The World Peace Council (or World Council of Peace) was formed in 1949 in order to promote peaceful coexistence and nuclear disarmament. It has been alleged to be a front organization of Communist parties due to its advocacy of unilateral disarmament in western countries and the active participation and funding of the council by the Soviet bloc as well as the leading role taken in the WPC by Communists such as Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the WPC's founding president.
The WPC was especially active in those areas bordering U.S. military installations, in Western Europe, believed to house nuclear weapons. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union the council has dwindled down to a small core group.
It was involved in many demonstrations and protests from the late 1940s to the late 1980s and attempted to lead the peace movement though it was largely sidelined beginning in the 1960s by the New Left which distrusted the Soviet Union and its supporters in the "old left".
The People's Republic of China resigned from the council in 1966 as a result of the Sino-Soviet split, a move which undermined the WPC's credibility among Maoists and their sympathisers who dominated the New Left in many western countries.
The WPC had its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, at Lönnrotinkatu 25 A, until the 1990s when the Council moved to Greece.
In May 2004, the Council held its world congress in Athens attended by representatives of 100 peace groups from around the world.
The west and especially the United States, has always maintained that the WPC had been formed by the KGB as a front organization, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
See also
External links
- World Peace Council homepage
- [1] "Following the Money Trail at the World Peace Council" Magazine article
- [2] "The Ghost Ship of Lonnrotinkatu" Magazine article