INVITATION TO THE FESTIVAL OF THE RECONCILIATION OF HUMANITY ON JANUARY 30, 2025

Of course, this invitation is addressed to everyone, but I propose to those of you who are receiving this document to call it sharing it.

We cannot expect from the State, the armed unit, or the entities that depend on it that they promote this initiative of humanity and peace whose aim and mean is disarmament, which leads to human unity and harmony among us all humans and it is called by the white flag. This is what human reconciliation requires and other way will be useless, undermined by the arm.

Until the summer we communicate the call and after the summer we prepare the activity. Thank you.

I first want to introduce myself as the promoter of this initiative: my name is Manuel Herranz, president of HUM, Movement for Human Unity (www.human-unity.org) and it I want to give you some information about me that you can check and also I am at your disposal for any questions.

In 1987, I was contacted by Soviet agents in Berlin who were willing to support me as I actively worked for peace and disarmament while writing my thesis on humanity and disarmament at FU Berlin. I did not accept their proposal because I understood that supporting peace in the West was to the advantage of the East.

I had studied philosophy at the UAM in Madrid, but in the early 80s, in the middle of the Cold War, and I was most impressed about the possibility of nuclear war, so I focused my studies on peace. In 1986, when I was already working on my doctoral thesis, I arrived in West Berlin and decided to stay and continue my research and activities there. Besides philosophy, I started studying international relations, Chinese, Arabic and Russian, because I decided that these were the main languages of the East, South and North and after leaving Berlin in 1989, I traveled and studied the world’s major cultures’ vision of peace.

Now that the nuclear abyss is once again before us, let us consider a very general point of view: the vision of peace in the West and the Middle East is that God, father or leader, makes all humans brothers and sisters, and the main vision of peace in China is the work of Mozi, Confucius’ main rival in the 5th century BC. Mozi’s teaching is called The Policy of Universal Love, and I quote him here to give an idea of its principle: “He who criticizes others must have an alternative. Criticizing without suggesting how to improve is like trying to stop a flood with water or trying to put out a fire with fire. It will be useless. This is why Mòzǐ said: Partiality must be replaced by universality. Mòzǐ shows us how all the calamities of the world are born from partiality, just as human good and impartiality is the product of universality, due to our intelligence or our common sense which leads us to put ourselves in other people´s shoes and we cannot settle for less than being equal. The problem for Mòzǐ, as well as Western cosmopolitans – the main school of thought of the Roman Empire and the Hellenic Empire which stretched from Spain to India from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD until the spread of monotheism – was how to overcome the prejudices of armed units or states in an unknown world. But today that the world is within our reach and interconnected, thus universality and with it peace is possible.

On January 30, 2025, all humans are called to express their willingness to coexist in peace and create an organ of humanity for disarmament and inclusive decision-making that prevents the intent to harm through cooperation for the common good and treating others as we would like to be treated.

Peace is not the absence of war, PEACE is DISARMAMENT

The weapon was there in nature, and it is the object (or evil intention) of harming as is manifested to us in the edge and tip of the sword, in the explosiveness of the bomb, etc., but not in a kitchen knife or a stone since those do not have that evil intention and do not alarm us. This harming or evil intention of the arm is sustained with time and cannot be solved but only confronted by another arm, and all arms become armed units, each seeking to increase its capacity of destruction and undermine this capacity of the others, because they dominate each other by using the threat of destruction and when this is not decisive the war follows, as the action or attempt to disarm the enemy. Therefore, peace is not the absence of war, but disarmament by cooperating for the common good.

The white flag is the means for human reconciliation.

The arm puts everything at its service. It does not admit other option than to be incorporated or to be the enemy and forces us all humans to organize ourselves hierarchically in armed units and states because in this way our personal will and our humanity is cancelled. Therefore, to liberate ourselves and all others from the arm we need to rise the white flag since its meaning and effect is the universal cessation of the arm´s activity, both damaging and threatening. If we are not able to express our humanity with the white flag and we are represented by our armed unit or state officials or by “ideas”, all developed in our previous state of war at the arm’s service, it will be a manifestation of our fear from the others´ threat and a projection of our own threat upon the others.

Disarmament is human unity.

Unilateral disarmament is not real disarmament but, like defeat, the transfer of our submission/service to another arm. Disarmament requires universality, something only possible in our time. Therefore, we are making this universal call of reconciliation, along with forgiveness because until now each one was at the arm´s service without alternative and we cannot hold anyone responsible.

There is no problem among us humans except for the weapon whose purpose of harming must be hidden, pretexted, while human reconciliation is inclusive decision-making through the publicity of the purpose of any undertaking (affecting others) which prevents any harming purpose and just look for common good.

Since, everything but the weapon is there to serve us, its purpose of service implies when, how, by whom, etc., that (resource) shall be best used. Therefore, human sovereignty does not enforce anything, its organ is just an information nexus first for disarmament and in general for cooperation. Human unity or sovereignty promotes peace and reconciliation as a common good, something that is now prevented by the arm, which affront us.

Peaceful disarmament cannot be enforced; it must free, voluntary, but one side disarms if all others disarm too because the sole cause of the arm is the (other) arm. Since disarmament cannot be achieved by one side or another and needs everyone’s cooperation, the savings on weapons’ expenditure is the common good which motivates us (mutually) to treat each other as we would like to be treated and the result of disarmament is the human community.

Ceasefire and stop the weapon’s development now.

Disarmament which is human unity and sovereignty requires the unanimous agreement of all human beings. But, until we achieve that universality, and with-it peace and reconciliation, we have to abide by the sovereignty of our state, because any unilateral/independent action within it would generate its violent reaction. However, the call for reconciliation and the manifestation of the white flag to the world can already serve to stop weapons’ development and to establish ceasefire (in Ukraine, Gaza, many places in Africa, wherever there is armed conflict), since now we know that peace is disarmament and human sovereignty, and the understanding, support and foresight of it facilitate the agreement of the parts for the immediate suspension of all weapons’ development and hostility without any other precondition.

Human Unity Movement, HUM  www.human-unity.org o manuelhm@human-unity.org Phone: +34 656339490