Anti-Imperialist Speech at UN Women’s History Month Ceremony

On March 31st, a number of United Nations-linked organizations held a closing ceremony for Women’s History Month at 4 West 43rd Street in Manhattan. The Center for Political Innovation was chosen to address this important gathering of UN-associated figures and diplomats.

The World Yoga Community, Policy Research International, Youth and Students for Peace International, the Universal Peace Federation, the World Assembly of Youth of the United Nations, the International Federation for Women in Legal Careers, the American Medical Women’s Association, the International Day of Yoga Committee, and the Pan African International Agency on Water and Sanitation for Africa to the United Nations, among other organizations, all participated.

High-level guests included Ambassador Denis G. Antione, former UN ambassador to Grenada; Isaiah Chabala, former UN Ambassador of Zambia; and Queen Mother Delois Blakely, Ambassador of Goodwill to Africa and Community Mayor of Harlem, and leader of the New Future Foundation to the United Nations.

Caleb Maupin addressed the gathering, highlighting the crimes of Japanese fascists during the Second World War, specifically their crimes against women, forcing Korean, Chinese, and Filipina women into sexual slavery as “comfort women.”

At the ceremony, the Universal Peace Federation bestowed on Caleb Maupin the status of being an official Ambassador for Peace, which he graciously accepted while pointing to the work of UPF’s founders for the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Queen Mother Delois Blakely closed the event, speaking of the day as historic and hailing the efforts of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in meeting with Melania Trump and working to connect women’s issues with the Sustainable Development Goals. She ended her remarks by saying, “Peace, Peace, Peace.”

CPI organizers Gabby Hernandez of Chicago and Noah Schenk of Boston gave each event attendee a copy of the new CPI booklet, Why is it impossible to get this flower in America? highlighting KimIlSungia and presenting CPI’s vision of an America beyond imperialism.

WATCH!

Queen Mother Delois Blakely speaks to the March 31st Gathering.

Guruji Dileepkumar Thankappan of the World Yoga Community and Bishop Joy Theriot of the Universal Peace Federation.

CPI organizers Gabby Hernandez and Noah Shenk presented the new CPI booklet to each attendee.

Musical Performance from Rachel Tomayo.

Caleb Maupin’s remarks:

It is really an honor to be included in this important event. I want to thank Bishop Joy Theriot, Guruji and Julie Hatulan for including the Center for Political Innovation on this panel with so many amazing individuals. As an Innovationist, I take pride in the fact that we stand on the shoulders of so many giants who have advocated for peace and social justice in generations of the past, including so many women: Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Anna Louise Strong, Rosa Luxemburg, and St. Joan of Arc, to name just a few.

I also think it’s important that we look back on the struggle that was key in the founding of the United Nations—that was the struggle of humanity against the menace of fascism. During the Second World War and in the lead-up to it, we saw some of the ugliest recorded crimes against humanity, in particular crimes against women. The Japanese fascists subjected over 200,000 women—many of them Korean, Chinese, or Filipina—to being enslaved as “comfort women” by the Japanese military. It was not until 1993 that these horrendous crimes were even widely discussed or acknowledged by the global community.

Often, these women were taken hundreds of miles away from their homes to different countries and, after the war, never had the ability to return home. Most of those who survived this treatment were never able to get married because of either the social stigma or the lingering trauma that came from being a victim of such an atrocity.

When Japanese politicians gloss over this history, or school textbooks make light of the crimes of the Japanese imperialists against peoples throughout Asia during the Second World War, this reveals a deeply troubling arrogance. In the name of a kind of Cold War–style campism, Western countries will look the other way as Japan’s crimes are downplayed, while they point fingers at China and seek to justify U.S. military expansion into the Pacific.

In doing so, they are engaged in a dangerous path of unlearning some of the most important lessons of the Second World War. During this conflict, which laid the basis for the United Nations, the Soviet Union, China, America, and Great Britain stood together as allies. After the Second World War, the United Nations and other international institutions gave special attention to opposing any doctrine of racial supremacy, understanding the horrors that such mistaken thinking could cause.

During the Second World War, U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace proclaimed, “The object of this war is to make it sure that everyone can have a quart of milk to drink every day.” He emphasized the message of U.S. President Roosevelt that the roots of fascism lay in hungry stomachs and economic suffering. Wallace went on to say: “Some have spoken of the ‘American Century.’ I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come into being after this war—can be and must be the century of the common man.”

I am sure he meant the “common woman” as well, because he went on to say that the horror of fascism “unleashes the ferocity of the she-bear who has lost a cub…the American people will fight with a relentless fury which will drive the ancient Teutonic gods back, cowering into their caves. The Götterdämmerung has come for Odin and his crew.”

The United Nations was formed to make sure no horrendous event like the Second World War could ever occur again. That is why it is urgent that the international community stop the relentless U.S. attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is equally urgent that a serious, realistic peace plan be put into effect in Donbass, so that Russia and Ukraine can no longer be at war. The international community must stick with its consensus of “one China” and avoid stoking tensions in the Pacific. The hope for moving toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula must be revived. Cuba must be permitted to import fuel and participate in the international energy markets like any other nation.

None of these words should be interpreted as “anti-American.” As we approach the 250-year anniversary of our great nation, let us remember that it was born in a revolution that celebrated individual rights and religious liberty. It rejected the economic model of global trade set by the British Empire and asserted the right of our country to build its own economy.

We must now recognize that trade between nations, and free development—win-win cooperation—is the road to peace. When education is available, and when opportunity is presented, the conditions of women improve amid healthier social relations. Let us look forward to a world without human trafficking, domestic violence, forced sterilization, and so many of the injustices that have plagued the women of the world, and let us each day focus our efforts on achieving such a reality for the global community.

Thank you.

Caleb Maupin was named as Peace Ambassador by the Universal Peace Federation.

Caleb Maupin with Dr. Louisa Akaiso, Founder of Women Who Win Africa.

Caleb Maupin with Queen Mother Delois Blakely