Chris Wells

Following the announcement of the UN General Assembly calling on the world to observe the International Day of Nonviolence each year on October 2 - the birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, New Humanists all over the world celebrated this day and declared the importance of Active Non-violence as the only way out of the spiraling violence that now threatens us all.

Chris made the following remarks about Silo.

Thanks to the International Immigrants Foundation, representatives of the media, Dr. Mysorekar, Mr. Frazier, Mr. Geffen.

I have the great pleasure to speak to you today about Silo, to introduce to those of you who may not know of him, a writer, thinker, activist and for many people, including myself, a spiritual guide, who continues in a very active and vital way the legacy of non-violence launched by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Since the scope of Silo’s ideas, and the projects he has inspired, can only be hinted at within the span of a short talk, maybe the best thing is to tell a kind of story that will hopefully capture something of the flavor of this extraordinary man and the meaning of the movement he has inspired.

In May, 1969, high in the Andes (because under the Argentine military dictatorship it was forbidden to speak in the cities), Silo spoke publicly for the first time. In that remote outpost, surrounded by soldiers with machine guns as well as hundreds of friends, he spoke about the Healing of Suffering - about the need to overcome not just physical violence – but also economic, racial and religious violence, exploitation and exclusion, the violence done when one way of life is imposed on others. He also spoke about overcoming the suffering which is rooted in the violence within our own consciousness – a type of suffering that retreats before faith, before joy in life, before love.

From that time, Silo launched a project to humanize the world, which has evolved through various forms, finally taking shape in the Humanist Movement. Despite repression, despite distortions of his message, and a conspicuous silence about the work of a man who has been honored by the Russian National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to thought – despite all of this — the movement has reached more than 100 countries. It has found expression in neighborhood and cultural groups, volunteer health clinics and schools, campaigns for disarmament and Humanist political parties.

At the same time, Silo places great emphasis on the concrete human relationships that make up the core of our lives - relationships between friends, family and neighbors. And he has defended the right of all human beings to ask themselves about the meaning of their lives, about death, about friendship and love, values which have been so degraded in these cruel and materialist times.

In 2003, as the movement continued to develop, Silo launched a new project – Silo’s Message. The Message synthesizes an internal and spiritual vision that has informed the social activism of the movement from its beginnings. It is based explicitly on freedom of thought and belief (or non-belief), so that everyone is free to interpret and develop the Message as they wish.

Several times since those first days, Silo has returned to that spot in the Andes, called Punta de Vacas. In May of this year, together with thousands of friends, we met there for three days of spiritual inspiration, and to inaugurate our sacred Park of Silo’s Message. This park and others like it are our gift to the world, open to all, as lighthouses of a new spirit.

On that day, Silo spoke of Reconciliation as a profound spiritual experience. Reconciliation with ourselves and with those that have harmed us.

For myself, I heard in Silo’s words a deceptively simple but potent truth that lies at the heart of Non-violence. How else but through Reconciliation will we overcome the historical wounds and enmities that afflict us all? How else will we advance spiritually? How else but through this difficult but valid work will we open the future for ourselves, our loved ones and the great human family?

The path of vengeance and violence is a dead end, leading only to more and greater destruction.

Violence is spreading like wild-fire across the planet. We’re at the brink of a nuclear confrontation, and millions of innocent people have already been killed, wounded, and displaced by invasions and conflicts which are not generated by the majority, but imposed by a small minority with a monopoly of economic, political and military power, who resort to violence to defend their interests.

At the same time, a deep longing for peace is growing in the hearts of people, which must increasingly find social expression and gain the necessary strength to change the course of events.

This is the urgent work of today - this is the task of non-violence for these times.

I would like to end by quoting Silo:

We are at the end of a dark period in history and nothing will ever be the same as before. Little by little, the dawning of a new day will come. Cultures will begin to understand one another; the peoples will experience a growing yearning for progress for all, understanding that progress for the few ends up being progress for no one. Yes, there will be peace, and out of necessity it will be understood that the outline of a universal human nation is taking shape.

In the meantime we, the unheard, will work from today on, all over the world, to put pressure on the decision makers, to disseminate the ideals of peace based on the methodology of non-violence so as to prepare the way for the new times.

Thank you very much

September 27, 2007

The New Humanists of North America view with great concern the situation currently unfolding in Burma. The military regime, which has been in power illegally since 1962, is violently repressing the peaceful demonstrations across the country, shooting and arresting monks and promising “extreme measures”.

It is long past time the Military gave up their hold on power and set in motion a process of power transfer to a democratically elected government.

We fully support the actions of the protesting monks, nuns and other civilians of Burma who are using the tools of active non-violence to achieve social change: the most ethical and morally acceptable form of protest.

We take this occasion to demand the following immediate actions by the Burmese Regime:

· The immediate cessation of repression of the peaceful protests on the streets of Burma

· The announcement of plans to restore a democratic process in the country within the shortest possible time frame

· The immediate release of all political prisoners, especially the pro-democracy campaign leader, Aun Sang Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for years and in recent days has been transferred to a secure prison.

Internationally, we call on:

· The United Nations to take all possible steps to pressure the regime in Burma to relinquish power

· The governments of China and Russia, most notably, to stop showing implicit support to the Burmese regime by preventing the UN Security Council from taking resolutions critical of the Burmese Military, considering their own economic and political interests ahead of the interests of the people of Burma who are suffering terrible abuse.

This coming 2nd of October marks the International Day of Nonviolence as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations earlier in the year. We take this opportunity therefore to proclaim the historical examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the modern example of Mario Rodriguez Cobos, Silo, and promote active nonviolence as the only coherent way to achieve social change: change that is required to eliminate violence in all its forms from human society.

Chris Wells
Spokesperson for New Humanism
North America

Given the announcement in Mexico of the formation of a “humanist party” linked to the right, which joins others that have been formed in Peru, Brazil, and Central America; in order to avoid any confusion in the public opinion in those countries, we find ourselves obligated to point out that their intentions are to appropriate and to illegitimately distort a name that has long been associated with New Humanism, a very different current of thought. The foundations and the history of this current of thought are diametrically opposed to those that are proclaimed by the right all around the world. Given this, the right wing has neither moral authority nor the ideology to name the groups that they are forming “humanist”. The Humanist Party has been developed since 1984, based on an ideology, a spirit and a way of life known as New Humanism. We call on the Humanist Parties that are members of the Humanist International to initiate legal actions against these usurpers and to use all available channels of communication to clearly explain the difference between humanism and antihumanism.

In Latin American, humanists have suffered persecution, incarceration, assassinations and deportations at the hands of the military dictatorship in Chile and Argentina, which they combated with the methodology of Active Non-Violence, contributing to the re-establishment of democracy on the continent. In Europe, they protested against NATO and the arms build up, the discriminating laws against immigrants and against international financial capital, which was making its first attempts at eliminating peoples’ civil rights.

All Humanist Parties around the world adopted the Humanist Statement written by Silo in 1993, in which he clearly draws the dividing line between Humanism and Antihumanism. “…humanism puts labor before big capital, real democracy before formal democracy, decentralization before centralization, anti-discrimination before discrimination, freedom before oppression, and meaning in life before resignation, complicity and the absurd”.

In this way, the Humanist Parties have worked tirelessly (and continue to do so) to achieve the complete decentralization of power, be it political, economic or religious, searching for an advancement in the forms of direct democracy that surpass the formal democracy that is found today. They have also proposed mixed economic models that go beyond the fight between capitalism and statism, and promote freedom of beliefs and customs, overcoming intolerance and fundamentalism.

It is typical of the antihumanists to disguise themselves as “humanists”, because they are trying to confuse people and by doing so are hoping to gain electoral support that would be denied them if they were to show their real faces. That is why we want to warn people so that they are not misled by these linguistic bandits: humanism puts the human being as the central value, not God, nor the State, nor Capital. With this fundamental definition, the right will never be humanists and any attempt to appear so is nothing more than a cheap trick.

The Humanist Parties erupted into the political scene in over sixty countries around the world in the decade of the 80s, from the Humanist Movement’s social action groups inspired by Universal Humanism, a current of thought that came from the Latin-American thinker, Silo.

On January 7, 1989, in the city of Florence (Italy), the Humanist International was formed, and has continued to meet every year since. With the participation of thousands of representatives from Europe, America, Africa and Asia it approved the Declaration of Principles, in which human liberty is affirmed and all forms of violence are rejected, in particular economic violence.

Tomas Hirsch
Latin-American Spokesperson for Humanism
Chris Wells
North American Spokesperson for New Humanism
September, 2007

(New York 08/31/2007)
We have received disturbing news, corroborated by various sources, about the brutal repression of a peaceful demonstration organized by the CENTRAL UNITARIA DE TRABAJADORES in Santiago, Chile in which workers, students, politicians, including Senators and Deputies of the Concertación, Christian Democrats, Socialists and radicals all took part and were beaten, assaulted and injured just like in the worst times of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Among the injured and assaulted was the spokesperson for Humanism in Latin America and the Juntos Podemos candidate for the Presidency in the last election, our friend Tomás Hirsch, together with various other humanists and members of other organizations and parties. We know that instead of having their demands listened to attentively some were injured and physically wounded through the violent repression that was unleashed without respect for the fundamental rights that every citizen has.

New Humanists of North America denounce the violent acts and brutal repression of the Chilean government and of the police force during the peaceful and non-violent demonstration held on August 29th 2007 against the unpopular policies of the Chilean Government.

This is not an isolated incident, promoted by an isolated group of policemen, but rather the application of physical violence, economic violence and political repression to silence the voice of those who, in defense of the people’s living conditions, try to oppose the advance of particular multinational interests.

We express our total solidarity with Tomás Hirsch and with all the demonstrators in Chile and their demands.

We call on the Chilean Government to apologize to the demonstrators and the International Community for the acts of violence that not only affect those persecuted but also offend human dignity and freedom of expression across the world.

We are sending this message to all the Chilean Embassies and the media in North America.