Cercle Frédéric Bastiat – Newsletter
Our latest Dinner-debate was on Saturday 19th March 2011 at the Calicéo hotel in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax. The subject was one of particular local interest :
"Businesses in the Landes"
The talk was given by Philippe Simon, Honorary President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Landes department (in the Aquitaine region, in south-west France). He described with enthusiasm the various assets of the Landes (its vast spaces, its situation on the route to and from Spain, Portugal and Morocco, its network of motorways, its growing population of young adults…) He gave an impressive panorama of the many businesses that have chosen the Landes, in such sectors as the wood and paper industry, the fattened goose and duck branch, aquaculture, chemistry, aeronautics and mechanics, construction and public works, as well as in service sector : tourism, hydrotherapy, commerce and services to industry. The foreign companies established in the Landes include English, American, Canadian and Australian businesses.
Our AGM took place immediately before the dinner-debate A partial renewal of the board, as announced last year, was unanimously accepted.
The new board is made up as follows :
Chairman : Patrick de Casanove
Vice-chairman : Philippe Couture
Treasurer : Françoise Couture
Board members : Gérard and Diana Dupuy; Vincent Ginocchio; Alain Mathieu; Jean-Claude Paul-Dejaen
Jacques de Guenin, founder of the Cercle Frédéric Bastiat, has given up his chairmanship and hands on a successful and dynamic association in the best of health. It would have been inconceivable that all Jacques' efforts over the years should no longer bear fruit and that his creation should disappear with his retirement as chairman. There are few liberal-minded learned societies in this country. Liberal or libertarian ideas are not only ill-known here, they are distorted - which is worse. The flame lit by Jacques over twenty years ago in this department of the "Landes", and which continues to radiate far beyond the south-west of France, could not be allowed to die out. Frédéric Bastiat wrote that men exchange services and that the value of the exchange depends on the service rendered. That rendered by Jacques is immense. The Cercle will carry on his work. It will continue to defend and to propagate far and wide the ideas of Frédéric Bastiat.
Freedom Weekend 2010
Last year's 'Freedom Weekend' showed a deficit, due on the one hand to the cost of transport and lodging for the speakers, on the other to the presence of ten promising students to whom we offered grants. In future, we hope to economize somewhat on the cost of the speakers, some of whom are willing to pay for their own transport. But we do not wish to diminish the grants, which enable us to maintain a good age ratio.
Subscriptions for 2011
We are keeping the annual subscription at 30€ (per family), but would be grateful for any additional contribution, which would enable us to continue to offer student grants.
Most members have already paid this year's subscription, but we are counting on those who have not yet done so.
To be sure, you do not have to be a member of the Cercle in order to attend its dinner-debates. But nor do you have to attend the dinner-debates in order to subscribe !
And indeed, that is the case with a number of our members. They subscribe because they appreciate the trouble we take to spread our philosophy of freedom and individual responsibility .
The Cercle needs you
'Fear not!' Do not give up hope of changing life, even in this dear old land of France that is said to be unreformable. You can act concretely. Be Frédéric Bastiat's ambassadors. Come to our different events, bring your friends, spread our newsletter. Many causes near or afar deserve our support. Frédéric Bastiat's ideal of Justice is one of them. "Property, the right to enjoy the fruit of one's labour, the right to work, de develop, to exercise one's faculties, as one wishes, without the State intervening in any way other than by its protective action, that is freedom" A fine aim !
The 3rd "Freedom Weekend"
It will take place from Friday 1st July (dinner) to Sunday 3rd July 2011 (lunch)
at the Calicéo hotel in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax
on the following theme (in French) :
Sovereignty of the individual and spontaneous cooperation
Following on the two previous Freedom Weekends, this one will deal with the practical application of the principle of 'subsidiarity' to different sectors of activity in society :
the family (Bertrand Lemennicier); school (Lionel Devic); currency (Philippe Nataf); the economy (Jacques de Guenin); law, legislation and justice (Patrick Simon); self-defence (Marc Cools); the protection of people and property (Jean-Pierre Ferro).
Each sector will be dealt with in three parts :
- description of the sector of activity before State intervention
- what State intervention brought to the sector : at first, advantages for a few beneficiaries, followed by disasters for all
- the realistic steps to be taken to gradually free the said sector form the grip of the State
Jean-Philippe Feldman will explain how the Administration could be organised, and present a "Freedom Constitution", which would be founded on the principle of subsidiarity, limiting the State to the protection of the natural rights of the individual : freedom, property, security, and resistance to oppression, pointing out as he goes the drawbacks of our present constitution .
It is only through the popularization and untiring propagation of such ideas that we shall manage to orientate the advance of Mankind towards a society of freedom and individual responsibility.
Patrick de Casanove, the new chairman of the Cercle, will conclude on what makes up libertarian morals.
The weekend will take place at the Caliceo hotel in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax, a particularly pleasant hotel set by a lake.
The price for the weekend is : 210€ per person sharing a double room
250€ per person in a single room
130€ per person for those who do not sleep at the hotel Besides the room, the price includes meals (dinner x 2, lunch x 2), the Friday evening cocktail, breakfasts (x 2), coffee breaks, and of course all the talks.
It is also possible to attend only the talks at a cost of 50€, or 20€ per half-day, and to add 30€ per meal if you wish to have only certain meals.
You will find an entry form on the website.
For further information, contact the Cercle at : cercle.bastiat@gmail.com
Or call : 05 59 45 36 47
Back to the English language main page of www.bastiat.net