Council Gamma                                 Support sector                                                03 2001

FIRST MEETING OF THE “HUMANIST MOVEMENT”
“ A life without violence”

For the conductors of the meeting:
Who are the participants of the works?
Let’s suppose that the person arriving at the meeting does not know anybody else and does not understand clearly what  he/ she is going to do  there. We advice, for example , to ask at least everybody’s name and to make a warm  welcome. 
Role of the conductor during the meeting. The task of the conductor is that of creating an adequate atmosphere so that participants can do personal work. At the same time his/her function is to give participants the instruments needed to do the work. Language and explanations have to be clear. Explanations just refer to how it’s possible to elaborate every step and how much time is needed. The conductor cannot do the personal work of others. It’s not through  explanations that a progress in internal work is possible but through experiences that one has. The least the conductor participates, the most and the best the participants can talk to each other and get experience.
It is possible that for some people the experience of participating to a meeting is limited at recognizing  that he/she has got many difficulties, but this may constitute a great step (progress), especially if the environment has been agreeable, without pressures and criticism.
We aim at working with group of 6 people. If we’re waiting for many participants ( thing we aspire to) an amplifier can be useful
Think of beverages and some snacks ready during the whole period of the meeting.

Development : 
1.	Welcome and game 
2.	Discussion among participants 
3.	Introduction 
4.	Writing briefly on a situation of personal violence in which one is living
5.	Reading (only people that want) of what has been written and discussion.
6.	Group work: short advice of the whole to each author.
7.	Relation games 
8.	Positive things 
9.	Individual written resolution 
10.	Quality of  the people 
11.	Conclusions……..

Development of the meeting:

1)	Welcome and introductory game (the knot, groups of 6 - 8) 
2)	Discussion among participants (in groups formed in the game) on: A) personal activities B) personal project in the future C) reason why he/she is participating at the meeting. 
3)	Introduction ( read by the conductor, it is possible to make copies to give to every participant)

The frame of this Gathering was based on the following Contemporaneous Humanism’s theses.

Human existence develops within social and personal contradictions that are established by historical conditions. (Understanding by “historical conditions” the social environment in which we are born) 

The contradiction has a correlation in the personal register of suffering. As a consequence, when facing contradictory social conditions, human beings identify their suffering with the suffering of those social groups that are submitted to the same conditions.  

Social contradiction is the product of violence. The appropriation of the social whole by a few is violence and that violence is at the base of contradiction and suffering. Depriving the intentionality of others (and indeed their freedom) it is a manifestation of violence; it is the action that submerges the human being into the natural world.

The different forms of violence (physical, racial, religious and economic) are expressions that negate what is human in others.   

The personal and social suffering must be overcome by changing the factors that permit the illegal and violent appropriation and instated contradiction in the world. The struggle to overcome suffering provides continuity to the historical process and meaning to human beings, because it affirms their intentionality that is denied by others.

The reflection on this thesis carries us to the comprehension that the majority of “personal problems” do not exist. What indeed exists is a field of social and interpersonal relationship, a social contradictory situation, a series of unresolved tensions and problems in society. Authoritarianism, hunger and misery, unemployment, exploitation, persecution, discrimination, ideologies, repressive moral believes and values, in short, different forms of violence that are acting as a permanent background demanding and pressuring each of us. Some people – due to their living situation, are more exposed to a precise range of social problems, we may say that they are “victims” of that problem. 

What generally confuses things is the fact that the living experience, the social register is personal – above all within the area one feels more affected by – we feel it in our own bodies. Then, by trying to exit that situation of personal suffering and searching to resolve that problem one experiences as personal and typical, each of us launch individual responses hoping to modify the situation. (If I’m laid off from my job I’ll get another.  If a particular group does not accept me I’ll try to “improve myself socially” or search for another group. If my social status is low and limits me, I’ll try to climb through a study or profession. If I don’t have enough money I’ll work more time, etc.) If we achieve all of that, then everything seems to be in order once again… until the next social problem knocks at our door and so on and so forth.

Life, from this perspective, seems to be only a continuous suffering and resolving of “personal problems.” 
Nevertheless, if we understand we have certain kind of problems because the society we live in is organized in a determined way, and that only if the basic conditions are modified – that is to say, the social problems – then the individual life will obtain greater freedom of option. If this is understood, then the perspective for overcoming the individual suffering will be different.

Let’ us remember that if the unjust distribution of wealth would cease to exist, many people would stop having personal financial problems. If a divided social or class stratum society would cease to exist, many people would stop suffering due to social or prestigious placement. If we were not subdued to a determined moral, many personal conflicts related to sex – that come from it -would disappear. If the situation of a country or a society would cease to be so contradictory and its future so uncertain, many people would stop suffering due to the lack of future and meaning in their lives, etc.

Then, from this perspective, the overcoming of personal and social suffering is seen and understood as a work for personal development in terms of social transformation.  It is a concomitant work.

4)	Brief written work on the situation of personal violence in which one lives.
Without further explanation, the idea is that participants describe the situation of violence that they experiment every day. You should provide  paper and pens for all of them. We mean ( consider, acknowledge ) that for each of us it is difficult to recognize violence as ours and near. Usually we think that others are violent or that violence can be found in aspects of life that are far from us. The conductor has to understand that this is a first approaching to the theme and that one gets to the most true part of a person not with explanations or forcing, but understanding, and especially thank to the confidence that none is going to judge or criticize)

5) Facultative reading of the written works and discussion.
( It is recommended to say that reading is optional because this freedom encourages many people to read what they’ve written. The conductor does not intervene in the discussion but at the beginning can encourage the participants to read some more details of the described situations. He/She can interrupt  the person that dwells or that “looses the theme” looking at the time left so that nobody feels judged) 

6) Brief recommendation from the whole to each author. It has to be explained that the person receiving advice takes note of it without discussing or looking for justification, but taking it as help from the other participants.
( In this step the conductor is going to explain that it’s an advice from the whole, so that he /she will ask to define the advice, with everybody’s consent, will be considered convenient for each participant . The conductor will take into account that his/her comments are considered very important for new people and can be seen as judgements or evaluations on the exposed personal situation. In this case, right and precise advice like non-violence, the choice, solidarity, reciprocity etc… can help in case  that other values create confusion or controversy.) 

7) Games (the defamation)
It has got the function of releasing the tensions accumulated  during the works and also helps to acquire a more jocose point of view on personal situations. Playing games in which one looses balance or does a mistake, ( this ) helps experimenting that, in spite of these errors or mistakes, others keep considering him. Games help to create bonds among participants, help in making flexible one’ self-image and take a certain distance from problems. 

8) Positive things
When we talk about improving or getting over ( that’s the way we use to say), we always imagine improving as overcoming difficulties or personal defaults. We will now try to recognize interesting and positive things in us, good attitudes we have and that others see in us. To do so we’ve got to let ourselves go, we’ve got to  keep off all the negative stuff and try to recognize, without hesitating, our qualities.
What do i recognize interesting in me? We’re not talking of those things that went well, but of what’s interesting, personal positive qualities, virtues.
A)	Each one looks for his/her positive qualities and writes his/ her virtues.
B)	Everyone reads his/ her virtues’ inventory and others add the qualities they see in him/ her.

9) Using qualities:
A)	To reconsider the situation of violence exposed to the beginning of the meeting or another that results us more daily and near.   
B)	To look for, among the list, one or two virtues that it would be useful to me in that situation. 
C)	To imagine more as clearly as possible how it will be my conduct based on those virtues, in those situations.   
D)	To intend to realize 2 or 3 concrete actions of that kind within the 2 following weeks.

10) People’s qualities 
Comments of the conductor:
In the important moments of our lives we make corrections that rise from the relationships we institute among our past personal experience and things we aspire to in our future. This image of future- who we want to be- has got an influence on our present in every moment. This image we make of the future is as much important as our past in order to create our personal identity. We’re not just the things done in the past and that others have done towards us, we also are our projects, our desires, our aspirations.
That’s right not only for the persons, but also for the peoples.

Each participant makes an inventory of the qualities of his/her people.
The conductor writes them very big (on a board or a play-bill)

Comments of the conductor:
In front of the growing desorder and violence in this inhuman system in which we have to live; it will be the social base that will be able to grow minimum autonomous organizations based on the immediate needs. This capacity of re-create new Humanist’s Moments is in the deepest qualities of each people. With which of these qualities it is possible to contribute to the birth of an Universal Human Nation? Participants decide which are the most useful virtues ( it’s ok also if it’s all of them) 

11) To conclude:
We cannot suggest anyone what’s his/her meaning in life, but we can propose the project of the Movement, that’s a concrete and every-day action’s proposal.

Participants are invited to take part in the already active action’s fronts or to launch new ones.