Notes on PROUT policy on intervention

Sohail Inayatullah

Prout supports intervention in sovereign nation states by a duly created world body. It rejects intervention by particular nation-states, even broad based coalitions. This is largely as the self-interests of nation-states (geo-political control, resource and ideology control) go against the self-interests of the planet.

Ideologically, Prout rejects the UN as such a world body, as the UN is foundations are based on inequitable world order. Moreover, eligibility into the UN is based on acquiring national status, thus leaving out social movements, cooperatives, and individuals.

Ideologically Prout rejects identity politics particularly religious politics, including the hindu variety ( eg, BJP genocide in Gujrat), of the Islamic variety (terrorism globally and in Kashmir) of the Christian Vatican (the feudal politics of the Vatican) and of the Jewish variety (Zionism).

However, to remove imbalances, Prout supports social movements that attempt to redress the exploitation of language (communities being brutalized for speaking their native tongue or being denied equal opportunity), religion (suppressing a people based on their religion), gender and other identities. However, these movements should not and cannot be allowed to become the new oppressors, that is, upon gaining state or other types of power, using their own language or religion or … as a political weapon. Prout sees all identity as historically and social constructed – the only “true” identity is spiritual.

Prout asserts that any long lasting to solution to current problems must be mutli-layered. This means:

1. the creation of economic democracy, focused on cooperatives
2. the creation of an expanded identity, moving away from nation, religion and ethnicity toward a politics of earth identity
3. an environmental ethic, seeing nature as a living resource for all and “herself.”
4. a gender ethics, focused on gender partnership

In the current war in Iraq, Prout rejects usa intervention. However, it supports the notion of intervention against states that consistently violate basics human and nature rights (eg, India in Gujrat, Pakistan in Kashmir, Israel/Palestine in each other, Iraq towards its citizens and Iran, Zimbabwe against its citizens, to begin with). While the best solution is local people removing dictators, when that is impossible, or when local leaders violate global law, world action is needed.

Given that no world government exists to engage in such intervention, in the short run, Prout favors the strengthening and broadening of the UN, including transforming the internationalism of the UN to a universalism.

In this sense Prout strongly favors a transformed globalization that creates planetary identities, strong economic democracies, free movement of labour – in effect a new type of glo-calism that moves humanity away from feudalism and nationalism and towards a planetary universalism.

Given that USA intervention is a reality, Prout seeks to provide humanitarian aid and seeks to be involved in the global debate on a post-war Iraq, ensuring that the future develops on Prout policy (economic democracy, gender partnership, ecological ethic, etc)