Translation of a letter by Ulrich von Beckerath, 1951, ON FLAWS IN THE UN DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, WITH STRESS UPON : THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE EXTERRITORIALLY AND AUTONOMOUSLY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.v.Beckerath 21.11.1951. Dear Mr. Clauss, in case you you have not yet given up your plan to re-issue "Die Weltbuehne": I submit in the enclosure the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" of the United Nations. Would it be advisable, to reproduce it in the first issue? I estimate that the text is unknown to about 99% of all Berliners. The "Weltbuehne" could prepare a supplement to this declaration. The most important supplement would be the statement of a duty for every human being to help in the realization and maintenance of human rights. To this would belong an active struggle against all those who by their words and deeds have proven that they have no respect for human rights and that one can expect offences against human rights from them. Furthermore, it would follow from this duty that those, whose human rights were offended against or threatened, have the duty to inform the civilized world of these offences and threats and to form resistance organizations and and to seek and maintain alliances with those who are prepared to help them. A further supplement would consist in the declaration that all States, whose governments show not respect for human rights, do have to submit to corresponding limitations of their sovereign powers. Among such limitations are, e.g. 1.) Tolerance for autonomous protective associations of those inhabitants who are determined to take their own affairs into their own hands, to resign from their membership in the particular State and to live in its territory as neutral foreigners. 2.) Exemption of the members of these autonomous protective association from all laws and regulations of that State which would offend against this autonomy, like conscription, compulsory social insurance, custom duties and other economic legislation. The declaration should state that each peace treaty, after a war with such a State and each declaration on the ending of hostilities, that replaces a peace treaty, has to include a clause for this kind of restrictions upon State Sovereignty or it must be tacitly included, when not expressly mentioned. ( Compare Beckerath's essay on this in PP 14 & 61-63.J.Z.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some articles are formulated in a way that one can immediately see that a former trade union secretary has participated in wording it. In Article 23, No. 1, "protection against unemployment" is called a human right. Obviously, unemployment is here, exactly as in article 25, No 1, considered as an accident, like sickness, invalidity etc. which involves the employees. No. 2, if it is to make sense at all, applies o n l y to employees, likewise No. 3. But, does a human being absolutely have to be an employee? Couldn't he be independent, too? Could not independent people associate in cooperatives and similar organizations? How much sense is there in recognizing a "protection against unemployment" for independent tradesmen? Unemployment is not an accident like sickness etc. Unemployment can have two completely different causes : 1.) It can happen that the unemployed has acquired capabilities for which there is no demand. When King Friedrich Wilhelm III. abolished pigtails at his court, ca. 150 years ago and with this gave a signal for almost all of Germany, to do away with this hairstyle. Many barbers had to change their jobs in order not to become unemployed. A p r o t e c t i o n against this kind of unemployment is obviously out of the question. But one has to demand the abolition of all obstacles which are now frequently laid in the way of changing one's profession. In the anglo-saxon countries, one of these obstacles, not to be overlooked, is the monopolization of many occupations by the unions. A few years ago, I read of an association of West-American glass workers, who not only turned all glass manufacturing plants in their area into "closed shops" but who demanded an entrance fee of $ 1500, too. We have here a guild monopoly that obviously offends against human rights. 2.) It may happen - and this is the normal case - that raw materials, machines, great needs and people willing to work are present but that these four factors do not get together because there is not enough m o n e y. Here a right is needed to ignore the existing monetary legislation. H o w could this be done? That remains to be discussed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The former union secretaries, who participated in formulating these rights, did not think of the right to leave the status of a dependent worker and to become an independent one. Their independence could be realized by their association into cooperatives of independents, when there are technical reasons for this as e.g. in mining and machine construction. The thought to abolish the wage system and not to replace it with dependent labour in State enterprises ( thereby, it would not be abolished ), is not at all new. It was often discussed in detail in the circles of the old International. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here I have to confine myself to these hints. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of the following quote from Immanuel KANT as a MOTTO, upon the first page of each issue of the "Weltbuehne", similar to the "Rerum cognoscere Causas" of the "Tagesspiegel"? "Do not become the servants of men. Do not let your rights be trampled upon with impunity." This is taken from his "Tugendlehre", Par. 12. This book appeared in 1797. Kant was then already 73 years old. The older he became, the more revolutionary* he became. That Kant understood under "Tugend" (virtue) somethin very different from what the Churches meant, follows from the above quotation. To read Kant is worthwhile. Do you possess Kant's "Eternal Peace"? I have a spare copy of it. With best greetings, signed U.v.Beckerath. ******************************************************************************** Jochen Clauss, Berlin, 23.11.51. Dear Mr. von Beckerath, Please excuse my neglect of answering only today. Mr. Hirschel did, unfortunately, become sick, so that we had to postpone the intended talk for one week, when he is discharged from hospital. I thank you for your very interesting letter of 21.11. Permit me to reply to it orally. The draft Brandenburg/Berlin I would like to keep for a few days longer, since Mr. Hirschel also expressed the wish to read it/ For today, sincere greetings, Your faithful Jochen Clauss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Brandenburg/Berlin draft of U.v. Beckerath got somehow lost by one of those who "borrowed" it. If I remember right, what B. told me, it involved the reunification of West and East Berlin, together with the province of Mark Brandenburg around both of them and the neutralization of this new association. Most likely, it also contained a declaration of independence and a bill of rights. Finder's fee in microfiche! *) How many others are there, besides I.Kant and L. Spooner, who became more radical with advancing age? Have many or most of those who gave up the ghost, resign or compromized, kept silent etc. been on the wrong path, anyhow? K.H.Z. Solneman's point of view remained largely unchanged, as far as I can judge, since ca. 1930. But sometimes it is already an achievement merely to maintain one's convinctions. Lafayette did so to his death. (I believe that I have come to see more and more of all the points that need chaning and of the tools required for the job but I see no other way to initiate these changes by myself than via the realization of a programme for a genuinely cultural revolution, to speed up the process of enlightenment - of which extensive use of microfiche and of personal computers are just two important factors. And this realization may already be too large a job for one person.) Will someone please make such a survey for me? The subject might even be suitable for a dissertation. J.Z. 4.1.1986.