Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis Upholding rural Americans

U.S. backs U.N. plan to control land

By Henry Lamb
April 12, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

This headline appeared in the Utah Independent, and hundreds of other newspapers across the country, on July 22, 1976. The article proclaims that:

“Use of all land, public and private, will be controlled by the federal government in the future”, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell predicted this week.

Land which cannot be operated effectively under private ownership, will be held by the government as public forests, parks, game preserves, grazing ranges, recreation centers, and the like, Tugwell asserted. Privately owned land will be controlled ‘to whatever extent is found necessary....’”
This new federal land policy reflected the new U.N. land policy, developed and adopted at a U.N. Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, that concluded on June 11, 1976. The U.S. delegation, headed by Carla Hill, then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, endorsed virtually every resolution in the new policy, as did every Communist nation.

Tugwell’s prediction is now complete; the federal government either owns, or has the regulatory power to control, virtually every square inch of land in the United States.

Ironically, the same year this policy was announced, Jesse Hardy bought 160 acres near Naples, Florida, to build his American dream. He had served 12 years in the Navy, and was disabled from an injury during a helicopter jump. He built a modest home, using a generator for electricity, and began developing his dream of a wildlife area around fish ponds which he hoped would bring enough paying visitors to meet his meager money needs.

The federal government now wants Jesse’s land. The government has already driven out, or bought out all the other land owners in the area, to expand the wilderness area in an effort to “restore” the Everglades. Jesse’s land will not be affected by the restoration plan, but he will be the only resident in the area, and as long as there is a human in the area, it will not be “wild.”

Encouraged and funded by the federal government, governments at the state and local level are buying private property, conservation easements, and development rights in every corner of the nation. When the owners, like Jesse, are not willing to sell, government is exercising its eminent domain power, forcing people off their land. Across the state in Riviera Beach, Mayor Michael Brown is leading a campaign to condemn the homes of 5000 residents, forcing them to move, so the city can acquire the land, and resell it at a profit, to developers who will build more expensive homes and buildings, as prescribed by the city plan, which will produce a higher tax yield.

This scheme is an example of the implementation of recommendation D3(1) of the U.N. document adopted in 1976. This scheme is endorsed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, and by the American Planning Association, and has become a popular tool for local governments to abuse the power of eminent domain at the expense of private property owners.

Governments have developed a wide array of tools to take private property, or to take away the use of private property by the owners. Wetlands was the tool of choice during the 1980s. The federal government took jurisdiction over more than 200 million acres of private property by announcing its “wetlands” policy, which dictated what an owner could or could not do with his own land, if the land contained moisture 12-inches below the surface, for seven days during the growing season.

The Endangered Species Act, with its “critical habitat” provisions, allows agents of the government to dictate what private owners may or may not do with their own land. The “Clean Water Initiative” takes jurisdiction on either side of every stream, and again, dictates what private owners may or may not do with their own land. Historic Districts, Heritage Areas, Scenic Highways, Scenic Rivers, Economic Development Zones, and dozens of other designations allow government at every level to control the use of every square inch of private land.

This is precisely the result called for in the 1976 U.N. document.

Perhaps America celebrated too soon when the Berlin Wall fell, and we thought capitalism had finally prevailed over socialism. America didn’t win. Socialism had already invaded the United States through the United Nations, and had an army of soldiers positioned in high government offices, eager to implement its policies.

They don’t call it socialism, or communism, anymore; they call it smart growth, open space, wilderness, restoration, and environmental protection. Government ownership and control of land use is the foundation of socialism - regardless of what it may be called.

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Henry Lamb is the founding Chairman of Sovereignty International (1996), and the founding ECO of the Environmental Conservation Organization (1988). He is publisher of eco-logic Powerhouse, a widely read on-line, and print magazine. His columns are frequently translated into Spanish and published throughout Central and South America, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. He has attended United Nations meetings around the world, is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops across the country, and is a regular guest on dozens of talk radio programs. He has provided testimony for the U.S. Congress, as well as State Legislatures, and has served as a consultant to FOX News on U.N. affairs.

For eight years, he was CEO of a national trade association for contractors, headquartered in Chicago, coming to that position from CEO of a private construction company specializing in erosion control and water management structures. His background includes teaching at the secondary school level, and serving four years as a legislative analyst for a county government in Florida. E-Mail: henry@freedom.org