Newsletter of Universal Humanism
Hong Kong, China
Number 36 - January, 2012
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Page 1 - EDITORIAL
Page 2 - The Occupy Movement
Page 4 - How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
Page 6 - Links to recent Asia and Iran articles on Pressenza
Page 7 - Parks of Study and Reflection
Page 7 - Contact information
Editorial,
The most exciting happenings nowadays are those activities related to the Occupy movement. The mainstream media still does not get it, nor the general population, but the latter is understandably at a loss simply because of its own ‘as usual’ inertia, plus the unmitigated flood of data (which does not reach the standard of organisation to be classed as information) that implodes upon them (us) from all sides - radio, TV, newspapers, mobile devices of every kind. See the first writing below for a scant overview of Occupy.
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’ is a writing by George Lakey which is directly relevant to the Occupy movement in showing what can be done and how it was done in the isolation of those earlier days...
The scariest possibility on the near horizon is the West threats to Iran. This issue is subject of another article, see below on the Pressenza links - money is seen to be at the root of all (modern) evil - in this case the US$.
Peace, Force and Joy - on All Humans Day - 29 January, 2012
Tony
Hong Kong Green Party wishes everyone a fortuitous Year of the Dragon
happy dragon
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World without Wars and Violence (WwW)
http://www.worldwithoutwars.org/
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The Occupy Movement
It’s not just camping out under the HSBC building in Central Hong Kong, though that is a great manifestation and reference, declaring that indeed Hong Kong is an international city, as is London and New York, to mention two capitals with active occupancy.
We don’t have the mass participation here in Hong Kong because the situation is not dire, indeed, brinking mainland China, Hong Kong is in good nick and nothing like the economically perilous state of the USA or the economic mess of the Eurozone. There are few obvious reasons for the people, even for the youth, to be on the streets. But there are reasons!
The pillars of the present corporate-led Capitalist-Materialistic system are those keeping the whole thing going, those dependant upon its continuation and success. The fully employed, the ‘owners’ of all those subsidiary firms under the Big 50 (or so) major firms which control everything and those firms largely from the USA, with a major exception of Barclays Bank, UK.
Of course it’s the disenfranchised, the marginalised, that are the dissidents of that system because they are the casualties. The young people who are camped out are from the student body and are in touch with the international Occupy movement, not just over the Internet, but by way of having that like ‘disposition of the times’. Similar to starlings in migration where all move as one as if some higher connection was linking their flight.
This is why the more obvious manifestations are in the street arts and music because as a more intuitive function of mind, those human features are ‘in the van’, heralding and foretelling events, as is indie-cinema, documentaries of all kinds and live interviews with ‘oddballs’.
The employed are all feeling the pain in their situations of overwork. Yes they get the money but see how much they have to spend to maintain that style and why not throw it away on silly things when there is no ‘time’ - a relative term - to spend intelligently, wisely. Like money, life’s just a throwaway thing,
People sacrifice themselves to the System, that’s why ‘we’ give it a capital s - it’s not just a system, a useful organisation or network, no, it’s The System. The end and the means. Being part of the System generates an internal fear because, from the inside there is nothing else, it’s a curtailed view, it’s a hypnosis, it’s a crystalisation of the mind, you get stuck there and there is no possibility of any thought of freedom - in a life without the System. Freedom seems something like swimming in an ocean with miles of deep blue sea underneath one’s paltry body that floats above those immense depths... where giant fish lurk!
Even the few in the System that do useful work, as in the sciences, find their research used in ways not considered at the outset of the task. Even Mr Einstein could not stop his work on nuclear physics being incorporated into the atomic bomb, much to his disheartenment.
It’s not that the Occupy movement expects masses of people to down tools and pens and come acamping, rather what is sought is that more and more people start to rethink everything, start to question behaviours in their particular situations, arm themselves with knowledge, with more reasonable expectations, thereby demanding that themselves and their peers be treated with some respect.
When old Joe or young rebellious Joe gets the boot, owing to the competitive nature of the office or shop floor, there is little sympathy because everyone is hanging onto their place, what with the mortgage, the negative credit, the kids education, the insurance policies that have to be paid for.... all those things, all that are falsely (and automatically) imposed by the System.
It’s the System and its anti-values that has poisened the term Socialism - let’s not look at the red herring of failed Communism - besides the anti-socialist antics of the psuedo-socialists, the left-wing that could see no other way than via totalitarianism and violence... Communism has never been properly done! To late now.
Social welfare itself has become a no-no as people abuse that possibility but they do that because they were and are victims of the System which depends on ‘those that rise into it’s ranks and that hold all others in jeopardy as an example of where you could be if you do not toe the line’.
What the Occupiers are saying is, there is another way of organising how our lives are managed by our governments, one where privatisation is minimal because, although it is well proved that privately owned firms are better at what they are doing than government run departments, fact is, they have taken over our lives and now we are not seen a human beings with human needs and expectations - we are human resources and a market place.
In a human system there will be limits on the working hours needed to bring an economy into the home; there will be time to be with whomever one chooses to be with among family and friends or even read a book; there will be health care without worry over payments because the business side of medicine will be removed; likewise with schooling right up to higher education; there will be regular payments for the elderly and the disabled so no need to beg, take demeaning jobs or sleep in cages; speculation will be taken out of the property market and definitely out of the commodities and stocks and shares market impacting food prices.
Shareholders will no longer be allowed to extract excessive profits from firms, rather those profits will go back into the firm as investment into conditions and machinery to enhance the productive means and products.
This is the revolution proposed and the way is by non-violence. When the indigenous president of Bolivia came into power, as different from the European stock estate owners of before, these are the kind of measures that were implemented and it took time despite that Evo Morales tried to hurry things up. It was quite different from the mess of the Russian revolution of 1917 with its violence and class vengeance, and that of China from the time when Mao took over, though it is said that in the first days there was a warm disposition displayed by Mao’s soldiers.
While mainstream worldwide politics continue in the old mould with the violent agendas of one group facing off against all comers, on the other side of the fence, we are asking for such as wage differentials to be massively re-aligned - why should a boss get 400 times the salary of an ordinary worker? Also, with us the terms human rights, participation, co-operatives, reciprocity, and active non-violence are coming into play.
Despite huge and organised opposition by the power holders of today, the Occupiers are making progress though it is an underground process, not underground by intention but because the activities are forced underground as the standard channels are closed off; an alternative media is one result
The straight media, controlled completely by vested interests, plays down or ignores and anyway is not interested in what the Occupy movement intends. The politicians joke about the activists, even the so-called democrats. The business people stop and shout “get a job’ to the HSBC campers - completely unaware of what the Occupy movement is trying to tell them - like the USA, they too are on a slippery slope!
But it’s OK. There are worthwhile repercussions off-site and the all-important dialog is being initiated and continued and new links established which are providing that vital solidarity among the people directly involved in the Occupy movement and the ever increasing circle of friends that acts as a buffer against the heavy arm of the System.
The Occupy message is penetrating and the media will not remain immune.
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From: Waging Nonviolence
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
by George Lakey
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. [A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.] A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.
Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.
Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.
In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.
When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.
In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.
The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!
The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.
The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.
Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.
By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.
This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)
Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.
Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
George Lakey is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College and a Quaker. He has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books and articles, he is author of “Strategizing for a Living Revolution” in David Solnit’s book Globalize Liberation (City Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal mining.
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new - 2012
Hong Kong Gardening - Naturally
By Tony Henderson
eBook on CD - HK$50 or US$6
http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/hkgarden.htm
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Pressenza International Press Agency
http://world.pressenza.org
The myth of 'isolated' Iran
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/the-myth-of-xisolatedx-iran
Nepal - World unity for peace march
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/nepal-world-unity-for-peace-march - Nepal, peace march.
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Banahaw Park
...of Study and Reflection
Parks of Study and Reflection are places:
- of self-transformation
- of inspiration
- of connecting with others
- of connecting with the Profound.
They are an expression of the new spirit awakening in the hearts of people who search to go beyond religious, cultural and ethnic differences to the profound meaning of our common humanity. They are spaces dedicated to study and self-knowledge, to nonviolence as a way of action, and to reflection on life's fundamental questions.
Interested? Local group ‘still’ in formation, get in touch with the Hong Kong contact: Tony - tonyhen1 @ gmail.com
http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/
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Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution:
Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific
- or the bylined writer.
TONY HENDERSON E-mail: tonyhen1 @ gmail.com
Web: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
small gathering of friends of the Community of Silo's Message 22 December, 2011
There is to be an evening gathering of the Mui Wo Community of the Message, 22 December, 2011. Anyone interested phone Tony on 90487639 or email tonyhen1@gmail.com
PFJ
Tony
PFJ
Tony
Friday, December 9, 2011
International humanist party statement on world situation
In this moment of history, and as a political party inspired by the current of Universalist Humanism, we find it necessary to analyse the present situation in order to develop proposals for action in the present global context.
When humanists observe and participate in social, political and economic processes around the world, we cannot but reflect about the relevance to this moment of history of the Statement of the Humanist Movement written by Silo in 1993*. From its reading we can understand to what degree the path of history has confirmed the tendencies that this document explained and to what degree - today more than ever - the union of all humanists of the world has become necessary so that the deepest human aspirations may be turned into reality.
THE ANALYSIS
The emergence of new generations
In recent times around the world different social movements have sprung up and surprised analysts and opinion formers who had been suggesting the end of history.
Social expressions, varied in their causes and demands in countries as diverse as Tunisia, Egypt, Iceland, India, Spain, Chile and the USA, have in common that their protagonists have been the new generations. Thousands of young people have started to take to the streets to show their outrage at the unjust world they've inherited, accepting the challenge of becoming the protagonists for social change and adopting Active Nonviolence as a methodology of action.
The expression of these young people, added to the best efforts of previous generations, is starting to give rise to the birth of a new planetary sensibility.
This is a new sensibility that makes a void to leaders accustomed to manipulating everything. It not only speaks of horizontality but also exercises it on a daily basis in its different forms of self-managed organisation. It is a new sensibility that doesn't just tolerate diversity but accepts it and drives it forward; comprehending that such diversity is necessary if the requirement is to produce real changes. It recognises the banks and speculative capital as the real adversaries who have hijacked representative democracy making plain the need to advance towards Direct Democracy.
This is a new sensibility that is no longer surrendering its subjectivity to the official communication media in the hands of Financial Capital but rather is using and appropriating new technologies and social networks in order to communicate, inform, denounce, organise and take to the streets.
And, perhaps, the most important thing is that this new sensibility's intuition tells it that at the base of social injustice, physical, economic, racial and religious violence is to be found. And therefore its response to repression and defamation is a void, non-confrontation and civil disobedience, in sum: Active Nonviolence.
This new sensibility is a sign of the new world that is being born in the midst of an old world that, with great violence and repression, is trying to stay put.
* The "Humanist Statement" forms part of the "Sixth Letter to my Friends", written by Silo on the 5th of April, 1993, included in his Collected Works, Volume 1, Page 488, Latitude Press, USA.
Towards the Universal Human Nation
Over the last 20 years, global communication and interconnection have been increasing and certain aspects of this phenomenon have been defined as "globalisation." But humanists, as internationalists and aspiring to a plural and diverse world, see in this globalisation the signs of anti-humanism. Because it happens that global economic power has tried to direct this process in accordance with its own interests, creating a Parastate at both a national and global level. This Parastate operates within national borders by buying or blackmailing governments and manipulating public opinion through control of the mass media. And it also operates internationally, having at its service economic institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO; creating international courts along the way such as ICSID; using the USA's and NATO's armies as the world's police force; and covering all of its misdeeds with a veneer of legality by controlling the decisions of the United Nations. Public opinion is also manipulated through the international press.
So what happens is that the people of the world not only have to confront the problems within their own borders, but they also feel that many of their problems are generated globally, and that they don't have the means to resolve them. And just as humanists say that within our borders we must take power through Real Democracy in order to have representatives that genuinely represent us; so also at a global level we must work to dismantle this Parastate that covers itself with a cloak of respectability through organisms that are mere proxies of global economic power.
Therefore, the image of advancing towards a Universal Human Nation must not only be a luminous utopia guiding the struggles of the people, but also a strategic conception from which tactical actions arise that lead to the power of this Global Parastate being disassembled, while simultaneously the pillars of a truly Universal Human Nation are being built. Because this Universal Human Nation, which might seem to be a mere expression of desires for older generations, is already appearing as a visible horizon for the new generations and for this new sensibility.
From now on, between the present situation and the horizon that is approaching, we must travel a path of action, and some of these actions are those that we propose in this document.
A change of economic paradigms
In a world in which money has become the central value of existence, we shouldn't be surprised by the consequences of such denial of meaning of human life. We are not surprised by the growing inequity in the distribution of wealth as we are dealing with individualistic competition in which there has to be winners and losers by necessity. We are not surprised by the successive financial crises and their correlate of recession in a system that can only be sustained by growing debt. We are not surprised by wars over scarce natural resources in a world preyed upon by the consumerism of the most well off. We are not surprised by social violence when increasing numbers of people feel like failures and are marginalised, in contrast to the paradise offered by consumerist advertising. And we shouldn't feel surprised by nihilism, madness and suicide when existence has lost its meaning, and material success is supposed to replace it.
Of course there are procedures to transform this inhuman economic system; improving the distribution of income, disciplining the financial system, and advancing towards sustainable development that allows a dignified life for every human being without devastating the planet. But it would be naïve to expect the spontaneous application of such procedures without previously driving forward a genuine change of paradigms in the conception of the economy based on a profound change of cultural values.
There are those who believe that, due to the mere fact that economic crises affect many people, there will be a majority convinced of the need to change the economic system. But it's not so, because individualism has permeated deeply and the fact that many individuals converge in protest in the face of a generalised crisis does not mean that individualism has been transcended, and so it's not so simple to move on to other organisational forms that can really replace the system.
So the proposal for transformation of the economic system cannot be proposed just in terms of technical feasibility or in terms of convenience for the majority. It must be proposed from a social mystique that has the ethic of coherence as a banner, which in economic terms means to place the resolution of the basic needs of all inhabitants of the world before the interests of any other sector or individual.
We know that today we have the conditions to resolve the basic needs for the whole world. There are more than enough examples of what could be done with the resources that are today destined to weapons, financial speculation, the production of luxury goods and irrational consumerism. This should be enough to change the direction of the economic forces themselves and, in a short time frame, convert and multiply the means of production, so ending up with less weapons and more food, less resources going to speculation and more into production. But the direction of economic forces will not change just because we ask those who live at the top of the pyramid to dismantle it. It will change when a good part of those of us who act like bricks in this pyramid stop sustaining it, and this will be achieved when we stop believing in the pyramid. And this means new values, new paradigms, and a social mystique that implants them in the hearts of human beings.
In fact the degree of growing perversion in the relationship between capital and labour is possible thanks to the fact that a reigning individualism in the population prevents joint responses and leaves the vast majority unarmed in front of a powerful economic minority. But this absurdity is so great that awareness is rising in increasingly large sections of the population. The Humanist Party around the world must work to organise and give analytical elements to the greatest possible number of people. Our response, active nonviolence, shows us that the first step is to denounce those who should not be collaborating with those who use violence. Just as at the right time we will have to press for non-collaboration with violent States, also we will have to advocate for non-collaboration with capital that mistreats the population. In some moment workers (and consumers) will have to take on social development projects built without the intervention of capitalist partners (or with those who allow for a fair and reciprocal relationship). In some moment the population will stop demanding their needs from capital and will decide to resolve them as a whole. "We don't want your loans or your jobs, or your products or your services." This will only be possible when reciprocity starts to take the place of individualism.
Towards Real Democracy
As humanists we reject totalitarianism and dictatorships of all kinds because we think that the freedom of human beings to decide their own destiny, without lords, or bosses is an unalienable right in all circumstances.
But we also denounce the hypocrisy of formal democracies, in which the powerful of the economic-political-media corporation use their capacity for manipulation to leave the population with false electoral choices, leaving them to choose between the "least bad" executioner and the supposed chaos of institutional instability.
It is clear that in today's world not all freely elected governments are the same; there are those more progressive and those more conservative. But whether through complicity, inability, or the limitations imposed by economic power, they have not wanted or not been able to put the process into reverse. Because one thing is having the good intention of "compensating" those least favoured by this system (despite which marginalisation increases anyway), and another is to transform the very structure of the system so that it stops being a machine for marginalising people. And since the failure of real socialism, there have been no new alternatives to the present situation.
In any case, the possibility for people to intervene in public politics is barely more than electing their supposed representatives in elections. So if we want substantial transformations in the world, we must achieve greater participation of citizens in the decisions that affect them most, and not be at the mercy of the markets or the authorities.
In concrete terms, among other things, all of this means binding popular consultations for decisions of certain relevance, it means participatory budgets, it means direct elections for all positions of authority and the possibility to recall people from their positions at any time.
But it's evident that just as we cannot pretend that those at the top of the economic pyramid are going to change the rules of the game by themselves, neither can we hope that those entrenched in political power thanks to formal democracy will legislate in order to give greater, real participation to the people in central decisions. So it will be necessary to promote the practice of Real Democracy right in the heart of society, supporting with our votes only those who commit themselves to implementing the necessary democratic transformations. And if there are no candidates with this commitment or those with it are not worthy of trust, then we will have to infiltrate the system with candidates of the people, at the same time as we organise non-collaboration and civil disobedience when enough organised people have become aware that this system is irreparable. However, there is no other way out of this trap of formal democracy, at least in the path that humanists propose, than through nonviolent struggle.
PROPOSALS
These proposals, besides being perfectible in their breadth and depth, and besides representing only a few examples of what could be done, may also be received in diverse ways by those who coincide with them according to their possibility to act. For some these may be ideals to be reached and used as a guide in the hour of choosing their governments. For others they may be mobilising images, a basis for organising to demand that governments take care to make them happen. Others will better see the option of participating politically and having such proposals in their own electoral platforms. And those that today have any modicum of power-political or economic - and genuinely aspire to a better world, perhaps may try to apply some of them.
Proposals for governments, advancing towards a confederation of national states with those who commit to these proposals
1. To establish at a constitutional level the obligation of the State to guarantee in concrete terms the coverage of the basic needs of the population with tax policies in accordance with this priority. Establishing, on the basis of the coverage of such needs, a percentage of the budget destined to helping less fortunate countries.
2. Dismantling all nuclear arsenals. The progressive reduction of conventional weapons by states. The renunciation of war as a means to resolve conflicts.
3. State control of the financial system. Creation of national and regional banks without interest, with a mixed administration including the participation of users and workers. Regulations that punish speculative practices and usury. International agreements to ensure productive reinvestment of company profits, the dismantling of tax havens and all evasive or speculative manipulation by private capital.
4. Free circulation and equality of rights in all countries, for all inhabitants of the planet. Freedom and equality of rights for all cultures and religions, guaranteeing the respect for diversity.
5. Implementation of mechanisms for a Real Democracy: binding consultations, direct elections to the three State powers, decentralisation, representation of minorities, the ability to recall mandates, political responsibility and participatory budgets in all State levels. Use of the mass media for informing people and debating issues to be decided, guaranteeing the plurality of opinions under equal conditions. International consultations for all inhabitants involved in regional or global politics.
Proposals for social mobilisation, to put pressure on governments and to build alternatives to the de-facto power
1. The demanding of popular consultations for every decision that governments must take in relation to economics, politics or social policy, denouncing non-consulted measures as anti-democratic.
2. The promotion of interchange, debate, education and circulation of information so that society as a whole may be able to form an opinion about all issues that should be subject to popular consultation. The utilisation of physical forums and social networks; demanding the media gives space for this and denouncing those who don't as the accomplices of formal democracy.
3. The elaboration of draft laws, the demanding of their consideration, and their promotion by the social-political alternative being constructed. A Law of Real Democracy (with the incorporation of all its mechanisms). Tax reforms that guarantee the redistribution of wealth and the productive reinvestment of profits. An Employee Ownership Law in business. State control of the financial system and the creation of interest-free banks.
4. Permanent mobilisation for two fundamental rights, Education and Healthcare, so that they may be public, free, universal and of high quality; demanding not only their existence but also a budget commensurate with their importance.
5. The promotion and publicising through all possible channels of the paradigms of a new culture for the Universal Human Nation: nonviolence, non-discrimination, reciprocity, liberty, social justice and meaning in life. While denouncing the values of individualism, consumerism, violence, xenophobia and war as retrograde steps.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST PARTY
As members of the IHP we have been working for years, in all countries where we are present, on the issues that we have referred to here. But in this moment of history, we are highlighting - as never before - a growing predisposition of the population, and in particular in new generations, to mobilise for this end. We also highlight a growing affinity for some of these issues in a few progressive governments; those with which we have had some measure of closeness.
Nevertheless, the mere current coincidence with some of our historical proposals should not confuse us as we define our present and future role. Surely we cannot pretend to make ourselves out to be the "clear vanguard" of social processes, not only for reasons of scale, but above all because such a position would respond to schemes that are obsolete and vertical. Surely our role should be to place ourselves in a position of parity, establishing relationships of reciprocity with those with whom we coincide. But this horizontal placement, devoid of manipulating intentions, should not be incompatible with a willingness to take on the challenge of giving clear references about the world we aspire to and the steps to take in order to achieve it. Such references can in no way be imposed by vertical power, but neither should they be weakened, relativised or given up, due to the fear of being confused with manipulators, or because we believe that, because of our scale, we have no right to speak firmly, or because we think that somehow a revolutionary process will mature in the world naturally.
These are moments in which to give a very clear signal from, and a very defined profile to, the Humanist Party. The new generations are emerging; they seek the tools and ideas needed to consolidate. If, because of an apparent situational advantage, we dilute our message with that of other groups who are similar but different, we could be weakening the understanding of our proposal and the necessary inspiration to carry forward a political, economic, social, cultural, ethical, psychological and spiritual revolution.
There is no guarantee that massive discontent with the consequences of the economic system alone will oblige governments to carry out structural changes.
There is no guarantee that discontent with formal democracy will lead governments to carry out transformations that go beyond cosmetic changes.
There is no guarantee that progressive governments will manage to pass from well-intentioned measures to a real change of the foundations of the system themselves.
There is no guarantee that all those who say they are working for a better world, genuinely seek a revolution, not only in its material aspects, but above all in its existential foundations.
What we can guarantee is that while the world is not yet a Great Universal Human Nation, there will be increasing numbers of humanists working genuinely for this aspiration; an aspiration millions of human beings are clamouring for, sometimes in silence.
When humanists observe and participate in social, political and economic processes around the world, we cannot but reflect about the relevance to this moment of history of the Statement of the Humanist Movement written by Silo in 1993*. From its reading we can understand to what degree the path of history has confirmed the tendencies that this document explained and to what degree - today more than ever - the union of all humanists of the world has become necessary so that the deepest human aspirations may be turned into reality.
THE ANALYSIS
The emergence of new generations
In recent times around the world different social movements have sprung up and surprised analysts and opinion formers who had been suggesting the end of history.
Social expressions, varied in their causes and demands in countries as diverse as Tunisia, Egypt, Iceland, India, Spain, Chile and the USA, have in common that their protagonists have been the new generations. Thousands of young people have started to take to the streets to show their outrage at the unjust world they've inherited, accepting the challenge of becoming the protagonists for social change and adopting Active Nonviolence as a methodology of action.
The expression of these young people, added to the best efforts of previous generations, is starting to give rise to the birth of a new planetary sensibility.
This is a new sensibility that makes a void to leaders accustomed to manipulating everything. It not only speaks of horizontality but also exercises it on a daily basis in its different forms of self-managed organisation. It is a new sensibility that doesn't just tolerate diversity but accepts it and drives it forward; comprehending that such diversity is necessary if the requirement is to produce real changes. It recognises the banks and speculative capital as the real adversaries who have hijacked representative democracy making plain the need to advance towards Direct Democracy.
This is a new sensibility that is no longer surrendering its subjectivity to the official communication media in the hands of Financial Capital but rather is using and appropriating new technologies and social networks in order to communicate, inform, denounce, organise and take to the streets.
And, perhaps, the most important thing is that this new sensibility's intuition tells it that at the base of social injustice, physical, economic, racial and religious violence is to be found. And therefore its response to repression and defamation is a void, non-confrontation and civil disobedience, in sum: Active Nonviolence.
This new sensibility is a sign of the new world that is being born in the midst of an old world that, with great violence and repression, is trying to stay put.
* The "Humanist Statement" forms part of the "Sixth Letter to my Friends", written by Silo on the 5th of April, 1993, included in his Collected Works, Volume 1, Page 488, Latitude Press, USA.
Towards the Universal Human Nation
Over the last 20 years, global communication and interconnection have been increasing and certain aspects of this phenomenon have been defined as "globalisation." But humanists, as internationalists and aspiring to a plural and diverse world, see in this globalisation the signs of anti-humanism. Because it happens that global economic power has tried to direct this process in accordance with its own interests, creating a Parastate at both a national and global level. This Parastate operates within national borders by buying or blackmailing governments and manipulating public opinion through control of the mass media. And it also operates internationally, having at its service economic institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO; creating international courts along the way such as ICSID; using the USA's and NATO's armies as the world's police force; and covering all of its misdeeds with a veneer of legality by controlling the decisions of the United Nations. Public opinion is also manipulated through the international press.
So what happens is that the people of the world not only have to confront the problems within their own borders, but they also feel that many of their problems are generated globally, and that they don't have the means to resolve them. And just as humanists say that within our borders we must take power through Real Democracy in order to have representatives that genuinely represent us; so also at a global level we must work to dismantle this Parastate that covers itself with a cloak of respectability through organisms that are mere proxies of global economic power.
Therefore, the image of advancing towards a Universal Human Nation must not only be a luminous utopia guiding the struggles of the people, but also a strategic conception from which tactical actions arise that lead to the power of this Global Parastate being disassembled, while simultaneously the pillars of a truly Universal Human Nation are being built. Because this Universal Human Nation, which might seem to be a mere expression of desires for older generations, is already appearing as a visible horizon for the new generations and for this new sensibility.
From now on, between the present situation and the horizon that is approaching, we must travel a path of action, and some of these actions are those that we propose in this document.
A change of economic paradigms
In a world in which money has become the central value of existence, we shouldn't be surprised by the consequences of such denial of meaning of human life. We are not surprised by the growing inequity in the distribution of wealth as we are dealing with individualistic competition in which there has to be winners and losers by necessity. We are not surprised by the successive financial crises and their correlate of recession in a system that can only be sustained by growing debt. We are not surprised by wars over scarce natural resources in a world preyed upon by the consumerism of the most well off. We are not surprised by social violence when increasing numbers of people feel like failures and are marginalised, in contrast to the paradise offered by consumerist advertising. And we shouldn't feel surprised by nihilism, madness and suicide when existence has lost its meaning, and material success is supposed to replace it.
Of course there are procedures to transform this inhuman economic system; improving the distribution of income, disciplining the financial system, and advancing towards sustainable development that allows a dignified life for every human being without devastating the planet. But it would be naïve to expect the spontaneous application of such procedures without previously driving forward a genuine change of paradigms in the conception of the economy based on a profound change of cultural values.
There are those who believe that, due to the mere fact that economic crises affect many people, there will be a majority convinced of the need to change the economic system. But it's not so, because individualism has permeated deeply and the fact that many individuals converge in protest in the face of a generalised crisis does not mean that individualism has been transcended, and so it's not so simple to move on to other organisational forms that can really replace the system.
So the proposal for transformation of the economic system cannot be proposed just in terms of technical feasibility or in terms of convenience for the majority. It must be proposed from a social mystique that has the ethic of coherence as a banner, which in economic terms means to place the resolution of the basic needs of all inhabitants of the world before the interests of any other sector or individual.
We know that today we have the conditions to resolve the basic needs for the whole world. There are more than enough examples of what could be done with the resources that are today destined to weapons, financial speculation, the production of luxury goods and irrational consumerism. This should be enough to change the direction of the economic forces themselves and, in a short time frame, convert and multiply the means of production, so ending up with less weapons and more food, less resources going to speculation and more into production. But the direction of economic forces will not change just because we ask those who live at the top of the pyramid to dismantle it. It will change when a good part of those of us who act like bricks in this pyramid stop sustaining it, and this will be achieved when we stop believing in the pyramid. And this means new values, new paradigms, and a social mystique that implants them in the hearts of human beings.
In fact the degree of growing perversion in the relationship between capital and labour is possible thanks to the fact that a reigning individualism in the population prevents joint responses and leaves the vast majority unarmed in front of a powerful economic minority. But this absurdity is so great that awareness is rising in increasingly large sections of the population. The Humanist Party around the world must work to organise and give analytical elements to the greatest possible number of people. Our response, active nonviolence, shows us that the first step is to denounce those who should not be collaborating with those who use violence. Just as at the right time we will have to press for non-collaboration with violent States, also we will have to advocate for non-collaboration with capital that mistreats the population. In some moment workers (and consumers) will have to take on social development projects built without the intervention of capitalist partners (or with those who allow for a fair and reciprocal relationship). In some moment the population will stop demanding their needs from capital and will decide to resolve them as a whole. "We don't want your loans or your jobs, or your products or your services." This will only be possible when reciprocity starts to take the place of individualism.
Towards Real Democracy
As humanists we reject totalitarianism and dictatorships of all kinds because we think that the freedom of human beings to decide their own destiny, without lords, or bosses is an unalienable right in all circumstances.
But we also denounce the hypocrisy of formal democracies, in which the powerful of the economic-political-media corporation use their capacity for manipulation to leave the population with false electoral choices, leaving them to choose between the "least bad" executioner and the supposed chaos of institutional instability.
It is clear that in today's world not all freely elected governments are the same; there are those more progressive and those more conservative. But whether through complicity, inability, or the limitations imposed by economic power, they have not wanted or not been able to put the process into reverse. Because one thing is having the good intention of "compensating" those least favoured by this system (despite which marginalisation increases anyway), and another is to transform the very structure of the system so that it stops being a machine for marginalising people. And since the failure of real socialism, there have been no new alternatives to the present situation.
In any case, the possibility for people to intervene in public politics is barely more than electing their supposed representatives in elections. So if we want substantial transformations in the world, we must achieve greater participation of citizens in the decisions that affect them most, and not be at the mercy of the markets or the authorities.
In concrete terms, among other things, all of this means binding popular consultations for decisions of certain relevance, it means participatory budgets, it means direct elections for all positions of authority and the possibility to recall people from their positions at any time.
But it's evident that just as we cannot pretend that those at the top of the economic pyramid are going to change the rules of the game by themselves, neither can we hope that those entrenched in political power thanks to formal democracy will legislate in order to give greater, real participation to the people in central decisions. So it will be necessary to promote the practice of Real Democracy right in the heart of society, supporting with our votes only those who commit themselves to implementing the necessary democratic transformations. And if there are no candidates with this commitment or those with it are not worthy of trust, then we will have to infiltrate the system with candidates of the people, at the same time as we organise non-collaboration and civil disobedience when enough organised people have become aware that this system is irreparable. However, there is no other way out of this trap of formal democracy, at least in the path that humanists propose, than through nonviolent struggle.
PROPOSALS
These proposals, besides being perfectible in their breadth and depth, and besides representing only a few examples of what could be done, may also be received in diverse ways by those who coincide with them according to their possibility to act. For some these may be ideals to be reached and used as a guide in the hour of choosing their governments. For others they may be mobilising images, a basis for organising to demand that governments take care to make them happen. Others will better see the option of participating politically and having such proposals in their own electoral platforms. And those that today have any modicum of power-political or economic - and genuinely aspire to a better world, perhaps may try to apply some of them.
Proposals for governments, advancing towards a confederation of national states with those who commit to these proposals
1. To establish at a constitutional level the obligation of the State to guarantee in concrete terms the coverage of the basic needs of the population with tax policies in accordance with this priority. Establishing, on the basis of the coverage of such needs, a percentage of the budget destined to helping less fortunate countries.
2. Dismantling all nuclear arsenals. The progressive reduction of conventional weapons by states. The renunciation of war as a means to resolve conflicts.
3. State control of the financial system. Creation of national and regional banks without interest, with a mixed administration including the participation of users and workers. Regulations that punish speculative practices and usury. International agreements to ensure productive reinvestment of company profits, the dismantling of tax havens and all evasive or speculative manipulation by private capital.
4. Free circulation and equality of rights in all countries, for all inhabitants of the planet. Freedom and equality of rights for all cultures and religions, guaranteeing the respect for diversity.
5. Implementation of mechanisms for a Real Democracy: binding consultations, direct elections to the three State powers, decentralisation, representation of minorities, the ability to recall mandates, political responsibility and participatory budgets in all State levels. Use of the mass media for informing people and debating issues to be decided, guaranteeing the plurality of opinions under equal conditions. International consultations for all inhabitants involved in regional or global politics.
Proposals for social mobilisation, to put pressure on governments and to build alternatives to the de-facto power
1. The demanding of popular consultations for every decision that governments must take in relation to economics, politics or social policy, denouncing non-consulted measures as anti-democratic.
2. The promotion of interchange, debate, education and circulation of information so that society as a whole may be able to form an opinion about all issues that should be subject to popular consultation. The utilisation of physical forums and social networks; demanding the media gives space for this and denouncing those who don't as the accomplices of formal democracy.
3. The elaboration of draft laws, the demanding of their consideration, and their promotion by the social-political alternative being constructed. A Law of Real Democracy (with the incorporation of all its mechanisms). Tax reforms that guarantee the redistribution of wealth and the productive reinvestment of profits. An Employee Ownership Law in business. State control of the financial system and the creation of interest-free banks.
4. Permanent mobilisation for two fundamental rights, Education and Healthcare, so that they may be public, free, universal and of high quality; demanding not only their existence but also a budget commensurate with their importance.
5. The promotion and publicising through all possible channels of the paradigms of a new culture for the Universal Human Nation: nonviolence, non-discrimination, reciprocity, liberty, social justice and meaning in life. While denouncing the values of individualism, consumerism, violence, xenophobia and war as retrograde steps.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST PARTY
As members of the IHP we have been working for years, in all countries where we are present, on the issues that we have referred to here. But in this moment of history, we are highlighting - as never before - a growing predisposition of the population, and in particular in new generations, to mobilise for this end. We also highlight a growing affinity for some of these issues in a few progressive governments; those with which we have had some measure of closeness.
Nevertheless, the mere current coincidence with some of our historical proposals should not confuse us as we define our present and future role. Surely we cannot pretend to make ourselves out to be the "clear vanguard" of social processes, not only for reasons of scale, but above all because such a position would respond to schemes that are obsolete and vertical. Surely our role should be to place ourselves in a position of parity, establishing relationships of reciprocity with those with whom we coincide. But this horizontal placement, devoid of manipulating intentions, should not be incompatible with a willingness to take on the challenge of giving clear references about the world we aspire to and the steps to take in order to achieve it. Such references can in no way be imposed by vertical power, but neither should they be weakened, relativised or given up, due to the fear of being confused with manipulators, or because we believe that, because of our scale, we have no right to speak firmly, or because we think that somehow a revolutionary process will mature in the world naturally.
These are moments in which to give a very clear signal from, and a very defined profile to, the Humanist Party. The new generations are emerging; they seek the tools and ideas needed to consolidate. If, because of an apparent situational advantage, we dilute our message with that of other groups who are similar but different, we could be weakening the understanding of our proposal and the necessary inspiration to carry forward a political, economic, social, cultural, ethical, psychological and spiritual revolution.
There is no guarantee that massive discontent with the consequences of the economic system alone will oblige governments to carry out structural changes.
There is no guarantee that discontent with formal democracy will lead governments to carry out transformations that go beyond cosmetic changes.
There is no guarantee that progressive governments will manage to pass from well-intentioned measures to a real change of the foundations of the system themselves.
There is no guarantee that all those who say they are working for a better world, genuinely seek a revolution, not only in its material aspects, but above all in its existential foundations.
What we can guarantee is that while the world is not yet a Great Universal Human Nation, there will be increasing numbers of humanists working genuinely for this aspiration; an aspiration millions of human beings are clamouring for, sometimes in silence.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
15M MOVEMENT: “YOUTH MANIFESTO”
15M MOVEMENT:
“YOUTH MANIFESTO”
FRIENDS:
“Our call for change unites us.
We want a new society that gives people priority over economic and political interests.
We want to demonstrate that society has not gone to sleep, and that we will keep fighting for what we deserve by peaceful means.
We want all this, and we want it now.” (Sol, May 2011).
YOUTH MANIFESTO: EVERYONE TO THE STREETS!
A ray of Sun, oh oh oh! Against Opression, oh oh oh!
A ray of Sun, oh oh oh! For liberation, oh oh oh!
LET’S LAUNCH A REVOLUTION TOGETHER THAT IS PARTICIPATORY, JOYFUL, INCLUSIVE AND PEACEFUL:
Stéphane Hessel says, “Get outraged!... for a peaceful uprising… Nonviolence is the path we must learn to follow. I am convinced that the future belongs to nonviolence, and to reconciliation among different cultures.”
We want the pending revolution: HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL. Dignity, education, healthcare, employment, housing, culture… FUTURE FOR ALL!! We are acting coherently through Active Nonviolence, which is a courageous stand denouncing all forms for violence that outrage us: physical, economic, racial, sexual, ideological, psychological, etc. “NONVIOLENCE IS OUR STRENGTH.”
“IF YOU DON’T LET US DREAM, WE WON’T LET YOU SLEEP”:
“We need to give a response to social and personal conflicts. But in a new way. Not with values that we don’t want, but with joy, good humor, and a good spirits among the people. With respect, with caring, encouraging unity and connection among all of us. We must give a clear signal, powerful and concise, a new attitude that we want to express in the world. Our action is born of the human need to overcome our limits, to liberate ourselves, and to create the type of society we really want.” With the Force that unites us, LET US THINK ABOUT WHAT WE TRULY NEED.
WE THE PEOPLE COME FIRST:
“Nothing above the human being and no human being above any other.” Not money, the banks, financial capital, the corrupt political powers or their leaders – none of them above the human being. They laugh in our faces with their pockets overflowing. Now IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF US TO LAUGH. “We have awoken, and now we want breakfast!” “We want happiness and freedom to grow in ourselves and in those around us.”
TO BE HAPPY, WE ALL NEED THE FUTURE:
Nelson Mandela tells us: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
But why study? Why should we make an effort? Most of us are unemployed or earning poverty wages. For how much longer?
They are leaving us “with no future, no work, no house, no pension… without fear.” “We want to see ourselves dancing toward the future with the light feet of joy!” WE WANT THE FUTURE NOW!!
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, UNITE: WE ARE A UNIVERSAL HUMAN NATION.
Martin Luther King said: “I have a dream that one day… injustice and oppression will be transformed into freedom and justice… and the whole human race will unite in a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
Everywhere we have problems: in Egypt, Tunisia, Morrocco, Iceland… and they have begun to fight by agreeing on a change. Now in the rest of Europe and the Americas, and soon in every country on the Planet, in every town and city. EVERYONE TO THE PUBLIC SQUARES!
We want uncensored internet all around the world. We want a worldization that supports all ethnicities, languages, customs and beliefs - a convergence of cultures.
WE HAVE FAITH AND HOPE THAT ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE:
We want a world where we live together in happiness, all of us and not just a few. A WORLD WITHOUT WARS, WITHOUT WEAPONS, WITHOUT HUNGER, WITHOUT POVERTY, AN ECOLOGICALLY SOUND WORLD FULL OF SOLIDARITY… with equal rights and opportunities for all human beings. “To struggle for the rights of the minorities is to struggle for the rights of all.” “No human being is illegal.”
REAL DEMOCRACY NOW!
Enough hypocrisy. Money is everything: it buys the governments, the laws, the communications media… We say enough!! We want RESPONSES TO THE REAL NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE. WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO STATE OUR OPINION AND DECIDE TOGETHER, instead of having a few decide for us.
Politicians who have been elected through direct democracy must faithfully represent the will of the citizens and be at their service. Sovereignty resides in the people, and we the people must be continually vigilant. We aspire to have all laws undergo Referendum. So that we are not betrayed, we demand THAT ELECTORAL PROMISES BE FULFILLED, that they cannot be changed by the financial interests of the powerful.
THE POWERFUL DO NOT REPRESENT US.
The politicians of the system want to silence our voices (sometimes by force and violence), so that they can keep living at the expense of our silence. The politicians have gone to the rich from the “monster” of the capital market. Let them resign and join this revolution.
GIVE US FULL EMPLOYMENT AND DIGNIFIED WORK!
José Luis Sampedro said: “I urge you to move forward in the struggle for a more human life… you will find many obstacles in your path, but it is your future that is at stake. May 15 must be more than an oasis in the desert; it must be the beginning of an arduous struggle so that finally we no longer are – or are seen as – ‘merchandise in the hands of the politicians and bankers.’ We say NO TO FINANCIAL TYRANNY AND ITS DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES.”
NO TO ECONOMIC VIOLENCE. No to speculation and usury. No to fiscal paradises. No to the scandalous sharing of benefits among those who control capital and business, without considering the workers and the unemployed. No to the scandalous differences in salary in the same business, in the same country, and in different countries and regions of the planet.
We need a bank that serves the people. “The Bank always makes a profit and never gives us any of it.” Democratize all businesses. Let the workers also come together and organize in assemblies. Support businesses that organize dignified strikes. Support cooperative societies and businesses and worker self-management.
WE RESPECT DIVERSITY:
Gandhi said: “Violence only engenders more violence.”
If we wish to reach common agreements, we have to respect creativity and diversity, and not impose our own point of view. Any kind of imposition is violence, and such violence only limits us, and is unnecessary.
The violence of the states and entrenched powers against the people and their manipulation of us is an outrage. “Against your violence, my peace; against your nightstick, my word.”
WE ASK THE SUPPORT OF ALL THE PEOPLE, ORGANIZATIONS AND COLLECTIVES THAT ARE ALREADY WORKING FOR A BETTER AND MORE HUMAN WORLD.
LET’S CHANGE HISTORY: LET’S SAY YES TO HISTORY!!
We give thanks for the example and inspiration of all who have fought actively and peacefully down through History, so that we might arrive at this point. We ask the support of all who feel solidarity with us so that we can continue in this task. Struggling together we will leave a much better world for everyone. We have the capability and the strength to change history. This is the moment to act.
THE PUBLIC SQUARE IS A SYMBOL OF THE SPIRIT THAT UNITES ALL HUMAN BEINGS:
WE DO NOT WANT EMPTY WORDS.
Together we have generated a unique new process which, if we apply ourselves, can lay the foundations for a true cultural, social and personal revolution. A revolution of all and for all, in which the central value is the human being, and the methodology is active nonviolence.
If this is to endure over time we need to organize. We need an organization that is not bureaucratic, but based on human communication: communication that enriches us and allows us to grow together. Communication that does not lead us to despair or separation; communication based on respect, communication that incites to us action.
That is why we propose, here and now, that we take a moment to think about all the difficulties we’ve had, and everything we have learned from those difficulties…
And now let us remember those good moments that neither we nor the world will ever forget …
BECAUSE THIS IS NOT UTOPIA, THIS IS REALITY
LET’S ALL PARTICIPATE!!
THE FUTURE IS OURS!!
EVERYONE TO THE PUBLIC SQUARES!!
Video: You tube Manifiesto de l@s jóvenes tod@s a las plazas (Everyone to the Public Squares – Youth Manifesto) http://youtu.be/zhI-qK_klJM
Contact: manifiestodelosjovenes@gmail.com
Facebook: Manifiestodelosjovenes Todosalasplazas
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