Peter Bailey

Since I don't recall exactly how or when I got the message, it's quite possible that I was a world federalist from the moment of birth. If so, my first words may have been not 'dada' but rather 'democratic world federation' or, if that was too big a mouthful, 'global solutions' or at worst a gurgling sound which an informed listener might have correctly interpreted. However, there is no living witness so I will never know for certain.

Fast forward then to 1966 which was marked by a concrete event at least, a conference of the World Association of World Federalists (WAWF) in Amsterdam. It caught my attention because I was already thinking federalist thoughts, convinced of the eventual inevitability of European federation. As a matter of fact, I was pursuing personal philosophical interests in a farmhouse in the Austrian Alps at the time, and had written in an idle moment an essay (which I filed away) on the future of Europe. This envisaged the creation of a European Union stretching to the Soviet border, together with an eventual devolution of the existing nation-states into their component parts (such as Scotland, Bavaria, Normandy, Slovakia, Slovenia and so on), which would become over time the component parts of the federation. There had been such precedents as Norway and Ireland, but in any case Europe's national and imperial boundaries had all been drawn and redrawn continually for several centuries. So I went up to Amsterdam in 1966 and, out of the blue, a Scandinavian delegate gave me a solid silver world federalist lapel pin, which I have to this day. Thenceforth at least, the goal of world federation was formally enshrined in my philosophy. Soon after, however, it was time to return to the dusty arena. I came to Canada and spent the following decades in international work for a federal agency, contemplating the world's affairs from the official perspective, visiting many countries and participating in many international aid and debt meetings. Less a job than a fully funded further education. In 1996 the wheel came full circle and I renewed contact with the world federalist movement, to continue my education from the non-official perspective.