The main thing about the present world development is that it is the people who have the sovereign right to rule and govern. In actual fact, in reality, they do neither. The reason they are not able to rule or govern is because their sovereignty has been usurped by the capitalist class. Most significantly, their sovereignty is usurped by placing the interests of the capitalist system over and above everything else, specifically over and above the general interests of the nation and people. The capitalist class itself claims to be the nation and it has put all the resources of the nation at its service. One of the main features of the struggle against medievalism was the struggle against the "divine right of kings." If kings do not have a divine right to rule then who has this right? This question was answered by the capitalist class in various ways, but the form and content of the new bourgeois nation states kept the sovereignty of the people at bay. By the 1960s, people were introduced to universal franchise as in Canada, but universal franchise, by itself does not guarantee anything. They still did not enjoy their sovereignty. Recently, the federal government appointed a new Lieutenant-Governor for Quebec. The first thing he did was to state that if perchance the people of Quebec exercise their sovereign right to independence, to establish their own sovereign state, he would interfere with this decision. Who gives him the power to do such a thing? According to various federal government sources and the Chretien Liberals, the Constitution Act of Canada (1982) gives him the right to interfere with the sovereign right of the people of Quebec. Who gave this right to the Constitution Act of Canada (1982)? The king-in-parliament of Britain! And who gave this right to the king-in-parliament in Britain? It derives from the original "royal prerogative," the "divine right of kings!" It does not matter how much the Chretien Liberals try to fool and divert public opinion, the question of the "sovereignty of the people" remains the main one in Canada. The people have the right, by dint of being the people of the country, to reject the nineteenth century constitution and to promulgate a modern one. The people of Quebec are sovereign people as are the people of Canada. But, they have yet to affirm their sovereignty as a fact of life. They can and will do so only by rejecting the Chretien Liberals and their spurious efforts to incite a reactionary civil war. The Liberals are opposed to progress, obstinately stuck in the nineteenth century, instead of behaving like modern leaders uniting the country to prepare for the twenty-first century, with a modern constitution solemnly proclaimed by the sovereign people. Shawgi Tell University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education [EMAIL PROTECTED]