World Peace Council
Encyclopedia
The World Peace Council is an international organization that advocates universal disarmament
, sovereignty
and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism
, weapons of mass destruction
and all forms of discrimination. It was founded in 1950, emerging from the policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
to promote peace campaigns around the world in order to oppose "warmongering" by the USA. Its first president was the eminent physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie
. It was based in Helsinki
from 1968 to 1999 and its headquarters are now in Greece.
, Poland
in 1948. A subsequent congress in Paris
and Prague
in 1949 set up a World Committee of Partisans for Peace, and a congress in Sheffield
and Warsaw
in 1950 reconstituted the Partisans as the World Peace Council.
, a senior Soviet official, praising the Partisans for Peace and resolving that, "The Communist and Workers' Parties must utilize all means of struggle to secure a stable and lasting peace, subordinating their entire activity to this" and that "Particular attention should be devoted to drawing into the peace movement trade unions, women's, youth, cooperative, sport, cultural, education, religious and other organizations, and also scientists, writers, journalists, cultural workers, parliamentary and other political and public leaders who act in defense of peace and against war."
Lawrence Wittner, a historian of the post-war peace movement, argues that the Soviet Union devoted great efforts to the promotion of the WPC in the early post-war years because it feared an American attack and American superiority of arms at a time when the USA possessed the atom bomb but the Soviet Union had not yet developed it.
met in Wroclaw on 6 August 1948. It elected a permanent International Committee of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace (also known as the International Committee of Intellectuals for Peace and the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace) with headquarters in Paris. It called for the establishment of national branches and national meetings along the same lines as the World Congress. In accordance with this policy, a Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949.
-winning physicist, High Commissioner for Atomic Energy and member of the French Institute. Most of the Executive were Communists. One delegate to the Congress, the Swedish artist Bo Beskow, heard no spontaneous contributions or free discussions, only prepared speeches, and described the atmosphere there as "agitated", "aggressive" and "warlike". The Congress was disrupted by the French authorities who refused visas to so many delegates that a simultaneous Congress was held in Prague." Picasso's lithograph, La Colombe (The Dove) was chosen as the emblem for the Congress and was subsequently adopted as the symbol of the WPC.(see picture).
and the non-aligned
peace movement. It was originally scheduled for Sheffield but the British authorities, who wished to undermine the WPC, refused visas to many delegates and the Congress was forced to move to Warsaw. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee
denounced the Congress as a "bogus forum of peace with the real aim of sabotaging national defence" and said there would be a "reasonable limit" on foreign delegates. Among those excluded by the government were Frederic Joliot-Curie, Ilya Ehrenburg
, Alexander Fadeyev
and Dmitri Shostakovich
. The number of delegates at Sheffield was reduced from an anticipated 2,000 to 500, half of whom were British.
, although it tended not to present itself as an organ of Soviet foreign policy, but rather as the expression of the aspirations of the "peace loving peoples of the world".
Subsequent Congresses were held in Vienna
, Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm.
The WPC led the international peace movement in the early 1950s, but its failure to speak out against the Russian suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the resumption of Soviet nuclear tests in 1961 marginalised it, and in the 1960s it was eclipsed by the newer, non-aligned peace organisations like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
.
military installations in Western Europe
believed to house nuclear weapon
s. It campaigned against US-led military operations, especially the Vietnam war, although it did not condemn similar Soviet actions in Hungary and Afghanistan
. In the 1980s it campaigned against the deployment of U.S. missiles in Europe. After the collapse of Communism, the WPC lost most of its support and it has been reduced to much smaller Congresses, although it still issues statements couched in similar terms to those of its historic appeals.
On 18 March 1950, the WPC launched its Stockholm Appeal
at a meeting of the Permanent Committee of the World Peace Congress, calling for the absolute prohibition of nuclear weapons. The campaign won popular support, collecting, it is said, the signatures 560 million signatures in Europe, most from socialist countries, including 10 million in France (including that of the young Jacques Chirac
), and 155 million signatures in the Soviet Union - the entire adult population. Several non-aligned peace groups who had distanced themselves from the WPC advised their supporters not to sign the Appeal.
A World Congress of People for Peace was held in Vienna in 1952. It represented Joseph Stalin
's strategy of peaceful coexistence, resulting in a more broad-based conference. Among those attending were Jean Paul Sartre and Hervé Bazin
.
In June 1975 the WPC launched a second Stockholm Appeal during a period of détente
between East and West. It declared that, "The victories of peace and détente have created a new international climate, new hopes, new confidence, new optimism among the peoples."
It published two magazines, New Perspectives and Peace Courier. Its current magazine is Peace Messenger.
The WPC awards several peace prizes
, some of which, it has been said, were awarded to politicians who funded the organisation.
As the non-aligned peace movement "was constantly under threat of being tarnished by association with avowedly pro-Soviet groups", many individuals and organizations "studiously avoided contact with Communists and fellow-travellers." As early as 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists. In 1950, several Swedish peace organizations warned their supporters against signing the WPC's Stockholm Appeal. In 1953, the International Liaison Committee of Organizations for Peace stated that it had "no association with the World Peace Council". In 1956, a year in which the WPC condemned the Suez war
but not the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the German section of War Resisters International condemned it for its failure to respond to Soviet H-bomb tests. In Sweden, Aktionsgruppen Mot Svensk Atombomb discouraged its members from participating in communist-led peace committees. The WPC attempted to co-opt the eminent peace campaigner Bertrand Russell
, much to his annoyance, and in 1957 he refused the award of the WPC's International Peace Prize. In Britain, CND advised local groups in 1958 not to participate in a forthcoming WPC conference. In the USA, SANE
rejected WPC appeals for co-operation.
A final break occurred during the WPC's 1962 World Congress for Peace and Disarmament in Moscow. The WPC had invited non-aligned peace groups, who were permitted to criticize Soviet nuclear testing
, but when western activists including the British Committee of 100
tried to demonstrate in Red Square
against Soviet weapons and the Communist system, their banners were confiscated and they were threatened with deportation. As a result of this confrontation, forty non-aligned organizations decided to form a new international body, the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
, which was not to have Soviet members.
Because of the energetic activity of the WPC from the late 1940s onwards, with its huge conferences and large budget, in the public mind there was little difference between a peace activist and a Communist. It was sometimes said that the peace movement in the West was influenced by the World Peace Council. US President Ronald Reagan
said that peace demonstrations in Europe in 1981 were "all sponsored by a thing called the World Peace Council, which is bought and paid for by the Soviet Union", and Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky
claimed that they were co-ordinated at the WPC's 1980 World Parliament of Peoples for Peace in Sofia
. The FBI reported to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the WPC-affiliated U.S. Peace Council
was one of the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City, but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement "significantly."
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
is said to have had "overlapping membership and similar policies" to the WPC. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
and the Dartmouth Conferences
were said to have been used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat
, one of the leaders of the Pugwash movement, said that there were a few participants in Pugwash conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such".
Rainer Santi, in his history of the International Peace Bureau
, writes that the WPC "has always had difficulty in securing cooperation from West European and North American peace organisations because of its obvious affiliation with Socialist countries and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. Especially difficult to digest, was that instead of criticising the Soviet Union's unilaterally resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in 1961, the WPC issued a statement rationalising it. In 1979 the World Peace Council explained the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an act of solidarity in the face of Chinese and US aggression against Afghanistan."
In 1983, the British peace campaigner E.P. Thompson attended the World Peace Council's World Assembly for Peace and Life Against Nuclear War in Prague at the suggestion of the Czech dissident group Charter 77
. He raised the issue of democracy and civil liberties in the Communist states, but Assembly responded by loudly applauding a delegate who said that "the so-called dissident issue was not a matter for the international peace movement, but something that had been injected into it artificially by anti-communists." The banned Hungarian group Dialogue also tried to attend the 1983 Assembly but "were met with tear gas, arrests, and later deportation back to Hungary."
It was suggested by a former secretary of the WPC that it simply failed to connect with the western peace movement. It was said to have used most of its funds on international travel and lavish conferences, to have poor intelligence on Western peace groups, and, even though its HQ was in Helsinki, to have no contact with Finnish peace organizations.
is said to have taken covert action against the WPC, for example, attempting to neutralize its campaigns against the US and preventing it from organizing outside the communist bloc. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded in 1950 with the support of the CIA, may have been established partly to counter the propaganda of the emerging WPC.
the Soviet Peace Committee developed bilateral international contacts "in which the WPC not only played no role, but was a liability." Gorbachev never met with WPC President Romesh Chandra and excluded him from many Moscow international forums. Following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union
, the WPC dwindled to a smaller core group. It was found to have lost most of its income and most of its staff. Its international conferences now attract only a tenth of the delegates that its Soviet-backed conferences could attract. (See table below.)
Although the WPC has been said to represent over 100 nations and national peace movements, in March 2011 its website listed 22 members.
The WPC currently states its goals as: Actions against imperialist wars and occupation of sovereign countries and nations;
prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction; abolition of foreign military bases; universal disarmament under effective international control; elimination of all forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination; respect for the right of the peoples to sovereignty and independence, essential for the establishment of peace; non-interference in the internal affairs of nations; peaceful co-existence between states with different political systems; negotiations instead of use of force in the settlement of differences between nations.
The WPC is a registered NGO at the United Nations
and co-operates primarily with the Non-Aligned Movement. It cooperates with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO), International Labour Organization
(ILO) and other UN specialized agencies, special committees and departments. It also cooperates with the African Union
, the League of Arab States and other inter-governmental bodies.
" activities and was expelled in 1952. It moved to Prague and then to Vienna
. In 1957 it was banned by the Austrian government but continued to operate in Vienna under cover of the International Institute for Peace. In 1968 it re-assumed its name and moved to Helsinki, Finland
, where it remained until 1999. In 2000 it re-located to Athens
, Greece
.
According to the WPC, 90 per cent of its funding came from the Soviet Union
, which was said to have given it $49 million. Its current income is believed to derive mainly from the interest on a $10m payment made by the Soviet Peace Committee in around 1991, although its finances remain shrouded in mystery and it has destroyed all its financial records from 1949 to 1991.
, Howard Fast
, Pablo Picasso
, Louis Aragon
, Jorge Amado
, Pablo Neruda
, György Lukacs, Renato Guttuso
, Jean-Paul Sartre
, Diego Rivera
and Joliot-Curie. Most were Communists or fellow travellers.
Under its current rules, WPC members are national and international organizations that agree with its main principles and any of its objectives and pay membership fees. Other organizations may join at the discretion of the Executive Committee or become associate members. Distinguished individuals may become honorary members at the discretion of the Executive Committee.
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
, sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
and all forms of discrimination. It was founded in 1950, emerging from the policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
to promote peace campaigns around the world in order to oppose "warmongering" by the USA. Its first president was the eminent physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
. It was based in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
from 1968 to 1999 and its headquarters are now in Greece.
Origins
The WPC emerged from a Communist-led peace congress held at WroclawWroclaw
Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1948. A subsequent congress in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in 1949 set up a World Committee of Partisans for Peace, and a congress in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1950 reconstituted the Partisans as the World Peace Council.
Comniform
The origins of the WPC lay in the Communist Information Bureau's (Cominform) doctrine, put forward 1947, that the world was divided between peace-loving progressive forces led by the Soviet Union and warmongering capitalist countries led by the United States. In 1949, Cominform directed that peace "should now become the pivot of the entire activity of the Communist Parties", and most western Communist parties followed this policy. In 1950, Cominform adopted the report of Mikhail SuslovMikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
, a senior Soviet official, praising the Partisans for Peace and resolving that, "The Communist and Workers' Parties must utilize all means of struggle to secure a stable and lasting peace, subordinating their entire activity to this" and that "Particular attention should be devoted to drawing into the peace movement trade unions, women's, youth, cooperative, sport, cultural, education, religious and other organizations, and also scientists, writers, journalists, cultural workers, parliamentary and other political and public leaders who act in defense of peace and against war."
Lawrence Wittner, a historian of the post-war peace movement, argues that the Soviet Union devoted great efforts to the promotion of the WPC in the early post-war years because it feared an American attack and American superiority of arms at a time when the USA possessed the atom bomb but the Soviet Union had not yet developed it.
Wroclaw 1948
The World Congress of Intellectuals for PeaceWorld Congress of Intellectuals for Peace
The World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace convened in Wrocław, Poland on August 25-28, 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Notable politicians, academics, and artists attended, including Pablo Picasso, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Éluard, Aldous...
met in Wroclaw on 6 August 1948. It elected a permanent International Committee of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace (also known as the International Committee of Intellectuals for Peace and the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace) with headquarters in Paris. It called for the establishment of national branches and national meetings along the same lines as the World Congress. In accordance with this policy, a Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949.
Paris and Prague 1949
The World Congress of Advocates of Peace in Paris (20 April 1949) repeated the Cominform line that the world was divided between "a non-aggressive Soviet group and a war-minded imperialistic group, headed by the United States government". It established a World Committee of Partisans for Peace, led by a twelve person Executive Bureau and chaired by Professor Frederic Joliot-Curie, a Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning physicist, High Commissioner for Atomic Energy and member of the French Institute. Most of the Executive were Communists. One delegate to the Congress, the Swedish artist Bo Beskow, heard no spontaneous contributions or free discussions, only prepared speeches, and described the atmosphere there as "agitated", "aggressive" and "warlike". The Congress was disrupted by the French authorities who refused visas to so many delegates that a simultaneous Congress was held in Prague." Picasso's lithograph, La Colombe (The Dove) was chosen as the emblem for the Congress and was subsequently adopted as the symbol of the WPC.(see picture).
Sheffield and Warsaw 1950
In 1950, the World Congress of the Supporters of Peace adopted a permanent constitution for the World Peace Council, which replaced the Committee of Partisans for Peace. The opening congress of the WPC condemned the atom-bomb and the American invasion of Korea. It followed the Cominform line, recommending the creation of national peace committees in every country, and rejected pacifismPacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
and the non-aligned
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
peace movement. It was originally scheduled for Sheffield but the British authorities, who wished to undermine the WPC, refused visas to many delegates and the Congress was forced to move to Warsaw. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
denounced the Congress as a "bogus forum of peace with the real aim of sabotaging national defence" and said there would be a "reasonable limit" on foreign delegates. Among those excluded by the government were Frederic Joliot-Curie, Ilya Ehrenburg
Ilya Ehrenburg
Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg was a Soviet writer, journalist, translator, and cultural figure.Ehrenburg is among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He became known first and foremost as a novelist and a journalist - in particular, as a...
, Alexander Fadeyev
Alexander Fadeyev
Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev was a Soviet writer, one of the co-founders of the Union of Soviet Writers and its chairman from 1946 to 1954.-Biography:...
and Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
. The number of delegates at Sheffield was reduced from an anticipated 2,000 to 500, half of whom were British.
Early 1950s
The WPC was directed by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party through the Soviet Peace CommitteeSoviet Peace Committee
Soviet Peace Committee was a state-sponsored organization responsible for coordinating peace movements active in the Soviet Union. Soviet Peace Committee was founded in 1949 and existed until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.-History and activities:The Soviet Peace Committee was founded in...
, although it tended not to present itself as an organ of Soviet foreign policy, but rather as the expression of the aspirations of the "peace loving peoples of the world".
Subsequent Congresses were held in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm.
The WPC led the international peace movement in the early 1950s, but its failure to speak out against the Russian suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the resumption of Soviet nuclear tests in 1961 marginalised it, and in the 1960s it was eclipsed by the newer, non-aligned peace organisations like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
.
Activities
Until the late 1980s, the World Peace Council's principal activity was the organization of large international Congresses, nearly all of which had over 2,000 delegates representing most of the countries of the world. Most of the delegates came from pro-Communist organizations, with some observers from non-aligned bodies. There were also meetings of the WPC Assembly, its highest governing body. The Congresses and Assemblies issued statements, appeals and resolutions that called for world peace in general terms and condemned US weapons policy, invasions and military actions. The WPC was involved in demonstrations and protests especially in areas bordering U.S.United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military installations in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
believed to house nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s. It campaigned against US-led military operations, especially the Vietnam war, although it did not condemn similar Soviet actions in Hungary and Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. In the 1980s it campaigned against the deployment of U.S. missiles in Europe. After the collapse of Communism, the WPC lost most of its support and it has been reduced to much smaller Congresses, although it still issues statements couched in similar terms to those of its historic appeals.
On 18 March 1950, the WPC launched its Stockholm Appeal
Stockholm Appeal
March 1950: The World Peace Council releases the Stockholm Appeal calling for an absolute ban on nuclear weapons. The appeal was initiated by the French Communist physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie, gathered petitions allegedly signed by 273,470,566 persons The text of the Appeal read:“We demand the...
at a meeting of the Permanent Committee of the World Peace Congress, calling for the absolute prohibition of nuclear weapons. The campaign won popular support, collecting, it is said, the signatures 560 million signatures in Europe, most from socialist countries, including 10 million in France (including that of the young Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
), and 155 million signatures in the Soviet Union - the entire adult population. Several non-aligned peace groups who had distanced themselves from the WPC advised their supporters not to sign the Appeal.
A World Congress of People for Peace was held in Vienna in 1952. It represented Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's strategy of peaceful coexistence, resulting in a more broad-based conference. Among those attending were Jean Paul Sartre and Hervé Bazin
Hervé Bazin
Hervé Bazin was a French writer, whose best-known novels covered semi-autobiographical topics of teenage rebellion and dysfunctional families.- Biography :...
.
In June 1975 the WPC launched a second Stockholm Appeal during a period of détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
between East and West. It declared that, "The victories of peace and détente have created a new international climate, new hopes, new confidence, new optimism among the peoples."
It published two magazines, New Perspectives and Peace Courier. Its current magazine is Peace Messenger.
The WPC awards several peace prizes
International Peace Prize
The World Peace Council , an anti-imperialist non-governmental organization, has awarded a number of prizes, beginning in 1950. These have been awarded to individuals, organisations, peoples, and places. Typically, several winners would be voted at one WPC congress; these, or their representative,...
, some of which, it has been said, were awarded to politicians who funded the organisation.
Relations with non-aligned peace groups
The WPC has been described as being caught in contradictions as "it sought to become a broad world movement while being instrumentalized increasingly to serve foreign policy in the Soviet Union and nominally socialist countries." From the 1950s until the late 1980s it tried to use non-aligned peace organizations to spread the Soviet point of view. At first there was limited co-operation between such groups and the WPC. However, western delegates who tried to criticize the Soviet Union at WPC conferences, or the WPC's condemnation of western armaments while remaining silent about Russian armaments, were often shouted down. This led them to gradually to dissociate themselves from the WPC.As the non-aligned peace movement "was constantly under threat of being tarnished by association with avowedly pro-Soviet groups", many individuals and organizations "studiously avoided contact with Communists and fellow-travellers." As early as 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists. In 1950, several Swedish peace organizations warned their supporters against signing the WPC's Stockholm Appeal. In 1953, the International Liaison Committee of Organizations for Peace stated that it had "no association with the World Peace Council". In 1956, a year in which the WPC condemned the Suez war
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
but not the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the German section of War Resisters International condemned it for its failure to respond to Soviet H-bomb tests. In Sweden, Aktionsgruppen Mot Svensk Atombomb discouraged its members from participating in communist-led peace committees. The WPC attempted to co-opt the eminent peace campaigner Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, much to his annoyance, and in 1957 he refused the award of the WPC's International Peace Prize. In Britain, CND advised local groups in 1958 not to participate in a forthcoming WPC conference. In the USA, SANE
Peace Action
Peace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign...
rejected WPC appeals for co-operation.
A final break occurred during the WPC's 1962 World Congress for Peace and Disarmament in Moscow. The WPC had invited non-aligned peace groups, who were permitted to criticize Soviet nuclear testing
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
, but when western activists including the British Committee of 100
Committee of 100
The Committee of 100 was a British anti-war group. It was set up in 1960 with a hundred public signatories by Bertrand Russell, Ralph Schoenman and Reverend Michael Scott and others...
tried to demonstrate in Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
against Soviet weapons and the Communist system, their banners were confiscated and they were threatened with deportation. As a result of this confrontation, forty non-aligned organizations decided to form a new international body, the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace
The International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace was an organisation formed by peace groups from western and non-aligned nations in 1963....
, which was not to have Soviet members.
Because of the energetic activity of the WPC from the late 1940s onwards, with its huge conferences and large budget, in the public mind there was little difference between a peace activist and a Communist. It was sometimes said that the peace movement in the West was influenced by the World Peace Council. US President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
said that peace demonstrations in Europe in 1981 were "all sponsored by a thing called the World Peace Council, which is bought and paid for by the Soviet Union", and Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
claimed that they were co-ordinated at the WPC's 1980 World Parliament of Peoples for Peace in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. The FBI reported to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the WPC-affiliated U.S. Peace Council
U.S. Peace Council
The U.S. Peace Council was an activist organization founded in the late 1970's.NATO's decision to deploy a new generation of strategic nuclear warheads in Europe and U.S...
was one of the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City, but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement "significantly."
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens who share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation...
is said to have had "overlapping membership and similar policies" to the WPC. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...
and the Dartmouth Conferences
Dartmouth Conferences (peace)
Dartmouth Conferences on peace process begun at Dartmouth College in October 1960. It is one of the longest ongoing bilateral unofficial dialogues between American and Soviet representatives.-History and impact:...
were said to have been used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat
Joseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...
, one of the leaders of the Pugwash movement, said that there were a few participants in Pugwash conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such".
Rainer Santi, in his history of the International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau is the world's oldest international peace federation. It was founded in 1891, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910....
, writes that the WPC "has always had difficulty in securing cooperation from West European and North American peace organisations because of its obvious affiliation with Socialist countries and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. Especially difficult to digest, was that instead of criticising the Soviet Union's unilaterally resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in 1961, the WPC issued a statement rationalising it. In 1979 the World Peace Council explained the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an act of solidarity in the face of Chinese and US aggression against Afghanistan."
In 1983, the British peace campaigner E.P. Thompson attended the World Peace Council's World Assembly for Peace and Life Against Nuclear War in Prague at the suggestion of the Czech dissident group Charter 77
Charter 77
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was...
. He raised the issue of democracy and civil liberties in the Communist states, but Assembly responded by loudly applauding a delegate who said that "the so-called dissident issue was not a matter for the international peace movement, but something that had been injected into it artificially by anti-communists." The banned Hungarian group Dialogue also tried to attend the 1983 Assembly but "were met with tear gas, arrests, and later deportation back to Hungary."
It was suggested by a former secretary of the WPC that it simply failed to connect with the western peace movement. It was said to have used most of its funds on international travel and lavish conferences, to have poor intelligence on Western peace groups, and, even though its HQ was in Helsinki, to have no contact with Finnish peace organizations.
Allegation of CIA measures against the WPC
The Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
is said to have taken covert action against the WPC, for example, attempting to neutralize its campaigns against the US and preventing it from organizing outside the communist bloc. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded in 1950 with the support of the CIA, may have been established partly to counter the propaganda of the emerging WPC.
After the demise of communism
By the mid 1980s the Soviet Peace Committee "concluded that the WPC was a politically expendable and spent force." Under Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
the Soviet Peace Committee developed bilateral international contacts "in which the WPC not only played no role, but was a liability." Gorbachev never met with WPC President Romesh Chandra and excluded him from many Moscow international forums. Following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the WPC dwindled to a smaller core group. It was found to have lost most of its income and most of its staff. Its international conferences now attract only a tenth of the delegates that its Soviet-backed conferences could attract. (See table below.)
Although the WPC has been said to represent over 100 nations and national peace movements, in March 2011 its website listed 22 members.
The WPC currently states its goals as: Actions against imperialist wars and occupation of sovereign countries and nations;
prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction; abolition of foreign military bases; universal disarmament under effective international control; elimination of all forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination; respect for the right of the peoples to sovereignty and independence, essential for the establishment of peace; non-interference in the internal affairs of nations; peaceful co-existence between states with different political systems; negotiations instead of use of force in the settlement of differences between nations.
The WPC is a registered NGO at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and co-operates primarily with the Non-Aligned Movement. It cooperates with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....
(UNCTAD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization , French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria...
(UNIDO), International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
(ILO) and other UN specialized agencies, special committees and departments. It also cooperates with the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...
, the League of Arab States and other inter-governmental bodies.
Current organizational structure
The WPC first set up its offices in Paris, but was accused by the French government of engaging in "fifth columnFifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
" activities and was expelled in 1952. It moved to Prague and then to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1957 it was banned by the Austrian government but continued to operate in Vienna under cover of the International Institute for Peace. In 1968 it re-assumed its name and moved to Helsinki, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, where it remained until 1999. In 2000 it re-located to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
According to the WPC, 90 per cent of its funding came from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, which was said to have given it $49 million. Its current income is believed to derive mainly from the interest on a $10m payment made by the Soviet Peace Committee in around 1991, although its finances remain shrouded in mystery and it has destroyed all its financial records from 1949 to 1991.
Membership
In its early days the WPC attracted numerous "political and intellectual superstars", including W.E.B Dubois, Paul RobesonPaul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Howard Fast
Howard Fast
Howard Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, Jorge Amado
Jorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978...
, Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, György Lukacs, Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso was an Italian painter.His best-known paintings include Flight from Etna , Crucifixion and La Vucciria . Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books...
, Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
and Joliot-Curie. Most were Communists or fellow travellers.
Under its current rules, WPC members are national and international organizations that agree with its main principles and any of its objectives and pay membership fees. Other organizations may join at the discretion of the Executive Committee or become associate members. Distinguished individuals may become honorary members at the discretion of the Executive Committee.
Member organizations
At March 2011 its members were:- Belgium-International Action for Liberation (INTAL)
- Belgrade Forum for the world of equals
- Brazilian Center for Solidarity of the peoples and struggle for Peace (CEBRAPAZ)
- Canadian Peace Congress
- Consejo Español en Defensa de la Solidaridad y la Paz (CEDESPAZ)
- Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples (MOVPAZ)
- Cyprus Peace Council
- Czech Peace Movement
- Finnish Peace Committee
- German Peace Council
- Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace (EEDYE)
- Japan Peace Committee
- Le mouvement de la paix de France
- Movement for Peace,Sovereignty and Solidarity between the Peoples(MOPASSOL-Argentine)
- Nepal Peace and Solidarity Council (NPSC)
- OSPAAAL Spain
- Peace Association of Turkey
- Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
- Romanian Peace Council
- Swedish Peace Committee
- Swiss Peace Movement
- US Peace Council
- VREDE (Belgium)
Associated groups
In accordance with the Comniform's 1950 resolution to draw into the peace movement trade unions, women's and youth organisations, scientists, writers and journalists, etc., several Soviet front organizations supported WPC policies, for example:- Christian Peace ConferenceChristian Peace ConferenceThe Christian Peace Conference was a Czech organization founded in 1958 by Josef Hromádka, a pastor who had spent the war years in the USA and moved back to Czechoslovakia when the war ended. Hromádka was a member of the Bureau of the World Peace Council...
- International Federation of Resistance Fighters
- International Institute for PeaceInternational Institute for PeaceThe International Institute for Peace says that it was founded in Vienna in 1956 and re-organised in 1989. According to Dr Julian Lewis, a campaigner against the peace movement, it was "set up by the Kremlin after the WPC [World Peace Council] was thrown out of Austria for subversion." According to...
- International Organization of Democratic Lawyers
- International Organization of JournalistsInternational Organization of JournalistsInternational Organization of Journalists was a Soviet bloc front organization.It was initially portrayed as a place where Western and Eastern Bloc journalists can meet...
- International Union of StudentsInternational Union of StudentsThe International Union of Students is a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations.The IUS is the umbrella organization for 155 such student organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students.-Aim and work areas:The aims of...
- World Federation of Democratic YouthWorld Federation of Democratic YouthThe World Federation of Democratic Youth is a progressive youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. WFDY describes itself as an "anti-imperialist, left-wing" organisation...
- World Federation of Scientific Workers
- World Federation of Trade UnionsWorld Federation of Trade UnionsThe World Federation of Trade Unions was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations...
- Women's International Democratic Federation
- World Peace Esperanto MovementMondpaca Esperantista MovadoThe Mondpaca Esperantista Movado was an Esperanto association founded in 1953 in Austria by Rudolf Burda. Its aim was “to use the Esperanto to serve the peace and the reciprocal understanding between the peoples”. Its official magazine was PACO....
.
Congresses and assemblies
The highest WPC body, the Assembly, meets every three years.| Year | Event | Location | No. of delegates | Countries represented | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace | Wroclav | 46 | ||
| 1949 | World Congress of Advocates of Peace | Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... and Prague Prague Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million... |
2,200 | 72 | Established the World Committee of Partisans for Peace, chaired by Frederic Joliot Curie. |
| 1950 | World Congress of the Supporters of Peace | Sheffield Sheffield Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely... and Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most... |
Moved from Sheffield to Warsaw as a result of the British government refusing visas to delegates. | ||
| 1952 | Congress of the People for Peace | Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... |
Presiding committee included Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Robeson, Pablo Neruda, Diego Rivera, and Louis Aragon. Also attended by Madame Sun Yat Sen Soong Ching-ling Soong Ching-ling , also known as Madame Sun Yat-sen, was one of the three Soong sisters—who, along with their husbands, were amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. She was the Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China... , Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg was a Soviet writer, journalist, translator, and cultural figure.Ehrenburg is among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He became known first and foremost as a novelist and a journalist - in particular, as a... and Hewlett Johnson Hewlett Johnson The Very Reverend Hewlett Johnson , was an English clergyman, Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury, where he acquired his nickname The Red Dean of Canterbury for his unyielding support for the Soviet Union and its allies.-Life:Born in Manchester, the third son of Charles Johnson, a wire... . |
||
| 1952 | Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... |
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| 1953 | Helsinki | ||||
| 1955 | Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter... |
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| 1958 | World Congress on Disarmament and International Cooperation | Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... |
Bertrand Russell withdrew his sponsorship of the congress and denounced the WPC for its refusal to condemn the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and the kidnapping and murder of Hungarian prime minister, Imre Nagy Imre Nagy Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions... . |
||
| 1962 | World Conference for General Disarmament and Peace | Moscow Moscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent... |
Addressed by Nikita Khruschev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the title given to the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With some exceptions, the office was synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union... . Attended by delegates from non-aligned groups. Sponsors include Bertrand Russell and Canon John Collins Canon John Collins John Collins was an Anglican priest who was active in several radical political movements in the United Kingdom.Educated at Cranbrook School, Kent and the University of Cambridge, Collins served as a chaplain in the Royal Air Force during World War II and was radicalised by the experience... of CND. As a result of confrontation between western and Soviet delegates, forty non-aligned organizations form the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace The International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace was an organisation formed by peace groups from western and non-aligned nations in 1963.... , without Soviet membership. |
||
| 1965 | World Congress for Peace, National Independence and General disarmament | Helsinki | 1,470 | 98 | Called for withdrawal of all U.S. armed forces from Vietnam. |
| 1971 | Assembly | Budapest | |||
| 1973 | World Congress of Peace Forces 1973 World Congress of Peace Forces The 1973 World Congress of Peace Forces was held in Moscow, USSR, October 25-October 31, 1973. At the congress over 3200 delegates from 143 countries, representing more than 1100 political parties, national organizations and movements... |
Moscow | 3,200 | Chaired by Romesh Chandra, the general secretary of the WPC. The main speaker was Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in... |
|
| 1980 | World Parliament of Peoples for Peace | Sofia Sofia Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated... |
2,230 | 134 | Launched campaigns against stationing of new US nuclear weapons in Western Europe, against Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel, and campaigns of solidarity with Vietnam, Syria, Cuba, the PLO and the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. |
| 1983 | World Assembly for Peace and Life Against Nuclear War | Prague | 2,635 | 132 | Noted that "An especially acute danger is represented by plans to deploy first-strike nuclear missiles in Western Europe." Members of Charter 77 Charter 77 Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was... not permitted to attend. Members of the Hungarian dissident movement Dialogue who attempted to attend "were met with tear gas, arrests, and later deportation back to Hungary." |
| 1986 | World Congress for the International Year of Peace International Year of Peace - Recognition :1986 is recognized as International Year of Peace in December 1986, in the UNESCO headquarter, Paris, France.- Actions Taken by the Red Cross:... |
Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region... |
2,648 | The International Year of Peace was declared by the United Nations United Nations The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace... . This was said to be the first WPC-sponsored congress to be held in a NATO country. The Coalition for Peace through Security Coalition for Peace through Security The Coalition for Peace Through Security was a campaigning group founded in September 1981 and active in the UK throughout the early and mid-1980s... demonstrated against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, giving rise to worldwide media coverage. |
|
| 1990 | Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state... |
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| 1996 | Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... |
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| 2000 | Athens | 186 | |||
| 2004 | Athens | 150 | 50+ | ||
| 2005 | Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world... , Korea Korea Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the... |
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| 2008 | World Congress of the World Peace Council | Caracas Caracas Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range... , Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south... |
120 | 76 | |
| 2009 | New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... |
400 | 194 |
Past Presidents
Frédéric Joliot-CurieFrédéric Joliot-CurieJean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
(1950–1958)
John Desmond Bernal (1959–1965)
Isabelle Blume (1965–1969)
Romesh Chandra (General Secretary in 1966-1977; President in 1977-1990), since then he has been its President of Honour
Evangelos Maheras (1990–1993)
Albertina SisuluAlbertina SisuluNontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu was a black South African anti–apartheid activist, and the widow of fellow activist Walter Sisulu . She was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu throughout her lifetime by the South African public. In 2004 she was voted 57th in the SABC3's Great South Africans...
(1993–2002)- Prof Niranjan Singh Maan (General secretary )
Orlando Fundora López (2002–2008)
Current leadership
- President: Socorro Gomes, Brazilian Center for the Solidarity with the Peoples and the Struggle for Peace (CEBRAPAZ)
- General Secretary: Thanasis Pafilis, Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE)
- Executive Secretary: Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE)
Secretariat
The members of the Secretariat of the WPC are:- All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO)
- Brazilian Center for the Solidarity with the Peoples and the Struggle for Peace (CEBRAPAZ)
- Congo Peace Committee
- Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples (MOVPAZ)
- German Peace Council (DFR)
- Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE)
- Japan Peace Committee
- Palestinian Committee for Peace and Solidarity (PCPS)
- Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC)
- South African Peace Initiative
- Syrian National Peace Council
- US Peace Council (USPC)
- Vietnam Peace Committee (VPC)
External links
- World Peace Council homepage
- World Peace Council Collected Records, 1949 - 1996, Swarthmore College Peace Collection
- Prince, Rob. The Ghost Ship of Lonnrotinkatu, Peace magazine, vol. 8, no. 3, p. 16, May/Jun 1992.
- Prince, Rob. Following the Money Trail at the World Peace Council, Peace magazine, vol. 8, no. 6, p. 20, Nov/Dec 1992.
- WorldYouthPeaceCouncil
- Welcoming Address to 1979 Session of the World Peace Council Erich Hoenkers speech to the WPC meeting in East Berlin
- U.S. Peace Council
- "Australia's Dr Jim Cairns and the Soviet KGB", by John Ballantyne, National Observer (Council for the National Interest, Melbourne), No. 64, Autumn 2005, pages 52-63
- Pathe News film of 1962 Moscow Congress
See also
- Active measuresActive measuresActive Measures were a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services to influence the course of world events, "in addition to collecting intelligence and producing politically correct assessment of it". Active measures ranged "from media manipulations to special actions...
- All-Soviet Peace ConferenceAll-Soviet Peace ConferenceThe All-Soviet Peace Conference was a conference held in Moscow in 1949. Attendees included W. E. B. Du Bois....
- Soviet influence on the peace movementSoviet influence on the peace movementDuring the Cold War , when the Soviet Union and the USA were engaged in an arms race, the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council and other front organizations...
- International Confederation for Disarmament and PeaceInternational Confederation for Disarmament and PeaceThe International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace was an organisation formed by peace groups from western and non-aligned nations in 1963....
- Communist propagandaCommunist propagandaCommunist propaganda is propaganda aimed to advance the ideology of communism, communist worldview and interests of the communist movement.A Bolshevik theoretician, Nikolai Bukharin, in his The ABC of Communism wrote:...
- Front organizationFront organizationA front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
- Canadian Peace CongressCanadian Peace CongressThe Canadian Peace Congress is an anti-imperialist group founded in 1949 by Canadian minister James Gareth Endicott in response to the new dangers to peace posed because of the Cold War. It described itself as "a place were people of different views and faiths can meet and discuss world affairs.....
- National Council of Arts, Sciences and ProfessionsNational Council of Arts, Sciences and ProfessionsThe National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions was a United Stated based socialist organization of the 1950s....
- Peace movementPeace movementA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
- U.S. Peace CouncilU.S. Peace CouncilThe U.S. Peace Council was an activist organization founded in the late 1970's.NATO's decision to deploy a new generation of strategic nuclear warheads in Europe and U.S...
- World peaceWorld peaceWorld Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...
- 1973 World Congress of Peace Forces1973 World Congress of Peace ForcesThe 1973 World Congress of Peace Forces was held in Moscow, USSR, October 25-October 31, 1973. At the congress over 3200 delegates from 143 countries, representing more than 1100 political parties, national organizations and movements...
- World Peace Council prizes