'Globalization is domination of rich over poor …'

Alamgir Khan: Many great people like Martin Luther King Jr. and others thought about a world state. What is your view about them? And what is the difference between their hope and yours?

Glen T. Martin: Yes, many great people like Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and others thought about this. They had their dreams, which were beautiful. But none of them had any system that proposed a concrete plan like the parliament as per the Earth Constitution that we have. This constitution is a blueprint by which we actualize the dream of peace, justice and sustainability.

AK: Who should ratify the world constitution, a country or civil societies? How can a country ratify it?

GTM: There are two ways of ratification. Either a government or people can ratify this. The Constitution divides the world into 1 thousand electoral districts, because the world has 7 billion people and 7 million people makes a district. They can ratify the constitution by voting, and  governments can ratify it through a referendum of their people.

AK: How many countries have ratified it so far?

GTM: None yet. The governments with whom we have talked directly have said this is a very good initiative, a great idea. But they are afraid of the threat from powerful countries because of this.

AK: Have you directly talked with governments for this?

GTM: Yes. We have directly talked with about two dozen countries. But we have not tried to have a single country to ratify it. We encourage them to get together and then ratify it jointly because it is safer.

AK: What is view your about national boundaries and nationalities? Will the boundaries, borders, nationalities exist  in that federation?

GTM: Yes, these will exist.

AK: With all these things existing, which are the sources of lots of conflicts today, is it possible to make a federation just through ratification of your constitution?

GTM: The conflicts will be resolved peacefully. Because it won't really matter once the nations are demilitarized and human relations are just and peaceful. But the differences will exist as they exist in individual countries, too. There will be merely administrative boundaries, not absolute militarized borders.

AK: EU citizens do not need visas to move within the member countries. But will people in the earth federation require visas?

GTM: No, there will not be any need of visas and passports and there is an article regarding this in the Earth Constitution. These things will not be necessary because governments will not be living in fear anymore.

AK: Do you have prescription of any economic and political system for countries to join the world parliament?

GTM: Any country can join it except those which are not run democratically. There is a restriction for autocratic governments to join us. There is, however, no particular economic and political system imposed upon anyone by us. The Earth Constitution recognizes that some fundamental things like air, water, soil, etc. belong to people only, not to any corporation or multi-national, or even to the national governments. This constitution supports free trade, without tariffs, but not globalized trade that exploits the poor or destroys the envionment.  

AK: What type of countries, rich or poor, leftist or rightist, are more in favour of your campaign? 

GTM: The left countries, I think, are more promising. The poor countries are also very promising because they understand that they are in a global trap, like international debt or other types. They see in this a way out. Many of them also realize the danger if they go public about it.

AK: Could have the nomination and election of Bernie Sanders made a difference for your campaign?

GTM: This could have made a positive impact for a peaceful world. But he is not for a world government which is what we campaign for.

AK: What is the difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?

GTM: Not much difference. Both Hillary and Obama tell a lot of lies, but they do it consciously, whereas when Trump talks, he does not know the difference between truth and lies. Between Hillary and Trump, neither is less of a war-monger. Hillary in her period as secretary of state supported all sorts of war initiatives in countries around the world.

AK: What do you think about the characteristics of today's globalization?

GTM: The WTO promotes globalization. Globalization is planning a free market which is not free at all. It is the domination of the rich over the poor. Under WTO, it is about the right of the rich to exploit the poor. There is no humanity in it. We want to make reasonable economic equality through the world parliament. We want a world of peace, justice, and sustainability. The Earth Constitution is the key to making this happen.