In a communiqué entitled “Nonviolence, an urgent commitment”, the Humanist Movement of Cordoba welcomed the initiative of the League of Governors to “make visible the need to install Peace and Nonviolence as guiding principles of life in common in Argentinean society”.

The mention refers to the document signed by the governors of 15 Argentine provinces a few days afterwards the failed attack against Vice-President Cristina Fernández, which, among other issues, expresses the recommendation to President Alberto Fernández to create a “Commission for Peace and Non-Violence”. We want to reaffirm the need to contribute together to a climate of national pacification,” the governors said.

For their part, the militants of New Humanism pointed out how their movement has worked since its origins “to forge and expand a culture of non-violence, promoting numerous actions in all fields of social activity”.

It is important to remember, in the context of this statement, the hostile framework in which the movement emerged. Its first public event took place in 1969, in the midst of the Onganía dictatorship, in a mountainous area near the Andes, due to the military regime’s repeated prohibitions on making its message heard in urban centres. Proscription and persecution continued and forced many of its activists into exile.

Already in that first harangue, its founder, Silo, would expand the vulgar conception of the term “violence” by saying: “Violence in man, moved by desires, does not remain only as a disease in his consciousness, but acts in the world of other men, exercising itself with the rest of the people. Do not think that I speak of violence as referring only to the armed act of war, where men tear other men to pieces. That is a form of physical violence. There is economic violence: economic violence is violence that makes you exploit another; economic violence is when you steal from another, when you are no longer a brother to another, but a bird of prey for your brother. There is also racial violence: do you think you do not exercise violence when you persecute someone who is of a different race to you, do you think you do not exercise violence when you defame them because they are of a different race to you? There is religious violence: do you think that you do not exercise violence when you give us work, or close the doors, or fire someone, because he is not of your own religion? Do you think that it is not violence to encircle someone who does not agree with your principles by defamation; to encircle him in his family, to encircle him among his beloved people, because he does not agree with your religion?

In line with this message, the signatories of the communiqué affirm that non-violence should be the central axis of a state policy that aims to “transform the conditions that generate different forms of violence.

The statement released affirms that, in addition to overcoming unworthy social situations, it is necessary “a profound process of reflection so that the universal premise of relationship is to treat others the same way we want to be treated.”

Finally, it calls on each person to actively commit themselves to Nonviolence, from their place of influence, in order to “build the world that we want, need and deserve as human beings”.

Below, we reproduce the original text of the statement, to which collectives and individuals can adhere by clicking on the link https://cloud.disroot.org/apps/forms/yDgK9RA7HqL9Fdir.

Nonviolence, an urgent commitment

The Humanist Movement of Cordoba welcomes the initiative of the League of Governors to make visible the need to install Peace and Nonviolence as guiding principles of life in common in Argentinean society.

Since its origins, New Humanism has worked tirelessly to forge and expand a culture of Nonviolence, promoting numerous actions in all fields of social activity.

We believe that Nonviolence must become the axis of State policies aimed at transforming the conditions that generate different forms of violence.

We also affirm that well-intentioned declarations and regulations will not be enough to achieve this goal if people do not intend to initiate a profound process of reflection so that the universal premise of relationships is to treat others in the same way we want to be treated.

We call on society as a whole to make an active commitment to Nonviolence in order to build the world we want, need and deserve as human beings.

HUMANIST MOVEMENT OF CORDOBA
Cordoba, September 2022

First adhesions:

World Without Wars and Without Violence Cordoba
Centre for Humanist Studies of Cordoba
Humanist Party Cordoba
The Community for Human Development Cordoba
Humanist Feminists
Cassandra Base Team Humanist Party
The Community for Human Development Salta
Intentional Community Abriendo Futuro (Opening the Future)
Social Humanism. Puerto General San Martín, Santa Fe
Humanist Neighbourhood Movement Moreno
THE COMMUNITY for Human Development (Aso.Civil)
Humanist Feminists La Pampa.
Humanist Feminists Cordoba
Community of Silo’s Message, Cordoba
Community of Silo’s Message
Humanist Party of Entre Rios
Humanist Feminists Alberti
COPEHU- Cordoba. Universalist Humanist Pedagogical Current of Cordoba
Convex Concave
Community of Villa Crespo CABA
Collective for nonviolence Mar del Plata

Individual supporters

Pamela Facello, humanist from Entre Rios
Diana Varela, retired.
Alejandra Elena Vittar, Teacher
Tala Gonzalez,
Arturo Lorusso – retired
Alberto José Castro, teacher
Nélida Ester Rey, retired.
Claudia Monica Varela, Kinesiologist
Ana Tolcachier, Student
Eloy de LLamas, visual arts
Haro Paz Juanito, computer scientist
Margarita Ponce de Leon, retired
Conny Henrichmann, translator
Andrea Franco, Humanist activist. Mum, trader.
Noe Costas
Silvia Tabarini – retired
Ochoa Graciela, Humanist feminist.
Sandra Lewy Smith
Marello, Danilo. Teacher
Guillermina Rodríguez, Peronist, Mataderos
Ana Maria Ferreyra, Pensioner
Hugo Alberto Cammarata
Gerardo Spidalieri
Omar Abraham, Trader
Cynthia Fisdel, Humanist
Javier Tolcachier, Communicator
Bernardita Zalisñak
Gabriela Inés Adorni, Psychologist.
Susana Malvasio, Pensioner
Paulina Peralta, student
Valentina Cusmai, student
Pamela Taverna – Psychologist
Juan Armando Caro – Designer
Pablo Sequeira, Salesman
César Almada
Carmela Acebedo, student
Carlos Alberto Flores, Independent
Juana Aurora Barragan, Socio Therapist Operator
Agostina Beccaria, employee
Sol Arrieta, work in an electronics repair shop
Alejandro Tolcachier, Lic. in Mathematics, Doctoral Student
Hugo Omar Moyano, Humanist
T. Miriam Moyano, retired teacher