Globalization-an
Opportunity
By Gunter Pleuger, State
Secretary Federal foreign office, Germany
The technological revolution and
dynamic integration processes in International trade and international finance have
fundamentally changed the world economy. Globalization confronts us with new challenges
and presents us with great opportunities. Nonetheless, the globalization process is
uneven. The community of nations must therefore undertake every effort to make
globalization a positive development for all peoples.
The United Nations has a central role to play
here. It is the only organization that offers a framework for overcoming the inequity
between rich and the poor, for realizing a settlement between nations and regions, for
achieving world peace and sustainable development. We must do all we can to strengthen its
capacity to take effective action.. This is why Germany emphatically supports the
initiative by United Nations Secretary General Annan to create a "global
compact" with transnational corporations on the voluntary observance of human rights
and basic environmental and social standards. It is impossible to achieve lasting economic
success without respect for human rights and without guarantees founded on the rule of
law. Global rules and standards can only be implemented with business, and not against it.
Three equally important key tasks must be
tackled in order to answer the challenges of globalization. The first task, the struggle
against poverty, is a central problem of North-South relations and the cause of global
dangers and threats to peace. In the Cologne debt initiative, initiative by Germany, we
are combining debt relief measures with a strategy to combat poverty. The least developed
countries must be granted the broadest possible tariff-and quota-free access to world
markets. Only this, combined with further liberalization within the framework of the World
Trade Organization, WTO, will prevent the increasing social marginalization of these
countries. The second task is the preservation of peace. Preventive action is the
important thing here. The United Nations will have to be better equipped for peace
missions in both personal and material terms. The third task is the protection of our
national environment.
Mastering these challenges can not be
accomplished by cooperation within the international community of nations alone. The
non-government sector, the civil society organizations, such as NGOs, foundations, trade
unions, churches and business, are themselves increasingly becoming "global
powers" and participating in the policy-making process. All these participants should
act on the basis of the principle that this process can only be successful if everyone
works together and not against one another. The realization that all sides can benefit
should give us courage and optimism.
Text courtesy: Deutschland, E4 No1/2001,
Feb-March issue. Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu, Nepal.
On the eve of Polish national day: May 3
Evolution of the May Third constitution in Poland
Two resolutions of March and April 1791,
concerning the reorganization of local diets and municipal government, preceded the
Constitution of May Third, the greatest accomplishment of the Four Year Seym. This
Constitution was the second in the world, after that of the United States, to formulate
the principles of government in written form. Under the pressure of Warsaw patriotic
opinion, the Seym shortened the procedure of passing the Constitution. The Constitution of
May Third was the result of a compromise between the king, who had made the draft of the
statute, and the leaders of the patriotic party. The Constitution, removing the basic
faults of the former political system, such as the liberum veto and free election,
considerably strengthened the power of the State. The constitution made the throne
hereditary, created the government in the form of the "Guardians of the law",
the king, the primate and five ministers, limited the influence of the magnates, extended
the rights of the burghers, and declared legal and government protection for the peasants.
The Constitution was an attempt at introducing a parliamentary monarchy and, in accordance
with the aims of its creators, it was intended as a starting point for further
constitutional transformations. The Four-Year Seym's final year was spent in developing
and modifying the provisions of the constitution.
In the meantime, the approaching end of the
war with Turkey moved the Empress Catherine not only to restore her protectorate in
Poland, but also to abolish the reforms with the help of the conservative magnates. On 18
May 1792, a large Russian army crossed the borders of the Commonwealth. Simultaneously, an
Act of Confederation, in defense of the gentry's violated "golden freedom", the
dominant had been signed earlier in St. Petersburg, was officially proclaimed in the
border towns of Targowica. Szczesny Potocki became the marshal of the Confederation.
Independence regained:
The defeat of the central powers came in the
autumn of 1918. Socialists and members of the Peasant party, along with Pilsudski's
followers, established a Provisional People's Government of the Polish republic in the
liberated Lublin on 6/7 November 1918. Ignacy Daszynski became Premier and General Edward
Smigly-Rydz, who was Pilsudski's subordinate in the Legions and Commander of the secret
Polish Military organization after Pilsudski's arrest, was elected Minister of War. The
provisional People's government, the first independent government of the revived state,
proclaimed Poland a parliamentary republic, promised an armed struggle for the liberation
of the Polish territory still under German occupation, and announced extensive social
reforms and civil liberties. A few days after the establishment of this government, the
Germans were expelled from Warsaw and the territory of the former kingdom of Poland partly
by force of arms. Warsaw became the new seat of government of the independent nation, and
Jozef Pilsudski, freed from a German prison, stood at the head of the government as
provisional leader of the state. The liberated territories were surrounded by more than a
million German soldiers, who still remained a powerful military force in Eastern Europe.
Thus the liberation of Poland's western territories also came about as a result of
fighting. At the end of December 1918, an insurrection broke out in Poznan, and after
several weeks of fighting conducted by improvised units, which soon numbered several
thousand soldiers, a considerable part of the former Prussian zone was liberated.
For the Polish nation the restoration of
independence was a momentous event. The period of subjection was over, and it became
possible to tackle the disastrous legacy of foreign rule and return to normal existence
and unhindered development.
This development was limited, however, by the
fact that the leadership of the nation was in the hands of the property-owning classes,
which increased existing tensions and social conflicts, by their selfish attitudes.
Strikes, often brutally suppressed by the authorities, broke out in factories and on the
large landed estates. The working masses had to gain their rights by struggle. The
revolutionary upheavals in Europe facilitated their aims. Fear of socialism, which had
already been successfully realized in Soviet Russia, influenced the attitudes of the
bourgeoisie and resulted in the acceptance of democratic republican state institutions in
Poland by reactionary political forces.
In January 1919, as a result of an
understanding between the Polish politicians at home and in Paris, Pilsudski appointed a
new cabinet, led by Ignacy Paderewski, widely known not only as a composer and virtuoso,
bust also as an advocate of the Polish cause in the allied countries. This government held
elections to the constituent assembly-the Legislative Seym. The Right -the National
Democrats and their allies gained the majority of votes. Peasant organizations also played
an important role in the Seym, although no lasting cooperation was achieved. The Left wing
was quite weak. Radical peasant party members and socialists gained 20 percent of the
seats; Left revolutionaries, however, boycotted the election.
On 16 December 1918, the Socialist Democracy
of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Left Wing of the Polish Socialist party
joined party joined to form the Communist Worker's party of Poland, from 1925 onwards
known as the Communist party of Poland. This party, which believed that Europe, Poland
included was on the verge of a socialist revolution, strongly opposed the ruling strata
and aimed at the establishment of councils of workers' and peasant's deputies which were
regarded as an instrument in the struggle against the rule of the propertied classes. The
Party opposed elections to the Seym. Persecuted and subsequently outlawed, the Communist
Party of Poland was forced to work underground. Shortly afterwards the councils of
Workers' deputies established in a number of centers were liquidated by the authorities.
Unable to act publicly, hounded by the
authorities and imprisoned for years at a stretch, Polish communists fought
uncompromisingly for the fundamental interests of the masses. They organized strikes and
demonstrations under the most difficult conditions. In increasing wider circles they
propagated socialist class consciousness, spread word of the victorious socialist
revolution and showed the need for closer relations with the Soviet state to which the
Polish property owning classes and their political organizations were so sharply opposed.
# Early history: Slavic tribes in the area
were converted to Latin Christianity in the 10 th century. Poland was a great power from
the 14 to the 17 centuries. In three partitions, 1772, 1793 and 1795, it was apportioned
among Prussia, Russia and Austria.. Overrun by the Austro-German armies in World War I, it
declared its independence on November 11, 1918 and was recognized as independent by the
treaty of Versailles of June 28 1919. Large territories to the east were taken in a war
with Russia in 1921.
Germany and the USSR invaded Poland September
1-27, 1939 and divided the country. During the war, the Nazis killed some 6 million Poles,
half of them were Jews. With Germany's defeat, the United States recognized a Polish
government in exile in London, but the USSR pressed the claims of a rival group. The
election of 1947 was completely dominated by the communists.
In compensation for 69,860 sq. miles ceded to
the USSR in 1945, Poland received approximate 40,000 sq. miles of German territory east of
the Oder-Neisse line comprising Silesia, Pomerania West Prussia and part of east Prussia.
# A new constitution was approved by
referendum May 25 in 1997. Poland became a full member of the NATO on March 12, 1999 and
is all set to become the membership of the European Union.
Text compiled by N. P. Upadhyaya,
Chairman of Nepal-Poland Friendship Association, Kathmandu, Nepal. |
