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Book: "Imagination"
30 June, 2017
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Foreword
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is the party of self-determination. This book outlines 100 years of history of the EFA family defending the right to decide, as seen through the lens of political posters. It shows images of our nations produced by our parties or affiliated organisations. Our roots go back almost a century: the Schleswig Partei was founded in 1920, the PSd’Az in 1921 and PLAID in 1925. These posters, as representations of our nations, illustrate EFA’s core values: the protection of our cultures and languages, the respect of diversity as the foundation of peace and the principle of self-determination as a driving force for individual and collective action. EFA not only advocates for these principles, but ties them into a larger European and global network that works together in solidarity with and for other peoples to achieve positive change.
A picture is worth a thousand words. The book can be read as a history book of EFA, EFAy and Centre Maurits Coppieters. By flipping through its colourful pages, the reader plunges into our movement for a Europe of the peoples. The book is divided into ten chapters, ranging from our commitment to protecting our identity and languages within the web of European diversity, covering our commitment to the protection of our environments for our and future generations, to the solidarity within and between our diverse peoples. Champions, scholars and advocates of the EFA family have put pen to paper to share their ideas about our political family’s ideals and values that continue to drive the political life of our partners and members.
The overarching human right that stands at the core of this book is the right to self-determination. Self-determination is a fundamental collective right, so essential that it cannot be ignored. Our movements are firmly in favour of Europe, a Europe in which diversity is truly respected, a Europe of regions and peoples, and not one of centralization. Europe is a mosaic of stateless nations, regions and minorities: the beauty of this unique mosaic lies not only in its big pieces, but equally, in its smaller ones. We should all be able to decide on our future, to imagine another Europe together based on mutual respect, dignity, equality and sustainability.
Over the past ten years, our work has been informed, guided and further strengthened by the Centre Maurits Coppieters foundation. By promoting and coordinating policy research, and bridging the gap between academia and policy-making, our foundation continues to bring in new ideas for Europe, ideas often forgotten by mainstream political and scholarly agendas.
EFA is also a young and dynamic movement. Our youth organisation, the European Free Alliance Youth, aims to put together young peoples from unrepresented nations who unite to fight for their collective rights. By keeping a strong and active younger generation, EFA ensures that the cause for self-determination is preserved and prepared to deal better with then new political challenges of the future.
If there is one message we would like the reader to walk away with, it is that Europe is the home to many peoples, histories, languages and cultures, all of which are important and part of Europe’s DNA, a heritage we should all be proud of and which this book helps us (re)discover. Europe faces many existential threats, but the coming years and decades will show that we do not only have a long past behind us, but also a great future in front of us.
On behalf of the EFA Family,
François Alfonsi, President of the European Free Alliance (EFA), founded in 1981.
Max Zañartu, President of the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy), founded in 1986.
Xabier Macias, President of the Centre Maurits Coppieters (CMC), founded in 2007.
The book contains over 300 posters, 208 pages, 307 mm x 240 mm, ENGLISH, price 45€ - ISBN-NUMMER : 978-90-82632-12-5
You can order a copy of the book shop.e-f-a.org
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