia/Middle East/Iraq. This is the continuation of the process of
state expansionism ongoing since the Roman empire. As many of you
know, the Roman empire legalized land acquired by conquest and plunder
through the laws of *dominium.* Only a veneer of market dynamics -
buying and selling land, the commodification of the gifts of life -
overlays this underlying violence of *Might Makes Right.* The US
intends to install permanent military bases in Iraq.
For myself, I am engaging in the strongly emerging peace movement in
the USA, and bringing the peace and land rights message to these
venues. Also, deep connections between the current war mongering and
the land problem of the past several hundreds of years (and Georgist
policy solutions) is described in my now published E. F. Schumacher
Lecture entitled *Democracy, Earth Rights and the Next Economy*
available for $5.00 USD from the E.F. Schumacher Society, 140 Jug End
Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230 USA. .
Those of you who have contributed financially to Earth Rights
Institute for our Niger Delta Fund Initiative already have received
copies from me as a thank you.
COMMENTS BY OLE LEFMANN (Sat, 21 Sep 2002)
Alanna asked: Henry George was a populist and he was thoroughly
engaged in the issues of his times, bringing his great perspective on
justice to many tables and podiums. What would he be doing and saying
today, do you think?
I think: A man of the awareness and commitment of Henry George, but
living today, would look at the poverty and progress he sees around
him with indignation and defiance and he would try to find its cause
and way to abandon the dire poverty and fight for equal rights for all
human beings to the values of nature and society; and he would propose
that in principle all Monopolies and Privileges should be abandoned,
and the few of them that should be allowed to exist should be run by
the public.
The problems George experiensed are still existing, and his proposals
are still relevant; but living today he would probably look at the
Monopolies and Privileges that are allowed to exist in an other way
than he did in his time.
150 years ago George proposed that those Monopolies/Privileges that
the government on behalf of the people would allow to exist should be
run by the public administration/the government, which was common
sense when the Monopolies/Privileges were few. Today, however, the
number of mons/privs is immense. Today governmental taking over the
great number of mons/privs that the democratically elected legislators
will allow to exist would contrast Henry George's proposal that the
public administration should be kept as small as possible.
We, his followers, have to address this problem that did not exist
150 years ago; and we might find it sensible to use the principle that
Henry George proposed regarding the value of the exclusive right to
use of land, which in fact was and still is a privilege for the
landowner to exclude other people. George proposed: Collect the annual
market value of the privilege for the public purse. No privilege can
exist without the protection from the government's supreme power,
which proves that the government is the creator of the value of
privileges. Therefore the value/the rent of privileges belongs to the
government that should collect it annually instead of collecting other
taxes. The revenue of the rent of privileges should be used to the
betterment of all citizens, primarily to those who without any fault
of their own are in poverty, because of illness, disability,
catastrophes, etc., secondarily to finance public tasks as decided by
the democratically elected legislators, and any excess revenue should
be distributed to all others citizens in equal shares.
We know that Henry George was committed to fight for equal rights for
all citizens and for freedom to do what they individually would find
right to do. If living today, I believe, he would support the idea of
a democratically based United Nation-government with power to solve
the urgent problems of common interest of the world, most of which are
political tensions caused by unjust trade arrangements, privileges,
and unjust distribution of the value of nature and society.
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