The document below outlines the involvement of WILPF UK alongside many other organisations in a 7 year Peace Forum working to highlight the stories of resistance within the historical narrative of World War One, with the aim of presenting an alternative to the militarist accounts apparent in Government commemoration. Although this forum has ceased, the organisations continue to plan events such as the International Conscientious Objectors’ Day which takes place every year on May 15th.
FIRST WORLD WAR PEACE FORUM: SUMMARY OF JOINT ACTIVITIES 2012 – 2019
The coalition was formed following a PPU initiative in February 2012 with the objective of presenting the story of resistance to the First World War and challenging the militarist bias of Government commemoration of the Centenary. The Forum eventually included 11 organisations: Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Conscience, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Movement for the Abolition of War, Network for Peace, Pax Christi, Peace News, Peace Pledge Union, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Right to Refuse to Kill Group, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
2013
Publication of our14-page information briefing for event organisers and media.
March – Meeting with Jennie Shaw at the Department of Culture Media and Sport
6 June
We held a meeting at Friends House hosted by Network for Peace to share and map ideas and plans for the FWW centenary. About 60 people attended from all parts of Britain. We created a calendar/ planner.
2014
15 May: International Conscientious Objectors’ Day
Speakers: Sam Walton (QPSW) Mary Dobbing (CO grand-daughter) Christine Schweitzer (WRI) and Lord John Maxton (son of a FWW CO). We gathered about 150 descendants of 70 or so FWW COs and of a few women peace campaigners. Families named their relatives, bringing photographs and laying flowers, and enjoyed lunch at Friends House afterwards. Our two new banners have been used each year since. Nationwide media coverage for CO Day was huge.
4 August
No More War – silent vigil on the steps of St-Martin-in-the-Fields to mark the centenary of the start of the FWW.
2015
15 May
Speakers: Sheila Triggs (Wilpf) Mia Tamarin (Israeli CO)
September
Letters were sent to 40 groups round the country encouraging them to plan events for the 2016 anniversary of conscription, and offering speakers from the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO)
2016
14 May
Evening meeting and reception for visiting delegates of EBCO. One visitor went to speak at a CO Day event in Oxford.
15 May
Speakers: Siw Wood (niece of Walter & Alfred Llewellyn Roberts) Jill Gibbon (grand-daughter of Bert Brocklesby) Hannah Brock (WRI), Alexia Tsouni (Association of Greek COs) Holly Wallis (Conscience)
2017
10 March Vigil at High Court on centenary of the Wheeldon Trial
15 May Speakers: Sir Mark Rylance with, Patrick Walshe McBride and Nick Jeffrey (US draft resister to Vietnam war)
2018
15 May
Speakers: Selam Kidane (Eritrea), Hannah Brock (WRI)
Remembrance Day 11 November
We commissioned a special logo and made a new banner for the occasion. Remembrance and Peace Ceremony in Tavistock Square – Speakers: Marigold Bentley (QPSW/ Forum) Michael Mears (reading Clifford Allen’s 1918 speech). Festival in Friends House with films, music, speakers, children’s activities and stalls from 26 peace organisations.
2019
15 May Speakers: Lois Bibbings (University of Bristol) Jay Sutherland (Scotland against Militarism)
Over the period 2014-2019 CO Day events have also been held in the following locations:
Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chesterfield, Dartmoor, Deptford, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Haringey, Hereford, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keyes, Norwich, Oxford, Penzance, Portsmouth, Rochdale, Sheffield, Tavistock, York.
Across the country, peace observance of the FWW centenary has been rich and imaginative. In addition to events held jointly by the FWWPF individual member organisations have been involved in countless projects during the centenary: publications, exhibitions, conferences, art, sculpture, poetry, music, film, drama, walks, websites, petitions, CO research and campaigning.
