“Do we not have much to lose by reducing the space for civil expression represented by associations?”

platform. The law relating to the association’s contract known as the “1901 Law” will celebrate the first day^{he is} July, 120^e Anniversary. This is an opportunity to remind everyone how important associations are in French society. But it is also an opportunity to say to what extent this constitutional right, acquired long ago in France, can be a carrier of democratic renewal once citizens adopt it to defend ideas, care for others and nature, or move a region. While that A draft law affirming respect for the principles of the Republic It should come to frame union freedoms, what is our political ambition for associations?

critical societal importance

About 20 million French men and women volunteer in one or more associations. 40% are members of at least one association. Although not always aware of this, this commitment creates a social bond, brotherhood and citizenship close and beyond borders. Its societal significance is decisive for our country.

If necessary, the health crisis we are going through attests to the essential role of union actors at the heart of our society. Volunteering is also a generator of personal and group fulfillment. It is in harmony with the desire to be useful, to give and receive. It contributes to social harmony and the well-being of all, as studies and surveys regularly show.

Union commitment across time and across continents is also a generator of social progress. Workers’ struggles, women’s rights, environmental rights and protection, human rights, freedoms, education and care for all, etc. We often owe our societal achievements to freedom of association. In an authoritarian state, it is the first of all freedoms to be prohibited, controlled, restricted or impeded.

In France, it took several decades and thirty-three projects, proposals and reports before the 1 . law was adopted^{he is} July 1901. In a report to the Senate in 1882, Jules Simon wrote: “Man is so insignificant in himself that he cannot do much good or much harm by joining forces. Hence the contradictory judgments which are the object of the Assembly. Some do not believe that society can be safe with it, and others do not admit that we can dispense with it. We believe that there is no more powerful shield against oppression, no splendid instrument of great deeds, no more fruitful source of consolation and happiness.”

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