by Klaus Hartmann

If we are to believe the political announcers, we are constantly living in times of change, from one turning point to the next, so to speak. When the GDR came to an end in 1989, and with it the first German peace state, it was glossed over as a “turning point”. In the 1980 Bundestag election campaign, Helmut Kohl, who later became Chancellor of Germany, promised a “spiritual and moral turnaround”, and this came with the reduction of social benefits, which was supposed to strengthen “individual responsibility”, everyone was supposed to be the “architect of his own fortune”, pupils and students were no longer to be politicised but were to prepare their careers, and on top of everything, the hymn of individualism was sung.

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Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

Jean-Marie Jacoby, Generalsekretär der Weltunion der Freidenker

Der Generalsekretär der Weltunion, Jean-Marie Jacoby aus Luxemburg, führte in seinem Vortrag „Der Welten Lage ändert sich“ aus: „Die Weltherrschaft der USA geht zu Ende. Der Hegemon fällt und ein Riese der fällt, kann Schaden anrichten beim Aufprall. Fix aber ist, daß nur mehr 35 Länder dem Hegemon gehorchen – das ist die Zahl der Länder, die bereit waren, sich selbst wirtschaftlich zu schädigen mit antirussischen Sanktionen.

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The question implies that the tasks of the freethought movement have changed over time. What has not changed are the general goals of the freethinkers – and I always understand the word synonymously with socialist freethinkers, because with the bourgeois atheists and critics of religion there can be no lasting common theoretical and strategic basis beyond selective cooperation – the supreme goal was and is the overcoming of man’s self-alienation caused by class society, Underneath this are the sub-goals of propagating the Enlightenment, criticising religion, fighting against the social power of the churches, fighting against economic exploitation, for political freedom, cultivating an association life that fulfils the members spiritually and culturally and offers them friendship and sociability.

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Dr. Corinna Oesch, Wien, Historikerin mit Fokus auf Frauen- und Geschlechter­geschichte

Dr. Corinna Oesch aus Wien erinnerte an die historische Situation, in der es zu den demokratischen Revolutionen in Europa und der Revolution 1848/49 in Deutschland gekommen ist. Ausgehend von der Französischen Revolution und einer Abfolge von Reaktion und neuerlichem Aufbegehren kulminierte die Demokratiebewegung letztlich in der Deutschen Nationalversammlung, die am 18. Mai 1848, also genau vor 175 Jahren, in der Frankfurter Paulskirche eröffnet wurde.

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Peter Berger, Trésorier der Weltunion der Freidenker

Der Neutralitäts-Status wird derzeit sowohl in der Schweiz wie in Österreich kontrovers diskutiert. Wie stehen dabei die Fronten? Wie glaubwürdig ist die Neutralität der beiden Länder vor dem Hintergrund ihrer Geschichte und ihrem Handeln in der gegewärtigen Krise? Ergeben sich aus dem Entstehen einer multipolaren Weltordnung neue Perspektiven für neutrale Staaten?

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Vladimir Kršljanin, Belgrade, spoke at the WUF congress via video link.

by Vladimir Kršljanin

Distinguished comrades and friends,

Today we are all, willingly or unwillingly, part of the decisive battle of the World history – battle for the New World.

The question is whether the human civilization can survive (and win) or the mankind will disappear under the burden of criminal oligarchic dictatorship. For all of us, only the first answer is possible.

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