The Potemkin global villages: far from representing "global civil society," the Earth Charter Community Summits were tiny gatherings of ultra-left activists financed by wealthy, one-world elitists. (At a Glance).

In the 18th century, Russian Prince Grigori Potemkin pulled off a colossal sham earning his name a place in history. As Catherine the Great's chief administrator, Potemkin endeavored to impress his empress with his industry and skill in developing Russia's vast primitive regions. As Catherine and her royal entourage sailed down the Dnieper River, they beheld impressive villages along the banks -- testimony to Russia's booming development and productivity. But the villages were facades, shams.

The Earth Charter Community Summits held in 20 U.S. cities on September 28th were likewise Potemkin frauds, in more ways than one. THE NEW AMERICAN covered the summit events in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Los Angeles, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Oshkosh, Wis.; Burlington, Vt.; West Hartford, Conn.; New Orleans, La.; Washington, D.C.; and Mobile, Ala. Despite considerable promotion, favorable media treatment, and summit venues in the heart of liberal-left activist communities, the summits -- based on attendance -- were complete flops, belying the claims of the Earth Charter organizers that they represent a global, popular, grass-roots movement. Expected to be the largest gathering, the San Francisco summit fluctuated between 65 and 150 attendees. The Los Angeles gathering ranged between 23 and 130. The largest summit attendance appears to have been in Burlington, Vt., which boasted a high of 350-400.

The summits also failed miserably to attract the diverse cross section of "global civil society" that they claim to represent; the organizers, speakers, and participants were tilted heavily to the extreme left, with Communists, socialists, environmental fanatics, lesbians, homosexuals, and nutty spiritualists dominating the proceedings. Nevertheless, this tiny cadre of zealots is succeeding in gaining institutional support for the Earth Charter by bluff and by networking with fellow subversives within targeted institutions. The U.S. Conference of Mayors and many organizations, schools, colleges, and universities have endorsed the Charter, which was heavily promoted in September at the UN's World Summit on Sustainable Development, otherwise known as Earth Summit II.

The Earth Charter was concocted by a coterie of globalists headed by former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev, Earth Summit I chief Maurice Strong, and millionaire professor Steven C. Rockefeller, head of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. "The real goal of the Earth Charter," says Maurice Strong, "is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments." Purposely drenched in alluringly loaded verbiage, the Earth Charter aims to create support for empowering the UN as a world government, while promoting neo-paganism as the new world religion.

Agenda for global government: Susan Zipp, one of the three international co-chairpersons of the Global People's Assembly (GPA), opened the San Francisco Earth Charter Community Summit and emceed much of the event. Among her opening comments was the guilt-inducing statement that "15 percent of the world's population consume 85 percent of the world's resources," a deceptive remark repeated by several speakers during the course of the day. The GPA is pushing to create a People's Assembly at the UN, to serve ultimately as a global legislature. One of Ms. Zipp's fellow co-chairpersons, Dr. Rashmi Mayur, recently wrote: "If the human civilization is to survive ... there must be world rule of law.... Such a rule of law can only be implemented by an institution which has legitimacy and power on a global scale, that is, World Government.... World Government Now."

Sacred groves: Many Earth Charter Community Summits followed the tree planting example set by Steven Rockefeller's pagan Ark of Hope ceremony in Shelburne, Vt. This burr oak was planted for Earth Charter ceremonies at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

Cuba is the model: Debra James, representing Global Exchange, reported on her participation at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. According to Ms. James, "The UN was hijacked by the World Trade Organization" and multi-national corporations at the summit. "There is a war going on in the world about global governance," she said. "Who is going to decide the government of the entire world -- the first time a government of the entire world is going to exist? ...