Humanipedia - User contributions [en]

Ediciones León Alado

2024-06-09T00:37:37Z

OlivierTurquet:

Spanish humanist publisher.

https://edicionesleonalado.net/es/inicio/

[[Category: humanist publisher]]

Ediciones León Alado

2024-06-09T00:36:29Z

OlivierTurquet:

Spanish humanist publisher.

[[Category: humanist publisher]]

Category:Humanist publishers

2024-06-09T00:35:11Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Humanist publishers"

Humanist publishers

Ediciones León Alado

2024-06-09T00:34:37Z

OlivierTurquet:

Spanish humanist publisher.

[[Category: humanist publishers]]

Ediciones León Alado

2024-06-09T00:34:12Z

OlivierTurquet:

Spanish humanist publisher.

[[Category: humanist publishers]

Ediciones León Alado

2024-06-09T00:32:21Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Spanish humanist publisher."

Spanish humanist publisher.

Death

2024-06-08T23:06:38Z

OlivierTurquet:

We observe that this is a fact which mobilizes strong instinctive registers; these instinctive registers are connected with the activities of the lower levels of consciousness.

The principal considerations regarding death are related to

a) the psychological difficulties presented by the problem of representing and registering oneself as dead, that is, without any registers (see Consciousness, Emotional); and

b) fear of the pain that would arise when one imagines one will continue to have physical registers after death that will correspond to how one's mortal remains or body will be treated.

In both of these cases one assumes that one's registers will not cease with death, and this generates a whole system of illusory images which cause pain and suffering. The physical register of the fear of death is produced entirely by the operation of the imagination in a completely hallucinatory elaboration of what will happen upon one's death. Imagining that after one's death one will continue to have registers of activities is a source of suffering. This suffering is related to the register of possession, to the possession of one's self when faced with losing one's body. The tension related to possession generates suffering. At times, this kind of suffering also happens when one thinks about complete relaxation or definitive dispossession, that is, the total loss of all registers of tension, and the consequent disintegration of the "U' This generates a state characterized by the desire to remain. We find that possession is always at the base of the problem of one's death, just as it is when one considers the death of another person (see [[Suffering]]).

[[category: Glossary of Self Liberation]]

[[it: morte]]

Death

2024-06-08T23:05:31Z

OlivierTurquet:

Death

2024-06-08T23:05:00Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "We observe that this is a fact which mobilizes strong instinctive registers; these instinctive registers are connected with the activities of the lower levels of consciousness. The principal considerations regarding death are related to a) the psychological difficulties presented by the problem of representing and registering oneself as dead, that is, without any registers (see Consciousness, Emotional); and b) fear of the pain that would arise when one imagines on..."

Category:Glossary of Self Liberation

2024-06-08T23:03:24Z

OlivierTurquet: Replaced content with "Terms from the Glossary of self liberation"

Terms from the Glossary of [[self liberation]]

January, 22

2021-04-28T07:15:18Z

OlivierTurquet:

2021 The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Prohibition_of_Nuclear_Weapons Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons] enters into force

2006 Evo Morales, elected with over 53% of the vote, becomes the first President of Bolivian indigenous origin

1984 The first Apple Macintosh computer is presented

back to the [[Calendar of the Universal Human Nation]]
[[category: Calendar of the Universal Human Nation]]

Convergence of Cultures

2016-12-22T19:20:50Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Convergence of Cultures (1) is an organism that is part of the Humanist Movement. =Universalist Humanism= “Universal Humanism also called New Humanism and is characte..."

Convergence of Cultures (1) is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

=Universalist Humanism=

“Universal Humanism also called New Humanism and is characterized by an emphasis on the humanist attitude. The humanist attitude is not a philosophy but a point of view, a sensibility and a way of living in relationship with other human beings. Universalist Humanism maintains that in all cultures, in their most creative moments, the humanist attitude pervades the social environment. In such periods, discrimination, wars and violence in general are repudiated. Freedom of ideas and beliefs is fomented, which in turn provides incentives for research and creativity in science, art and other social expressions. Universalist Humanism proposes a dialogue between cultures that is neither abstract nor institutional, but rather an agreement on fundamental points and a mutual and concrete collaboration between representatives of different cultures based on their respective and symmetrical humanist moments.”

In present day society coexistence between different cultures is a daily fact. But the extraordinary thing in this historical moment is that it is a moment of planetarization in which all cultures mutually approach and influence each other, as never before.

It is important to distinguish between this process of growing planetarization and globalization. Widely spoken of globalization is nothing more than the traditional behavior launched by imperial centers as has occurred repeatedly in history. These empires are established, and they develop making other peoples revolve around their imposed languages, their customs, clothing, food and their codes. Finally, these imperialist structures end up generating violence and chaos as a product of their naive abuse and cultural confrontation.

Today, what is needed is the creation of ambits that can rescue every culture´s ideas, beliefs and humanist attitudes, which beyond their differences, is found in the heart of different peoples and individuals.

=Objectives=

In general terms Convergence of Cultures proposes to facilitate and stimulate dialogue between cultures, to fight against discrimination and violence and to bring its proposals to all latitudes.

In particular:

a) To promote relationships between different cultures.

By means of organizing gatherings and ambits for interchange among people from different cultures. The intention of the interchange is not only to make their own cultures, concerns and aspirations known, but to allow a true dialogue oriented towards the search for common elements that are present in the hearts of different peoples and individuals.

b) To denounce and struggle against all kinds of overt or covert discrimination

Through different types of campaigns which allow the full expression of human rights; for the free circulation of human beings throughout the planet and for the possibility of everyone to choose the place and conditions in which they want to live; to improve the present and build a common future.

c) To disseminate its ideas and activities

Making contact with all the cultures in different countries, with the intention to disseminate and bring together people and organizations around the studies and activities of Convergence of Cultures.

=Organizational guidelines=

1. General aspects

These guidelines aim, in general terms, to define a common model of organization and way of working.

Convergence of Cultures is an organization with an international character; in this sense its members, independently of the place in which they act, feel part of a single humanizing worldwide action which is expressed in diverse yet convergent ways. Therefore the homogeneity of ideological content is fundamental in all its manifestations.

Its forms of participation are open and flexible. This is an organization with a human base in which every person becomes responsible for that which they promote and construct.

The basic structures of Convergence of Cultures are “base teams” that develop their activities in neighborhoods, schools, universities, workplaces, through the internet, etc.

2. Base coordination and national coordination

These initial teams of C.C. are coordinated in the first instance by the person who instigated their creation and who developed them following the proposed objectives in the official documents and materials of Convergence of Cultures. These “initial or promoting teams” are constituted as “Convergence of Cultures teams” when they achieve a minimum development (around 10 participants) and permanence (periodic meetings). Every year an election is carried out in which all full members of the team participate, in order to confirm or replace the initial coordinator.

According to how these “CC base teams” develop, so the need for coordination with other CC teams who act in the same country arises. When there are 10 base teams, the coordinators of these teams will form a “promotion team” which calls elections to choose the first national team. People who become members of this national team will be elected by direct vote by the full members of the organism in that country every two years.

This national team has the function of coordinating joint actions (campaigns, forums, gatherings, responses to conflict situations, etc), to deal with administrative and legal matters, to coordinate relations with the press and other organizations, to call elections for biannual renewal of its functions and other functions that may be useful.

These functions are exclusively at the service of the whole; they respond to a mandate with precise guidelines and may be re-elected.

As the convergence of cultures is the central theme of the organism there will be a quota of functions in the national team to be filled by full members of different cultures, independently of the election results.

3. Worldwide coordination

Worldwide coordination is the responsibility of a World Team elected every two years by direct vote by the full members of the organism worldwide.

The World Team is responsible for the coordination of CC at an international level. It may propose coordinated actions of various magnitudes and scope.

As the convergence of cultures is the central theme of the organism there will be a quota of functions in the World Team to be filled by full members of different cultures, independently of the election results.

In the case of important decisions that affect the position and development of the whole, a general consultation will take place that guarantees the participation of all members of the Organism. If necessary, a worldwide and direct vote about an issue may be appealed.

4. The “Convergence of Cultures Teams” (base groups)

These teams meet periodically around Convergence of Cultures’ materials with the aim of clarifying themselves about the ideological aspects and about the objectives of the organism, to promote relations between different cultures, to denounce and fight against all forms of manifest or covert discrimination and to disseminate the ideas and activities of CC. The gatherings and retreats of study and practice of the Humanist Movement are also available for those who so wish to do them.

There also exist CC Teams that develop their activities in a virtual way, taking advantage of the use of new technologies.

From their inception, CC Teams encourage the development of three basic mechanisms or functions:

growth: orientating action towards other people, towards other networks and organizations with the aim of making their proposals and tools known.

communication: maintaining fluid communication and interchange with other CC teams and with other organizations with objectives with affinity with CC.

formation: attending to the progressive formation of their members, making available tools for personal, cultural and social development. These studies and practices may be found in the official materials.

These Convergence of Cultures teams generate links with other groups and organizations in the environment, but on no account may they establish an organizational relationship with any of them.

5. Joint functions

The base teams may, if considered necessary, define functions that facilitate common action, for example:

Spokesperson: responsible to represent Convergence of Cultures in institutional activities, in front of the press and in all activities or situations where the points of view of the organism need to be presented.

Relations with other organizations

Legal and juridical

Press and dissemination

Other ad-hoc functions

These functions will be elected by a vote and have a term of one year. These functions are exclusively at the service of the whole; they respond to a mandate with precise guidelines and may be re-elected.

6. Participation

Participation is open to any person, without discrimination. Any person who coincides with the basic objectives of Convergence of Cultures may be integrated into the organization, joining as a full member or supporter collaborating with planned activities, participating in meetings of formation and capacity-building, and promoting new actions.

Full members: participate in meetings, take responsibility for growth, qualify themselves based on the proposed materials and contribute to sustaining the organism with an annual membership fee. They are responsible for choosing through a direct election, the coordinator of their base team and the functions of the national and worldwide teams. They instigate the development and qualification of new teams without geographical limitations.

Supporters: receive information, participate in activities and collaborate with development.

Any group, organization or association that, without losing their own identity, expresses their endorsement of the principles that inspire CC, may apply for inclusion as an "associate" of CC and thereby maintain a relationship of mutual collaboration.

=Reference materials=

Convergence of Cultures counts on official and recommended materials.

Official materials:

The Notebook of CC

Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009.

Recommended materials:

The Humanist Document, adopted by the Humanist Party in the 2nd Congress of the HI (Moscow, 1993).

[[Self-liberation]], Luis A. Ammann. (Ed. 1980, updated in 2004.)

Completed Works, [[Silo]], Vol. I and II.

Psychology notes, [[Silo]].

There are also numerous contributions that members of Convergence of Cultures have made in the development of points of view and in their application to specific fields which amplify this recommended bibliography.

=Finances=

CC is sustained by the annual membership fee of its full members.

This fee will be fixed by the National Coordination Team based on the national average salary and will be collected once a year on the same date from all full members.

The money collected will be distributed proportionally between the base teams, the national coordination teams and the world coordination team according to the proportion defined by the World Promotion Team.

Occasional funds may be collected based on needs that may arise in which supporters of the organism can voluntarily participate. The amounts of these collections will never exceed the amount of the annual membership fee.

Coherent with an organization with a human base, the funds to sustain it come from the members.

=Institutional aspects=

According to the degree of development and growth of CC in each country and with the aim of facilitating the development of the objectives in their relationships with the environment, teams will tend to be legalized as “non-profit-making civil associations” (or however this may be called in each country).

The statutes or articles of association of these “non-profit associations” will in practice reflect an organization and principles that are identical to those proposed in the official organizational materials at a world level.

At the worldwide level, Convergence of Cultures will be organized as a “World Federation” that brings together the world’s CC teams.

1) Previously known as the “Center of Cultures” (1995 to 2009) and created by the [[Humanist Movement]] in 1995.

[[it:Convergenza delle Culture]]
[[es:Convergencia de las Culturas]]
[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

The Community for Human Development

2016-12-22T19:15:03Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Community (for human development) is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

The Community (for human development) was created in mid 1980 as the social and cultural organism of the [[Humanist Movement]].

=Objectives=

The objectives of The Community (for human development) are the study, development, dissemination and installation of a new culture based on the fundamental ideas of Universalist Humanism.

This new culture will be the correlate of a configuration of an advanced consciousness in which all forms of violence provoke repugnance. The installation of such a structuring of a non-violent consciousness in societies would be a profound cultural conquest. This would go beyond ideas or emotions that are weakly manifested in present day societies, and start to form part of the psychosomatic and psychosocial framework of the human being.

The [[humanist attitude]], an essential aspect of this new culture, beyond all theoretical proposal, may be understood as a "sensibility", like a stance in front of the human world in which the intention and liberty of others is recognized, and in which a commitment to a non-violent struggle against discrimination and violence is made.

The Community promotes projects for the real application of this new culture in different ambits of personal and social life.

This new culture is based on a new conception of the human being from which a scale of values, a methodology of action and a personal and social project are derived.

A scale of values whose 6 fundamental points are:

• In first place, the location of the human being as the central value and concern, in such a way that nothing is above the human being and no human being is above any other.
• In second place, it affirms the equality of all individuals and thus works for the overcoming of the simple formality of equal rights before the law to advance towards a world of equal opportunities for all.
• In third place, it recognizes personal and cultural diversity and so affirms the characteristics proper to each people, condemning all discrimination that is done on the basis of economic, racial, ethnic and cultural differences.
• In fourth place, it encourages all tendencies that develop knowledge beyond the limitations imposed on thought by prejudices that are accepted as absolute or immutable truths.
• In fifth place, it affirms the freedom of ideas and beliefs and, finally;
• It repudiates all forms of violence, understanding not only physical violence as the sole factor, but also economic violence, racial violence, religious violence, moral violence and psychological violence as daily cases and rooted in all regions of the planet.

A methodology of action , both personal and social, based on " active nonviolence ". This methodology promotes a social and personal attitude in front of life which has joint action and social and personal behavior as its principle tools:

• The rejection of, and a void towards, different forms of discrimination and violence.
• Non-collaboration with violent practices.
• Denunciation of all acts of violence and discrimination.
• Civil disobedience in front of institutionalized violence.
• Social and voluntary organization and mobilization in solidarity.
• Decisive support to everything which favors active nonviolence.
• The overcoming of the roots of violence in oneself, development of personal virtues and the best and most profound human aspirations.

In accordance with this methodology, action for social transformation is not opposed to the action of personal transformation. On the contrary, The Community understands them as intimately linked and as a consequence proposes simultaneous action to overcome social (external) violence as well as personal (internal) violence.

A personal and social project that attempts to surpass the present crisis of violence, disorientation and lack of meaning which human beings suffer. This project is synthesized in the ideal of Humanizing the Earth .

=Organizational guidelines=

• General aspects

These guidelines aim to define an organizational model in accordance with the new stage that is starting, driving the growth of The Community in matters of participating members, action in the environment, and geographical and cultural scope.

The Community (for human development) is an organization that has a universal character, in this sense its members, independently of the place where they act, feel part of the same humanizing worldwide action that is expressed in a diverse yet convergent manner.

Its forms of participation are open and flexible. It is an organization with a human base in which each person takes responsibility for what they initiate and construct.

The basic structures and foundations of The Community are those "Community Base Teams" that develop their activities at the level of the neighborhood, groups of friends, schools, universities, city level, in a virtual way, through the internet, etc.

The initial groups of TC ( "TC promoting groups" ) are coordinated, in the first instance, by the person who created them and who developed them according to the proposed objectives in the official documents and materials of The Community. These "promoting groups" are constituted as "Community Base Teams" when they achieve a minimal development (approximately 10 full members), permanence (periodic meetings) and when they elect one of their members through a direct vote to fulfill the functions of team coordination and contact with the "Coordination Team" of The Community in their country or internationally if the former doesn´t exist.

• Local and international coordination

As "TC base teams" start to develop so do the needs for coordination with other TC groups who act within the same country. When this happens, this coordination is taken on by a "National Coordination Team".

The function of a National Coordination Team is to coordinate joint actions (campaigns, forums, responses to situations in the environment, etc), to coordinate the response to specific situations, to deal with administrative and legal matters (where necessary), to choose a spokesperson and to coordinate relations with the press and other organizations.

The National Coordination Teams are composed of a maximum of 12 people and a minimum of 4, elected through a direct vote by full members.

International coordination is the responsibility of the "World Coordination Team of The Community", composed of 12 members, elected through a direct vote by full members of The Community around the world, every two years.

The composition of the World Coordination Team takes into consideration the representation of ethnic, cultural and regional minorities.

The World Coordination Team is responsible for general worldwide coordination and can propose joint actions of different magnitudes and scope.

The tasks of the World Coordination Team are:

• Coordination of joint actions
• Coordination of responses to specific situations
• International information to the Base Groups (international bulletin)
• To attend to the representation and participation of minorities.
• Official website (international web page in different languages where the official materials can be found, and all necessary international information.)
• Official international communiqués.
• Relations with other organizations at an international level.
• Admittance of organizations and/or fronts that act at a regional or worldwide level and wish to be incorporated as "supporters" of TC.

Any proposal for action that includes the modification of the official materials or important organizational aspects of the organism will be subject to a direct vote by all members.

Other levels of coordination, for example city or regions, will be temporarily formed when so needed (joint actions, forums, campaigns, etc), but they will not have a permanent character, unlike National Coordination Teams and the World Coordination Team.

Synthesizing this point, the National Coordination Teams and the World Coordination Team are the permanent coordination bodies which are elected through direct vote by full members of "TC Base Teams", while other coordination levels (by city or region) are temporary and respond to situational needs. In the formation of National and World Coordination Teams, there will be no possibility of re-election in consecutive periods.

• The Community "Base Teams"

When a group of people meet periodically around The Community´s materials with the aim of organizing training activities and the practice of nonviolence, creating a void to violence, denouncing and not collaborating with it, when it sets in motion non-violent exemplary actions, and when also the participants of that group are concerned with overcoming their own internal violence, then we are in the presence of a primary base organization that we call a "TC promotion group". The personal relations and behavior of the group are based on the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you would like to be treated".

There are also TC groups that develop their activities in a virtual way by making use of new technologies through the web and internet.

From their formation, base teams or groups of TC advance in setting up three basic mechanisms or functions for their development:

• growth : orientating their action towards other people, towards other networks and organizations with the aim of making their proposals and tools known and implementing them in practice.

• communication : maintaining fluid communication and interchange with other base teams and with other organizations with objectives in affinity with TC.

• formation : attending to the progressive formation of their members, offering tools for overcoming internal and external violence. These studies and practices are developed in the primary materials.

When these " TC promotion groups " reach a minimum development (approximately 10 full members), achieve permanence in their meetings and choose one of their members, through a direct vote, to fulfill the functions of team coordination and contact person with the "National or World Coordination Team", a " TC Base Team " is constituted.(E.g. TC Base Team "Flowers neighborhood", TCBT "Active Nonviolence � Mumbai", etc).

These teams of TC may generate links with other groups and organizations in their environment (interchange, joint actions and collaboration), but on no account will they establish an organizational relationship with any of them.

• Joint functions

TC Base Teams, like National and World Coordination Teams may, when they consider it necessary , define functions that facilitate joint action, such as:

• Spokesperson: responsible for presenting The Community in institutional activities, in the press and in all activities or situations where it is necessary to present The Community´s point of view.
• Relations with other organizations
• Participation of minorities
• Legal and juridical
• Press and dissemination
• Other ad-hoc functions

These functions are elected through a direct vote by members of the respective teams (base, national and international coordination) and they have a 1 year term of office in the case of base teams and two years in the cases of national and world coordination. These functions are exclusively for relating to the environment and are at the service of the whole. They are not for orientation and respond to a mandate with precise guidelines and may be re-elected.

• Participation

Participation is open to anyone, without discrimination. Any person who coincides with the basic objectives of The Community can be integrated into the organization, joining as a full member or as a supporter and thus collaborate with planned activities, participate in meetings of formation and capacity-building, and initiate new actions.

Full members : participate in meetings, contribute an annual membership fee, take responsibility for growth and are trained on the basis of the personal works that The Community promote. They are responsible for choosing, through a direct vote, the delegates of their team for the Coordination Teams, and the members of the National and World Coordination Teams. They also instigate the development and formation of new Base Teams without geographical limitations.

Supporting members : receive information, participate in activities and collaborate with development.

Without loosing their own identity, any action front, group, organization or collective may solicit inclusion as a "supporter" in The Community by expressing their endorsement of the principles on which The Community is inspired and maintaining a relationship of mutual collaboration with it.

Ultimately, and in the case of full members or base teams who encourage proposals, actions or procedures that are clearly opposed to the objectives of the organism, The Community may remove recognition as members of TC from those members or base teams.

• Finance

The Community sustains itself financially through the voluntary contributions of its members. Membership fees are gathered annually from all full members around the world to sustain joint activities. The amount of the fee is defined by the "National Coordination Teams" and related to a percentage of the average national salary of their particular country.

The money collected is proportionally distributed between the base teams, the national coordination teams and the world coordination team according to the proportion defined by the World Promotion Team.

Occasionally funds may be gathered based on needs that may arise in which full members and supporters of the organism may participate in a voluntary manner. The amounts of these occasional campaigns may never exceed the amount of the annual membership fee.

In coherence with an organization with a human base, the funds to sustain it come from its members.

• Institutional aspects

According to the degree of development and growth of TC in every country, and with the aim of facilitating the development of the objectives in relationship with its environment, TC teams tend to be legalized as "non-profit-making civil associations" (or however this may be called in different countries) .

The statues and articles of association of these "non-profit-making civil associations" will reflect in practice an organization, objectives and principles identical to those proposed in the official organizational materials of The Community at a worldwide level.

Internationally, The Community is organized as an "International Federation" which gathers together all TC teams around the world.

"The Community for Human Development"
World Federation of Teams of The Community (for human development)
Non-profit association

=Reference materials=

Official materials:

• The Book of the Community (Ed. 2009, updated).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009.

• The Humanist Document , Silo (1992).

Recommended materials:

• Self-liberation , Luis A. Ammann. (Ed. 1980, updated in 2004.)

• Completed Works, Silo, Vol. I and II .

There are also numerous contributions that members of The Community have made in the development of points of view and in application to specific fields; these contributions amplify the recommended bibliography.

=Links=

Official site http://www.lacomunidadmundial.org/en/
(1) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.
[[it:La Comunità per lo Sviluppo Umano]]
[[es:La Comunidad para el Desarrollo Humano]]
[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

The Community for Human Development

2016-12-22T18:59:46Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Community (for human development) is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

The Community (for human development) was created in mid 1980 as the social and cultural organism of the [[Humanist Movement]].

=Objectives=

The objectives of The Community (for human development) are the study, development, dissemination and installation of a new culture based on the fundamental ideas of Universalist Humanism.

This new culture will be the correlate of a configuration of an advanced consciousness in which all forms of violence provoke repugnance. The installation of such a structuring of a non-violent consciousness in societies would be a profound cultural conquest. This would go beyond ideas or emotions that are weakly manifested in present day societies, and start to form part of the psychosomatic and psychosocial framework of the human being.

The [[humanist attitude]], an essential aspect of this new culture, beyond all theoretical proposal, may be understood as a "sensibility", like a stance in front of the human world in which the intention and liberty of others is recognized, and in which a commitment to a non-violent struggle against discrimination and violence is made.

The Community promotes projects for the real application of this new culture in different ambits of personal and social life.

This new culture is based on a new conception of the human being from which a scale of values, a methodology of action and a personal and social project are derived.

A scale of values whose 6 fundamental points are:

• In first place, the location of the human being as the central value and concern, in such a way that nothing is above the human being and no human being is above any other.
• In second place, it affirms the equality of all individuals and thus works for the overcoming of the simple formality of equal rights before the law to advance towards a world of equal opportunities for all.
• In third place, it recognizes personal and cultural diversity and so affirms the characteristics proper to each people, condemning all discrimination that is done on the basis of economic, racial, ethnic and cultural differences.
• In fourth place, it encourages all tendencies that develop knowledge beyond the limitations imposed on thought by prejudices that are accepted as absolute or immutable truths.
• In fifth place, it affirms the freedom of ideas and beliefs and, finally;
• It repudiates all forms of violence, understanding not only physical violence as the sole factor, but also economic violence, racial violence, religious violence, moral violence and psychological violence as daily cases and rooted in all regions of the planet.

A methodology of action , both personal and social, based on " active nonviolence ". This methodology promotes a social and personal attitude in front of life which has joint action and social and personal behavior as its principle tools:

• The rejection of, and a void towards, different forms of discrimination and violence.
• Non-collaboration with violent practices.
• Denunciation of all acts of violence and discrimination.
• Civil disobedience in front of institutionalized violence.
• Social and voluntary organization and mobilization in solidarity.
• Decisive support to everything which favors active nonviolence.
• The overcoming of the roots of violence in oneself, development of personal virtues and the best and most profound human aspirations.

In accordance with this methodology, action for social transformation is not opposed to the action of personal transformation. On the contrary, The Community understands them as intimately linked and as a consequence proposes simultaneous action to overcome social (external) violence as well as personal (internal) violence.

A personal and social project that attempts to surpass the present crisis of violence, disorientation and lack of meaning which human beings suffer. This project is synthesized in the ideal of Humanizing the Earth .

=Organizational guidelines=

• General aspects

These guidelines aim to define an organizational model in accordance with the new stage that is starting, driving the growth of The Community in matters of participating members, action in the environment, and geographical and cultural scope.

The Community (for human development) is an organization that has a universal character, in this sense its members, independently of the place where they act, feel part of the same humanizing worldwide action that is expressed in a diverse yet convergent manner.

Its forms of participation are open and flexible. It is an organization with a human base in which each person takes responsibility for what they initiate and construct.

The basic structures and foundations of The Community are those "Community Base Teams" that develop their activities at the level of the neighborhood, groups of friends, schools, universities, city level, in a virtual way, through the internet, etc.

The initial groups of TC ( "TC promoting groups" ) are coordinated, in the first instance, by the person who created them and who developed them according to the proposed objectives in the official documents and materials of The Community. These "promoting groups" are constituted as "Community Base Teams" when they achieve a minimal development (approximately 10 full members), permanence (periodic meetings) and when they elect one of their members through a direct vote to fulfill the functions of team coordination and contact with the "Coordination Team" of The Community in their country or internationally if the former doesn´t exist.

• Local and international coordination

As "TC base teams" start to develop so do the needs for coordination with other TC groups who act within the same country. When this happens, this coordination is taken on by a "National Coordination Team".

The function of a National Coordination Team is to coordinate joint actions (campaigns, forums, responses to situations in the environment, etc), to coordinate the response to specific situations, to deal with administrative and legal matters (where necessary), to choose a spokesperson and to coordinate relations with the press and other organizations.

The National Coordination Teams are composed of a maximum of 12 people and a minimum of 4, elected through a direct vote by full members.

International coordination is the responsibility of the "World Coordination Team of The Community", composed of 12 members, elected through a direct vote by full members of The Community around the world, every two years.

The composition of the World Coordination Team takes into consideration the representation of ethnic, cultural and regional minorities.

The World Coordination Team is responsible for general worldwide coordination and can propose joint actions of different magnitudes and scope.

The tasks of the World Coordination Team are:

• Coordination of joint actions
• Coordination of responses to specific situations
• International information to the Base Groups (international bulletin)
• To attend to the representation and participation of minorities.
• Official website (international web page in different languages where the official materials can be found, and all necessary international information.)
• Official international communiqués.
• Relations with other organizations at an international level.
• Admittance of organizations and/or fronts that act at a regional or worldwide level and wish to be incorporated as "supporters" of TC.

Any proposal for action that includes the modification of the official materials or important organizational aspects of the organism will be subject to a direct vote by all members.

Other levels of coordination, for example city or regions, will be temporarily formed when so needed (joint actions, forums, campaigns, etc), but they will not have a permanent character, unlike National Coordination Teams and the World Coordination Team.

Synthesizing this point, the National Coordination Teams and the World Coordination Team are the permanent coordination bodies which are elected through direct vote by full members of "TC Base Teams", while other coordination levels (by city or region) are temporary and respond to situational needs. In the formation of National and World Coordination Teams, there will be no possibility of re-election in consecutive periods.

• The Community "Base Teams"

When a group of people meet periodically around The Community´s materials with the aim of organizing training activities and the practice of nonviolence, creating a void to violence, denouncing and not collaborating with it, when it sets in motion non-violent exemplary actions, and when also the participants of that group are concerned with overcoming their own internal violence, then we are in the presence of a primary base organization that we call a "TC promotion group". The personal relations and behavior of the group are based on the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you would like to be treated".

There are also TC groups that develop their activities in a virtual way by making use of new technologies through the web and internet.

From their formation, base teams or groups of TC advance in setting up three basic mechanisms or functions for their development:

• growth : orientating their action towards other people, towards other networks and organizations with the aim of making their proposals and tools known and implementing them in practice.

• communication : maintaining fluid communication and interchange with other base teams and with other organizations with objectives in affinity with TC.

• formation : attending to the progressive formation of their members, offering tools for overcoming internal and external violence. These studies and practices are developed in the primary materials.

When these " TC promotion groups " reach a minimum development (approximately 10 full members), achieve permanence in their meetings and choose one of their members, through a direct vote, to fulfill the functions of team coordination and contact person with the "National or World Coordination Team", a " TC Base Team " is constituted.(E.g. TC Base Team "Flowers neighborhood", TCBT "Active Nonviolence � Mumbai", etc).

These teams of TC may generate links with other groups and organizations in their environment (interchange, joint actions and collaboration), but on no account will they establish an organizational relationship with any of them.

• Joint functions

TC Base Teams, like National and World Coordination Teams may, when they consider it necessary , define functions that facilitate joint action, such as:

• Spokesperson: responsible for presenting The Community in institutional activities, in the press and in all activities or situations where it is necessary to present The Community´s point of view.
• Relations with other organizations
• Participation of minorities
• Legal and juridical
• Press and dissemination
• Other ad-hoc functions

These functions are elected through a direct vote by members of the respective teams (base, national and international coordination) and they have a 1 year term of office in the case of base teams and two years in the cases of national and world coordination. These functions are exclusively for relating to the environment and are at the service of the whole. They are not for orientation and respond to a mandate with precise guidelines and may be re-elected.

• Participation

Participation is open to anyone, without discrimination. Any person who coincides with the basic objectives of The Community can be integrated into the organization, joining as a full member or as a supporter and thus collaborate with planned activities, participate in meetings of formation and capacity-building, and initiate new actions.

Full members : participate in meetings, contribute an annual membership fee, take responsibility for growth and are trained on the basis of the personal works that The Community promote. They are responsible for choosing, through a direct vote, the delegates of their team for the Coordination Teams, and the members of the National and World Coordination Teams. They also instigate the development and formation of new Base Teams without geographical limitations.

Supporting members : receive information, participate in activities and collaborate with development.

Without loosing their own identity, any action front, group, organization or collective may solicit inclusion as a "supporter" in The Community by expressing their endorsement of the principles on which The Community is inspired and maintaining a relationship of mutual collaboration with it.

Ultimately, and in the case of full members or base teams who encourage proposals, actions or procedures that are clearly opposed to the objectives of the organism, The Community may remove recognition as members of TC from those members or base teams.

• Finance

The Community sustains itself financially through the voluntary contributions of its members. Membership fees are gathered annually from all full members around the world to sustain joint activities. The amount of the fee is defined by the "National Coordination Teams" and related to a percentage of the average national salary of their particular country.

The money collected is proportionally distributed between the base teams, the national coordination teams and the world coordination team according to the proportion defined by the World Promotion Team.

Occasionally funds may be gathered based on needs that may arise in which full members and supporters of the organism may participate in a voluntary manner. The amounts of these occasional campaigns may never exceed the amount of the annual membership fee.

In coherence with an organization with a human base, the funds to sustain it come from its members.

• Institutional aspects

According to the degree of development and growth of TC in every country, and with the aim of facilitating the development of the objectives in relationship with its environment, TC teams tend to be legalized as "non-profit-making civil associations" (or however this may be called in different countries) .

The statues and articles of association of these "non-profit-making civil associations" will reflect in practice an organization, objectives and principles identical to those proposed in the official organizational materials of The Community at a worldwide level.

Internationally, The Community is organized as an "International Federation" which gathers together all TC teams around the world.

"The Community for Human Development"
World Federation of Teams of The Community (for human development)
Non-profit association

=Reference materials=

Official materials:

• The Book of the Community (Ed. 2009, updated).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009.

• The Humanist Document , Silo (1992).

Recommended materials:

• Self-liberation , Luis A. Ammann. (Ed. 1980, updated in 2004.)

• Completed Works, Silo, Vol. I and II .

There are also numerous contributions that members of The Community have made in the development of points of view and in application to specific fields; these contributions amplify the recommended bibliography.

=Links=

Official site http://www.lacomunidadmundial.org/en/
(1) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.
[it:La Comunità per lo Sviluppo Umano]]
[[es:La Comunidad para el Desarrollo Humano]]
[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

The Community for Human Development

2016-12-22T18:57:21Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "The Community (for human development) is an organism that is part of the Humanist Movement. The Community (for human development) was created in mid 1980 as the social a..."

Humanist Movement

2016-12-22T18:50:07Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Humanist Movement its an international movement

==Definition==

''... "What is the humanist movement today? Is it perhaps a refuge in the face of the general crisis of the system in which we live? Is it a sustained critique of a world that is becoming more dehumanized day by day? Is it a new language and a new paradigm, a new interpretation of the world and a new landscape? Does it represent an ideological or political current, a new aesthetic, a new scale of values? Is it a new spirituality, destined to redeem subjectivity and diversity through concrete action? Is the Movement perhaps the expression of the struggle in support of the dispossessed, the abandoned, and the persecuted? Or is it a manifestation of those who feel the monstrosity inherent in human beings not having the same rights and the same opportunities?

''The Movement is all that and much more. It is the practical expression of the ideal of humanizing the Earth and the aspiration of moving towards a Universal Human Nation. It is the seed of a new culture in this civilization that is becoming planetary, and which will have to change its course, accepting and valuing diversity and giving equal rights and identical opportunities to all human beings, because of the dignity that they deserve by the simple fact of their having been born.''

''The Humanist Movement is the external manifestation of the profound changes that are taking place in the interior of the human being and that are history itself: tragic, disconcerting, but always growing. It is a small voice, which foretells what is to come beyond the human being we have known. It is a poem and a rainbow of diverse colors. It is a David facing an insolent Goliath. It is the softness of water against the hardness of rock. It is the strength of the weak: a paradox and a Destiny.''

''My friends, even when we do not immediately achieve the results that we have hoped for, this seed exists already, and awaits the arrival of the times that are to come.''

''For all, from heart to heart, the fervent desire for this coming social change and the hope for this silent transformation which, beyond all compulsion, beyond all impatience, beyond all violent aspiration, beyond all guilt and all feelings of failure, is already nesting in the intimate depths of many humanists."''
''
Extract of a talk by [[Silo]] given on the 4th of January 1998 in the Obras Sanitarias stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXy_YHT_zGE

The Humanist Movement is a collection of people who participate in the proposals of [[New Humanism]], also known as [[Universalist Humanism]]. These proposals, in their broadest sense, can be found shaped in the [[Document of the Humanist Movement]].

This current of thought that is presented in the works of [[Silo]] and in those of the diverse authors who are inspired by it also implies a sentiment and a way of living, taking shape in multiple fields of human endeavor, giving rise to diverse organisms and action fronts; all of them applied to their specific fields of activity with the common aim: to Humanize the Earth. In themselves they have in common the methodology of Active Nonviolence and the proposal for personal change as a function of social transformation.

The HM is not an institution even though it gives rise to numerous groups and organizations.

The organisms that have emerged from the HM until now are the [[Humanist Party]], the [[Community for Human Development]], [[Convergence of Cultures]], [[World without Wars and without Violence]] and the [[World Center for Humanist Studies]].

Even if these organisms have specific organizational forms that allow them to carry out their activities, the HM itself has no type of organization and constitutes an ambit of convergence and interchange for members of the different organisms.

The activities that are developed by those who participate in the HM will depend on their free initiative.

==History==

The HM appeared on the 4 th of May, 1969 with a public presentation by its founder, [[Silo]], known as the "[[Healing of Suffering]]", in a mountainous outpost in the Andes called Punta de Vacas, close to the border of Argentina and Chile .

=Offficial Materials=

Among the materials the HM counts on are:

- [[Document of the Humanist Movement]]
- [[Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement]].Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009
- Collected Works, Silo, Volume I and II.
- [[Psychology Notes]]
- Humanism (extract of the audiovisual production "[[Silo´s Commentaries]]" - 2008)

==Links==
Official website: http://www.humanistmovement.net
about Silo: http://www.silo.net

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Work in progress]]

Humanist Party

2016-12-22T18:49:13Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].
[[File:ph.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]
The Humanist Party was created in mid 1984 by the Secretariat of Social Affairs of the Community for Human Development and its first International Congress was held in Florence in 1989.

=Basic ideas=

The proposals of the Humanist Party (1) start from the need for liberty that we experience as human beings and aim towards social transformation and overcoming of violence that, in its different forms, generates suffering and contradiction in individuals and peoples.

Human beings have the capacity to transform the world and themselves, thanks to the intentionality of their consciousness, advancing and accumulating historical achievements.

We are born into a social and historical environment that imposes conditions within which we develop our existence and among which, we must, necessarily choose. In turn, this generates new conditions that are experienced with coherence or contradiction.

Contradiction has its personal correlate in the register of suffering.

Social contradiction is the product of violence. This violence manifests itself in the action of divesting a human being or human groups of their intention (and certainly of their liberty). The appropriation of the social whole by one part is violence.

Personal and social suffering must be overcome by modifying the situations of illegitimate and violent appropriation that have produced contradiction in the world.

In the process of growing humanization, human beings direct their intentionality towards nature and society in order to transform the conditions that bring pain and suffering to themselves and others with whom they can identify. This struggle gives continuity to the historical process and meaning to life, as they affirm their intentionality in front of non-meaning and oppression.

This intention, which rebels against sickness, inequality and injustice, considers rebellion against death as the height of disobedience before an apparently natural destiny, giving coherence to human life and allowing the projection of its own liberty beyond all limits.

=Proposals for political action=

The Humanist Party advocates the upholding (or the achievement, where necessary) of a democratic regime as a means of transition from formal democracy to real democracy, in which a real separation of powers, respect for minorities and direct democracy can be guaranteed.

It rejects the violation of human rights, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts and the concentration of power.

Regarding its methodology of action, Humanism is governed by nonviolent action.

At the same time, it denounces all forms of violence: physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological and moral.

We aspire to a Universal Human Nation, in which the enormous human diversity of; ethnicities, languages and customs, localities, regions and autonomous territories, ideas and aspirations, beliefs, atheism and religiosity, will all converge.

In coherence with this aspiration, the Party can count on a worldwide federation which allows it to articulate positions and campaigns of international scope, maintaining autonomy and creativity in different levels of action down to the social base where it has its roots.

Within our proposals at a worldwide level we highlight, due to the urgency: the task of nuclear disarmament, by alerting the whole of humanity of the need for it and by generating a consciousness that demands it; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; and the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts.

The Humanist Party denounces the ecological catastrophe and its promoters, namely big capital and the chain of destructive industries and businesses which are the offspring of the military-industrial complex.

It highlights economic violence as the cause of suffering in people, especially that which is due to the concentration of speculative financial capital. In this sense it advocates for tax reforms that give incentives to the progressive distribution of wealth and new cooperative models of self-management and co-management that give coherence to the relationship between capital and labor, increasing productivity and avoiding the diversion of resources to speculation. Likewise, it advocates the creation of an interest-free public bank which will help to acquire these objectives by avoiding the illegitimate concentration of resources and power currently in the hands of present day banks.

Different forms of discrimination are intertwined with economic exploitation and acquire a violent character. The Party highlights the violence that is specifically exercised against women and young people; who have historically been discriminated against, together with the discrimination exercised against other human groups which are excluded for economic, racial, cultural or religious reasons.

The Party advocates the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

The Party upholds the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

• Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

• Transparency in the political procedures employed.

=Reference materials=

Official materials

• Declaration of Principles , approved in the First Congress of the Humanist International (HI) ( Florence , 1989)

• Thesis (amplification of the Principles), approved by the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Basis for Political Action , approved by the First Congress of the HI and updated with the proposals for political action in this document.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights , approved in 1948 by the United Nations, and adopted by the Humanist Party in the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• The Humanist Document , adopted by the Humanist Party in the Second congress of the HI ( Moscow , 1993)

• Recommendations by the coordination table of the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009. Available from www.silo.net

Recommended materials:

• The Book of the Humanist International (Compilation of documents, 2000).

• Letters to my friends, Silo, Collected Works, Vol. I .

• Orange Books (analysis and proposals for action by national parties).

• "Beyond Capitalism, Mixed Economics", Guillermo Sullings, 2000 .

• The End of Prehistory , Tomas Hirsch.

=Organizational guidelines=

1. General ideas

Our party is defined as the Humanist Party International , because the process goes fundamentally towards planetarization, beyond the intermediate stage of regionalization. This international party must have a worldwide strategy, shaped in objectives, plans, campaigns and positions of international scale. In this sense the national parties, within the broad degree of autonomy to develop in each country, will be part of an International Federation of Humanist Parties, participating in joint planning and actions.

The participation of all members of the party in decision-making will be assured through the practice of direct democracy at all levels.

The action fronts, orientated towards social conflicts that work within the organizational structure of the party, will contribute to its growth. In this sense, it will be fundamental to count on a dynamic, open, participative and motivating organization that facilitates the inclusion of many people, above all young people, women, technical experts and social leaders, in the framework of a high-level political project.

Joint activities must be economically sustained by the contribution of party members.

The basic organizational nucleus of the organism will be Base Teams that operate in a specific neighborhood, district, educational center or workplace. It is from this base that the party must be organized and developed.

The Humanist Party will be organized at all levels in accordance with this criteria, with their corresponding adaptation to the legalities of each country.

2. Participation: Full members and supporters

A full member is someone who is genuinely interested to work in the party, someone who knows about and is in agreement with the thesis and basis for political action, someone who participates in an activity or function, and who disseminates the proposals and ideas of the party. A full member is someone who is concerned with the development of the party and contributes to its financing by paying the annual membership fee which is established in each country.

A supporter makes no commitment; they participate occasionally and receive information.

Only full members have the right to participate in internal elections, to vote and to be elected, and to participate in the consultations that the Party may carry out in order to take relevant decisions.

3. Base teams

These form the basic structure of the party. Their members apply themselves to an action front, operating on a particular conflict at a local or city level, in universities, workplaces, etc., and through this work they are in contact with people, gathering supporters, mobilizing, clarifying, debating, making demands of authorities and promoting concrete actions. They also work in functions that are necessary for the whole and are concerned with achieving and maintaining the level of supporters and members necessary to fulfill the legal requirements in the district they work in. In times of elections they prepare local proposals, present candidates and make propaganda for the party.

These teams can be formed through the initiative of one or more persons. The initial reference of a team is the person who formed it, but on achieving a certain level of development the choice of contact person between this team and other instances of the party must be subject to a vote.

If someone sets up many teams, or from an initial team new ones multiply, there could possibly exist a certain reference in the person who helped to set these new teams in motion, however no person will have an organizational relationship with more than one group.

Every team will be formed of a certain number of full members; those party members who pay their annual membership fee, and thereby have the right to choose not only the contact person for the team, but also the various functions at a national and international level through a direct vote, and to decide about relevant party issues also through a vote.

Every team could have a large number of supporters as a consequence of their permanent action in the environment, but only full members will be able to participate in the decisions of the party and in the functions that are deemed to be necessary.

4. National coordination team

Its responsibility will be the planning and promotion of national policy strategies, as well as coordinating the implementation of international activities in each country. It will be responsible for giving a common strategic framework for all the party´s action fronts, generating spaces for interchange and coordination in order to strengthen their growth and multiplication.

It will cover all the functions of national scope (General Secretary, Organization, Relations, Press, Capacity Building , Dissemination, Legal, etc), with people who have been elected in a direct vote by full members. In order to have a more dynamic functioning it is recommended that among all the functions there is a triad of coordination that will be able to resolve certain issues, without bureaucratic deliberations. It will prepare the analysis of the national situation and prepare positions at this level.

It will administer the funds that correspond to the national level, in accordance with the agreed priorities and criteria within the framework of a general plan for a two-year term of office. It will inform people widely about the destination of these funds.

It will make relationships with other parties at a national level, and possible relationships with government or other organizations. It will be in permanent contact with the organization of the International Party, in order to implement worldwide strategies.

5. Intermediary instances within a country

In principle other organizational instances will not be created, as everything will be planned and implemented though the base teams, in coordination with the planning of the national team.

If due to legal requirements and administrative divisions within a country it is necessary to have intermediary organizational levels (city levels, county, provinces, regions, State, etc.) these intermediary levels will be, from the internal point of view, ad-hoc functions which respond to certain circumstances, but they will not be de-facto decision-making levels.

In each country they will evaluate if, due to a great quantitative and geographical growth of the party, intermediate decision-making levels become necessary.

6. International organization

The Humanist Party International will be constituted as a Federation of Humanist Parties. It will be coordinated by an International Coordination Team, elected through a direct vote by the full members of all member countries, assuring the participation of minorities.

From this international organization, information at a worldwide level will circulate, campaigns about worldwide themes will be promoted, the development of the party in regions or countries where it does not exist will be planned, and the support given to a particular country under specific circumstances will be defined. It will also make an analysis of the worldwide situation and will prepare positions at an international level that in many cases will also be useful at national level.

Independently of the requirements in each country for legalization, national parties can be included when they count on certain minimal conditions of organization, to be established by the Promotion Committee.

Besides the national humanist parties that make up the membership of the federation, special importance will be given to the ambit of the Humanist International as a non-organizational space of convergence with other parties, organizations and individuals who adhere to humanist proposals. This space of convergence, promoted by the Humanist Party International but open to wide participation, will be able to organize international forums, gatherings and all types of interchanges.

7. Link between the three levels

In the international scheme of a Federation of Humanist Parties, every national party will be autonomous in their national planning, but coinciding within a worldwide strategy. And in turn the national scheme will be composed of base teams with autonomy to implement their activities, but coordinated within a national ambit and plan.

The direct election by the full members of functions in the three levels will ensure that the general direction will be that which the majority of members support.

Each national party will coordinate with the international organization through their contact in the International Coordination Team. The base teams will coordinate with the National Team through their contact in each Base Team.

8. Finances

The sustaining of party activities at all its levels must be through the contributions of all the full members. Therefore annual membership fees will be collected in which every member will have to contribute an amount relative to the average salary in the country in which they live, leaving the National Promotion Team of each country to determine this amount. The funds gathered will be distributed among the base, national and international levels, in a proportion to be established by the International Coordination Team.

In order to raise funds for other eventualities, informal campaigns may be carried out in which supporters may also participate. In these cases and in those places the amount of the campaign will be established (never surpassing the amount of the annual membership fee) and the funds will be applied locally.

The payment of the annual membership fee will be the requirement for the member to have the right to vote and participate in the party´s decisions.

In those countries in which the party receives State funding, those funds will not be destined to the internal functioning of the party in order to avoid dependence on the State. In every country they may evaluate, in accordance with the legislation to which they are subject, if such external resources can be targeted to dissemination of electoral campaigns.

The Promotion Teams will elaborate the appropriate procedures to ensure the correct use of funds based on prior budgeting and the circulation of information about what the funds were used for, and the submitting of annual accounts.

9. Electoral fronts and alliances

It will be important for the development and positioning of the Humanist Parties that they strengthen their identity. Nevertheless, if in some cases the possibility to make an electoral alliance is considered, the decision must be subject to the support of the majority of full members, in other words it must be the subject of a referendum in a direct vote.

In any case, any electoral alliance must always be framed within certain ideological parameters and principles in affinity with Universalist Humanism. Any exception to this which could affect the whole may be challenged by a higher level. For example, a city, provincial or county alliance with an entity that is opposed to our principles may be revised and challenged by the National Team. And the same could occur with an alliance at a national level that may be evaluated and challenged by the International Team.

10. Election candidates

With the party´s planning, electoral campaigns take on vital importance as it is through them that greater positioning can be gained.

Prior to humanist candidates being elected, there should be an agreed plan about how to work together regarding the steps that these elected candidates will take. And the activity of elected candidates, as much as the activity of the teams that work with them, should be carried out in accordance with this plan, with the necessary operational autonomy that is required in daily activity.

The Promotion Teams can evaluate if any requirement in terms of length of party membership be included in order to present oneself as a candidate at particular levels.

The prime interest of these elected candidates must be to produce demonstration effects and show exemplary behavior, as opposed to the mediocrity and opportunism that reign in traditional politics.

11. (This paragraph is no longer valid)

12. Procedures

Mechanisms of direct democracy will be used in the cases of electing different functions in the party, as well as for taking relevant decisions that affect the whole. These mechanisms may also employ information technology in the cases where the viability of the participation of all the members can be assured.

All posts will be elected and renewable. The Promotion Teams can evaluate possible limitations to the re-election of posts. In the International and National levels, posts will be renewed every two years, and in the Base Teams, every year.

All posts will be elected through direct vote by the full members. A contact person of the Base Team will be elected by the full members of this team. The posts on the National Team will be elected by all the full members in that country. The ad-hoc functions, necessary to fulfill legal or electoral requirements in geographic divisions within a country, will be elected by the full members in the corresponding division. Posts on the International Team will be elected by the full members of all countries. And all spokespersons and candidates for elections must be similarly chosen.

The Promotion Team will prepare the details of the election procedures to ensure their transparency, effective participation of the full members and the inclusion of minorities in the distribution of posts.

The building of the comprehensive party structure will be from the base to the top and not the inverse. First base promotion teams will be formed and then the national promotion teams. Once this is done, internal elections will be held in which all posts in all levels will be elected.
(1) Extracts of the Thesis (broadening of the Principles), approved by the 1 st Congress ( Florence , 1989)
(2) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.

=Links=
official site http://www.internationalhumanistparty.org/
[[it:partito Umanista]]
[[es:Partido Humanista]]
[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

Humanist Party

2016-12-22T18:48:21Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

The Humanist Party was created in mid 1984 by the Secretariat of Social Affairs of the Community for Human Development and its first International Congress was held in Florence in 1989.

=Basic ideas=

The proposals of the Humanist Party (1) start from the need for liberty that we experience as human beings and aim towards social transformation and overcoming of violence that, in its different forms, generates suffering and contradiction in individuals and peoples.

Human beings have the capacity to transform the world and themselves, thanks to the intentionality of their consciousness, advancing and accumulating historical achievements.

We are born into a social and historical environment that imposes conditions within which we develop our existence and among which, we must, necessarily choose. In turn, this generates new conditions that are experienced with coherence or contradiction.

Contradiction has its personal correlate in the register of suffering.

Social contradiction is the product of violence. This violence manifests itself in the action of divesting a human being or human groups of their intention (and certainly of their liberty). The appropriation of the social whole by one part is violence.

Personal and social suffering must be overcome by modifying the situations of illegitimate and violent appropriation that have produced contradiction in the world.

In the process of growing humanization, human beings direct their intentionality towards nature and society in order to transform the conditions that bring pain and suffering to themselves and others with whom they can identify. This struggle gives continuity to the historical process and meaning to life, as they affirm their intentionality in front of non-meaning and oppression.

This intention, which rebels against sickness, inequality and injustice, considers rebellion against death as the height of disobedience before an apparently natural destiny, giving coherence to human life and allowing the projection of its own liberty beyond all limits.

=Proposals for political action=

The Humanist Party advocates the upholding (or the achievement, where necessary) of a democratic regime as a means of transition from formal democracy to real democracy, in which a real separation of powers, respect for minorities and direct democracy can be guaranteed.

It rejects the violation of human rights, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts and the concentration of power.

Regarding its methodology of action, Humanism is governed by nonviolent action.

At the same time, it denounces all forms of violence: physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological and moral.

We aspire to a Universal Human Nation, in which the enormous human diversity of; ethnicities, languages and customs, localities, regions and autonomous territories, ideas and aspirations, beliefs, atheism and religiosity, will all converge.

In coherence with this aspiration, the Party can count on a worldwide federation which allows it to articulate positions and campaigns of international scope, maintaining autonomy and creativity in different levels of action down to the social base where it has its roots.

Within our proposals at a worldwide level we highlight, due to the urgency: the task of nuclear disarmament, by alerting the whole of humanity of the need for it and by generating a consciousness that demands it; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; and the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts.

The Humanist Party denounces the ecological catastrophe and its promoters, namely big capital and the chain of destructive industries and businesses which are the offspring of the military-industrial complex.

It highlights economic violence as the cause of suffering in people, especially that which is due to the concentration of speculative financial capital. In this sense it advocates for tax reforms that give incentives to the progressive distribution of wealth and new cooperative models of self-management and co-management that give coherence to the relationship between capital and labor, increasing productivity and avoiding the diversion of resources to speculation. Likewise, it advocates the creation of an interest-free public bank which will help to acquire these objectives by avoiding the illegitimate concentration of resources and power currently in the hands of present day banks.

Different forms of discrimination are intertwined with economic exploitation and acquire a violent character. The Party highlights the violence that is specifically exercised against women and young people; who have historically been discriminated against, together with the discrimination exercised against other human groups which are excluded for economic, racial, cultural or religious reasons.

The Party advocates the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

The Party upholds the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

• Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

• Transparency in the political procedures employed.

=Reference materials=

Official materials

• Declaration of Principles , approved in the First Congress of the Humanist International (HI) ( Florence , 1989)

• Thesis (amplification of the Principles), approved by the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Basis for Political Action , approved by the First Congress of the HI and updated with the proposals for political action in this document.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights , approved in 1948 by the United Nations, and adopted by the Humanist Party in the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• The Humanist Document , adopted by the Humanist Party in the Second congress of the HI ( Moscow , 1993)

• Recommendations by the coordination table of the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009. Available from www.silo.net

Recommended materials:

• The Book of the Humanist International (Compilation of documents, 2000).

• Letters to my friends, Silo, Collected Works, Vol. I .

• Orange Books (analysis and proposals for action by national parties).

• "Beyond Capitalism, Mixed Economics", Guillermo Sullings, 2000 .

• The End of Prehistory , Tomas Hirsch.

=Organizational guidelines=

1. General ideas

Our party is defined as the Humanist Party International , because the process goes fundamentally towards planetarization, beyond the intermediate stage of regionalization. This international party must have a worldwide strategy, shaped in objectives, plans, campaigns and positions of international scale. In this sense the national parties, within the broad degree of autonomy to develop in each country, will be part of an International Federation of Humanist Parties, participating in joint planning and actions.

The participation of all members of the party in decision-making will be assured through the practice of direct democracy at all levels.

The action fronts, orientated towards social conflicts that work within the organizational structure of the party, will contribute to its growth. In this sense, it will be fundamental to count on a dynamic, open, participative and motivating organization that facilitates the inclusion of many people, above all young people, women, technical experts and social leaders, in the framework of a high-level political project.

Joint activities must be economically sustained by the contribution of party members.

The basic organizational nucleus of the organism will be Base Teams that operate in a specific neighborhood, district, educational center or workplace. It is from this base that the party must be organized and developed.

The Humanist Party will be organized at all levels in accordance with this criteria, with their corresponding adaptation to the legalities of each country.

2. Participation: Full members and supporters

A full member is someone who is genuinely interested to work in the party, someone who knows about and is in agreement with the thesis and basis for political action, someone who participates in an activity or function, and who disseminates the proposals and ideas of the party. A full member is someone who is concerned with the development of the party and contributes to its financing by paying the annual membership fee which is established in each country.

A supporter makes no commitment; they participate occasionally and receive information.

Only full members have the right to participate in internal elections, to vote and to be elected, and to participate in the consultations that the Party may carry out in order to take relevant decisions.

3. Base teams

These form the basic structure of the party. Their members apply themselves to an action front, operating on a particular conflict at a local or city level, in universities, workplaces, etc., and through this work they are in contact with people, gathering supporters, mobilizing, clarifying, debating, making demands of authorities and promoting concrete actions. They also work in functions that are necessary for the whole and are concerned with achieving and maintaining the level of supporters and members necessary to fulfill the legal requirements in the district they work in. In times of elections they prepare local proposals, present candidates and make propaganda for the party.

These teams can be formed through the initiative of one or more persons. The initial reference of a team is the person who formed it, but on achieving a certain level of development the choice of contact person between this team and other instances of the party must be subject to a vote.

If someone sets up many teams, or from an initial team new ones multiply, there could possibly exist a certain reference in the person who helped to set these new teams in motion, however no person will have an organizational relationship with more than one group.

Every team will be formed of a certain number of full members; those party members who pay their annual membership fee, and thereby have the right to choose not only the contact person for the team, but also the various functions at a national and international level through a direct vote, and to decide about relevant party issues also through a vote.

Every team could have a large number of supporters as a consequence of their permanent action in the environment, but only full members will be able to participate in the decisions of the party and in the functions that are deemed to be necessary.

4. National coordination team

Its responsibility will be the planning and promotion of national policy strategies, as well as coordinating the implementation of international activities in each country. It will be responsible for giving a common strategic framework for all the party´s action fronts, generating spaces for interchange and coordination in order to strengthen their growth and multiplication.

It will cover all the functions of national scope (General Secretary, Organization, Relations, Press, Capacity Building , Dissemination, Legal, etc), with people who have been elected in a direct vote by full members. In order to have a more dynamic functioning it is recommended that among all the functions there is a triad of coordination that will be able to resolve certain issues, without bureaucratic deliberations. It will prepare the analysis of the national situation and prepare positions at this level.

It will administer the funds that correspond to the national level, in accordance with the agreed priorities and criteria within the framework of a general plan for a two-year term of office. It will inform people widely about the destination of these funds.

It will make relationships with other parties at a national level, and possible relationships with government or other organizations. It will be in permanent contact with the organization of the International Party, in order to implement worldwide strategies.

5. Intermediary instances within a country

In principle other organizational instances will not be created, as everything will be planned and implemented though the base teams, in coordination with the planning of the national team.

If due to legal requirements and administrative divisions within a country it is necessary to have intermediary organizational levels (city levels, county, provinces, regions, State, etc.) these intermediary levels will be, from the internal point of view, ad-hoc functions which respond to certain circumstances, but they will not be de-facto decision-making levels.

In each country they will evaluate if, due to a great quantitative and geographical growth of the party, intermediate decision-making levels become necessary.

6. International organization

The Humanist Party International will be constituted as a Federation of Humanist Parties. It will be coordinated by an International Coordination Team, elected through a direct vote by the full members of all member countries, assuring the participation of minorities.

From this international organization, information at a worldwide level will circulate, campaigns about worldwide themes will be promoted, the development of the party in regions or countries where it does not exist will be planned, and the support given to a particular country under specific circumstances will be defined. It will also make an analysis of the worldwide situation and will prepare positions at an international level that in many cases will also be useful at national level.

Independently of the requirements in each country for legalization, national parties can be included when they count on certain minimal conditions of organization, to be established by the Promotion Committee.

Besides the national humanist parties that make up the membership of the federation, special importance will be given to the ambit of the Humanist International as a non-organizational space of convergence with other parties, organizations and individuals who adhere to humanist proposals. This space of convergence, promoted by the Humanist Party International but open to wide participation, will be able to organize international forums, gatherings and all types of interchanges.

7. Link between the three levels

In the international scheme of a Federation of Humanist Parties, every national party will be autonomous in their national planning, but coinciding within a worldwide strategy. And in turn the national scheme will be composed of base teams with autonomy to implement their activities, but coordinated within a national ambit and plan.

The direct election by the full members of functions in the three levels will ensure that the general direction will be that which the majority of members support.

Each national party will coordinate with the international organization through their contact in the International Coordination Team. The base teams will coordinate with the National Team through their contact in each Base Team.

8. Finances

The sustaining of party activities at all its levels must be through the contributions of all the full members. Therefore annual membership fees will be collected in which every member will have to contribute an amount relative to the average salary in the country in which they live, leaving the National Promotion Team of each country to determine this amount. The funds gathered will be distributed among the base, national and international levels, in a proportion to be established by the International Coordination Team.

In order to raise funds for other eventualities, informal campaigns may be carried out in which supporters may also participate. In these cases and in those places the amount of the campaign will be established (never surpassing the amount of the annual membership fee) and the funds will be applied locally.

The payment of the annual membership fee will be the requirement for the member to have the right to vote and participate in the party´s decisions.

In those countries in which the party receives State funding, those funds will not be destined to the internal functioning of the party in order to avoid dependence on the State. In every country they may evaluate, in accordance with the legislation to which they are subject, if such external resources can be targeted to dissemination of electoral campaigns.

The Promotion Teams will elaborate the appropriate procedures to ensure the correct use of funds based on prior budgeting and the circulation of information about what the funds were used for, and the submitting of annual accounts.

9. Electoral fronts and alliances

It will be important for the development and positioning of the Humanist Parties that they strengthen their identity. Nevertheless, if in some cases the possibility to make an electoral alliance is considered, the decision must be subject to the support of the majority of full members, in other words it must be the subject of a referendum in a direct vote.

In any case, any electoral alliance must always be framed within certain ideological parameters and principles in affinity with Universalist Humanism. Any exception to this which could affect the whole may be challenged by a higher level. For example, a city, provincial or county alliance with an entity that is opposed to our principles may be revised and challenged by the National Team. And the same could occur with an alliance at a national level that may be evaluated and challenged by the International Team.

10. Election candidates

With the party´s planning, electoral campaigns take on vital importance as it is through them that greater positioning can be gained.

Prior to humanist candidates being elected, there should be an agreed plan about how to work together regarding the steps that these elected candidates will take. And the activity of elected candidates, as much as the activity of the teams that work with them, should be carried out in accordance with this plan, with the necessary operational autonomy that is required in daily activity.

The Promotion Teams can evaluate if any requirement in terms of length of party membership be included in order to present oneself as a candidate at particular levels.

The prime interest of these elected candidates must be to produce demonstration effects and show exemplary behavior, as opposed to the mediocrity and opportunism that reign in traditional politics.

11. (This paragraph is no longer valid)

12. Procedures

Mechanisms of direct democracy will be used in the cases of electing different functions in the party, as well as for taking relevant decisions that affect the whole. These mechanisms may also employ information technology in the cases where the viability of the participation of all the members can be assured.

All posts will be elected and renewable. The Promotion Teams can evaluate possible limitations to the re-election of posts. In the International and National levels, posts will be renewed every two years, and in the Base Teams, every year.

All posts will be elected through direct vote by the full members. A contact person of the Base Team will be elected by the full members of this team. The posts on the National Team will be elected by all the full members in that country. The ad-hoc functions, necessary to fulfill legal or electoral requirements in geographic divisions within a country, will be elected by the full members in the corresponding division. Posts on the International Team will be elected by the full members of all countries. And all spokespersons and candidates for elections must be similarly chosen.

The Promotion Team will prepare the details of the election procedures to ensure their transparency, effective participation of the full members and the inclusion of minorities in the distribution of posts.

The building of the comprehensive party structure will be from the base to the top and not the inverse. First base promotion teams will be formed and then the national promotion teams. Once this is done, internal elections will be held in which all posts in all levels will be elected.
(1) Extracts of the Thesis (broadening of the Principles), approved by the 1 st Congress ( Florence , 1989)
(2) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.

=Links=
official site http://www.internationalhumanistparty.org/
[[it:partito Umanista]]
[[es:Partido Humanista]]
[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

Humanist Party

2016-12-22T18:37:23Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

The Humanist Party was created in mid 1984 by the Secretariat of Social Affairs of the Community for Human Development and its first International Congress was held in Florence in 1989.

=Basic ideas=

The proposals of the Humanist Party (1) start from the need for liberty that we experience as human beings and aim towards social transformation and overcoming of violence that, in its different forms, generates suffering and contradiction in individuals and peoples.

Human beings have the capacity to transform the world and themselves, thanks to the intentionality of their consciousness, advancing and accumulating historical achievements.

We are born into a social and historical environment that imposes conditions within which we develop our existence and among which, we must, necessarily choose. In turn, this generates new conditions that are experienced with coherence or contradiction.

Contradiction has its personal correlate in the register of suffering.

Social contradiction is the product of violence. This violence manifests itself in the action of divesting a human being or human groups of their intention (and certainly of their liberty). The appropriation of the social whole by one part is violence.

Personal and social suffering must be overcome by modifying the situations of illegitimate and violent appropriation that have produced contradiction in the world.

In the process of growing humanization, human beings direct their intentionality towards nature and society in order to transform the conditions that bring pain and suffering to themselves and others with whom they can identify. This struggle gives continuity to the historical process and meaning to life, as they affirm their intentionality in front of non-meaning and oppression.

This intention, which rebels against sickness, inequality and injustice, considers rebellion against death as the height of disobedience before an apparently natural destiny, giving coherence to human life and allowing the projection of its own liberty beyond all limits.

=Proposals for political action=

The Humanist Party advocates the upholding (or the achievement, where necessary) of a democratic regime as a means of transition from formal democracy to real democracy, in which a real separation of powers, respect for minorities and direct democracy can be guaranteed.

It rejects the violation of human rights, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts and the concentration of power.

Regarding its methodology of action, Humanism is governed by nonviolent action.

At the same time, it denounces all forms of violence: physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological and moral.

We aspire to a Universal Human Nation, in which the enormous human diversity of; ethnicities, languages and customs, localities, regions and autonomous territories, ideas and aspirations, beliefs, atheism and religiosity, will all converge.

In coherence with this aspiration, the Party can count on a worldwide federation which allows it to articulate positions and campaigns of international scope, maintaining autonomy and creativity in different levels of action down to the social base where it has its roots.

Within our proposals at a worldwide level we highlight, due to the urgency: the task of nuclear disarmament, by alerting the whole of humanity of the need for it and by generating a consciousness that demands it; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; and the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts.

The Humanist Party denounces the ecological catastrophe and its promoters, namely big capital and the chain of destructive industries and businesses which are the offspring of the military-industrial complex.

It highlights economic violence as the cause of suffering in people, especially that which is due to the concentration of speculative financial capital. In this sense it advocates for tax reforms that give incentives to the progressive distribution of wealth and new cooperative models of self-management and co-management that give coherence to the relationship between capital and labor, increasing productivity and avoiding the diversion of resources to speculation. Likewise, it advocates the creation of an interest-free public bank which will help to acquire these objectives by avoiding the illegitimate concentration of resources and power currently in the hands of present day banks.

Different forms of discrimination are intertwined with economic exploitation and acquire a violent character. The Party highlights the violence that is specifically exercised against women and young people; who have historically been discriminated against, together with the discrimination exercised against other human groups which are excluded for economic, racial, cultural or religious reasons.

The Party advocates the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

The Party upholds the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

• Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

• Transparency in the political procedures employed.

=Reference materials=

Official materials

• Declaration of Principles , approved in the First Congress of the Humanist International (HI) ( Florence , 1989)

• Thesis (amplification of the Principles), approved by the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Basis for Political Action , approved by the First Congress of the HI and updated with the proposals for political action in this document.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights , approved in 1948 by the United Nations, and adopted by the Humanist Party in the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• The Humanist Document , adopted by the Humanist Party in the Second congress of the HI ( Moscow , 1993)

• Recommendations by the coordination table of the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009. Available from www.silo.net

Recommended materials:

• The Book of the Humanist International (Compilation of documents, 2000).

• Letters to my friends, Silo, Collected Works, Vol. I .

• Orange Books (analysis and proposals for action by national parties).

• "Beyond Capitalism, Mixed Economics", Guillermo Sullings, 2000 .

• The End of Prehistory , Tomas Hirsch.

=Organizational guidelines=

1. General ideas

Our party is defined as the Humanist Party International , because the process goes fundamentally towards planetarization, beyond the intermediate stage of regionalization. This international party must have a worldwide strategy, shaped in objectives, plans, campaigns and positions of international scale. In this sense the national parties, within the broad degree of autonomy to develop in each country, will be part of an International Federation of Humanist Parties, participating in joint planning and actions.

The participation of all members of the party in decision-making will be assured through the practice of direct democracy at all levels.

The action fronts, orientated towards social conflicts that work within the organizational structure of the party, will contribute to its growth. In this sense, it will be fundamental to count on a dynamic, open, participative and motivating organization that facilitates the inclusion of many people, above all young people, women, technical experts and social leaders, in the framework of a high-level political project.

Joint activities must be economically sustained by the contribution of party members.

The basic organizational nucleus of the organism will be Base Teams that operate in a specific neighborhood, district, educational center or workplace. It is from this base that the party must be organized and developed.

The Humanist Party will be organized at all levels in accordance with this criteria, with their corresponding adaptation to the legalities of each country.

2. Participation: Full members and supporters

A full member is someone who is genuinely interested to work in the party, someone who knows about and is in agreement with the thesis and basis for political action, someone who participates in an activity or function, and who disseminates the proposals and ideas of the party. A full member is someone who is concerned with the development of the party and contributes to its financing by paying the annual membership fee which is established in each country.

A supporter makes no commitment; they participate occasionally and receive information.

Only full members have the right to participate in internal elections, to vote and to be elected, and to participate in the consultations that the Party may carry out in order to take relevant decisions.

3. Base teams

These form the basic structure of the party. Their members apply themselves to an action front, operating on a particular conflict at a local or city level, in universities, workplaces, etc., and through this work they are in contact with people, gathering supporters, mobilizing, clarifying, debating, making demands of authorities and promoting concrete actions. They also work in functions that are necessary for the whole and are concerned with achieving and maintaining the level of supporters and members necessary to fulfill the legal requirements in the district they work in. In times of elections they prepare local proposals, present candidates and make propaganda for the party.

These teams can be formed through the initiative of one or more persons. The initial reference of a team is the person who formed it, but on achieving a certain level of development the choice of contact person between this team and other instances of the party must be subject to a vote.

If someone sets up many teams, or from an initial team new ones multiply, there could possibly exist a certain reference in the person who helped to set these new teams in motion, however no person will have an organizational relationship with more than one group.

Every team will be formed of a certain number of full members; those party members who pay their annual membership fee, and thereby have the right to choose not only the contact person for the team, but also the various functions at a national and international level through a direct vote, and to decide about relevant party issues also through a vote.

Every team could have a large number of supporters as a consequence of their permanent action in the environment, but only full members will be able to participate in the decisions of the party and in the functions that are deemed to be necessary.

4. National coordination team

Its responsibility will be the planning and promotion of national policy strategies, as well as coordinating the implementation of international activities in each country. It will be responsible for giving a common strategic framework for all the party´s action fronts, generating spaces for interchange and coordination in order to strengthen their growth and multiplication.

It will cover all the functions of national scope (General Secretary, Organization, Relations, Press, Capacity Building , Dissemination, Legal, etc), with people who have been elected in a direct vote by full members. In order to have a more dynamic functioning it is recommended that among all the functions there is a triad of coordination that will be able to resolve certain issues, without bureaucratic deliberations. It will prepare the analysis of the national situation and prepare positions at this level.

It will administer the funds that correspond to the national level, in accordance with the agreed priorities and criteria within the framework of a general plan for a two-year term of office. It will inform people widely about the destination of these funds.

It will make relationships with other parties at a national level, and possible relationships with government or other organizations. It will be in permanent contact with the organization of the International Party, in order to implement worldwide strategies.

5. Intermediary instances within a country

In principle other organizational instances will not be created, as everything will be planned and implemented though the base teams, in coordination with the planning of the national team.

If due to legal requirements and administrative divisions within a country it is necessary to have intermediary organizational levels (city levels, county, provinces, regions, State, etc.) these intermediary levels will be, from the internal point of view, ad-hoc functions which respond to certain circumstances, but they will not be de-facto decision-making levels.

In each country they will evaluate if, due to a great quantitative and geographical growth of the party, intermediate decision-making levels become necessary.

6. International organization

The Humanist Party International will be constituted as a Federation of Humanist Parties. It will be coordinated by an International Coordination Team, elected through a direct vote by the full members of all member countries, assuring the participation of minorities.

From this international organization, information at a worldwide level will circulate, campaigns about worldwide themes will be promoted, the development of the party in regions or countries where it does not exist will be planned, and the support given to a particular country under specific circumstances will be defined. It will also make an analysis of the worldwide situation and will prepare positions at an international level that in many cases will also be useful at national level.

Independently of the requirements in each country for legalization, national parties can be included when they count on certain minimal conditions of organization, to be established by the Promotion Committee.

Besides the national humanist parties that make up the membership of the federation, special importance will be given to the ambit of the Humanist International as a non-organizational space of convergence with other parties, organizations and individuals who adhere to humanist proposals. This space of convergence, promoted by the Humanist Party International but open to wide participation, will be able to organize international forums, gatherings and all types of interchanges.

7. Link between the three levels

In the international scheme of a Federation of Humanist Parties, every national party will be autonomous in their national planning, but coinciding within a worldwide strategy. And in turn the national scheme will be composed of base teams with autonomy to implement their activities, but coordinated within a national ambit and plan.

The direct election by the full members of functions in the three levels will ensure that the general direction will be that which the majority of members support.

Each national party will coordinate with the international organization through their contact in the International Coordination Team. The base teams will coordinate with the National Team through their contact in each Base Team.

8. Finances

The sustaining of party activities at all its levels must be through the contributions of all the full members. Therefore annual membership fees will be collected in which every member will have to contribute an amount relative to the average salary in the country in which they live, leaving the National Promotion Team of each country to determine this amount. The funds gathered will be distributed among the base, national and international levels, in a proportion to be established by the International Coordination Team.

In order to raise funds for other eventualities, informal campaigns may be carried out in which supporters may also participate. In these cases and in those places the amount of the campaign will be established (never surpassing the amount of the annual membership fee) and the funds will be applied locally.

The payment of the annual membership fee will be the requirement for the member to have the right to vote and participate in the party´s decisions.

In those countries in which the party receives State funding, those funds will not be destined to the internal functioning of the party in order to avoid dependence on the State. In every country they may evaluate, in accordance with the legislation to which they are subject, if such external resources can be targeted to dissemination of electoral campaigns.

The Promotion Teams will elaborate the appropriate procedures to ensure the correct use of funds based on prior budgeting and the circulation of information about what the funds were used for, and the submitting of annual accounts.

9. Electoral fronts and alliances

It will be important for the development and positioning of the Humanist Parties that they strengthen their identity. Nevertheless, if in some cases the possibility to make an electoral alliance is considered, the decision must be subject to the support of the majority of full members, in other words it must be the subject of a referendum in a direct vote.

In any case, any electoral alliance must always be framed within certain ideological parameters and principles in affinity with Universalist Humanism. Any exception to this which could affect the whole may be challenged by a higher level. For example, a city, provincial or county alliance with an entity that is opposed to our principles may be revised and challenged by the National Team. And the same could occur with an alliance at a national level that may be evaluated and challenged by the International Team.

10. Election candidates

With the party´s planning, electoral campaigns take on vital importance as it is through them that greater positioning can be gained.

Prior to humanist candidates being elected, there should be an agreed plan about how to work together regarding the steps that these elected candidates will take. And the activity of elected candidates, as much as the activity of the teams that work with them, should be carried out in accordance with this plan, with the necessary operational autonomy that is required in daily activity.

The Promotion Teams can evaluate if any requirement in terms of length of party membership be included in order to present oneself as a candidate at particular levels.

The prime interest of these elected candidates must be to produce demonstration effects and show exemplary behavior, as opposed to the mediocrity and opportunism that reign in traditional politics.

11. (This paragraph is no longer valid)

12. Procedures

Mechanisms of direct democracy will be used in the cases of electing different functions in the party, as well as for taking relevant decisions that affect the whole. These mechanisms may also employ information technology in the cases where the viability of the participation of all the members can be assured.

All posts will be elected and renewable. The Promotion Teams can evaluate possible limitations to the re-election of posts. In the International and National levels, posts will be renewed every two years, and in the Base Teams, every year.

All posts will be elected through direct vote by the full members. A contact person of the Base Team will be elected by the full members of this team. The posts on the National Team will be elected by all the full members in that country. The ad-hoc functions, necessary to fulfill legal or electoral requirements in geographic divisions within a country, will be elected by the full members in the corresponding division. Posts on the International Team will be elected by the full members of all countries. And all spokespersons and candidates for elections must be similarly chosen.

The Promotion Team will prepare the details of the election procedures to ensure their transparency, effective participation of the full members and the inclusion of minorities in the distribution of posts.

The building of the comprehensive party structure will be from the base to the top and not the inverse. First base promotion teams will be formed and then the national promotion teams. Once this is done, internal elections will be held in which all posts in all levels will be elected.
(1) Extracts of the Thesis (broadening of the Principles), approved by the 1 st Congress ( Florence , 1989)
(2) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.

=Links=

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

Humanist Party

2016-12-22T18:33:07Z

OlivierTurquet:

The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the [[Humanist Movement]].

The Humanist Party was created in mid 1984 by the Secretariat of Social Affairs of the Community for Human Development and its first International Congress was held in Florence in 1989.

=Basic ideas=

The proposals of the Humanist Party (1) start from the need for liberty that we experience as human beings and aim towards social transformation and overcoming of violence that, in its different forms, generates suffering and contradiction in individuals and peoples.

Human beings have the capacity to transform the world and themselves, thanks to the intentionality of their consciousness, advancing and accumulating historical achievements.

We are born into a social and historical environment that imposes conditions within which we develop our existence and among which, we must, necessarily choose. In turn, this generates new conditions that are experienced with coherence or contradiction.

Contradiction has its personal correlate in the register of suffering.

Social contradiction is the product of violence. This violence manifests itself in the action of divesting a human being or human groups of their intention (and certainly of their liberty). The appropriation of the social whole by one part is violence.

Personal and social suffering must be overcome by modifying the situations of illegitimate and violent appropriation that have produced contradiction in the world.

In the process of growing humanization, human beings direct their intentionality towards nature and society in order to transform the conditions that bring pain and suffering to themselves and others with whom they can identify. This struggle gives continuity to the historical process and meaning to life, as they affirm their intentionality in front of non-meaning and oppression.

This intention, which rebels against sickness, inequality and injustice, considers rebellion against death as the height of disobedience before an apparently natural destiny, giving coherence to human life and allowing the projection of its own liberty beyond all limits.

Proposals for political action

The Humanist Party advocates the upholding (or the achievement, where necessary) of a democratic regime as a means of transition from formal democracy to real democracy, in which a real separation of powers, respect for minorities and direct democracy can be guaranteed.

It rejects the violation of human rights, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts and the concentration of power.

Regarding its methodology of action, Humanism is governed by nonviolent action.

At the same time, it denounces all forms of violence: physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological and moral.

We aspire to a Universal Human Nation, in which the enormous human diversity of; ethnicities, languages and customs, localities, regions and autonomous territories, ideas and aspirations, beliefs, atheism and religiosity, will all converge.

In coherence with this aspiration, the Party can count on a worldwide federation which allows it to articulate positions and campaigns of international scope, maintaining autonomy and creativity in different levels of action down to the social base where it has its roots.

Within our proposals at a worldwide level we highlight, due to the urgency: the task of nuclear disarmament, by alerting the whole of humanity of the need for it and by generating a consciousness that demands it; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; and the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts.

The Humanist Party denounces the ecological catastrophe and its promoters, namely big capital and the chain of destructive industries and businesses which are the offspring of the military-industrial complex.

It highlights economic violence as the cause of suffering in people, especially that which is due to the concentration of speculative financial capital. In this sense it advocates for tax reforms that give incentives to the progressive distribution of wealth and new cooperative models of self-management and co-management that give coherence to the relationship between capital and labor, increasing productivity and avoiding the diversion of resources to speculation. Likewise, it advocates the creation of an interest-free public bank which will help to acquire these objectives by avoiding the illegitimate concentration of resources and power currently in the hands of present day banks.

Different forms of discrimination are intertwined with economic exploitation and acquire a violent character. The Party highlights the violence that is specifically exercised against women and young people; who have historically been discriminated against, together with the discrimination exercised against other human groups which are excluded for economic, racial, cultural or religious reasons.

The Party advocates the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

The Party upholds the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

• Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

• Transparency in the political procedures employed.

Reference materials

Official materials

• Declaration of Principles , approved in the First Congress of the Humanist International (HI) ( Florence , 1989)

• Thesis (amplification of the Principles), approved by the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Basis for Political Action , approved by the First Congress of the HI and updated with the proposals for political action in this document.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights , approved in 1948 by the United Nations, and adopted by the Humanist Party in the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• The Humanist Document , adopted by the Humanist Party in the Second congress of the HI ( Moscow , 1993)

• Recommendations by the coordination table of the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009. Available from www.silo.net

Recommended materials:

• The Book of the Humanist International (Compilation of documents, 2000).

• Letters to my friends, Silo, Collected Works, Vol. I .

• Orange Books (analysis and proposals for action by national parties).

• "Beyond Capitalism, Mixed Economics", Guillermo Sullings, 2000 .

• The End of Prehistory , Tomas Hirsch.

Organizational guidelines

1. General ideas

Our party is defined as the Humanist Party International , because the process goes fundamentally towards planetarization, beyond the intermediate stage of regionalization. This international party must have a worldwide strategy, shaped in objectives, plans, campaigns and positions of international scale. In this sense the national parties, within the broad degree of autonomy to develop in each country, will be part of an International Federation of Humanist Parties, participating in joint planning and actions.

The participation of all members of the party in decision-making will be assured through the practice of direct democracy at all levels.

The action fronts, orientated towards social conflicts that work within the organizational structure of the party, will contribute to its growth. In this sense, it will be fundamental to count on a dynamic, open, participative and motivating organization that facilitates the inclusion of many people, above all young people, women, technical experts and social leaders, in the framework of a high-level political project.

Joint activities must be economically sustained by the contribution of party members.

The basic organizational nucleus of the organism will be Base Teams that operate in a specific neighborhood, district, educational center or workplace. It is from this base that the party must be organized and developed.

The Humanist Party will be organized at all levels in accordance with this criteria, with their corresponding adaptation to the legalities of each country.

2. Participation: Full members and supporters

A full member is someone who is genuinely interested to work in the party, someone who knows about and is in agreement with the thesis and basis for political action, someone who participates in an activity or function, and who disseminates the proposals and ideas of the party. A full member is someone who is concerned with the development of the party and contributes to its financing by paying the annual membership fee which is established in each country.

A supporter makes no commitment; they participate occasionally and receive information.

Only full members have the right to participate in internal elections, to vote and to be elected, and to participate in the consultations that the Party may carry out in order to take relevant decisions.

3. Base teams

These form the basic structure of the party. Their members apply themselves to an action front, operating on a particular conflict at a local or city level, in universities, workplaces, etc., and through this work they are in contact with people, gathering supporters, mobilizing, clarifying, debating, making demands of authorities and promoting concrete actions. They also work in functions that are necessary for the whole and are concerned with achieving and maintaining the level of supporters and members necessary to fulfill the legal requirements in the district they work in. In times of elections they prepare local proposals, present candidates and make propaganda for the party.

These teams can be formed through the initiative of one or more persons. The initial reference of a team is the person who formed it, but on achieving a certain level of development the choice of contact person between this team and other instances of the party must be subject to a vote.

If someone sets up many teams, or from an initial team new ones multiply, there could possibly exist a certain reference in the person who helped to set these new teams in motion, however no person will have an organizational relationship with more than one group.

Every team will be formed of a certain number of full members; those party members who pay their annual membership fee, and thereby have the right to choose not only the contact person for the team, but also the various functions at a national and international level through a direct vote, and to decide about relevant party issues also through a vote.

Every team could have a large number of supporters as a consequence of their permanent action in the environment, but only full members will be able to participate in the decisions of the party and in the functions that are deemed to be necessary.

4. National coordination team

Its responsibility will be the planning and promotion of national policy strategies, as well as coordinating the implementation of international activities in each country. It will be responsible for giving a common strategic framework for all the party´s action fronts, generating spaces for interchange and coordination in order to strengthen their growth and multiplication.

It will cover all the functions of national scope (General Secretary, Organization, Relations, Press, Capacity Building , Dissemination, Legal, etc), with people who have been elected in a direct vote by full members. In order to have a more dynamic functioning it is recommended that among all the functions there is a triad of coordination that will be able to resolve certain issues, without bureaucratic deliberations. It will prepare the analysis of the national situation and prepare positions at this level.

It will administer the funds that correspond to the national level, in accordance with the agreed priorities and criteria within the framework of a general plan for a two-year term of office. It will inform people widely about the destination of these funds.

It will make relationships with other parties at a national level, and possible relationships with government or other organizations. It will be in permanent contact with the organization of the International Party, in order to implement worldwide strategies.

5. Intermediary instances within a country

In principle other organizational instances will not be created, as everything will be planned and implemented though the base teams, in coordination with the planning of the national team.

If due to legal requirements and administrative divisions within a country it is necessary to have intermediary organizational levels (city levels, county, provinces, regions, State, etc.) these intermediary levels will be, from the internal point of view, ad-hoc functions which respond to certain circumstances, but they will not be de-facto decision-making levels.

In each country they will evaluate if, due to a great quantitative and geographical growth of the party, intermediate decision-making levels become necessary.

6. International organization

The Humanist Party International will be constituted as a Federation of Humanist Parties. It will be coordinated by an International Coordination Team, elected through a direct vote by the full members of all member countries, assuring the participation of minorities.

From this international organization, information at a worldwide level will circulate, campaigns about worldwide themes will be promoted, the development of the party in regions or countries where it does not exist will be planned, and the support given to a particular country under specific circumstances will be defined. It will also make an analysis of the worldwide situation and will prepare positions at an international level that in many cases will also be useful at national level.

Independently of the requirements in each country for legalization, national parties can be included when they count on certain minimal conditions of organization, to be established by the Promotion Committee.

Besides the national humanist parties that make up the membership of the federation, special importance will be given to the ambit of the Humanist International as a non-organizational space of convergence with other parties, organizations and individuals who adhere to humanist proposals. This space of convergence, promoted by the Humanist Party International but open to wide participation, will be able to organize international forums, gatherings and all types of interchanges.

7. Link between the three levels

In the international scheme of a Federation of Humanist Parties, every national party will be autonomous in their national planning, but coinciding within a worldwide strategy. And in turn the national scheme will be composed of base teams with autonomy to implement their activities, but coordinated within a national ambit and plan.

The direct election by the full members of functions in the three levels will ensure that the general direction will be that which the majority of members support.

Each national party will coordinate with the international organization through their contact in the International Coordination Team. The base teams will coordinate with the National Team through their contact in each Base Team.

8. Finances

The sustaining of party activities at all its levels must be through the contributions of all the full members. Therefore annual membership fees will be collected in which every member will have to contribute an amount relative to the average salary in the country in which they live, leaving the National Promotion Team of each country to determine this amount. The funds gathered will be distributed among the base, national and international levels, in a proportion to be established by the International Coordination Team.

In order to raise funds for other eventualities, informal campaigns may be carried out in which supporters may also participate. In these cases and in those places the amount of the campaign will be established (never surpassing the amount of the annual membership fee) and the funds will be applied locally.

The payment of the annual membership fee will be the requirement for the member to have the right to vote and participate in the party´s decisions.

In those countries in which the party receives State funding, those funds will not be destined to the internal functioning of the party in order to avoid dependence on the State. In every country they may evaluate, in accordance with the legislation to which they are subject, if such external resources can be targeted to dissemination of electoral campaigns.

The Promotion Teams will elaborate the appropriate procedures to ensure the correct use of funds based on prior budgeting and the circulation of information about what the funds were used for, and the submitting of annual accounts.

9. Electoral fronts and alliances

It will be important for the development and positioning of the Humanist Parties that they strengthen their identity. Nevertheless, if in some cases the possibility to make an electoral alliance is considered, the decision must be subject to the support of the majority of full members, in other words it must be the subject of a referendum in a direct vote.

In any case, any electoral alliance must always be framed within certain ideological parameters and principles in affinity with Universalist Humanism. Any exception to this which could affect the whole may be challenged by a higher level. For example, a city, provincial or county alliance with an entity that is opposed to our principles may be revised and challenged by the National Team. And the same could occur with an alliance at a national level that may be evaluated and challenged by the International Team.

10. Election candidates

With the party´s planning, electoral campaigns take on vital importance as it is through them that greater positioning can be gained.

Prior to humanist candidates being elected, there should be an agreed plan about how to work together regarding the steps that these elected candidates will take. And the activity of elected candidates, as much as the activity of the teams that work with them, should be carried out in accordance with this plan, with the necessary operational autonomy that is required in daily activity.

The Promotion Teams can evaluate if any requirement in terms of length of party membership be included in order to present oneself as a candidate at particular levels.

The prime interest of these elected candidates must be to produce demonstration effects and show exemplary behavior, as opposed to the mediocrity and opportunism that reign in traditional politics.

11. (This paragraph is no longer valid)

12. Procedures

Mechanisms of direct democracy will be used in the cases of electing different functions in the party, as well as for taking relevant decisions that affect the whole. These mechanisms may also employ information technology in the cases where the viability of the participation of all the members can be assured.

All posts will be elected and renewable. The Promotion Teams can evaluate possible limitations to the re-election of posts. In the International and National levels, posts will be renewed every two years, and in the Base Teams, every year.

All posts will be elected through direct vote by the full members. A contact person of the Base Team will be elected by the full members of this team. The posts on the National Team will be elected by all the full members in that country. The ad-hoc functions, necessary to fulfill legal or electoral requirements in geographic divisions within a country, will be elected by the full members in the corresponding division. Posts on the International Team will be elected by the full members of all countries. And all spokespersons and candidates for elections must be similarly chosen.

The Promotion Team will prepare the details of the election procedures to ensure their transparency, effective participation of the full members and the inclusion of minorities in the distribution of posts.

The building of the comprehensive party structure will be from the base to the top and not the inverse. First base promotion teams will be formed and then the national promotion teams. Once this is done, internal elections will be held in which all posts in all levels will be elected.
(1) Extracts of the Thesis (broadening of the Principles), approved by the 1 st Congress ( Florence , 1989)
(2) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

Humanist Party

2016-12-22T18:31:58Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the Humanist Movement. The Movement first appeared on the 4th of May 1969, with a public presentation by its founder, Silo, k..."

The Humanist Party is an organism that is part of the Humanist Movement. The Movement first appeared on the 4th of May 1969, with a public presentation by its founder, Silo, known as "the Harangue of the Healing of Suffering", given in an outpost in the Andes called Punta de Vacas, close to the border between Argentina and Chile.

The Humanist Movement is based on the current of thought known as New Humanism, or Universalist Humanism. This current can be found expressed in Silo´s works and in those of the diverse authors who are inspired by it.

This current of thought, which also implies a sentiment and a way of life, takes shape in multiple fields of human endeavor, giving rise to diverse organisms and action fronts. All of them are applied to their specific fields of activity with a common aim: to Humanize the Earth, thereby contributing to increased liberty and happiness in human beings. In themselves they have in common the methodology of Active Nonviolence and the proposal for personal change as a function of social transformation.

Other organisms to emerge from the Humanist Movement are the Community for Human Development, the Convergence of Cultures, World without Wars and without Violence, and the World Center of Humanist Studies.

The Humanist Party was created in mid 1984 by the Secretariat of Social Affairs of the Community for Human Development and its first International Congress was held in Florence in 1989.

Basic ideas

The proposals of the Humanist Party (1) start from the need for liberty that we experience as human beings and aim towards social transformation and overcoming of violence that, in its different forms, generates suffering and contradiction in individuals and peoples.

Human beings have the capacity to transform the world and themselves, thanks to the intentionality of their consciousness, advancing and accumulating historical achievements.

We are born into a social and historical environment that imposes conditions within which we develop our existence and among which, we must, necessarily choose. In turn, this generates new conditions that are experienced with coherence or contradiction.

Contradiction has its personal correlate in the register of suffering.

Social contradiction is the product of violence. This violence manifests itself in the action of divesting a human being or human groups of their intention (and certainly of their liberty). The appropriation of the social whole by one part is violence.

Personal and social suffering must be overcome by modifying the situations of illegitimate and violent appropriation that have produced contradiction in the world.

In the process of growing humanization, human beings direct their intentionality towards nature and society in order to transform the conditions that bring pain and suffering to themselves and others with whom they can identify. This struggle gives continuity to the historical process and meaning to life, as they affirm their intentionality in front of non-meaning and oppression.

This intention, which rebels against sickness, inequality and injustice, considers rebellion against death as the height of disobedience before an apparently natural destiny, giving coherence to human life and allowing the projection of its own liberty beyond all limits.

Proposals for political action

The Humanist Party advocates the upholding (or the achievement, where necessary) of a democratic regime as a means of transition from formal democracy to real democracy, in which a real separation of powers, respect for minorities and direct democracy can be guaranteed.

It rejects the violation of human rights, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts and the concentration of power.

Regarding its methodology of action, Humanism is governed by nonviolent action.

At the same time, it denounces all forms of violence: physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological and moral.

We aspire to a Universal Human Nation, in which the enormous human diversity of; ethnicities, languages and customs, localities, regions and autonomous territories, ideas and aspirations, beliefs, atheism and religiosity, will all converge.

In coherence with this aspiration, the Party can count on a worldwide federation which allows it to articulate positions and campaigns of international scope, maintaining autonomy and creativity in different levels of action down to the social base where it has its roots.

Within our proposals at a worldwide level we highlight, due to the urgency: the task of nuclear disarmament, by alerting the whole of humanity of the need for it and by generating a consciousness that demands it; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; and the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts.

The Humanist Party denounces the ecological catastrophe and its promoters, namely big capital and the chain of destructive industries and businesses which are the offspring of the military-industrial complex.

It highlights economic violence as the cause of suffering in people, especially that which is due to the concentration of speculative financial capital. In this sense it advocates for tax reforms that give incentives to the progressive distribution of wealth and new cooperative models of self-management and co-management that give coherence to the relationship between capital and labor, increasing productivity and avoiding the diversion of resources to speculation. Likewise, it advocates the creation of an interest-free public bank which will help to acquire these objectives by avoiding the illegitimate concentration of resources and power currently in the hands of present day banks.

Different forms of discrimination are intertwined with economic exploitation and acquire a violent character. The Party highlights the violence that is specifically exercised against women and young people; who have historically been discriminated against, together with the discrimination exercised against other human groups which are excluded for economic, racial, cultural or religious reasons.

The Party advocates the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

The Party upholds the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

• Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

• Transparency in the political procedures employed.

Reference materials

Official materials

• Declaration of Principles , approved in the First Congress of the Humanist International (HI) ( Florence , 1989)

• Thesis (amplification of the Principles), approved by the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Basis for Political Action , approved by the First Congress of the HI and updated with the proposals for political action in this document.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights , approved in 1948 by the United Nations, and adopted by the Humanist Party in the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• The Humanist Document , adopted by the Humanist Party in the Second congress of the HI ( Moscow , 1993)

• Recommendations by the coordination table of the First Congress of the HI ( Florence , 1989).

• Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement. Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009. Available from www.silo.net

Recommended materials:

• The Book of the Humanist International (Compilation of documents, 2000).

• Letters to my friends, Silo, Collected Works, Vol. I .

• Orange Books (analysis and proposals for action by national parties).

• "Beyond Capitalism, Mixed Economics", Guillermo Sullings, 2000 .

• The End of Prehistory , Tomas Hirsch.

Organizational guidelines

1. General ideas

Our party is defined as the Humanist Party International , because the process goes fundamentally towards planetarization, beyond the intermediate stage of regionalization. This international party must have a worldwide strategy, shaped in objectives, plans, campaigns and positions of international scale. In this sense the national parties, within the broad degree of autonomy to develop in each country, will be part of an International Federation of Humanist Parties, participating in joint planning and actions.

The participation of all members of the party in decision-making will be assured through the practice of direct democracy at all levels.

The action fronts, orientated towards social conflicts that work within the organizational structure of the party, will contribute to its growth. In this sense, it will be fundamental to count on a dynamic, open, participative and motivating organization that facilitates the inclusion of many people, above all young people, women, technical experts and social leaders, in the framework of a high-level political project.

Joint activities must be economically sustained by the contribution of party members.

The basic organizational nucleus of the organism will be Base Teams that operate in a specific neighborhood, district, educational center or workplace. It is from this base that the party must be organized and developed.

The Humanist Party will be organized at all levels in accordance with this criteria, with their corresponding adaptation to the legalities of each country.

2. Participation: Full members and supporters

A full member is someone who is genuinely interested to work in the party, someone who knows about and is in agreement with the thesis and basis for political action, someone who participates in an activity or function, and who disseminates the proposals and ideas of the party. A full member is someone who is concerned with the development of the party and contributes to its financing by paying the annual membership fee which is established in each country.

A supporter makes no commitment; they participate occasionally and receive information.

Only full members have the right to participate in internal elections, to vote and to be elected, and to participate in the consultations that the Party may carry out in order to take relevant decisions.

3. Base teams

These form the basic structure of the party. Their members apply themselves to an action front, operating on a particular conflict at a local or city level, in universities, workplaces, etc., and through this work they are in contact with people, gathering supporters, mobilizing, clarifying, debating, making demands of authorities and promoting concrete actions. They also work in functions that are necessary for the whole and are concerned with achieving and maintaining the level of supporters and members necessary to fulfill the legal requirements in the district they work in. In times of elections they prepare local proposals, present candidates and make propaganda for the party.

These teams can be formed through the initiative of one or more persons. The initial reference of a team is the person who formed it, but on achieving a certain level of development the choice of contact person between this team and other instances of the party must be subject to a vote.

If someone sets up many teams, or from an initial team new ones multiply, there could possibly exist a certain reference in the person who helped to set these new teams in motion, however no person will have an organizational relationship with more than one group.

Every team will be formed of a certain number of full members; those party members who pay their annual membership fee, and thereby have the right to choose not only the contact person for the team, but also the various functions at a national and international level through a direct vote, and to decide about relevant party issues also through a vote.

Every team could have a large number of supporters as a consequence of their permanent action in the environment, but only full members will be able to participate in the decisions of the party and in the functions that are deemed to be necessary.

4. National coordination team

Its responsibility will be the planning and promotion of national policy strategies, as well as coordinating the implementation of international activities in each country. It will be responsible for giving a common strategic framework for all the party´s action fronts, generating spaces for interchange and coordination in order to strengthen their growth and multiplication.

It will cover all the functions of national scope (General Secretary, Organization, Relations, Press, Capacity Building , Dissemination, Legal, etc), with people who have been elected in a direct vote by full members. In order to have a more dynamic functioning it is recommended that among all the functions there is a triad of coordination that will be able to resolve certain issues, without bureaucratic deliberations. It will prepare the analysis of the national situation and prepare positions at this level.

It will administer the funds that correspond to the national level, in accordance with the agreed priorities and criteria within the framework of a general plan for a two-year term of office. It will inform people widely about the destination of these funds.

It will make relationships with other parties at a national level, and possible relationships with government or other organizations. It will be in permanent contact with the organization of the International Party, in order to implement worldwide strategies.

5. Intermediary instances within a country

In principle other organizational instances will not be created, as everything will be planned and implemented though the base teams, in coordination with the planning of the national team.

If due to legal requirements and administrative divisions within a country it is necessary to have intermediary organizational levels (city levels, county, provinces, regions, State, etc.) these intermediary levels will be, from the internal point of view, ad-hoc functions which respond to certain circumstances, but they will not be de-facto decision-making levels.

In each country they will evaluate if, due to a great quantitative and geographical growth of the party, intermediate decision-making levels become necessary.

6. International organization

The Humanist Party International will be constituted as a Federation of Humanist Parties. It will be coordinated by an International Coordination Team, elected through a direct vote by the full members of all member countries, assuring the participation of minorities.

From this international organization, information at a worldwide level will circulate, campaigns about worldwide themes will be promoted, the development of the party in regions or countries where it does not exist will be planned, and the support given to a particular country under specific circumstances will be defined. It will also make an analysis of the worldwide situation and will prepare positions at an international level that in many cases will also be useful at national level.

Independently of the requirements in each country for legalization, national parties can be included when they count on certain minimal conditions of organization, to be established by the Promotion Committee.

Besides the national humanist parties that make up the membership of the federation, special importance will be given to the ambit of the Humanist International as a non-organizational space of convergence with other parties, organizations and individuals who adhere to humanist proposals. This space of convergence, promoted by the Humanist Party International but open to wide participation, will be able to organize international forums, gatherings and all types of interchanges.

7. Link between the three levels

In the international scheme of a Federation of Humanist Parties, every national party will be autonomous in their national planning, but coinciding within a worldwide strategy. And in turn the national scheme will be composed of base teams with autonomy to implement their activities, but coordinated within a national ambit and plan.

The direct election by the full members of functions in the three levels will ensure that the general direction will be that which the majority of members support.

Each national party will coordinate with the international organization through their contact in the International Coordination Team. The base teams will coordinate with the National Team through their contact in each Base Team.

8. Finances

The sustaining of party activities at all its levels must be through the contributions of all the full members. Therefore annual membership fees will be collected in which every member will have to contribute an amount relative to the average salary in the country in which they live, leaving the National Promotion Team of each country to determine this amount. The funds gathered will be distributed among the base, national and international levels, in a proportion to be established by the International Coordination Team.

In order to raise funds for other eventualities, informal campaigns may be carried out in which supporters may also participate. In these cases and in those places the amount of the campaign will be established (never surpassing the amount of the annual membership fee) and the funds will be applied locally.

The payment of the annual membership fee will be the requirement for the member to have the right to vote and participate in the party´s decisions.

In those countries in which the party receives State funding, those funds will not be destined to the internal functioning of the party in order to avoid dependence on the State. In every country they may evaluate, in accordance with the legislation to which they are subject, if such external resources can be targeted to dissemination of electoral campaigns.

The Promotion Teams will elaborate the appropriate procedures to ensure the correct use of funds based on prior budgeting and the circulation of information about what the funds were used for, and the submitting of annual accounts.

9. Electoral fronts and alliances

It will be important for the development and positioning of the Humanist Parties that they strengthen their identity. Nevertheless, if in some cases the possibility to make an electoral alliance is considered, the decision must be subject to the support of the majority of full members, in other words it must be the subject of a referendum in a direct vote.

In any case, any electoral alliance must always be framed within certain ideological parameters and principles in affinity with Universalist Humanism. Any exception to this which could affect the whole may be challenged by a higher level. For example, a city, provincial or county alliance with an entity that is opposed to our principles may be revised and challenged by the National Team. And the same could occur with an alliance at a national level that may be evaluated and challenged by the International Team.

10. Election candidates

With the party´s planning, electoral campaigns take on vital importance as it is through them that greater positioning can be gained.

Prior to humanist candidates being elected, there should be an agreed plan about how to work together regarding the steps that these elected candidates will take. And the activity of elected candidates, as much as the activity of the teams that work with them, should be carried out in accordance with this plan, with the necessary operational autonomy that is required in daily activity.

The Promotion Teams can evaluate if any requirement in terms of length of party membership be included in order to present oneself as a candidate at particular levels.

The prime interest of these elected candidates must be to produce demonstration effects and show exemplary behavior, as opposed to the mediocrity and opportunism that reign in traditional politics.

11. (This paragraph is no longer valid)

12. Procedures

Mechanisms of direct democracy will be used in the cases of electing different functions in the party, as well as for taking relevant decisions that affect the whole. These mechanisms may also employ information technology in the cases where the viability of the participation of all the members can be assured.

All posts will be elected and renewable. The Promotion Teams can evaluate possible limitations to the re-election of posts. In the International and National levels, posts will be renewed every two years, and in the Base Teams, every year.

All posts will be elected through direct vote by the full members. A contact person of the Base Team will be elected by the full members of this team. The posts on the National Team will be elected by all the full members in that country. The ad-hoc functions, necessary to fulfill legal or electoral requirements in geographic divisions within a country, will be elected by the full members in the corresponding division. Posts on the International Team will be elected by the full members of all countries. And all spokespersons and candidates for elections must be similarly chosen.

The Promotion Team will prepare the details of the election procedures to ensure their transparency, effective participation of the full members and the inclusion of minorities in the distribution of posts.

The building of the comprehensive party structure will be from the base to the top and not the inverse. First base promotion teams will be formed and then the national promotion teams. Once this is done, internal elections will be held in which all posts in all levels will be elected.
(1) Extracts of the Thesis (broadening of the Principles), approved by the 1 st Congress ( Florence , 1989)
(2) The definition of the implementation details remains the responsibility of this team, such as calendars with dates for economic campaigns and elections, parameters to define the amount of the annual membership fee, distribution by coordination level of these funds, specific functions of the Worldwide Coordination Team, definition of the official logo, etc.

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Humanist work in progress]]

Latitude Press

2016-08-06T21:36:04Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Humanist publisher in english. Books for a Human World. Today the task of building a human and nonviolent world that corresponds to the aspirations of people becomes more urg..."

Humanist publisher in english. Books for a Human World.

Today the task of building a human and nonviolent world that corresponds to the aspirations of people becomes more urgent each day. With every area of existence in turmoil, no single genre encompasses the needed breadth. The books in this catalog include both fiction and nonfiction with the unifying thread that each title addresses some facet of the need to connect with our deepest aspirations and express the best within us in both individual and social life toward a “universal human nation.”
With titles from [[Silo]] (1938-2010), known as “the Sage of the Andes,” and other authors from around the world, these books bring international perspectives that are demonstrating a wide appeal to growing numbers of readers across our increasingly connected planet.

web site: http://www.latitudepress.com/

[[Category: bibliography]]
[[Category: publishers]]

Consciousness

2016-08-06T12:29:53Z

OlivierTurquet:

[[category: Glossary of Self Liberation]]

[[it: coscienza]]

Consciousness

2016-08-06T12:28:44Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "category: Glossary of Self Liberation"

[[category: Glossary of Self Liberation]]

Adaptation

2016-07-03T12:41:57Z

OlivierTurquet:

[[File:adattamento.jpg|right|thumb|200px|image by Futura]]
'''Bold text'''(From adapt and from the L. ''adaptare''). A characteristic of living beings through which they are able to survive when their environment changes. Compatibility between a structure and its environment. Without entering into the debate concerning the meaning of the terms [[structure]] and [[environment]] , we note in passing that:

1) the development of a structure in interaction with its environment is termed growing a.;

2) in stable a. a structure may remain more or less invariant, but will tend to destructure ( see [[destructuring]]) as the environment changes;

3) in decreasing a., the structure tends to become isolated from its environment and, correlatively, the differentiation of its internal elements increases;

4) in cases where non-adaptation occurs, two variants can be observed: a) situations of decreasing a. either through isolation from or deterioration of the environment; and b) situations of surpassing an environment that has become insufficient for maintaining interactive relationships. Every growing a. leads to a progressive modification of both the structure and its environment and, in that sense, entails [[the new surpassing the old]]. Finally, in a closed system, the disarticulation of structure and environment is produced.
In general terms, N.H. favors personal and social conducts of growing a., while questioning conformity and non-adaptation.

[[it: adattamento]]
[[es: adaptación]]
[[pt:Adaptação]]
[[fr:Adaptation]]
[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Marxism-Leninism

2016-07-02T16:12:16Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Marxism is considered as a theory whose initial formulation is owed to Karl Marx. The majority of the exponents of this current tend to form a doctrinary body known as M-L., w..."

Marxism is considered as a theory whose initial formulation is owed to Karl Marx. The majority of the exponents of this current tend to form a doctrinary body known as M-L., which was articulated with the contributions of different authors. Thus, there would be a Marxism corresponding to the writings authored by Karl Marx, and a Marxist-Leninist or Marxist school that includes mainly the writings of the initial author, Engels, Lenin, and others. In N.H., this ideology is considered as a current, even though it may be analyzed in detail according to author or according to diverse critical positions (See [[Marxist humanism]], [[Philosophical humanism]], [[Philosophical anti-humanism]]).

Here we will review M-L. not from the point of view of N.H. but according to the point of view of its followers as it was officially presented in the USSR, including some relevant points from the article “Marxism-Leninism” in the Dictionary of Scientific Communism published in Moscow in 1985.

Marxism-Leninism [is] “a scientifically-based system of philosophical, economic and socio-political views; the doctrine of the cognition and transformation of the world, of the laws according to which society, nature and human thinking develop, of the ways of the revolutionary overthrow of the exploiting system and the building of communism; the world outlook of the working class and its vanguard, Communist and Workers’ Parties.

Marxism emerged in the 1840s. The needs of social development, which revealed the fundamental vices inherent in the capitalist system and the entire system of exploitation, the awakening of the proletariat to political struggle, the great discoveries in the natural sciences and advances in historical and social studies confronted social thought with the task of elaborating a new, genuinely scientific theory capable of responding to the pressing, cardinal questions raised by life. This historic task was fulfilled by Marx and Engels. Lenin started on his scientific and revolutionary activities at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when capitalism, which has entered its last stage, imperialism, had begun to collapse and socialist society had emerged. He defended Marxism from attacks by its enemies, analyzed the latest achievements in science from a theoretical point of view, and summed up the new experience gained in the class struggles. He enriched the theory of Marxism and raised it to a qualitatively new level.”

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Alienation

2016-07-02T16:08:14Z

OlivierTurquet:

(From alienate and from the L. ''alienare'', estrange). Distortion in the balance of the factors of individual and social activity in favor of the reification or objectifying of values, and to the detriment of other intangible psychological factors that contribute to the development of the [[human being]].

The word “alienation” as used by Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit can also be translated as dis-possession, as a moving-away-from or estrangement. A. is described by this author as embodying an “unhappy consciousness,” a “consciousness of self as divided nature.” This philosopher considers that consciousness may be experienced as separated from the reality to which it belongs, which produces a register of the consciousness feeling “torn” from itself. The popularity of this idea grew when Feurbach developed its “natural-social” aspect, influencing Marx’s interpretation of a. in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844.

With the development of the State and greater complexity in the organization of social life, individuals are more and more overwhelmed by the “socium”, especially through the sacrifice of their own freedom and interest to the authority and power of others. As civil society evolves, however, there is also an expansion of the sector made up of citizens who participate in different ways in social and state affairs, in decision-making and the management of society, until the advent of [[worker ownership]] of resources and means of production. The boundaries of democracy, initially narrow, have widened to include the majority of the adult population, even though such democracy has been, up until now, more-or-less formal in character. Finally, foreigners and stateless individuals, formerly deprived of civil rights, have acquired certain nationally- and internationally-recognized rights. On the other hand, the development of technology has increasingly subordinated human beings to machines, changing the rhythm of life and constraining many organic functions. Progress in the scientific-technical sphere assures persons of an ever-expanding dominion over the forces of nature, providing them with unprecedented mobility in space and accelerating the pace of social life, generating a greater variety of communications, enabling travel to the cosmos, allowing them to create artificial environments that correspond to their needs. However, all these achievements have generated new dangers that threaten the existence of life on Earth. The development of culture and especially the increasing flow of and control over information in general, attests to human intellectual progress, but at the same time shows an increase in subjective control over individual existence as this existence is subordinated to others’ impulses and thoughts. In the sphere of culture and art, the human being moves toward the creation of a new world with characteristics that do not exist in nature. There has been enormous growth in [[diversity]], but hand-in-hand with this broadening of human cultural boundaries, a dangerous tendency towards uniformity is revealed, which can lead to the obstructing of civilization in the form of a closed system.

The increasing division of labor, the expansion of markets and the growth of technology and communications correspond to a general destructuring of earlier institutional forms and modes of social relations, that is also shown in changes in collective and personal behavior that threaten our capacity for growing [[adaptation]] to new circumstances. The social inertia of institutions and obsolete modes of interaction are of no help in navigating the moment of change through which we are now passing; meanwhile, the demands of progress do not in themselves provide us with any clear direction for development. We experience this predicament as just one of many kinds of alienation now buffeting the gates of civilization. These disturbances find expression in growing aggressiveness, neurosis, suicide, etc. The fetishism of social and technological mechanisms occurs to the detriment not only of appropriately human interpersonal relations but of the moral and spiritual improvement of human beings as well. Power, culture, spiritual life – these are now increasingly concentrated in the hands of narrow elites, so that individuals are placed in a situation of dependence as a consequence of their separation from vital goods and values. The personality becomes an object of manipulation and exploitation, isolation and loneliness grow, and each individual feels increasingly unnecessary, abandoned, and powerless. All of this facilitates the manipulation of the consciousness and conduct of whole peoples.

N.H. sees in a. not so much an economic problem as an existential, vital, and moral problem, and consequently proposes as an objective the reduction of the level of a. as a dangerous condition that deforms the personality. The crisis of contemporary civilization is engendered in large part by the hypertrophy of alteration and [[violence]] on one hand, and the search for ways to overcome them, on the other. Humanity aspires to ensure progress in new directions, but without an increase in a. The future will not be lacking in alienating factors, but human beings are capable of acting on society and on themselves in a conscious way and in a chosen direction in order to harmonize the external and internal factors of their life. In this sense, N.H. represents an important movement against the danger posed by increasing a.

[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Alienation

2016-07-02T16:06:13Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(From alienate and from the L. ''alienare'', estrange). Distortion in the balance of the factors of individual and social activity in favor of the reification or objectifying..."

(From alienate and from the L. ''alienare'', estrange). Distortion in the balance of the factors of individual and social activity in favor of the reification or objectifying of values, and to the detriment of other intangible psychological factors that contribute to the development of the [[human being]].

The word “alienation” as used by Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit can also be translated as dis-possession, as a moving-away-from or estrangement. A. is described by this author as embodying an “unhappy consciousness,” a “consciousness of self as divided nature.” This philosopher considers that consciousness may be experienced as separated from the reality to which it belongs, which produces a register of the consciousness feeling “torn” from itself. The popularity of this idea grew when Feurbach developed its “natural-social” aspect, influencing Marx’s interpretation of a. in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844.

With the development of the State and greater complexity in the organization of social life, individuals are more and more overwhelmed by the “socium”, especially through the sacrifice of their own freedom and interest to the authority and power of others. As civil society evolves, however, there is also an expansion of the sector made up of citizens who participate in different ways in social and state affairs, in decision-making and the management of society, until the advent of worker ownership (*) of resources and means of production. The boundaries of democracy, initially narrow, have widened to include the majority of the adult population, even though such democracy has been, up until now, more-or-less formal in character. Finally, foreigners and stateless individuals, formerly deprived of civil rights, have acquired certain nationally- and internationally-recognized rights. On the other hand, the development of technology has increasingly subordinated human beings to machines, changing the rhythm of life and constraining many organic functions. Progress in the scientific-technical sphere assures persons of an ever-expanding dominion over the forces of nature, providing them with unprecedented mobility in space and accelerating the pace of social life, generating a greater variety of communications, enabling travel to the cosmos, allowing them to create artificial environments that correspond to their needs. However, all these achievements have generated new dangers that threaten the existence of life on Earth. The development of culture and especially the increasing flow of and control over information in general, attests to human intellectual progress, but at the same time shows an increase in subjective control over individual existence as this existence is subordinated to others’ impulses and thoughts. In the sphere of culture and art, the human being moves toward the creation of a new world with characteristics that do not exist in nature. There has been enormous growth in diversity, but hand-in-hand with this broadening of human cultural boundaries, a dangerous tendency towards uniformity is revealed, which can lead to the obstructing of civilization in the form of a closed system.

The increasing division of labor, the expansion of markets and the growth of technology and communications correspond to a general destructuring of earlier institutional forms and modes of social relations, that is also shown in changes in collective and personal behavior that threaten our capacity for growing [[adaptation]] to new circumstances. The social inertia of institutions and obsolete modes of interaction are of no help in navigating the moment of change through which we are now passing; meanwhile, the demands of progress do not in themselves provide us with any clear direction for development. We experience this predicament as just one of many kinds of alienation now buffeting the gates of civilization. These disturbances find expression in growing aggressiveness, neurosis, suicide, etc. The fetishism of social and technological mechanisms occurs to the detriment not only of appropriately human interpersonal relations but of the moral and spiritual improvement of human beings as well. Power, culture, spiritual life – these are now increasingly concentrated in the hands of narrow elites, so that individuals are placed in a situation of dependence as a consequence of their separation from vital goods and values. The personality becomes an object of manipulation and exploitation, isolation and loneliness grow, and each individual feels increasingly unnecessary, abandoned, and powerless. All of this facilitates the manipulation of the consciousness and conduct of whole peoples.

N.H. sees in a. not so much an economic problem as an existential, vital, and moral problem, and consequently proposes as an objective the reduction of the level of a. as a dangerous condition that deforms the personality. The crisis of contemporary civilization is engendered in large part by the hypertrophy of alteration and [[violence]] on one hand, and the search for ways to overcome them, on the other. Humanity aspires to ensure progress in new directions, but without an increase in a. The future will not be lacking in alienating factors, but human beings are capable of acting on society and on themselves in a conscious way and in a chosen direction in order to harmonize the external and internal factors of their life. In this sense, N.H. represents an important movement against the danger posed by increasing a.

[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Humanist Movement

2016-07-01T22:16:28Z

OlivierTurquet:

''... "What is the humanist movement today? Is it perhaps a refuge in the face of the general crisis of the system in which we live? Is it a sustained critique of a world that is becoming more dehumanized day by day? Is it a new language and a new paradigm, a new interpretation of the world and a new landscape? Does it represent an ideological or political current, a new aesthetic, a new scale of values? Is it a new spirituality, destined to redeem subjectivity and diversity through concrete action? Is the Movement perhaps the expression of the struggle in support of the dispossessed, the abandoned, and the persecuted? Or is it a manifestation of those who feel the monstrosity inherent in human beings not having the same rights and the same opportunities?

The Movement is all that and much more. It is the practical expression of the ideal of humanizing the Earth and the aspiration of moving towards a Universal Human Nation. It is the seed of a new culture in this civilization that is becoming planetary, and which will have to change its course, accepting and valuing diversity and giving equal rights and identical opportunities to all human beings, because of the dignity that they deserve by the simple fact of their having been born.

The Humanist Movement is the external manifestation of the profound changes that are taking place in the interior of the human being and that are history itself: tragic, disconcerting, but always growing. It is a small voice, which foretells what is to come beyond the human being we have known. It is a poem and a rainbow of diverse colors. It is a David facing an insolent Goliath. It is the softness of water against the hardness of rock. It is the strength of the weak: a paradox and a Destiny.

My friends, even when we do not immediately achieve the results that we have hoped for, this seed exists already, and awaits the arrival of the times that are to come.

For all, from heart to heart, the fervent desire for this coming social change and the hope for this silent transformation which, beyond all compulsion, beyond all impatience, beyond all violent aspiration, beyond all guilt and all feelings of failure, is already nesting in the intimate depths of many humanists."''

Extract of a talk by [[Silo]] given on the 4th of January 1998 in the Obras Sanitarias stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXy_YHT_zGE

The Humanist Movement is a collection of people who participate in the proposals of [[New Humanism]], also known as Universalist Humanism. These proposals, in their broadest sense, can be found shaped in the [[Document of the Humanist Movement]].

This current of thought that is presented in the works of [[Silo]] and in those of the diverse authors who are inspired by it also implies a sentiment and a way of living, taking shape in multiple fields of human endeavor, giving rise to diverse organisms and action fronts; all of them applied to their specific fields of activity with the common aim: to Humanize the Earth. In themselves they have in common the methodology of Active Nonviolence and the proposal for personal change as a function of social transformation.

The HM appeared on the 4 th of May, 1969 with a public presentation by its founder, [[Silo]], known as the "[[Healing of Suffering]]", in a mountainous outpost in the Andes called Punta de Vacas, close to the border of Argentina and Chile .

The HM is not an institution even though it gives rise to numerous groups and organizations.

The organisms that have emerged from the HM until now are the [[Humanist Party]], the [[Community for Human Development]], [[Convergence of Cultures]], [[World without Wars and without Violence]] and the [[World Center for Humanist Studies]].

Even if these organisms have specific organizational forms that allow them to carry out their activities, the HM itself has no type of organization and constitutes an ambit of convergence and interchange for members of the different organisms.

The activities that are developed by those who participate in the HM will depend on their free initiative.

Among the materials the HM counts on are:

- [[Document of the Humanist Movement]]
- [[Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement]].Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009
- Collected Works, Silo, Volume I and II.
- [[Psychology Notes]]
- Humanism (extract of the audiovisual production "[[Silo´s Commentaries]]" - 2008)

Official website: http://www.humanistmovement.net

[[category: Humanist Movement]]

Humanist Movement

2016-07-01T22:14:13Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with " ''... "What is the humanist movement today? Is it perhaps a refuge in the face of the general crisis of the system in which we live? Is it a sustained critique of a world tha..."

''... "What is the humanist movement today? Is it perhaps a refuge in the face of the general crisis of the system in which we live? Is it a sustained critique of a world that is becoming more dehumanized day by day? Is it a new language and a new paradigm, a new interpretation of the world and a new landscape? Does it represent an ideological or political current, a new aesthetic, a new scale of values? Is it a new spirituality, destined to redeem subjectivity and diversity through concrete action? Is the Movement perhaps the expression of the struggle in support of the dispossessed, the abandoned, and the persecuted? Or is it a manifestation of those who feel the monstrosity inherent in human beings not having the same rights and the same opportunities?

The Movement is all that and much more. It is the practical expression of the ideal of humanizing the Earth and the aspiration of moving towards a Universal Human Nation. It is the seed of a new culture in this civilization that is becoming planetary, and which will have to change its course, accepting and valuing diversity and giving equal rights and identical opportunities to all human beings, because of the dignity that they deserve by the simple fact of their having been born.

The Humanist Movement is the external manifestation of the profound changes that are taking place in the interior of the human being and that are history itself: tragic, disconcerting, but always growing. It is a small voice, which foretells what is to come beyond the human being we have known. It is a poem and a rainbow of diverse colors. It is a David facing an insolent Goliath. It is the softness of water against the hardness of rock. It is the strength of the weak: a paradox and a Destiny.

My friends, even when we do not immediately achieve the results that we have hoped for, this seed exists already, and awaits the arrival of the times that are to come.

For all, from heart to heart, the fervent desire for this coming social change and the hope for this silent transformation which, beyond all compulsion, beyond all impatience, beyond all violent aspiration, beyond all guilt and all feelings of failure, is already nesting in the intimate depths of many humanists."''

Extract of a talk by [[Silo]] given on the 4th of January 1998 in the Obras Sanitarias stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Humanist Movement is a collection of people who participate in the proposals of [[New Humanism]], also known as Universalist Humanism. These proposals, in their broadest sense, can be found shaped in the [[Document of the Humanist Movement]].

This current of thought that is presented in the works of [[Silo]] and in those of the diverse authors who are inspired by it also implies a sentiment and a way of living, taking shape in multiple fields of human endeavor, giving rise to diverse organisms and action fronts; all of them applied to their specific fields of activity with the common aim: to Humanize the Earth. In themselves they have in common the methodology of Active Nonviolence and the proposal for personal change as a function of social transformation.

The HM appeared on the 4 th of May, 1969 with a public presentation by its founder, [[Silo]], known as the "[[Healing of Suffering]]", in a mountainous outpost in the Andes called Punta de Vacas, close to the border of Argentina and Chile .

The HM is not an institution even though it gives rise to numerous groups and organizations.

The organisms that have emerged from the HM until now are the [[Humanist Party]], the [[Community for Human Development]], [[Convergence of Cultures]], [[World without Wars and without Violence]] and the [[World Center for Humanist Studies]].

Even if these organisms have specific organizational forms that allow them to carry out their activities, the HM itself has no type of organization and constitutes an ambit of convergence and interchange for members of the different organisms.

The activities that are developed by those who participate in the HM will depend on their free initiative.

Among the materials the HM counts on are:

- [[Document of the Humanist Movement]]
- [[Manual of Personal Development for members of the Humanist Movement]].Center of Studies, Punta de Vacas Park, 2009
- Collected Works, Silo, Volume I and II.
- [[Psychology Notes]]
- Humanism (extract of the audiovisual production "[[Silo´s Commentaries]]" - 2008)

Official website: http://www.humanistmovement.net

[[category: Humanist Movement]]

Silo

2016-07-01T22:03:10Z

OlivierTurquet:

[[File:Silo2.jpg|right|thumb|500px|Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos (Silo), Photo by Rafael Edwards]]

Silo is the pseudonym of Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos. He was born in 1938 near Mendoza, located between Argentina and Chile. Hi
dead in the same place in 2010.

His writings have been translated into numerous languages and have been published as [[Collected Works]] in two volumes.

http://www.silo.net

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Silo's Message]]
[[category: Humanists]]
[[category: people]]
[[category: Work in progress]]
[[category: Bibliography]]
[[it:Silo]]
[[es:Silo]]
[[fr:Silo]]
[[pt:Silo]]

Silo

2016-07-01T22:02:31Z

OlivierTurquet:

[[File:Silo2.jpg|right|thumb|500px|Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos (Silo), Photo by Rafael Edwards]]

Silo is the pseudonym of Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos. He was born in 1938 near Mendoza, located between Argentina and Chile. Hi
dead in the same place in 2010.

His writings have been translated into numerous languages and have been published as [[Collected Works]] in two volumes.

[[category: Humanist Movement]]
[[category: Silo's Message]]
[[category: Humanists]]
[[category: people]]
[[category: Work in progress]]
[[category: Bibliography]]
[[it:Silo]]
[[es:Silo]]
[[fr:Silo]]
[[pt:Silo]]

Human being

2016-07-01T21:42:07Z

OlivierTurquet:

(ME. humayne; OFr. humaine; L. humanus, human, humane; from homo, man, humus, soil. Being, from be: from AS. beon, to be, beom, I am; OHG. bim; G. bin). The reference of the h.b. in situation is the body itself. It is in the body that the relationship between the human being’s subjective moment and objectivity takes place, and it is through the body that the h.b. can understand itself as “interiority” or “exteriority,” depending on the direction it gives to its intentionality (*), to its “look.” Before it the h.b. encounters everything that is not itself, everything that does not respond to its intentions. Thus, the world in general and other human bodies – which the body of the h.b. affects and has access to and which it also registers the action of – set the conditions in which the h.b. constitutes itself. These conditionings also appear as future possibilities, and in future relation with the body itself. In this way, the present situation can be understood as something modifiable in the future. The world is experienced as something external to the body, but the body is also seen as part of the world, since it both acts in the world and receives the action of the world. Corporality is also something that changes and, in this sense, a temporal configuration, a living history launched toward action, toward future possibility. For human consciousness, then, the body becomes the prosthesis of intention, responding to intention in a temporal sense and in a spatial sense; temporally, to the extent that it can realize in the future what is possible for intention; spatially, as representation and image of intention.

In this becoming, objects are extensions of corporal possibilities, and other bodies appear as multiplications of those possibilities insofar as they are governed by intentions recognized as similar to those governing one’s own body. But why would the h.b. have the need to transform the world and to transform itself? Because of the situation of finiteness and temporo-spatial deficiency in which it finds itself, and which it registers, in accordance with various conditionings, as pain (physical) or [[suffering]] (mental). In this way, the overcoming of pain is not simply an animal response, but a temporal configuration in which the future has primacy, and which becomes a fundamental impulse in life, though it may not be felt as urgent in any given moment. Thus, apart from responses that are immediate, reflexive, and natural, deferred responses and constructive activity to avoid pain are motivated by suffering in the face of danger, and these are re-presented as future possibilities, or as present actualities when pain is present in other human beings. The overcoming of pain, then, appears as a basic project that guides human action. It is this intention that makes possible communication among various bodies and intentions in what is referred to as the social constitution. The social constitution is as historical as human life, is configuring of human life. The transformation of the social constitution is continual, but in a mode different from that of nature. In nature, changes do not come about due to intentions. Nature appears as a “resource” for overcoming pain and suffering, at the same time that it is a “danger” to the human constitution; hence, the destiny of nature itself is to be humanized, intentionalized. And the body, insofar as nature, insofar as danger and limitation, has the same project: to be intentionally transformed, not only in physical location but also in motor capabilities; not only in exteriority but in interiority; not only in confrontation but in adaptation.

In a talk given May 23, 1991, [[Silo]] presented his most general ideas about the h.b.:
. . . When I observe myself, not from a physiological point of view but from an existential one, I find myself here, in a world that is given, neither constructed nor chosen by me. I find that I am in situation with, immersed in phenomena that, beginning with my own body, are inescapable. The body is at once the fundamental constituent of my existence and, at the same time, a phenomenon homogeneous with the natural world, in which it acts and on which the world acts. But the nature of my body has important differences for me from other phenomena, which are: 1) I have an immediate register of my body; 2) I have a register, mediated by my body, of external phenomena; and 3) some of my body’s operations are accessible to my immediate intention. It happens, however, that the world appears not simply as a conglomeration of natural objects, it appears as an articulation of other human beings and of objects, signs, and codes that they have produced or modified. The intentionality (*) that I am aware of in myself appears as a fundamental element in the interpretation of the behavior of others and, just as I constitute the social world by comprehending intentions, so too am I constituted by it. Of course, this refers to intentions that are manifested in corporal action. It is by virtue of the corporal expressions of the other, or by perceiving the situation in which the other appears, that I am able to comprehend the meanings of the other, the intention of the other. Furthermore, natural or human objects appear as either pleasurable or painful to me, and so I try to place myself in favorable relationship to them, modifying my situation. In this way, I am not closed to the world of the natural and other human beings; rather, precisely what characterizes me is opening. My consciousness has been configured intersubjectively in that it uses codes of reasoning, emotional models, patterns or plans of action that I register as “mine,” but that I also recognize in others. And, of course, my body is open to the world insofar as I both perceive it and act upon it . . .”

The natural world, as distinct from the human, appears to me as without intention. Certainly I can imagine that stones, plants, and the stars possess intention, but I find no way to achieve effective dialogue with them. Even those animals in which at times I glimpse the spark of intelligence appear basically impenetrable to me, and changing only slowly from within their natures. I see insect societies that are rigidly structured, higher mammals that employ rudimentary technology but still only replicate such codes in a slow process of genetic change, as if each was always the first representative of its respective species. And when I observe the benefits of those plants and animals that have been modified and domesticated by humanity, I see human intention opening its way and humanizing the world.

. . . To define the h.b. in terms of its sociability seems inadequate, because this does not distinguish the h.b. from many other species. Nor is human capacity for work a distinguishing characteristic when compared to that of more powerful animals. Not even language defines the essence of what is human, for we know of numerous animals that make use of various codes and forms of communication. Each new h.b., in contrast, encounters a world that is modified by others, and it is in its being constituted by that world of intentions that I discover that person’s capacity for accumulation in and incorporation into the temporal – that is, I discover not simply a social dimension, but each person’s historical-social dimension.

With these things in mind, a definition of the h.b. can be attempted as follows: Human beings are historical beings, whose mode of social action transforms their own nature. If I accept this definition, I will also have to accept that the human being is capable of intentionally transforming its physical constitution. And indeed this is taking place. This process began with the use of instruments which, placed before the body as external “prostheses,” allowed human beings to extend the reach of their hands and their senses and to increase both their capacity for and the quality of their work. Although not endowed by nature to function in aerial or aquatic environments, they have nonetheless created means to move through these media, and have even begun to emigrate from their natural environment, the planet Earth. Today, moreover, they have begun to penetrate their bodies, replacing organs; intervening in their brain chemistry; conceiving in vitro; and even manipulating their genes.

If by the word “nature” one has meant to signify something permanent and unchanging, then today this idea has been rendered seriously inadequate even when applied to what is most object-like about the h.b., that is, the body. In light of this, it is clear in regard to any “natural morality,” “natural law,” or “natural institutions,” that nothing in this field exists through nature, but on the contrary, everything is socio-historical…

After denying this so-called “human nature,” he concludes with a brief discussion that involves the supposed “passivity” of the consciousness:
Hand in hand with the idea of human nature goes another prevalent conception which asserts the passivity of the consciousness. This ideology has regarded the h.b. as an entity that functions primarily in response to stimuli from the natural world. What began as crude sensualism has gradually been displaced by historicist currents that, at their core, have preserved the same conception of a passive consciousness. And even when they have privileged the consciousness’s activity in and transformation of the world over interpretation of its activities, they still have conceived of its activity as resulting from conditions external to the consciousness . . .

Today, those old prejudices concerning human nature and the passivity of consciousness are once again being asserted, transformed into neo-evolutionary theories embodying such views as natural selection determined through the struggle for the survival of the fittest. In the version currently in fashion, now transplanted into the human world, this sort of zoological conception attempts to go beyond former dialectics of race or class by asserting a dialectic in which it is supposed that all social activity regulates itself automatically according to “natural” economic laws. Thus, once again, the concrete h.b. is submerged and objectified…
We have noted those conceptions that, in order to explain the h.b., have begun from theoretical generalities and maintained the existence of an unchanging human nature and a passive consciousness. We maintain, quite the opposite, the need to start from human particularity; that the h.b. is a socio-historical and non-natural phenomenon, and that human consciousness is active in transforming the world in accordance with its intention. We view human life as always taking place in situation, and the human body as an immediately perceived natural object, also immediately subject to numerous dictates of the person’s intentionality.
The following questions therefore arise: 1) How is it that the consciousness is active, i.e., how is it that it can operate intentionally on the body and, through the body, transform the world? 2) How is it that the human being is constituted as a socio-historical being, that is, both socially and historically? These questions must be answered starting from concrete existence, so as not to fall again into theoretical generalities from which a dubious system of interpretation might be derived – which could then go on even to deny it was an interpretation!

Answering the first question will require apprehending through immediate evidence how human intention acts upon the body. In answering the second, one must begin from evidence of the temporality and intersubjectivity of the h.b., rather than beginning from some supposed general laws of history and society.

These two themes are further developed in the two essays of Silo’s work Contributions to Thought. How human intention acts on the body, through the image, constitutes the nucleus of the explanations in the first essay “[[Psychology of the Image]].” The second essay, “[[Historiological Discussions]]” (see [[historiology]]), considers the problem of temporality.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Human being

2016-07-01T21:40:07Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(ME. humayne; OFr. humaine; L. humanus, human, humane; from homo, man, humus, soil. Being, from be: from AS. beon, to be, beom, I am; OHG. bim; G. bin). The reference of the..."

(ME. humayne; OFr. humaine; L. humanus, human, humane; from homo, man, humus, soil. Being, from be: from AS. beon, to be, beom, I am; OHG. bim; G. bin). The reference of the h.b. in situation is the body itself. It is in the body that the relationship between the human being’s subjective moment and objectivity takes place, and it is through the body that the h.b. can understand itself as “interiority” or “exteriority,” depending on the direction it gives to its intentionality (*), to its “look.” Before it the h.b. encounters everything that is not itself, everything that does not respond to its intentions. Thus, the world in general and other human bodies – which the body of the h.b. affects and has access to and which it also registers the action of – set the conditions in which the h.b. constitutes itself. These conditionings also appear as future possibilities, and in future relation with the body itself. In this way, the present situation can be understood as something modifiable in the future. The world is experienced as something external to the body, but the body is also seen as part of the world, since it both acts in the world and receives the action of the world. Corporality is also something that changes and, in this sense, a temporal configuration, a living history launched toward action, toward future possibility. For human consciousness, then, the body becomes the prosthesis of intention, responding to intention in a temporal sense and in a spatial sense; temporally, to the extent that it can realize in the future what is possible for intention; spatially, as representation and image of intention.

In this becoming, objects are extensions of corporal possibilities, and other bodies appear as multiplications of those possibilities insofar as they are governed by intentions recognized as similar to those governing one’s own body. But why would the h.b. have the need to transform the world and to transform itself? Because of the situation of finiteness and temporo-spatial deficiency in which it finds itself, and which it registers, in accordance with various conditionings, as pain (physical) or [[suffering]] (mental). In this way, the overcoming of pain is not simply an animal response, but a temporal configuration in which the future has primacy, and which becomes a fundamental impulse in life, though it may not be felt as urgent in any given moment. Thus, apart from responses that are immediate, reflexive, and natural, deferred responses and constructive activity to avoid pain are motivated by suffering in the face of danger, and these are re-presented as future possibilities, or as present actualities when pain is present in other human beings. The overcoming of pain, then, appears as a basic project that guides human action. It is this intention that makes possible communication among various bodies and intentions in what is referred to as the social constitution. The social constitution is as historical as human life, is configuring of human life. The transformation of the social constitution is continual, but in a mode different from that of nature. In nature, changes do not come about due to intentions. Nature appears as a “resource” for overcoming pain and suffering, at the same time that it is a “danger” to the human constitution; hence, the destiny of nature itself is to be humanized, intentionalized. And the body, insofar as nature, insofar as danger and limitation, has the same project: to be intentionally transformed, not only in physical location but also in motor capabilities; not only in exteriority but in interiority; not only in confrontation but in adaptation.

In a talk given May 23, 1991, Silo presented his most general ideas about the h.b.:
. . . When I observe myself, not from a physiological point of view but from an existential one, I find myself here, in a world that is given, neither constructed nor chosen by me. I find that I am in situation with, immersed in phenomena that, beginning with my own body, are inescapable. The body is at once the fundamental constituent of my existence and, at the same time, a phenomenon homogeneous with the natural world, in which it acts and on which the world acts. But the nature of my body has important differences for me from other phenomena, which are: 1) I have an immediate register of my body; 2) I have a register, mediated by my body, of external phenomena; and 3) some of my body’s operations are accessible to my immediate intention. It happens, however, that the world appears not simply as a conglomeration of natural objects, it appears as an articulation of other human beings and of objects, signs, and codes that they have produced or modified. The intentionality (*) that I am aware of in myself appears as a fundamental element in the interpretation of the behavior of others and, just as I constitute the social world by comprehending intentions, so too am I constituted by it. Of course, this refers to intentions that are manifested in corporal action. It is by virtue of the corporal expressions of the other, or by perceiving the situation in which the other appears, that I am able to comprehend the meanings of the other, the intention of the other. Furthermore, natural or human objects appear as either pleasurable or painful to me, and so I try to place myself in favorable relationship to them, modifying my situation. In this way, I am not closed to the world of the natural and other human beings; rather, precisely what characterizes me is opening. My consciousness has been configured intersubjectively in that it uses codes of reasoning, emotional models, patterns or plans of action that I register as “mine,” but that I also recognize in others. And, of course, my body is open to the world insofar as I both perceive it and act upon it . . .”

The natural world, as distinct from the human, appears to me as without intention. Certainly I can imagine that stones, plants, and the stars possess intention, but I find no way to achieve effective dialogue with them. Even those animals in which at times I glimpse the spark of intelligence appear basically impenetrable to me, and changing only slowly from within their natures. I see insect societies that are rigidly structured, higher mammals that employ rudimentary technology but still only replicate such codes in a slow process of genetic change, as if each was always the first representative of its respective species. And when I observe the benefits of those plants and animals that have been modified and domesticated by humanity, I see human intention opening its way and humanizing the world.

. . . To define the h.b. in terms of its sociability seems inadequate, because this does not distinguish the h.b. from many other species. Nor is human capacity for work a distinguishing characteristic when compared to that of more powerful animals. Not even language defines the essence of what is human, for we know of numerous animals that make use of various codes and forms of communication. Each new h.b., in contrast, encounters a world that is modified by others, and it is in its being constituted by that world of intentions that I discover that person’s capacity for accumulation in and incorporation into the temporal – that is, I discover not simply a social dimension, but each person’s historical-social dimension.

With these things in mind, a definition of the h.b. can be attempted as follows: Human beings are historical beings, whose mode of social action transforms their own nature. If I accept this definition, I will also have to accept that the human being is capable of intentionally transforming its physical constitution. And indeed this is taking place. This process began with the use of instruments which, placed before the body as external “prostheses,” allowed human beings to extend the reach of their hands and their senses and to increase both their capacity for and the quality of their work. Although not endowed by nature to function in aerial or aquatic environments, they have nonetheless created means to move through these media, and have even begun to emigrate from their natural environment, the planet Earth. Today, moreover, they have begun to penetrate their bodies, replacing organs; intervening in their brain chemistry; conceiving in vitro; and even manipulating their genes.

If by the word “nature” one has meant to signify something permanent and unchanging, then today this idea has been rendered seriously inadequate even when applied to what is most object-like about the h.b., that is, the body. In light of this, it is clear in regard to any “natural morality,” “natural law,” or “natural institutions,” that nothing in this field exists through nature, but on the contrary, everything is socio-historical…

After denying this so-called “human nature,” he concludes with a brief discussion that involves the supposed “passivity” of the consciousness:
Hand in hand with the idea of human nature goes another prevalent conception which asserts the passivity of the consciousness. This ideology has regarded the h.b. as an entity that functions primarily in response to stimuli from the natural world. What began as crude sensualism has gradually been displaced by historicist currents that, at their core, have preserved the same conception of a passive consciousness. And even when they have privileged the consciousness’s activity in and transformation of the world over interpretation of its activities, they still have conceived of its activity as resulting from conditions external to the consciousness . . .

Today, those old prejudices concerning human nature and the passivity of consciousness are once again being asserted, transformed into neo-evolutionary theories embodying such views as natural selection determined through the struggle for the survival of the fittest. In the version currently in fashion, now transplanted into the human world, this sort of zoological conception attempts to go beyond former dialectics of race or class by asserting a dialectic in which it is supposed that all social activity regulates itself automatically according to “natural” economic laws. Thus, once again, the concrete h.b. is submerged and objectified…
We have noted those conceptions that, in order to explain the h.b., have begun from theoretical generalities and maintained the existence of an unchanging human nature and a passive consciousness. We maintain, quite the opposite, the need to start from human particularity; that the h.b. is a socio-historical and non-natural phenomenon, and that human consciousness is active in transforming the world in accordance with its intention. We view human life as always taking place in situation, and the human body as an immediately perceived natural object, also immediately subject to numerous dictates of the person’s intentionality.
The following questions therefore arise: 1) How is it that the consciousness is active, i.e., how is it that it can operate intentionally on the body and, through the body, transform the world? 2) How is it that the human being is constituted as a socio-historical being, that is, both socially and historically? These questions must be answered starting from concrete existence, so as not to fall again into theoretical generalities from which a dubious system of interpretation might be derived – which could then go on even to deny it was an interpretation!

Answering the first question will require apprehending through immediate evidence how human intention acts upon the body. In answering the second, one must begin from evidence of the temporality and intersubjectivity of the h.b., rather than beginning from some supposed general laws of history and society.

These two themes are further developed in the two essays of Silo’s work Contributions to Thought. How human intention acts on the body, through the image, constitutes the nucleus of the explanations in the first essay “[[Psychology of the Image]].” The second essay, “[[Historiological Discussions]]” (see [[historiology]]), considers the problem of temporality.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Anti-humanism

2016-07-01T21:33:41Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(See etymology at human being). Any practical and/or theoretical position that tends to support a structure of power based on the anti-values of discrimination and v..."

(See etymology at [[human being]]). Any practical and/or theoretical position that tends to support a structure of power based on the anti-values of [[discrimination]] and [[violence]].

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Category:Humanism

2016-07-01T21:31:36Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Terms about humanism"

Terms about humanism

Anthropocentric Humanism

2016-07-01T21:30:57Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(''anthropo-'', from Gr. ''anthropos'', man, human; and Gr. ''kentron'', center. Humanism, see etymology at human being). A position based on the centrality of the human being..."

(''anthropo-'', from Gr. ''anthropos'', man, human; and Gr. ''kentron'', center. Humanism, see etymology at human being). A position based on the centrality of the human being and generally excluding any theistic proposal. Additionally, a.h. rejects the domination of one human being by another, replacing those actions with the attempt to control nature, which is defined as the medium over which humanity should exert unrestricted power. There are differences with N.H. in that the latter starts with the centrality of the human being but does not reject theistic positions. Moreover, N.H. considers nature not as a passive medium but as an active force operating in interaction with the human phenomenon. Consequently, the impulse toward individual and social improvement must bear in mind the human impact on nature, something that imposes limitations that are not only moral but must be reflected in legislation, the legal system, and environmental planning.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]
[[Category: Humanism]]

Anarchism

2016-07-01T21:27:17Z

OlivierTurquet:

(From anarchy: Gr. ''anarchia'', lack of ruler or government, from ''anarchos'', without chief or ruler; an priv., and archos, ruler). Sociopolitical movement, whose fundamental principle is the negation of the State, which is considered an to be organ of [[violence]]. In general, a. also rejects private property and [[religion]], which it regards as factors that threaten the absolute freedom of the human being.

From the theoretical point of view, a. is eclectic, borrowing from even the most violent formulations, from to Stirner’s anarcho-individualism, Kropotkin’s anarcho-communism, and anarcho-syndicalism, so profoundly influenced by Kropotkin.

Anarcho-syndicalism denies any validity to political struggle or a leading role in the workers movement by any political party, attributing to the anarchist union the highest revolutionary status.

Bakunin maintains that the new order will spring spontaneously from anarchy, a thesis conflicting with that of Proudhon, which conceives the new society as an organization based on exchange of services and reciprocity, involving cooperatives and the principle of [[self-governance]].

Some specialists have seen in [[Nietzsche, Friedrich|Nietzsche]] an axiological a. and in [[Tolstoy, Leon|Tolstoy]] and [[Gandhi]] practical expressions of an ethical, socialist, and [[non-violent]] a.

[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Anarchism

2016-07-01T21:26:26Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(From anarchy: Gr. ''anarchia'', lack of ruler or government, from ''anarchos'', without chief or ruler; an priv., and archos, ruler). Sociopolitical movement, whose fundament..."

(From anarchy: Gr. ''anarchia'', lack of ruler or government, from ''anarchos'', without chief or ruler; an priv., and archos, ruler). Sociopolitical movement, whose fundamental principle is the negation of the State, which is considered an to be organ of violence (*). In general, a. also rejects private property and [[religion]], which it regards as factors that threaten the absolute freedom of the human being.

From the theoretical point of view, a. is eclectic, borrowing from even the most violent formulations, from to Stirner’s anarcho-individualism, Kropotkin’s anarcho-communism, and anarcho-syndicalism, so profoundly influenced by Kropotkin.

Anarcho-syndicalism denies any validity to political struggle or a leading role in the workers movement by any political party, attributing to the anarchist union the highest revolutionary status.

Bakunin maintains that the new order will spring spontaneously from anarchy, a thesis conflicting with that of Proudhon, which conceives the new society as an organization based on exchange of services and reciprocity, involving cooperatives and the principle of [[self-governance]].

Some specialists have seen in [[Nietzsche, Friedrich|Nietzsche]] an axiological a. and in [[Tolstoy, Leon|Tolstoy]] and [[Gandhi]] practical expressions of an ethical, socialist, and [[non-violent]] a.

[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Altruism

2016-07-01T21:21:59Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(Fr. altruisme, from It. altrui, of or to others, from L. alter, another). Concern for and happiness at the well-being of others, even at one’s own expense, and out of purel..."

(Fr. altruisme, from It. altrui, of or to others, from L. alter, another). Concern for and happiness at the well-being of others, even at one’s own expense, and out of purely humane motives. Involves service for the good of others and a willingness to sacrifice one’s personal interest for the sake of others.

This term was introduced into scientific and philosophical language by Auguste Comte, who used it in formulating the moral doctrine of Positivism. In the experience of a. Comte saw, moreover, a criterion of experience capable of counteracting not only ordinary selfishness but that selfishness defended by Liberalism as a factor of progress. A., like [[solidarity]] and [[reciprocity], are characteristic of the humanist ethic, because these attitudes contribute to the progress of humankind and to the favorable and just resolution of interpersonal and social conflicts.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Aggression

2016-07-01T21:18:53Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(L. ''aggressio'', from ''aggredi'', to attack). Action and effect of attacking, an act contrary to the rights of another. Armed attack of one nation against another in viola..."

(L. ''aggressio'', from ''aggredi'', to attack). Action and effect of attacking, an act contrary to the rights of another. Armed attack of one nation against another in violation of international law.

A. is expressed not only in the form of physical actions but also in words, gestures, or attitudes (moral a.). Initiating any act of [[violence]] is a.

[[category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

Active non-violence

2016-06-30T20:57:26Z

OlivierTurquet:

The strategy for struggle of N.H., which consists of the systematic denunciation of all forms of [[violence]] exercised by the System. Also, a tactic for struggle applied in specific situations in which [[discrimination]] of any type is occurring.

[[Category:Dictionary of New Humanism]]

[[Category:work in progress]]

Active non-violence

2016-06-30T20:57:00Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "The strategy for struggle of N.H., which consists of the systematic denunciation of all forms of violence exercised by the System. Also, a tactic for struggle applied in..."

Ammann, Luis

2016-06-25T20:01:17Z

OlivierTurquet:

Humanist writer.

[[File:Luis-ammann.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]
[[category: bibliography]]
[[category: people]]
[[category: work in progress]]
[[it: Ammann, Luis]]

[[pt: Ammann, Luis]]
[[es: Ammann, Luis]]
[[fr: Ammann, Luis]]

Ammann, Luis

2016-06-25T20:00:26Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "Humanist writer. category: bibliography category: people category: work in progress it: Ammann, Luis pt: Ammann, Luis es: Ammann, Luis fr: Ammann,..."

Humanist writer.

[[category: bibliography]]
[[category: people]]
[[category: work in progress]]
[[it: Ammann, Luis]]

[[pt: Ammann, Luis]]
[[es: Ammann, Luis]]
[[fr: Ammann, Luis]]

Self Liberation

2016-06-25T19:57:51Z

OlivierTurquet:

Book by [[Ammann, Luis |Luis Ammann]]

[[category: bibliography]]

[[category: work in progress]]

[[es:Autoliberación]]
[[it: Autoliberazione]]
[[fr: Autolibération]]

Humanist psychology

2016-06-25T19:57:05Z

OlivierTurquet: Created page with "(humanist: see etymology at human being; psychology: from psyche: Gr. psyche, life, spirit, soul, self; and -logy: der. Gk. legein, to gather, speak, der. Gr. logos, word, dis..."

(humanist: see etymology at human being; psychology: from psyche: Gr. psyche, life, spirit, soul, self; and -logy: der. Gk. legein, to gather, speak, der. Gr. logos, word, discourse, study, reason).

As Fernand-Lucien Mueller has written, “The influence of Husserlian phenomenology and the philosophy of Heidegger, which is derived from it, has been substantial in the psychological sciences; it is an influence both direct and distinct, of which we can give no more than a brief glimpse. Phenomenology has given the lie in a most singular fashion to the promoters of the “new” psychology, who have sought to relegate philosophy to the museum of antiquities.”

Many authors belong to the current of h.p. Almost all have been influenced by Brentano and by Husserl’s phenomenological method. The works of Jaspers, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and Binswanger are universally known. Frankl’s “Third School of Vienna” may be placed in this movement as well as a branch of psychiatry. There are also methods of psychological work such as those formulated by [[Ammann, Luis|L. Ammann]] in his work [[Self Liberation]]. Many works of h.p. are oriented toward social psychology.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]

[[Category: Humanist psycology]]

Dictionary of New Humanism

2016-06-25T19:52:48Z

OlivierTurquet:

Book by [[Silo]].

The Dictionary of New Humanism is dedicated to the activists in the cause of humanizing the Earth, to those who aspire to build a universal human nation, and to all those now struggling against exploitation, inequality, fanaticism, and discrimination. It is also dedicated to those who have a genuine interest in human beings: in the difficulties they now face and their open future, in their misfortunes and their greatness.

The present work is partisan in the broadest sense of the word, and because the focus of this work is New Humanism, that perspective is developed and articulated in most of the articles.

This first edition of the Dictionary of New Humanism aspires to resolve two problems. The first arises when the term “humanism” is used so broadly that it becomes almost meaningless. The second is the opposite – an excessively narrow use that reduces the semantic field so that it appears as though one particular ideological position constitutes the only possible meaning of the term. When we speak of New Humanism we refer to this concept in neither its broadest sense nor in some unique or exclusive sense, but simply as one specific kind of humanism.

We should caution the reader concerning certain limitations in the present work: first, we have not included the full range of terms, some of which are inordinately technical, that appear in many works of a similar orientation; second, we have not managed to balance western humanism with other forms of humanism, equally rich, that are to be found in the most diverse cultures. We believe that these limitations will be overcome upon the completion of the ongoing project of producing an encyclopedia of the inclusive cultural scope that corresponds to New Humanism in its character as a universal humanism.

This Dictionary of New Humanism has been compiled under the auspices of the [[World Center for Humanist Studies]]. Numerous friends and colleagues have assisted in this project through direct contributions (in some cases editing entire articles), critical commentary on the manuscript, suggestions, computer assistance, and corrections. In this regard, we must not fail to mention B. Koval, S. Semenov, A. Carvallo, J. Feres, H. Novotny, E. Lemos, and M. Pampillón. In additional, we are grateful for the contributions of the authors of works on New Humanism, among whom we mention in particular S. Puledda, L. Ammann, C. Reitze, J. Montero de Burgos, and P. Parra.

[[Category: Dictionary of New Humanism]]
[[Category: work in progress]]

Instrucciones

2016-06-25T19:43:08Z

OlivierTurquet: OlivierTurquet moved page Instrucciones to Instructions: language

#REDIRECT [[Instructions]]

Instructions

2016-06-25T19:43:08Z

OlivierTurquet: OlivierTurquet moved page Instrucciones to Instructions: language

No avalaible in this moment.

Please see instruction in spanish if you understand this language.

And help us to traslate !!
Thx
The team.

[[es: instrucciones]]
[[it: Istruzioni_d'uso]]