World Peace Council

[[File:WPCmembership.png|thumb|400px| Membership in the World Peace Council:

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The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization created in 1949 by the Cominform and propped up by the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, WPC engaged in propaganda efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, whereby it criticized the United States and its allies while defending the Soviet Union's involvement in numerous conflicts.

The organization had the stated goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty, independence, peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass destruction and all forms of discrimination. The organization's propagandizing for the USSR led to the decline of its influence over the peace movement in non-Communist countries.

Its first president was the French physicist and activist Frédéric Joliot-Curie. It was based in Helsinki, Finland, from 1968 to 1999, and since in Athens, Greece.

History

Origins

thumb|350px|A WPC Congress in [[East Berlin on 1 July 1952 showing Picasso's dove above the stage, banner reading "Germany must be a land of Peace"]]

In August 1948 through the initiative of the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) a "World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace" was held in Wrocław, Poland.

This gathering established a permanent organisation called the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace—a group which joined with another international Communist organisation, the Women's International Democratic Federation to convene a second international conclave in Paris in April 1949, a meeting designated the World Congress of Partisans for Peace (Congrès Mondial des Partisans de la Paix).

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 Julian Huxley, the chair of UNESCO, chaired the meeting in the hope of bridging Cold War divisions, but later wrote that "there was no discussion in the ordinary sense of the word." Speakers delivered lengthy condemnation of the West and praises of the Soviet Union. Albert Einstein had been invited to send an address, but when the organisers found that it advocated world government and that his representative refused to change it, they substituted another document by Einstein without his consent, leaving Einstein feeling that he had been badly used.

Paris and Prague 1949

The World Congress of Partisans for 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". One delegate to the Congress, the Swedish artist , heard no spontaneous contributions or free discussions, only prepared speeches, and described the atmosphere there as "agitated", "aggressive" and "warlike". A speech given at Paris by Paul Robeson—the polyglot lawyer, folksinger, and actor son of a runaway slave—was widely quoted in the American press for stating that African Americans should not and would not fight for the United States in any prospective war against the Soviet Union; following his return, he was subsequently blacklisted and his passport confiscated for years. The Congress was disrupted by the French authorities who refused visas to so many delegates that a simultaneous Congress was held in Prague." and was subsequently adopted as the symbol of the WPC.

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. 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 Frédéric 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. through the Soviet Peace Committee, 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".

In its early days the WPC attracted numerous "political and intellectual superstars", Jean-Paul Sartre, Diego Rivera, Muhammad al-Ashmar and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Most were Communists or fellow travellers.

In the 1950s, congresses were held in Vienna, Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm. resulting in a more broad-based conference. Among those attending were Jean-Paul Sartre and Hervé Bazin. In 1955, another WPC meeting in Vienna launched an "Appeal against the Preparations for Nuclear War", with grandiose claims about its success.

Following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the WPC convened a conference in Helsinki in December 1956. Although there were reportedly "serious differences" regarding the Hungarian situation within both the WPC and national peace movements, the conference passed a unanimous resolution blaming the Hungarian government for the Soviet invasion, citing "the faults of an internal regime as well as their exploitation by foreign propagandists". The resolution also called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the restoration of Hungarian sovereignty.

The WPC led the international peace movement in the decade after the Second World War, but its failure to speak out against the Soviet 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 organizations like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. but they were compelled to join it when they saw how popular it was.

1960s

Throughout much of the 1960s and early 1970s, the WPC campaigned against the US's role in the Vietnam War. Opposition to the Vietnam War was widespread in the mid-1960s and most of the anti-war activity had nothing to do with the WPC, which decided, under the leadership of J. D. Bernal, to take a softer line with non-aligned peace groups in order to secure their co-operation. In particular, Bernal believed that the WPC's influence with these groups was jeopardized by China's insistence that the WPC give unequivocal support to North Vietnam in the war.

In 1968, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia occasioned unprecedented dissent from Soviet policy within the WPC. It brought about such a crisis in the Secretariat that in September that year only one delegate supported the invasion. Several non-aligned peace groups who had distanced themselves from the WPC advised their supporters not to sign the Appeal.

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 Communist mass organisations supported the WPC, for example:

Christian Peace Conference
Women's International Democratic Federation From the 1950s until the late 1980s it tried to use non-aligned peace organizations to spread the Soviet point of view, alternately wooing and attacking them, either for their pacifism or their refusal to support the Soviet Union. Until the early 1960s there was limited co-operation between such groups and the WPC, but they gradually dissociated themselves as they discovered it was impossible to criticize the Soviet Union at WPC conferences. 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 was said to have had "overlapping membership and similar policies" to the WPC. and 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.

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." Some western delegates walked out of the Wrocław conference of 1948, and in 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists. In Britain, CND advised local groups in 1958 not to participate in a forthcoming WPC conference. In the US, 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, 40 non-aligned organizations decided to form a new international body, the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace, which was not to have Soviet members.

From about 1982, following the proclamation of martial law in Poland, the Soviet Union adopted a harder line with non-aligned groups, apparently because their failure to prevent the deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles. In December 1982, the Soviet Peace Committee President, Yuri Zhukov, returning to the rhetoric of the mid-1950s, wrote to several hundred non-communist peace groups in Western Europe accusing the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation of "fueling the cold war by claiming that both NATO and the Warsaw Pact bear equal responsibility for the arms race and international tension. Zhukov denounced the West Berlin Working Group for a Nuclear-Free Europe, organizers of a May 1983 European disarmament conference in Berlin, for allegedly siding with NATO, attempting to split the peace movement, and distracting the peaceloving public from the main source of the deadly threat posed against the peoples of Europe-the plans for stationing a new generation of nuclear missiles in Europe in 1983." also tried to attend the 1983 Assembly but were met with tear gas, arrests, and deportation to Hungary;

Rainer Santi, in his history of the International Peace Bureau, said that the WPC "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 rationalizing 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." Following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, the WPC lost most of its support, income and staff and dwindled to a small core group. Its international conferences now attract only a tenth of the delegates that its Soviet-backed conferences could attract (see below), although it still issues statements couched in similar terms to those of its historic appeals. In 1957 it was banned by the Austrian government. It was invited to Prague but did not move there, In 1968 it re-assumed its name and moved to Helsinki, After the year 2000 and the shifting of the Head office to Athens, its current finances derive exclusively from Membership Fees and contributions/donations by members and friends, based on the rules and regulations adopted in 2008, during the 19th Assembly of the WPC held in Caracas/Venezuela. The executive committee and Assemblies receive financial reports on income and expenses.

CIA measures against the WPC

The Congress for Cultural Freedom was founded in 1950 with the support of the CIA to counter the propaganda of the emerging WPC, and Phillip Agee claimed that the WPC was a Soviet front for propaganda which CIA covertly tried to neutralize and to prevent the WPC from organizing outside the Communist bloc.

Current organisation

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 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 is said to have successfully influenced their agendas, the terms of discussion and the orientations of their resolutions. It also cooperates with the African Union, the League of Arab States, and other inter-governmental bodies.

Leadership

President: Pallab Sengupta, All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO)
General Secretary: Thanasis Pafilis, Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE)
Executive Secretary: Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE)

Peace prizes

The WPC awards several peace prizes, some of which, it has been said, were awarded to politicians who funded the organization.

Congresses and assemblies

The highest WPC body, the Assembly, meets every three years.

| rowspan="2" | 1949 || rowspan="2" |World Congress of Advocates of Peace ||Paris

|France|| rowspan="2" |2,200 || rowspan="2" |72 || rowspan="2" |Established the World Committee of Partisans for Peace, chaired by Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

|Prague

|Czechoslovakia

| rowspan="2" | 1950 || rowspan="2" |World Congress of the Supporters of Peace || Sheffield

|United Kingdom|| || || rowspan="2" |Moved from Sheffield to Warsaw as a result of the British government refusing visas to delegates.

|Warsaw

|Poland

| 1951 || || Stockholm

|Sweden|| || ||

| 1952 || Congress of the People for Peace|| Vienna

| 1952 || || East Berlin

|East Germany|| || ||

| 1953 || || Budapest

|Hungary|| || ||15-20 June

| 1954 || || East Berlin

|East Germany|| || ||23–28 May

| 1955 || || Helsinki

| 1962 ||World Conference for General Disarmament and Peace Attended by delegates from non-aligned groups. Sponsors include Bertrand Russell and Canon John Collins of CND. As a result of confrontation between western and Soviet delegates, 40 non-aligned organizations form the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace, without Soviet membership. ||98

| 1971 || Assembly || Budapest

|Hungary|| ||

| 1973 || World Congress of Peace Forces|| Moscow

|Soviet Union|| 3,200 || || Chaired by Romesh Chandra, general secretary of the WPC.

|Poland

|| || ||

| 1980 || World Parliament of Peoples for Peace || Sofia

|Bulgaria|| 2,230

| 1983 ||World Assembly for Peace and Life Against Nuclear War ||Noted that "An especially acute danger is represented by plans to deploy first-strike nuclear missiles in Western Europe." Members of the unofficial Hungarian student peace movement Dialógus (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||Copenhagen

|Denmark||2,648<br>The International Year of Peace was declared by the United Nations. This was said to be the first WPC-sponsored congress to be held in a NATO country.

| 1990 || || Athens

|Greece|| || ||

| 1996 || || Mexico City

|Mexico|| || ||

| 2000 || || Athens

| rowspan="2" |Greece|| || 186 ||

| 2004 || || Athens|| 150||

| 2005 || || Seoul|| Caracas,

|Venezuela|| 120 || 76 ||

| 2009 || || New York

|United States|| 400

As of March 2014, the WPC lists the following organizations among its "members and friends".

Current Communist States

Chinese Association for Peace and Disarmament
Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples
Lao Peace and Solidarity Committee
Korean National Peace Committee (North Korea)
Vietnam Peace Committee

Former Soviet Union

Armenian Peace Committee
Belarus Peace Committee
Georgian Peace Committee
Ukraine Anti-Fascist Committee
Latvian Peace Committee
International Federation for Peace and Conciliation (the former Soviet Peace Committee a federation of a number of organizations in the CIS). Its member organizations, at the time of its founding in 1992, included:
Armenian Committee for Peace and Conciliation
National Peace Committee of Republic of Azerbaijan
Public Association Belarusian Peace Committee
Peace Committee of the Republic of Georgia
Public Association Council for Peace and Conciliation of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Public Association Council for Peace and Conciliation of the Kyrgyz Republic
Latvian movement for peace
Lithuanian Peace Forum
Public Association "Аlliance for Peace of the Republic of Moldova"
Russian Peace Committee
Republican Public Association Peace Committee of the Republic of Tajikistan
Peace Fund of Turkmenistan
Ukrainian Peace Council

Former Eastern bloc

Bulgarian National Peace Council
Czech Peace Movement
Hungarian Peace Committee
Mongolia Union for Peace and Friendship

Europe

Austrian Peace Council
Vrede (Belgium)
Croatia Anti-Fascist Committee
Cyprus Peace Council
Danish Peace Council
Finnish Peace Committee
Mouvement de la Paix (France)
German Peace Council
Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace
Ireland Peace and Neutrality Alliance
Forum against War (Italy)
Peace Committee of Luxembourg
Malta Peace Council
Netherlands Hague Platform
Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals (Serbia)
Swedish Peace Committee
Swiss Peace Movement
Peace Committee of Turkey

Asia

Bangladesh Peace Council
Bhutan Peace Council
Burmese Peace Committee
Cambodian Peace Committee
All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation
Association for the Defense of Peace, Solidarity and Democracy (Iran)
Peace Committee of Israel
Lebanese Peace Committee
Japan Peace Committee
Nepal Peace and Solidarity Council
Pakistan Peace and Solidarity Council
Palestinian Committee for Peace and Solidarity
Philippines Peace and Solidarity Council
Peace and Solidarity Organisation of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Peace and Solidarity Council
Syrian National Peace Council
Timor-Leste Conselho da Paz
Yemen Peace Committee

Africa

Angolan League for the Friendship of the Peoples
Congo Peace Committee (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Egyptian Peace Committee
Ethiopian Peace Committee
Peace Council of Mozambique
Peace Committee of Madagascar
Peace Committee of Namibia
Nigerian Peace Committee
South African Peace Initiative
Sudan Peace and Solidarity Council
Tunisian Peace Committee
Zimbabwe Peace Committee

Americas

Movimento por la Paz, Soberania y Solidaridad (Argentina)
Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (Barbadoes)
Comite Boliviano por la Paz, Tupaj Amaru
Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples and Struggle for Peace
Canadian Peace Congress
Peace Committee of Chile
Colombian Peace Committee
Costa Rican National Peace Council
Dominican Union Journalists for Peace
Ecuador Peace and Independence Movement
Movimento Mexicano por la Paz y el Desarollo
Comite de Paz de Nicaragua
Comite Nacional de Defensa de Solidaridad y Paz (Panama)
Comite de Paz de Paraguay
Comite Peruano por la Paz
Movimento Salvadoreno por la Paz
U.S. Peace Council
Uruguay Grupo Historia y Memoria
Comite de Solidaridad Internacional (Venezuela)

Oceania

Australian Peace Council
New Zealand Peace Council

Other

International Action for Liberation
European Peace Forum

Footnotes

External links

Film of the World Congress of Partisans for Peace, Paris, 1949
Pathe News film of 1962 Moscow Congress