GJM: Justices

The Global Justice Movement honours peacemakers be they individuals, churches, organisations or governments. Their efforts, however, tend to be piecemeal and, at best, a late stage intervention when things have already gone badly wrong. It is also, unfortunately, too often the case that even an early stage intervention cannot hope to succeed because the underlying causes of dissension are much too deep-seated.

The general truth, therefore, is that Peace, and certainly long-term peace, cannot come about by itself. Rather it is the result of properly structured societies in proper relationships with each other. Those relationship, moreover, are the result of the internal structure of societies. Today’s ‘democracies’, for example, are far from being true democracies yet it is generally agreed that the chances of two such ‘democracies’ going to war with each other are much less than war between one such ‘democracy’ and a totalitarian state.

Peacemakers also have to beware of a trap – their laudable concern to avoid war can sometimes lead them to support plutocratic, authoritarian or totalitarian, even medieval, regimes of the worst possible nature. Furthermore, it has been observed that some peacemakers so vociferously uphold the rights of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes that there can sometimes be doubt as to whether those peacemakers have any genuine sense of democracy or justice. Upholding the rights of a cruel regime to kill and torture its own people is not just moral blindness but, in some circumstances, may amount to a subtle racism which assumes that the people of those countries are incapable of any form of democracy.

Lastly, it is all too easy to reason that war only comes about because of the actions of evil men. Such reasoning, of course, is a convenient way of ultimately blaming war upon everybody else but ourselves. The truth, however, is different – all war is directly, or indirectly caused by the structure, or rather, malstructure, of whole societies and their interrelation with each other. For that malstructure, and the failure to alter or improve it, we are all responsible.

Therefore, let it be said clearly — Peace Justice is essentially something that arises from the implementation of the other four Justices – Money, Social, Economic and Environmental. Indeed, tackling Peace in isolation from the other four Justices is self-defeating. Effective peace-building requires a holistic approach, embracing the whole gamut of our relationships with one another – economic, social, cultural, humanitarian and environmental – creating a multi-level security support bank.

Peace campaigners who campaign solely for Peace, therefore, are ineffective unless they also address the malstructure of societies. Like everybody else, peace campaigners should always be prepared to specify and openly declare an alternative structure for societies.

Which then raises the question – is there any form of society which is less fundamentally inclined to get involved in war? Is it true, for example, that modern ‘democracies’ are much less likely to go to war with each other?

The answer is difficult particularly because modern ‘democracies’ are not, in reality, very democratic. Indeed, they are based on unfree market finance capitalism which is unfree, inefficient and unfair. It is unfree because most people are in practice excluded from the acquisition of productive capital. It is inefficient because ample supply fails to generate adequate demand. It is unfair because millions of people do not receive proper reward (and, in the case of women, for example, often no reward at all) as well as being excluded from the chance to have a second income coming from capital ownership.

Perhaps worst of all, the unfree market system (being fundamentally based on ever-escalating and unsustainable debt) is unheeding of the way it is now being viewed by the poor countries of the world which, seeing themselves as the eternal milch cows of the rich, are becoming increasingly determined to do something to correct their invidious situation.

The GJM, of course, is giving the lead in creating Peace and it is doing that by fighting for the true, genuine democracy provided by Inclusive Justice. Indeed, without Inclusive Justice, war is inevitable.

Loss of independence

Societies cannot be at peace with themselves and others unless they are genuinely based on Inclusive Justice and, at the core of that Justice is the need for a society to control its own money supply. A nation which issues its own money is independent and need never go to the IMF or the World Bank. It is absolutely amazing that countries right around the world have allowed themselves to be bamboozled into believing that money always has to be borrowed from someone else. Yet they have been bamboozled and, as a result, they not only have to repay the principal but are burdened with compound interest as well. That is why, throughout the world, country after country has built up huge, ever-escalating debts. Consequently, those countries have lost their independence

The present scale of nations’ debt is the result of an institutionalised conspiracy or, more precisely, the mother of all stings. By a global deceit the banking system has been allowed to introduce enormous swathes of credit money and then add interest on top. All of which matters on a transcendental scale because having to pay out, every day, every month, every year, astronomical sums to those who usually live abroad, nation after nation:

These nations become much like Pakistan haris. A hari is a debt slave. When a person borrows money for a funeral, dowry etc. and the money is not quickly repaid, interest soon takes the owed amount up to a level where it can never be repaid. The debt does not die with the person, however. Rather it continues as a family debt. Thus the debt bondage which goes on over generations

These nations, moreover, will never repay their debt, will always be in poverty, and will always be in the power of rapacious others. Unfortunately, even highly intelligent people gullibly accept the present system. Those who dare to challenge in any way, moreover, are dismissed as troublemakers.

The sting is essentially able to operate because, every day, a trillion dollars zooms around the world. Most it goes not into productive investment but into the buying or selling currencies, corporate shares, government bonds, futures (options to buy things which might come into being in the future), and derivatives (instruments based on some underlying financial asset). A little of the money is actually invested in productive enterprise, but most of it feeds a global casino with little or no connection with the real world of wealth creation. As to from whence the money comes, the answer is nowhere – the banking system conjures it all up out of nothing.

Global Justice is appalled and demands that the newly created money — society’s money — be put into new productive investment with millions of new owners throughout society. It is shocking that there is little or no control over the banking system and its power to create credit without bothering itself whether it is, or is not, being put into proper productive capacity with widespread ownership.

Moreover, it should be understood that true nationhood requires not only a use of its own money supply on Global Justice principles but also local ownership of its productive capital. An indebted nation, particularly one whose productive enterprises are owned by outsiders cannot ever be truly happy or independent.

Capital flight – inwards

Implementation of the Five Justices will have a remarkable result — inwards capital flight. At the moment, we are constantly told that any proposal remotely touching on justice is certain to cause capital flight from a country. However, in contrast, the Global Justice Movement confidently asserts that the implementation of its policies and Inclusive Justice will have the opposite effect – capital flight inwards.

Therefore, if there are to be prosperous, properly democratic and independent nations, Global Justice must be introduced. And the quicker that is said out loud, the better. In particular, it should be shouted that, with Global Justice there will be capital flight – inwards – as speculators realise that a new, sound economy is being established, one that cannot have crises engineered by people of bad faith. Should the inward capital flight be undesirable in any way action can be taken at the appropriate time.

The point is that, at the moment, the unfree, unfair and inefficient finance capitalist system bullies everybody with the threat of outward capital flight. However, with the implementation of Global Justice, the threat will be seen to be nugatory.

While it is true that a people should have some land as a physical and psychological base, the larger requirement is that they have not only the basics of warmth, clean air, clean water, food and housing but the means of earning those things for themselves. Furthermore, people must be able to:

In a sentence, the danger spots of the world – more than anywhere else – require the implementation of the Five Justices – Money Justice, Social Justice, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice and Peace Justice. Without them, the prospects of long-term peace are remote.

So Peace Justice demands the immediate and worldwide implementation of:-