general resolution adopted
Who could have said a few years ago that the Libre Pensee would be able to make those who refuse the tight grip of religions on society and who seek to organise in order to safeguard the freedom of conscience through the separation of religions and the state converge toward a common goal ? And yet, since the World Congress of the Free thought of July, 2005, this process of rebuilding a true International of Freethinkers is engaged.
In France, where the separation of the Churches and the State formally exists, the Libre Pensee, through the success of the demonstration of December 10th, 2005, in the continuation of the World Congress of July, has put back on the agenda the issue of the complete and absolute restoration of the 1905 law. New perspectives have been opened in the rallying together of secularist organisations. The campaign for inventories, by publishing the amount of billions of public funds given to the Churches, will show the relevance of the republican demand of all public funds to the secular public school, exclusively.
At the international level, the Libre Pensee has the ambition of reviving the method of the international congress of 1904 : rallying together all those who want to fight for the separation of religions and the State. The World Congress of the Free Thought of July 4th, 2005 actually revived this tradition.
The fight for the separation has taken many forms during this year:
in the USA, different campaigns based on legal actions, before the Supreme Court as well as federal law courts, have brought the defeat of clericalism, such as in the Dover Case in Pennsylvania (the end of teaching of creationism in public schools) and in Iowa (the end of public funding of chaplainries in State Prisons).
in Canada, the international campaign launched in Ontario, in which the National Federation of the Libre Pensee took part, forced the provincial government to repeal the 1991 law of arbitration legalising religious tribunals.
in Australia, the Australian National Secular Association (ANSA) recently established, held in Melbourne in June, 2006, a first national conference on the separation of Religions and the State. The ANSA is currently engaged in the inventory of the large sums of public funds that are being embezzled for the sole benefit of religious charities and organisations, which our Australian friends call “the purple economy”.
in Nepal the crisis of the monarchy raises the question of the establishment of a secular republic.
in Bolivia Evo Morales imposed the nationalisation of the exploitation of oil and has a project for the secularisation of education.
in Ireland, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin is forced to claim his opposition to the « secularisation of society » which is gaining ground.
in Slovakia, the government was unable to ratify this year the Concordat signed with the Vatican in 2000 and was forced to reject it because it « might give too much weight to the Catholic Church in the process of secular decisions ».
in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has seen organised plundering and so-called ethnic conflicts claiming thousands of victims, our Nigerian friends have just held 10th National Conference and demand the separation of religions and the State according to the federal constitution.
Everywhere, at the national as well as the international level, the Libre Pensée seeks to help the rallying together of activists and organisations, to defend, restore or establish the separation of religions and the State : isn’t this the common goal which unites the Libre Pensee and all the other secularist, humanist, atheist, rationalist associations that want to fight, each in its own way, against every kind of clericalism ? In this federating fight, the Libre Pensee asserts its specific role as an organisation which fights against all religions, all dogmas and for human emancipation.
The Libre Pensée intends to play this role at the international level. In this purpose, the national congress held in Lamoura is committing itself immediately in the militant preparation of the upcoming world meeting of the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Free Thinkers, on the occasion of the IHEU Congress in Washington DC, in 2008.
For the restoration and the respect of the 1905 Law !
For the absolute freedom of conscience !
For the separation of religions and the States !
