by John Papworth
This piece was originally published in Home! A Bioregional Reader, edited by Van Andruss, Christopher Plant, Judith Plant, and Eleanor Wright, New Society Publishers, copyright 1990.
We are the people of the Fourth World. We represent a broad global spectrum, ranging from ethnic, cultural and linguistic, to religious, economic, ecological and community concerns, many of which have been submerged to one degree or another by the disastrous onrush of giantism of the last two centuries or more. We are united in our determination to defuse the prevailing anarchic crisis of power by seeking to create our own social, cultural and economic patterns as we see fit.
We declare that it is only through small social units which are capable of being subject to the control of their members that the peoples of the world will ever defeat the danger of global wars which giantism has created, and achieve genuine progress and prosperity. It is only by such means that they can resolve the problem of excess human numbers, make effective a proper respect for their material environment so as to defeat the ecological peril, and end the curse of alienation from life and fellowship which now afflicts millions upon millions of people in many parts of the world. Neither we nor our forebears ever desired this development of giantism, very often it was fiercely resisted, it was never accepted and now we proclaim our total repudiation of it.
We assert in its place our inalienable right to live as free, independent, autonomous and self-governing peoples and we denounce the validity of any arrangements, however long-imposed, especially by giant political units, which seek the continued denial of this right.
We further assert our right to operate and control our own schools, hospitals, police forces, banks, industries, commercial trading and transport arrangements, forms of taxation and other matters of community concern as seems best to us without external interference or coercion.
…We call on all the peoples of the world to affirm their membership in the human family and their duty to advance its well-being in terms of peace, freedom and ecological sensibility, by joining with us to establish The Fourth World, a world where power is fully shared by the people in societies which are modest enough in size to do justice to the majesty of the human spirit and to serve the noblest accomplishments and potentialities of its creative genius.
We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly for the liberation of peoples everywhere in these terms.
Long Live the Fourth World!
Excerpted from The Declaration of the First Assembly of the Fourth World, 1980.
John Papworth (1921-2020) was an Anglican minister, writer, and activist. After losing his campaign as a Labour Party candidate in 1955, he became disillusioned and shifted his focus from large organizations to small communities. In 1966 he co-founded Resurgence magazine, and later founded the Fourth World Review, focused on the development of “small nations, governed by small communities.” He was a regular activist for peace movements, and was imprisoned for participating in protests for the anti-nuclear and black rights movements. He is the subject of two BBC documentaries.
