LIZ PAYNE pays tribute to the WPC and
its struggle against imperialist aggression as it enters its eighth
decade this weekend
This
weekend, the World Peace Council (WPC) is marking the 70th anniversary
of its foundation and seven decades as an international mass
organisation of struggle against imperialism and war and for peace and
justice, in solidarity with all peace-loving people of the world.
At
a recent meeting of its secretariat in Belgrade, WPC president Socorro
Gomes said: “I would like to celebrate with you the long and brave path
of our peace organisation, with its history of struggle and resistance
… [It] remains committed to building ever more bridges, today and
tomorrow, for the unity of the anti-imperialist, democratic and peace
forces against oppression, colonialism, wars and domination.”
From
April 20-24 1949 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, 2,000 delegates from 75
countries gathered for the first World Congress of Partisans for Peace,
which was shortly to be renamed the WPC.
The
Congress was backed by the newly formed Liaison Committee of
Intellectuals for Peace and the Women’s International Democratic
Federation, founded in 1945, which campaigned for peace as a
prerequisite for equality and justice for women.
In
1949 in Paris, the huge assembly — including scientists, teachers,
women’s rights activists, lawyers, trade unionists, writers, poets,
actors, artists, musicians and students — were united in their
condemnation of US-led imperialism as the root cause of war.
The
latter’s hegemonic plans were directed at the overthrow of the Soviet
Union and the socialist states of eastern Europe and at achieving
unchallengeable control of the resources, cheap labour and markets of
the post-war world.
Implementation
of these plans condemned the peoples of the world to gross
exploitation, rampant racism in both former colonies and in the
imperialist heartlands, relentless pursuit of cold war, deprivation
arising from the channelling of resources that should have been meeting
people’s urgent needs and improving living standards into military
research and an arms race imposed on the Soviet Union and socialist
countries — all with the fearful ever-present threat of thermo-nuclear
annihilation.
The
Partisans for Peace denounced the warmongering, aggressive North Atlantic
Treaty, signed in Washington only 16 days before the Congress in Paris
opened.
Delegates
were clear that it was a precursor to an attack on the USSR. US
communist and women’s rights campaigner Shirley Graham told the
Congress that the black mothers of the US, whose status there was the
lowest of the low, were unwilling to allow their sons to be consumed by
another war.
One
of the most outstanding contributions was that of world-renowned
lawyer, civil rights campaigner, singer and actor Paul Robeson.
Summoned
to the microphone, he captured the sentiment of the whole convention
when he said: “We in America do not forget that it is on the backs of
the poor whites of Europe … and on the backs of millions of black
people that the wealth of America has been acquired.
“And
we are resolved that it shall be distributed in an equitable manner
among all our children.”
He
condemned the contemporary war hysteria and concluded: “We are
determined to fight for peace. We do not wish to fight the Soviet
Union.”
His
speech was to cost him dearly — a passport revoked, mass media
vilification, scores of concerts immediately cancelled across the US
and denunciation before the House Un-American Activities Committee — an
example for all to see of what happens to those who campaign for peace
when the ruling class depends on wars and rumours of wars.
Not
surprisingly, the world movement for peace was subject to attempted
sabotage by governments lined up with the US from the outset.
In
the run-up to the 1949 Congress in Paris, French officials refused
visas to hundreds of delegates from the socialist countries.
They
hoped this would halt proceedings, but a simultaneous meeting of the
Partisans for Peace was convened in Prague in which all could
participate.
A
major outcome of the Paris Congress was the setting up of a permanent
body — the World Committee of Partisans for Peace — and plans were soon
under way for a second World Congress in 1950 in Sheffield.
The
Labour government, doing the bidding of the British Establishment, was
extremely hostile.
It
would not allow organisers of the event from outside Britain to enter
the country, refused visas to over 200 delegates, turned away others at
the border (only after ascertaining details of their peace movement contacts
in Britain for security purposes) and withdrew its initial consent to
allow 18 charter flights to bring delegates from eastern Europe.
Despite
this, a packed one-day meeting of 3,000 people was held in Sheffield
City Hall, while the main World Congress was transferred to Warsaw.
Here
the organisation was named the World Peace Council, with Frederic
Joliet-Curie becoming its first president (1950-58).
Its
second president (1959–65) was the British scientist and socialist, JD
Bernal, whose invaluable Peace Archive is housed in the Marx Memorial
Library.
The
power of the WPC lies in its principled stance against imperialism as
the prime cause of war and barrier to lasting peace; its ongoing
penetrating analysis to which all members contribute; its mass solidarity
actions and campaigns and the internationalism that underpins
everything it undertakes.
An
early example is the Stockholm Appeal, launched in March 1950 to ban
the atomic bomb and treat its use as a war crime.
Over
482 million signatures were gathered — a massive victory in a
pre-internet world. The most recent example is the launching of the
current global campaign for the closure of all one thousand US and Nato
military bases — including the British mega-stations in Cyprus and the
Chagos Islands.
The
WPC supported the US Peace Council and the Peace and Neutrality
Alliance Ireland in holding the first international conference against
US/Nato bases in Dublin in November 2018.
In
a world of escalating imperialist aggression, the role of the WPC and
its affiliates is of paramount importance.
Post-1991,
after the bringing down of the Soviet Union and socialist countries,
the true face of imperialism (which promised us permanent
capitalist-maintained post-socialist peace!) has been revealed — in
horrific aggression in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali,
Syria and Yemen; an attempted coup in Venezuela and the continuing
blockade of socialist Cuba.
No
country refusing to do the bidding of imperialism is safe from US-led
threats, interventions, provocations and all-out war.
The
lithograph, The Dove, produced by Pablo Picasso for the World Congress
of Partisans of Peace in Paris in 1949, was adopted as and remains the
WPC’s symbol.
Under
its wings, the WPC, its affiliated organisations and all its millions
of members in over 100 countries across the world stand together.
As
Joliet-Curie insisted: “It is not possible for a people alone or for a
person alone to prevent war.”
The
World Peace Council’s objectives remain — to struggle against
imperialist wars; the occupation of sovereign countries; the renewed
arms race and the continued existence of foreign military bases and for
universal disarmament under effective international control including
the elimination of weapons of mass destruction; respect for the
territorial integrity of states and the right of their peoples to
sovereignty and independence; non-interference in the internal affairs
of nations and the elimination of all forms of colonialism,
neocolonialism and discrimination.
On
the 70th anniversary of the WPC, the British Peace Assembly salutes the
WPC and reiterates its conviction that while imperialism lasts, there
can be no permanent peace and that saying “Yes to peace and No to Nato”
is the only way forward for a left-led Labour government and the people
of Britain to build with the peoples of the world towards a socialist
future.
Liz
Payne is convener of the British Peace Assembly.
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