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Mimeographed by:

The Commission to Study the Organization of Peaoe, 8 West 40th Street, New York City, and distributed for the information of its members.

February 1, 1943

INTERNATIONALI ZA TION OF SOCIAL INSURANCES

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Feliks Gross

*    156

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After this war, the problem of maintaining peace must become a continuous process based on continuous activity, in contrast to the sporadic activities of previous historical periods. This continuous process will reouire interr.ational ma chi nery.

But this time, the peace, the system of security, should be morę than merely a system imposed by higher diplomatic aotivity. It should be based on the understanding and on the interests of the common man. Without this understanding and interest of peoples, it will be impossible to establi3h International security and to find support for far-reaching International arrangements.. Until now, the common man has been only indirectly connected with international activities as, for example, through his state organiza-tion. The trade unions, the cooperatives and others have played an impor-tant role in this rospect, but a worker did not have any direct contact with international activities. This type of activity was the unique priv-ilege and duty of the highest ranking officials of trade unions and coop-eratives. In the futurę building of peaoe, a deliberate effort should be madę to tie the indiridual in warious vrays to the International system, to make him dependent upon it, to create obligations and loyalties toward it. How can we plan to tie the common peoplo - workers, peasants, civil ser-vice employees - with international institutions; how can we make them feel and understand that they are members of the same global system?

To achieve this goal, they must be bound together by international institutions in matters concerning their every day lives and worries.

Among these worries, one of the most important is the system of social security - Insurance against sickness, old age pensions, and the eoming ponsions for direct victims of the war - disaoled persons, persons whose mean3 of support have been seized by the German oocupation authorities, minors and the dependents of persons executed by the Axis powers, etc.

Every 50 year old man on the continent has witnessed several times during his life the complete failure of any system of Insurance and old age pensions because of the instability of the currer.cy, The social Insurance organizations, until now confined within state boundaries, have been subjeoted also, in most European countries, to political oscillations. Because of national economio difficulties, problems of trade and exchange, the interruption of war, eto., the state has not been able to serve as a safe guarantee of sooial seourity for its members. To re-establish the sooial insurances in Europę, it is necessary first to re-establish confi-denoe in them, and it will be difficult to do this on the old basis of national control and within the limits of national boundaries alone.