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The movement surges in 1969, in South America, as a response to a world in crisis. The first 12 years were characterized by small study groups and investigation teams. During these years the doctrine and the way of organizing is formalized and the first attempts to organize socially occur. The next 12 years saw the emphasis change, now being the launching of social organizations like the Community for Human Development, cultural organizations like The Centres of Cultures, and political organizations like the Humanist Party. Committed core groups are organized during this period in about 50 countries. The next stage starts around 93-94 and it is quite different: It is characterized by works in the social base, mass organizations and concrete social projects like education and health. The movement also expands to countries where we were not present, and to social sectors within countries where we already are. At this moment we are in more than 120 countries and growing very rapidly in all continents.

Ideology

The basic objective has always been the same: To make our contribution to the formation of the Universal Human Nation; said in a different way, to Humanize the Earth. The ideological pillars are not many, but they are important :

• Not to place anything above the human being, socially speaking
• Respect and promotion of the diverse.
• No discrimination and active non-violence as the method of action
• Putting into practice the Principle of Solidarity

From the very beginning we have always been working on two fronts simultaneously: Social development and personal growth, knowing that it is not enough to work with social projects if there is no personal change in those that execute them (i.e. we must work on becoming more peaceful ourselves, of we expect our promotion of a non-violent world  to be effective). And it t is incoherent not to do anything for others, not to work on changing the social surroundings, if one wants to develop personally, because we are a part of our surroundings. Ignoring it is like ignoring an integral part of ourselves.

Strategies and tactics:

We want to have our ideas and our solutions present in every culture, in every country  and in all major urban centres, where the majority of people live. The tactics we use in order to reach people and bring about changes are quite varied. From setting up small study groups to organizing large social projects like our massive educational project in Haiti and health centres like the ones we have in the Dominican Republic, or community actions, like entire cities declaring themselves “ Communities for a Non-violent World”

The underlying objective of these tactics is, however, always the same: To help people have more faith in themselves, in others and in the future and that they work together in building a better world, each one helping as much as they can and according to their own individual interests.

Organization

We are organized into autonomous councils that relate with each other in an organizational environment called “ The Assembly” where opinions are exchanged and criteria established. The orientors of these councils are members of this Assembly and they are called “General Coordinators”.  Each one of them orients 10 “Coordinators”( Only 7 coordinators are needed, if the General Coordinator is a woman, because in the movement there is policy to encourage women to become orientors and therefore they need less requirements on all levels, until there is a balance between men and women in all levels in the movement).

The Coordinators orient 10 “General Delegates”who in turn orient 10 “Team Delegates”. Finally, each Team Delegate orients 10 “Group Delegates”who in turn orient 10 “Adherants” each.

So, a general Coordinator is someone who orients more or less 10,000 members of the structure  as well as 100,000 adherants. Today, there are more or less 100 councils in the world,  with about 700,000 active members in the structures and  perhaps around 7 million adherants in all.

Everyone contributes their work voluntarily, in their spare time, as much as they can.

In comparison to the global population, these are not big numbers. But with the exponential growth the movement is having now there will soon come a time when these numbers become more interesting.

Each council works in different countries and in different cultures. In this way, each council forms a kind of a global movement and it coordinates with other councils that are working in the same countries whenever it is deemed to be important. Each council generates their own strategies and tactics.

Our council is called “Council 15” and has presently around 30,000 members in its structure, with around 500,000 adherants attached to it. Our strategy is to create structures in all continents and for that we use very few projects, basically those that are in health, education and the project “Communities for a non-violent world”.