Philippe Besson has been active in the French secular movement since 1980. In 1985 he joined the National Freethought Federation (Fédération nationale de la Libre Pensée, FNLP), an organization whose origins date back to 1866. He is a founding member of the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers (ILCAF) -- created at the world congress For Atheism and Freethought in Paris, July 4th, 2005 -- and of the Organizing Committee for the founding/reconstituting congress of the International Freethought Association in Oslo, Norway, in August 2011.
Spokesperson and journalist for the FNLP, his particular concern being the universality of the struggle for the most complete freedom of conscience and the most strict church/State separation, Philippe has authored articles for the periodicals La Raison and l’Idée Libre on a wide variety of subjects such as the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, the influence of religions in American government, the clerical Duplessis regime in Quebec, British republicanism, religious sectarianism in Ireland, the Order of Orange, multiculturalism, etc.
Philippe Besson has actively participated in several humanist, secular and freethought congresses in France, the United States and Ireland. He has been a trade union activist for 35 years.
Philippe Besson at the podium, 2010-10-02
Photograph : R. Thain
Since the 11th of September 2001, our world has become divided into civilizations whose differing cultural origins must inevitably, it is claimed, lead them to confrontation. By encouraging such tension, it is easy to instill fear and cultural isolation and to justify military interventions. The West being thus threatened, an ideology of domination, acting in the name of religious and cultural interests and leading to a new crusade whose aim is "to civilize", has taken root. The churches, natural partisans of this crusade, have already found "secular" allies.
To found a republic on multiculturalism would be the institutionalization of a society of disparate cultural communities. Such a system of government would lock citizens into their particular origins -- ethnic, religious, etc. -- instead of facilitating their emancipation.
Should freethinkers and atheists concentrate on building their own community, with rights similar to those of a religious community? Or rather, should they dedicate themselves to the fight for the most complete freedom of conscience, to be accomplished by deploying their efforts on the international stage in favour of the most strict separation between churches and State?