ONE "HELLUVA" CENTURY

by

JOHN ROBERTS

A quick look at the 20th Century

Introduction

A reader might suggest that the title to this essay is ambiguous. He would undoubtedly be correct. The 20th Century has been one “helluva” time for mankind, in more than one sense. As someone who has lived through seventy percent of this period, it might not be inappropriate for me to record my feelings, as 1999 opens and the Millennium draws to a close.

Not that the close of a particular Century is, necessarily, cause for reflection upon the events that have occurred during that particular period. It really is matter of small importance in the cosmic scheme: in relation to the evolution of the Universe. However, to little men and women, the close of one Century and the commencement of another, is seen as a momentous milestone in human history. When such an event coincides with the close of a millennium, it becomes an occasion for much anticipation and a measure of retrospection.

The Jews and the Chinese and, perhaps, the remnants of one or two other ancient civilizations, might protest and suggest that the Western Millennium is meaningless, as the world is so many more thousands, or millions, of years older than calculated by traditional Christian methods. Indeed, it is all a matter of a particular point of view. However, those who live in the United States and the Western World, in general, are not unduly concerned regarding such criticism.

As an Englishman, I was brought up with the idea that history commenced sometime after the close of the first millennium, when some Norman-French chap overwhelmed the Anglo-Saxon Army of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. (1066 and all that). So that, whatever occurred before that time is not very clear or very relevant to the events of today.

The close of this millennium may well herald another thousand years of who-knows-what human experience. Alternatively, it is shaping-up to be a very short period indeed.

Well, it could be safely suggested that the first 900 or so years of this present millennium have been pretty disastrous, from the point of view of human relationships. If mankind has progressed at all during this time, it has been a series of steps and stairs and of much sliding down the banisters of human evolution.

Certainly, by the time we had arrived at l900, and mainly during the latter half of the 19th Century, mankind’s capacity for the creation of instruments of mass-murder had increased proportionately to the development of manufacturing capability. It is also true to suggest that these developments took place in those nations of the “civilized” world, which considered themselves to be the most highly developed; culturally, socially and spiritually. Many of the armaments manufacturers were deeply religious men. Even the Generals who commanded the world’s armies considered themselves to be, to some extent, God’s elect, who would govern in justice and in equity. They felt the hand of God at work in the tasks committed to their charge: such as the conquest and conversion of the heathen.

The American Civil War, followed in Europe by the Franco-Prussian War, had revealed, in a most startling manner, the killing capacity of modern weaponry. More was to follow!

Chapter 1

Opening Years

The 20th Century opened upon a scene of carnage and savagery in the pursuit of the Boer War, a rather one-sided affair, which ended with the loss of thousands of lives on both sides, mainly as a result of disease, in semi-tropical and unhygienic conditions; in the inhospitable environment of South Africa. The British Army soon realized that red coats made marvellous targets for the Boer irregular troops and changed its uniforms to the now familiar Khaki colour. The incarceration of many Boer women and children, in concentration camps, resulted in the death, by disease, of a great many innocent and helpless people. This tragedy resulted in the British incurring the enduring hatred of the Boers.

In l901, Victoria departed this life, amid a tumult of Imperialist Pomp: glorifying the wealth and power of the “British Empire.” It was the last dying flicker of Imperialist vanity. What a shock awaited the enthusiasts, within the space of a few short years!?

The Boer War itself was only an interlude in the sphere of international relations. The European powers still considered themselves to be impregnable and able to dictate, with impunity, to the rest of mankind. The scramble for Africa was almost at an end, with the bulk of that continent having been carved up by Britain, France, Germany and Belgium. Italy was to later enter into the affray, with assaults upon Abyssinia and Libya. The arrogance displayed in the attitude of the European nations, in thus dealing with weaker nations, is astonishing to modern minds, but to the ignorant masses of the people, this again seemed to be a God-endowed privilege. As a result, industry flourished in the West, although the workers, as usual, received a disproportionately lower share of the resultant material benefits.

Following the death of Victoria, Edward V11 became the nominal ruler of England for a few short years. He was already at an advanced age and a decadent and self-indulgent lifestyle had reduced his allotted span. He died, after a reign of about five or six years, being succeeded by George V, prior to the onset of the First World War.

Chapter 2

World War l

In August 1914, a minor incident, in the Balkans, led to the hammer-and-tongs affair of the Great War. This was the assassination of Austrian Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand, by a Serbian fanatic. Nobody, not even the Kaiser himself, realized, at that time, just what horrors had been let loose upon an ignorant and unsuspecting world. Monsters had been created that were soon to destroy one another with great efficiency. These diabolical instruments, known as Armies, were eventually to swallow tens of millions of innocent and helpless youth, throughout the length and breadth of Europe, eliminating in the process, the intelligentsia of nations.

National patriotism was at its peak in all the combatant nations. In Britain, “For King and Country” became the catchphrase. Lads of 17 and l8 were induced to sign up for the defence of the realm. Often unemployed and bored to death, they readily accepted the King’s shilling and went off, rejoicing, to be slaughtered.

By 1916, when the first surge of enthusiasm had waned, following the release of horrifying casualty figures, and the appearance in the streets of Britain of numerous blind and legless young men, the British people were beginning to understand that they had let themselves in for a disaster of unparalleled proportions. However, the butchery continued aimlessly and without positive result, until the end of l918, when exhaustion and the appearance on the Western Front of United States Forces, brought the German High Command to the realization that Germany could no longer hope to win the War.

When the War ended, with the Armistice of 11 November l918, it left the European World in a state of economic, social and moral ruin: littered with the physical and emotional wreckage of cultures that had taken a thousand years to develop. All the major participants were Bankrupt, with the exception of the United States, which ended the War at the zenith of its power and prosperity.

An International Organization, called the “League of Nations” was established to oversee the Peace. However, once it had supervised the enforcement of the Armistice provisions and the Peace Agreement, which followed, the League gradually ceased to exist as a vehicle for the enforcement of International Law. The European Nations were just not ready or willing to surrender their independence or powers to a third party. National interests continued to predominate in the counsels of all the individual European countries.

The European world has never recovered from the effects of the Great War of l914-18. The loss of intellectual and reproductive humanity was enormous. Thousands of highly educated, cultivated and creative young men were killed: the cream of society in Britain, France, Russia and Germany. It was a death blow in more than one sense. The War destroyed the germ of intellectual life in Europe: it interrupted the flow of creative genius: it undermined the last vestige of l9th Century morality: it crushed the idea of social obligation and broke the thread of artistic and cultural development, so that, what was produced, subsequently, bore no resemblance to the artistic achievements of the past. Nothing was to be the same. When a new generation came along, there were few links remaining to the past and little hope and much despair in the minds of the young.

Chapter 3

Between the Wars

The extreme misery of the poor of Europe in the years following the War and subsequent to the commencement of the Second World War of l939-45, gave little scope for optimism regarding the likelihood of an improvement in living conditions for the underprivileged masses. There was a measure of hardship in the lives of the poor in Britain, which would be unacceptable today. Very few working-class people in Britain owned their own homes or even considered such a possibility. Wages were unregulated, as they still are, and employers in most industries could pay their workers the lowest possible wage. The shortage of jobs meant that people were glad to take whatever work was offered and there were few Government regulations affecting working conditions. It was not until the Atlee Labour Government of l946 that a great deal of protective legislation was introduced into Parliament and even this did not include the idea of a “Basic Wage”, which is the corner-stone of Australian social legislation. A worker in London might earn twice the wage of another person working in Carlisle or Manchester, doing exactly the same work. This was one reason why the South of England was a more prosperous environment, in addition to the fact that a greater measure of Public Funding was spent in the South, whereas the more remote provinces were deliberately neglected by the central Government.

Inflationary pressures and massive unemployment in England, in the Twenties, resulted in the General Strike in l926, when all the major service industries struck against wage cutting and closures. The strike lasted some weeks but was broken by the concerted efforts of wealthy or misguided “volunteers” who helped distribute bread, food and essential supplies.

During the Thirties, a working labourer’s wage might be Two-pounds ten shillings per week, or a tradesman’s Three-pounds, ten shillings per week. If a man earned Five Pounds per week, he was, in the eyes of a working man, almost in the “Well-to-do” bracket. When one reads biographical accounts of the extreme hardship caused to those educated classes who were forced to live, and raise a family on, perhaps, a “Thousand a Year”, one catches a glimpse of the gulf which existed, and still exists, between the wealthy and the poor. Twenty pounds a week, between the Wars, was a fortune, but would not, perhaps, maintain a household in a large property with servants on too lavish a scale. It was a case of “cutting one’s cloth”.

My own recollections of this period are of the extreme poverty of some children of my own age, who went to school minus shoes, or without adequate Winter clothing. Life in Salford was drab in the extreme: the air choked by grime from the smoke of thousands of factory coal furnaces and household fires. There was little vehicle pollution, as the only motor vehicles on the road were usually buses and commercial vehicles. Only the rich owned motor cars. Buildings were smoke begrimed and there was little awareness of the possibility or need to clean the environment. Hence city dwellers were glad to avail themselves of the opportunity, when annual holiday-week came around, to visit the countryside or the seaside for a breath of fresh air. The rest of the year was spent in six days labour with a very dull Sunday at the end of the week.

At least the British had the benefit of a Sunday’s rest once a week, the product of Protestant religious sensitivity, whereas Continental Europe had no concept whatever of a “week-end”, until after the second World War.

Whatever the conditions of life for the British Working Classes, those of the Continental Countries would hardly have been better. Life went along in a monotonous routine year after year. The wealthy enjoyed themselves and did little or no work. They were waited-on and maintained by armies of ill-paid servants, who themselves considered it a privilege to be in a regular job, with a full stomach, even if it entailed working from 5 am each morning to late at night, with little opportunity for personal recreation. Wealth could educate its children; send them overseas; place them in secure and well-paid employment. The “old-boy” net thrived, as it still does today, in all parts of the Globe. It is not one’s particular ability but one’s social connections which determine the level at which one functions in this world. It is a case of “Who you know!”

These privileges were God-given rights, with which one was endowed at birth. Hard-luck if one is born into the wrong social set. This system has prevailed in every society for hundreds, nay, thousands of years. Today, there is no change: the same rules apply: wealth begets wealth and privilege perpetuates itself.

Chapter 4

Women

The status of women during these years was deplorable. Even during the 19th Century, the question was debated whether or not women had “souls”. Hence, it was apparent that the male sex was determined to disregard the possibility of women aspiring to an equal status with the male, in the ordinary departments of human activity.

The education of women had been thought of as unnecessary, save in the field of the domestic arts. Cultivated women were taught music, reading, needlework, modern languages and domestic management. More than this was inappropriate and the fields of higher education were closed to women until almost the beginning of the 20th Century, when one or two colleges, exclusively for women, were opened in the higher centres of learning in the United Kingdom.

When in employment, a woman’s wages might approximate two-thirds, or less, of an equivalent male wage. In factories, women were exploited to the full, with no provision made by government for the protection of the workers in factory sweat-shops.

The Suffragette movement in Great Britain, which began in earnest in l914, initiated violent agitation to publicize the inferior position of women in relation to the right of suffrage. They simply had no say: nor were the male members of the various political parties prepared to give ground on this issue. The death of Mrs. Pankhurst on the Epsom race-track (in l916?) was the highlight of the campaign. Women were repeatedly imprisoned for obstruction and other minor offences, for periods of up to 6 months, in conditions of great inhumanity.

The Great-War of l914-18, brought women to the fore in public life, as never before. Jobs were performed by women, which had been regarded as the sacred preserve of the male. This involvement encouraged women to press for equal status with men in the right to vote. However, it was not until the 20’s that adult universal female suffrage became a reality in England.

Nor was the social position of women improved greatly by this change. The question of “equal pay for equal work” did not arise until well after the second world war and then had to be the subject of a hard-fought campaign. Women had always been subservient to their fathers and husbands, who enjoyed strict powers of control over their women, such as one still observes in the backward countries of Mediterranean Europe and the East today. Women swore to “love, honour and obey” their husbands and this obligation was not taken lightly. Provided a man did not actually break his wife’s bones, he might thrash her as often as he wished, with impunity. At the end of the Century, we regard such conduct as intolerable, yet women had no recourse to the Courts for centuries on the matter of domestic violence. This is not to suggest that there is no longer such a thing: it is an ever-present phenomenon in this world and has yet to be rectified by a complete reversal in the attitude of men towards their women. Women are, of course, fighting back, yet they are physically weak and reluctant to expose the circumstances of domestic instability. This is understandable but provides a cover for men to wreak their peevish and brutish personalities upon their long-suffering and dependent wives and children.

All things considered, great improvements have been made in the status and independence of women in recent years. This is all to the good and needs to be continued, if women are to attain complete equality with men. The increasing proportion of academically qualified women is a sign of the times. They are, thus, demonstrating their intellectual superiority over the male. Unfortunately, they are still women and subject to the dominating influence of the physically and emotionally stronger male.

Chapter 5

World War 11

So life went on between the Wars with everyone blithely believing that the peace would never end. However, a chap named Adolph Hitler had other ideas: he intended to, and did in fact, change the face of the world forever, if in only one respect. He drastically reduced the number of people living in it, either intentionally or indirectly, as a result of his unbounded power and ambition. In the process, he managed to destroy his own country and much of Europe, almost irreversibly. However, the Germans bounced back, with their indomitable determination and brilliance. Even Germany was changed, however, and the population will never be the same again.

In starting a War, Hitler injected a new impetus into the world scene. The British and the French were involved and also the Russians, who again suffered incredible hardship and losses in men, women and materials. This time it really was a fight for personal survival. Hitler’s paranoid hatred of the Jews resulted in the butchery of six million or more of the Central European Jewish people, plus an untold number of Gypsies, Deviants and other unwanted categories. The miracle is that the European world recovered at all from the senseless and almost total destruction inflicted upon so many people and countries. Yet, half a century later, it is, once more, its old active, optimistic self.

If one is tempted to doubt the fact of the systematic mass-murder of the Jews, one has only to visit Auschwitz-Berkenau in Poland, to comprehend the extent of the brutality inflicted upon a defenceless and harmless people. The cultural loss to the world must have been incalculable, as it is a well-established fact, that when it comes to “brains”, the Jews have far more than their fair share.

The War brought a development of a new social consciousness in many Western Countries. In Britain, there was plenty of work and no one, who wanted a job, went without employment. There were the usual upheavals, attendant upon modern warfare: children were evacuated in thousands from the industrial cities, in the hope that they would escape the effects of aerial bombing. This in itself opened up new vistas of experience for thousands of city children, many of whom had never before witnessed the countryside, with its indescribably lovely scenes. These children, some of whom had never even seen grass, were amazed to discover that there was another world than that of the smoke begrimed and endless terraced streets of the cities they had left behind. It was “hurrah for evacuation!”

Whilst many evacuees returned home within twelve months of their removal, the experience remained with them for the rest of their lives.

Women once again entered the ranks of the semi-skilled workforce, taking on jobs left vacant by their male counterparts, who were now in the Armed Forces. This, again, was a further step in the emancipation of females and, at the conclusion of hostilities, women were reluctant to make way for the returning soldiers, who now wanted their old jobs back.

On the social front, the War helped to break down traditional barriers, which had existed for generations and given the British people a reputation for snobbish insularity and social-climbing tendencies. People who were members of the Home Guard or the Air-Raid Precautions Service, got to know each other, after spending years living in close proximity, without passing more than the occasional “Good Morning!” or “Goodnight!”, accompanied by a nod of the head. Working-class snobbery still exists in England but is, perhaps, not so much in evidence as it was fifty years ago. In the Middle and Upper Classes, snobbery is as much in evidence as ever.

The Class barriers are still there, however, and will need revolutionary change, before there is a lasting recognition of the principle of the fundamental equality of man. This is unacceptable language today, as it threatens the very foundation of this lop-sided and unjust society: the inviolability of property.

All those men, women and children who were affected by the War, suffered in one way or another. Little children were exposed to the tremendous noise of anti-aircraft gunfire and the scream and shock of falling bombs. For the British, the 18 months from the Summer of l940 to the end of l941 were a period of enormous stress, with loss of life and damage to property. Later in the War, the “Buzz Bombs” and V2 rockets made life difficult and dangerous in the South. This debt was subsequently paid in full, with interest, in the destruction of the German industrial cities. Naturally, the loss of life in the British and US raids was tremendous, with modern weapons of war making no distinction between combatants and non-combatants.

On the Russian front, it is common knowledge that Germany lost several million young men, killed or taken prisoner. Of those who were captured, very few survived the hardships of life in Siberian prison conditions, when temperatures reached -50 degrees Celsius in Winter. I had a German friend who was one of those who did, in fact, return. He did not talk much about his experiences on the Russian Front.

After another five years of mass slaughter and wholesale destruction of property, the second World War ended with the utter exhaustion of the combatants. Only the United States, survived in a hale and hearty condition: its world supremacy hardly challenged by the USSR, which was itself faced with an enormous task in the rehabilitation of its national economy, following the destruction of its towns and cities and the murder of millions of its people.

Once more, recognition was given to the need for the establishment of a revitalized “League of Nations”, and this was established as, “The United Nations”, funded principally by the United States, which permitted its Headquarters to be constructed within the State of New York. Since that time, the organization has operated, with some success, in the management of international problems. However, at the present time it is seen to be too much a propaganda tool of the United States, which, were it not for the vigorous opposition of the Russian Government, would undoubtedly have rendered the United Nations Organization a helpless puppet of US policy.

Chapter 6

Post War Conditions

Following the conclusion of the l939-45 War, a more liberal attitude prevailed in many European nations. There was greater tolerance for levellers, who had hitherto been almost branded as traitors in some countries. Socialist principles were popular, following the entry of the USSR into the War, and attendant propaganda had informed the British people that the Bolsheviks were: “Our Glorious comrades, fighting in the cause of Freedom!” Socialist principles were applied by many Governments, particularly the Atlee Labour Government in England, which, from l945, introduced huge volumes of social legislation, all designed to improve the lot of the working people of Britain.

Foremost amongst these provisions was the National Health Scheme and sound Unemployment legislation. As a result the British people enjoyed a standard of living never known before in their history. This was in spite of the continuance of food rationing and other shortages. But the Medical Profession was hostile: foreseeing the loss of its independence. The last thing the Doctors wanted was to be “Nationalized”. As a result they deliberately sabotaged the Health Scheme, by over-prescribing medicines and health supplies and over-servicing patients. For example, I recall seeing a lady leaving a local Chemist’s shop, soon after the introduction of the scheme, literally loaded with large packets of cotton-wool, lint, medication and other supplies: all prescribed for the treatment of a cut finger. This practice, multiplied on a large scale, produced an enormous increase in the costs of the Service. In addition, anyone with a measure of understanding might have foreseen that the expense forecasts would be inaccurate, as many people could not afford to visit their doctor, prior to the inception of the National Health Scheme. Far more people now visited the Doctor when they were sick, thus increasing the cost of the service. In addition, medical men felt it incumbent upon them to visit their patients much more frequently than was formerly the case. Whatever, the cause, the National Health Service, created by an enlightened Socialist-Labour Government has, in the past thirty years, been gradually whittled down, until it is now a mere ghost of its former self.

Amongst the most socially beneficial acts of the Atlee Government was the introduction of massive death duties on the huge estates of the wealthy. For the short time in which they were applied, they resulted in the re-distribution of many large estates, which would otherwise have remained entrenched in the hands of the traditional owners. Such a method of redistributing wealth can only result in extraordinary benefits to a nation, in the ultimate destruction of the caste system, as maintained in countries like the United Kingdom, where the land has remained for centuries in the control of a relatively few individuals, whose rights were previously regarded as inviolable.

However, Socialism was not popular with the organs of mass media. The elite were unhappy at the threat to their entrenched privileges. International capitalism was threatened by these developments on the European mainland. Soviet Russia was seen as a threat to the security of the West. Even before the guns of World War II were silenced, Winston Churchill, in a speech broadcast from one of the major English Universities, (Oxford), was urging the United States to attack Russia at once, to destroy, once and for all, the perceived threat to the stability of the Capitalist System. I recall listening to this speech on the radio, one afternoon, in horror and disgust.

Whilst this exhortation was ignored, so far as military action was concerned, the threat was equally perceived as serious by the most powerful interests in the United States. The result was the “Cold War”, a deliberate and sustained attack upon the Soviet Union by the propaganda machines of the United States and its co-conspirators in the Western World. A more repressive and sinister development at this time was the establishment of the “Un-American activities Committee”, chaired by a notorious thug, Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose name became a byword for overbearing and irrational behaviour towards all those suspected of entertaining socialist tendencies. “Communists” and “Socialists” were labelled “Enemies of the United States” and many persons suspected of affiliation with Socialists or sympathy for Socialist principles were ruthlessly hounded and persecuted.

Such was the hysteria developed in the “West” regarding the perceived threat from Soviet Russia, that the United States continued to maintain a large Army, equipped with the latest and most efficient weapons of destruction. Hence, when the Armies of North Korea invaded the South in l950, the United States was able to a send troops to South Korea, who were eventually successful in confining the North Koreans to their own territory. This US Force was assisted by forces from many of the Western Nations, including Great Britain. When the Chinese assisted the North Koreans, with “volunteers”, it seemed that the War might become unmanageable. However, it was fortunately contained within Korea and, eventually, a cease-fire was proclaimed, which has lasted for forty years.

The Socialist-Labour Government of the United Kingdom, from l945, was the target of a torrent of hostile propaganda, which issued from the United States, ably supported within the United Kingdom by those organs of mass-media, hostile to the re-distribution of wealth. As it is a fact that the vast majority of ordinary folk are incapable of thinking for themselves, the result was a return to power, at a subsequent election, of conservative and reactionary forces, led by an aging and unstable, Winston Churchill.

Subsequent Governments within the United Kingdom and, to a great extent, in other experimental Socialist societies, elsewhere, have seen a watering down of the social legislation originally designed to improve the lot of the masses. This is particularly evident in Great Britain itself and also in Australia, where Labour Party principles have been undermined by years of hostile propaganda and the subversion of the Party in each country by opportunist, Sectarian and reactionary elements. This is a tragedy for the working classes in every country thus contaminated by sustained mass-media propaganda.

The result of these movements has been the wholesale disposal of Public Property to private self-interested elements, with hardly a word of protest from the people themselves. Protective Social legislation has been largely dismantled. Such is the power of modern organs of mass media to influence the destinies of nations.

In l956, The British and French, peeved by the Nationalization of the Suez Canal, took it upon themselves to attack a helpless Egypt, causing loss of life and damage to property, in another jingoistic foray. There was a great outburst of feeling in Britain against this action. I myself attended a meeting in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, at which the invasion was denounced.

The resultant damage to British and French prestige, reflected in a serious downturn upon the Stock Exchange, turned the tables on the aggressors, who were glad to withdraw from Egypt and cut their losses. Anthony Eden, former Foreign Minister and now Prime Minister of Great Britain, who had lost touch with reality, was obliged to resign.

Chapter 7

The Sixties and Seventies

The Sixties and Seventies have witnessed a succession of Wars conducted by the United States, either openly or clandestinely, since the Korean War. The most serious of these was the brazen attack by the USA upon the people of North Vietnam, during the mid-Sixties. I have commented upon this war to some extent in my essay on “War and Weaponry” and do not wish to repeat myself unduly. I merely observe that the Yanks were badly bruised by the North Vietnamese, assisted by the Vietcong, losing fifty-thousand young men in this murderous, ill-conceived and thoroughly immoral enterprise.

The damage inflicted upon Vietnam and Cambodia, in the destruction of forest habitat and property, persists, without any attempt at redress by the United States. The loss of life to children and other innocents was great and is still continuing, as women and children encounter mines and other lethal anti-personnel devices, scattered by the million from aircraft or left in the ground by combatant troops.

At the cultural level, the Western World reached an all-time low, with art and music both reflecting the degeneracy of the times. Drugs began to play a major part in the life of nations, with young people, over-indulged and reckless, experimenting with LSD and Marihuana. The mass use of Heroin and Cocaine have further highlighted the gross decay of Western morality. These are problems, which, if not rectified by a renewal of mass social consciousness, will wreck any chance the people of the Twenty-first Century may have of leading a secure and happy life. Drugs are a symptom of a deep underlying spiritual malaise: of a despair and loss of confidence in society itself. The West is in need of a sustained spiritual revival, not simply a parade of religiosity, such as we have witnessed in the last thirty years or so.

Accompanying the social damage occasioned by Drug use, the appearance of hitherto unknown diseases have further complicated life. I merely observe that, if we can remedy the mental and emotional diseases of this life, we will be half way to preventing or controlling the physical maladies that afflict the nations.

Chapter 8

The eighties and nineties

Since then, there have been other Wars, The British War with Argentina reflected poorly upon the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher, although the war itself was popular with the British Press.

The USA itself maintained its pressure upon Socialist Societies in the Southern American States and in the Caribbean, throughout the whole of this period. The support given to the Chilean assassin and dictator, Pinochet, in the murder of President Allende and the suppression of democracy in Chile, is a shameful episode, amongst a long list of disgraceful activities, of which the United States is guilty.

The invasion of the island of Granada, which had a democratically elected Government, was a deliberate, unprovoked and imperialistic act of aggression against another helpless victim. Although once under British Rule, no voice of protest was heard from Great Britain over this attack.

The continued violation of the rights of the independent nation of Cuba by the United States, reveals the extent of the anti-socialist paranoia still existing within the halls of Congress and the White House. How the International Community has permitted this gross invasion of basic liberties to continue for so long is utterly incomprehensible.

The invasion of Panama was also another unwarranted act of aggression. The USA has no mandate from the rest of the world community to enter, without invitation, another sovereign state, with the deliberate intention of apprehending one or more of its leading citizens. One does not need to possess a vivid imagination to comprehend the threat that such action constitutes to the existence of world peace and stability. The evident attitude of the United States in these situations is, quite clearly, that of a bully-boy, who knows that there is no one to oppose him.

Recent missile attacks upon sovereign States, allegedly in revenge for bomb attacks on US citizens, also demonstrate the instability and aggressive tendencies now prominent in US government circles. The War Party is undoubtedly predominant. The United States is rapidly seen as becoming a law unto itself and responsible to no international body. The United Nations Organization has need to look to its laurels.

I have also spoken regarding the attacks on Iraq, in recent essays, and my comments therein can be regarded as being repeated in this memorandum.

Chapter 9

Conclusion

Where, then, is the world heading in the 21st Century? Led and influenced, as it is, by the United States, it will need to take a serious and sustained look at its position. Unless the world community can look forward to a prolonged period of peace and the development of goodwill between nations, the outlook is hopeless.

The presence of nuclear weapons alone must cause serious alarm, particularly when it is becoming increasingly evident that it is only a matter of time before unprincipled and fanatical extremists obtain control of one or more of these weapons. When they do, the United States will be the prime target. One does not need to dwell on the damage and loss of life and property that would ensue, if even a tiny bomb of this nature was exploded in New York or Los Angeles.

It will be easier to defuse the position now, rather than wait until it is too late to repent of one’s foolishness. The exercise of power involves the imposition of responsibilities, something that the United States has, in the past, conveniently ignored. It can do so, no longer.

There is much residual good-will left in the world but it is draining fast away. How about it, Mr. President and friends? Time to take stock of the Twentieth Century and to decide what is to be done to make the Twenty-first Century a safe place for the development and growth of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Now is the time to limit the growth of Armies and the production of weaponry. Now is the time to destroy these devilish engines, before they destroy humanity itself. It will be too late, after the event, to suggest we should have done this or that.

Let us then, really try to convert our swords into ploughshares, to put aside considerations of economic return for investment outlay. There will be no economic or any other returns when thousands are, once more, suffering from radiation sickness: when cities are uninhabitable for centuries. The United States is not invulnerable, nor any other military establishment.

We have taken the principle of free will to its ultimate limit in the present Century. We have proved to ourselves just how much of a real mess we can make, both socially and environmentally, of the world in which we all live.

The ball is, truly, in your Court: go for a secure and prosperous Twenty-First Century.

THE END

John Roberts, Sydney, 8th January l999.

Return to Home Page

mailto:robertsjno@gmail.com