Communication is what allows people to organize themselves. It is through communication that people can coordinate and plan activities, making agreements that allow them to advance towards common objectives.

Technology has multiplied the means of communication to levels that even a few years ago would have appeared to be impossible. Satellites, high-level telephony, fax, computers, TV systems, global information networks, etc. allow what happens in a remote location be known to anyone, anywhere in the world. Today all these amazing technological resources have been concentrated into a few hands; we have reached a situation where the available information is under the control of those same people who have accumulated both political and economic power. So we have arrived to a paradoxical situation where there have never been so many means by which to communicate and organize -- yet the ordinary people have never been so isolated and disorganized.

The Communications Manual of the Humanist Movement has the objective of illustrating, in a simple and practical way, certain of the resources that are available to us. These are resources for communicating: for learning to disseminate our opinions, propose projects, call upon those who agree with us, exchange ideas with those who are concerned with similar or different themes, and add other people to our numbers. This will make possible the formation of grass-roots organizations and networks of connection between people within the context of giving maximum liberty to cultural, social, political, religious, ethnic, and all other types of expression.

This manual includes descriptions that range from the simplest form of communication -- such as a flyer or pamphlet -- to the management of databases and various forms of electronic communication. At the same time, it includes the names and addresses of people with different areas of interest, as a way of connecting all those who love the human being and wish to have a better world, a world where diversity will be a factor for cohesion and not for division.

Santiago, Chile, 7 January 1995.

Office of Information of the Humanist Movement

Rivadavia 62 - 1o A, Mendoza 5500

Argentina Telephone/Fax: (5461)200246