By Tom DeWeese

The Assembly will bring together the largest gathering of world leaders ever to meet under one roof (http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html). Their goal is to change the way governments operate. The UN will be established as the central operating entity. All governments will be redesigned to operate through the UN. Independent sovereign states will essentially cease to exist. They will instead become "partners" in global governance.

The UN’s Charter for Global Democracy has been be created to essentially replace the UN’s fifty-year-old Charter. The Charter for Global Democracy is written to establish the new procedures that will govern how nations will interact with each other, as well as how they operate within their own borders.

Republican leaders in the Congress, led by Senator Jesse Helms have demanded that the UN reform itself or face losing U.S. support. Senator Helms’ idea of reform was to reduce bloated budgets, bureaucracies and wasteful paper work. Instead, the UN has used the term "reform" to mean a stronger UN that is "retooled" to become a global government. There simply can be no other interpretation of the Charter (www.charter99.org/support.html).

In September, when literally all of the leaders of the world gather in New York City for the UN’s Millennium Assembly, they will meet for one purpose – to change the world. Global Governance under the control of the United Nations will be established. World leaders will vote to give the UN oversight of all of the earth’s land, air and seas (point 3). They will vote to give the UN oversight of international conflicts. They will give the UN the power to be judge and jury over violators of international law (point 2). They will give the UN oversight of financial institutions, commerce, trade relations, labor relations, education and private property (point 3). Existing national, state and local governments will remain to serve as conduits to locally carry out UN policy.

The Millennium Assembly is the final act in a UN drive for power that began a decade ago. The UN has been preparing for global governance over those ten years through a series of international conferences, treaties and reports. It’s been five years since the UN released its blueprint for global governance in a 1995 report called "Our Global Neighborhood." That report detailed UN plans that will now be placed into action through the Charter for Global Democracy which will be voted on and approved by the world leaders at the Millennium Assembly.

First, the Charter will change the actual structure of the United Nations (point 1 and point 4). Officially, it calls for the consolidation of all international agencies to be placed under the direct authority of the UN. But Maurice Strong, co-chairman of the UN Commission on Global Governance, issued a 95 page report in 1997 which outlined the steps necessary to restructure the UN to fulfill its mission of global governance. That restructuring would include eliminating the veto power and permanent member status of the Security Council. Such a move would almost completely eliminate U.S. influence and power in the world body.

Second, Strong’s report calls for the creation of a new UN body called the Assembly of the People. This new body is to become the real power of the UN. It will be populated by hand-picked, non-government organizations (NGO’s). These groups are actually nothing more than activists representing private organizations with political agendas. The UN is the only power than can recognize and sanction an official NGO organization. They do not represent average people. They answer to no one but their own agendas. They will not be elected to this post by anyone outside of the UN structure. Leading NGO’s include radical environmental groups like the Sierra Club and population-control groups like Planned Parenthood. Once the Assembly of the People is in place, groups such as these will meet and plan UN policy to govern us all. Strong’s restructuring ideas are represented in the Charter for Global Democracy and will be voted on by the world leaders in September.

A key issue of UN leaders is the need for more money. Almost every paper, report and statement by UN leaders lament its lack of funding to pay for its massive new roll in global governance. Of particular concern is the desire for independent funding that does not rely on donations and dues from member nations.

In 1996, then-UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali publicly suggested a global tax to fund the UN. The idea was met with strong opposition from the United States. The UN retreated from the idea and indicated that it wasn’t really serious. Yet again, the idea is included in the Charter for Global Democracy (point 3).

Specifically, the Charter would give the UN domain over all of the earth’s land, air and seas (point 3). In addition it would give it the power to control all natural resources, wild life, and energy sources, even radio waves. Such control would allow the UN to place taxes on everything from development; to fishing; to air travel; to shipping. Anything that could be defined as using the earth’s resources would be subject to UN use-taxes.

The Charter also calls for the regulation by the UN of all transnational corporations and financial institutions (point 3). In this way the UN would control international markets and monetary policies. A massive tax called the "Tobin Tax" has been suggested. This amounts to a tax or "fee" on every international financial transaction. This one tax would generate an estimated $1.5 trillion for UN coffers. For the average American it would have a direct effect on pension funds, IRA’s and personal investment transactions.

Such taxes would be collected by the establishment of a global IRS. Taxpayers in the United States well know the massive power held by our own IRS. But with the establishment of such a global power there would be no appeal to elected representatives. There would be no chance of public hearings to hold the agency accountable. There would be no control.

Clearly, implementation of the Charter for Global Democracy would produce massive wealth for the UN, resulting in the concentration of massive power. Such power would be controlled by the establishment of an international UN army. The army would answer to no nation. It would have the power to take action in any nation the UN directed it to. The UN would have the power to force nations to house the soldiers on their own soil. An international police state would replace national defense forces. The UN army is one of the main points to be voted on in the Charter for Global Democracy (point 5).

Finally the Charter sets up a series of international rules based on radical environmentalism that will control property and commerce (point 10 and point 11). It will require the enforcement of all UN "Human Rights" treaties, some of which even dictate how parents will raise their children (point 7). To assure that these international laws are obeyed, the Charter also calls for the establishment of an International Court of Justice that will be compulsory for all nations
(point 8).

The United States Constitution guarantees every American the right to a trial by jury; the right to face our accusers and the right to full disclosure of the charges against us. Under the UN rules for the Criminal Court, none of these are guaranteed. Most Americans believe that such a court is being established to bring international outlaws like Sadam Hussein to justice. That is not the case however. Under this new UN court, even private citizens are subject to trial.

Will the United States fall for the UN’s trap? Will our elected leaders allow the Charter for Global Democracy to usurp our own Constitution? The fact is many in Congress fail to see the UN as a threat. Ask your elected representatives if any of this is possible and most will deny it as simple paranoia from the "black helicopter" crowd. But every word of this report has been taken from UN documents. The Millennium Assembly will take place in September. The world leaders will be there. And the Charter For Global Democracy will be voted on. What other conclusion can be drawn?

Others will count on the Congress to refuse to ratify such a Charter. That is probably true. But there is another danger. President Bill Clinton has already stated his support for the Charter. He has a history of ignoring Congress and implementing his agenda through the use of Executive Order. Several UN treaties have gone unratified by Congress, including the Biodiversity Treaty and the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. Yet Bill Clinton has already begun to enforce their provisions through Executive Order – and Congress has taken no action to stop him.

In 1776, with the stroke of a pen, the Declaration of Independence marked the beginning of the greatest experiment in national government ever conceived. Today, however, unless Congress stands united – determined to block not only the UN Charter, but also every effort to implement it – it will take only the stroke of Bill Clinton’s lame-duck pen to change our nation, and history forever.