Author: Gertjan Cobelens
Last saved by: Joseph

13 January 2015
3 hours

(cont. WRI Archive Box 12)
Folder II

Folder II contains 1 subfolder.
Subfolder 1. The cover states: Numbered Conference Documents 1-6.
* Document 1: ‘WRI 12^th Triennial Conference to be held at La Domus Pacis, 94 via Torre Rosa, Rome, 7^th-13^th April, 1966: Non-Violence and Politics (7^th-10^th April): Non-Violence, Politics and Social Change’
Typescript. Author: Mulford Q. Silbey. 1966. 8 pages.
Paper dealing with the relation between non-violent politics and social change from a non-violent perspective ‘that maintains that neither so-called revolutionary violence nor the violence characteristic of war can be instruments for desirable social change, whatever the superficial appearance may be. The perspective is one too, which maintains that the implicit purpose of political activity is non-violence, as both means and end.’ The paper also delves into the relationship between violence, non-violence and coercion, and rejects the use of violence in response to a tyrannical government. Lastly it deals with the concept of non-violent resistance. ‘It is a key concept within the general framework of non-violence. We think of it as an alternative to military resistance to invasion and also as a substitute for violent rebellion. But (a) what are the limits? A boycott, for example, may do serious injury to the opponent. So where does non-violent coercion end and violent coercion begin? And (b) we need to be fully aware that non-violent resistance utilized in one situation cannot be mechanically copied to other situations’ – any conflict has a context, and an appropriate reaction of its own.
Copies in French, German and Esperanto.
* Document 2: ‘Non-violence and Politics’
Typescript. Author: C. le Pair. 1966. 4 pages.
‘Protagonists of non-violence often have a twofold purpose: to promote social change in situations of latent violence, e.g. where there are great social differences; and to propagate the method of non-violence itself with a view to achieving a more peaceful world. It should be stressed that non-violent methods can cope only with social issues, not with territorial crises.’ From that Le Pair concludes that non-violence will never become a widespread movement in Europe, but it may well have a big future in developing countries. Le Pair aims to influence policy by influencing politics. To influence politics one needs to convince or replace the small circle of key people that dictate policies. Pacifists should realize that pacifism is a political aim. Therefore it is unavoidable that the traditional pacifist movements integrate with politics on a party level. ‘In formulating that non-violent policy one should be modest and admit that one can only claim to know something about one’s own culture. So non-violence should be considered as a norm for one’s own group, not as a norm for others.’
Copies in German and French.
* Document 3: ‘Non-Violent Politics and Social Change’
Typescript. Author: Manmoham Chowdhurry. 1966. 8 pages.
‘Political action directed towards a non-violent world order should have three objectives. (a) The welfare of the masses of the world, (b) elimination of coercion as an instrument of corporate action; or the chief instrument of government and (c) drastic revision of the idea of national sovereignty.’ Chowdhurry maintains that the changes that ‘will make-over the state and the political machine into a more effective instrument for the common good’ will also help in reducing the need for coercion. He doesn’t support the founding of a political party (such as the PSP in The Netherlands), ‘because pacifists need to keep the channels of communication open to all sections of the people.’ 
Copies in German, French and Esperanto.
* Document 4: ‘Power in Society’
Typescript. Author: Norman Z. Alcock. 1966. 7 pages.
A summary of sociological and psychological research into violence (the ‘instinct for violence’), power and attitude change.
Copies in German and French.
* Document 5: ‘Decentralization Yugoslavia’
Typescript. Author: Yugoslav League for Peace, Independence and Equality of Peoples. 1966. 6 pages.
Paper, heavily laden with neo-Marxist jargon, explaining the move in Yugoslavia from a centralized state to a decentralized state.
Copies in French and Esperanto.
* Document 6: ‘The Nation-State: has it a Future?’
Typescript. Author: L.S. Wiseberg. 1966. 8 pages.
Wiseberg investigates the possibility of a transition to larger and more comprehensive forms of political organization, although he departs from the premise that it is highly unlikely that the nation-state ‘will soon no longer be the most absolute of all human associations and the principle focus of men’s loyalty.’ The role of the nation-state as aggressor has in turn been explained as a form of power management (‘the instinctive aggressiveness of man and the state’); as spiritual misguidance; in terms of a federalist approach (‘war can only be banished through world governance’); or through a functionalist approach. According to Wiseberg all these explanations fail to some extent. His approach: the development of a world peace community, ‘characterized by the expectation that conflicts will be resolved without resort to force. This requires a consensus among states about the way decision-making roles will be filled in this international system’.

WRI Archive Box 13
Box 13 contains 2 folders.
Folder I contains 1 subfolder.
Subfolder 1. The cover states: Numbered conference documents 7-14.
* Document 7: ‘The Nation-state: Has it a Future?’
Typescript. Author: Nicholas A. Sims. 1966. 7 pages.
‘Power within interpersonal relationships is limited by law, convention and appeal to a higher authority. The power of the nation-state, in contrast, seems limitless. That power only seems to increase.’ One reaction to this growing power is a call for decentralization, another for a world government as the only secure repository of political power. A third reaction ‘is the unqualified acceptance of the facts of power and the state, to discover ways of harnessing state power and divesting it from destructive ends, attempting to moderate the exercise of power, and to substitute non-violent modes of conflict for violent ones.’ Within a context of total disarmament the nation-state can be a force for ‘good’, a force for waging conflict non-violently.
Copies in French and Esperanto.
* Document 8: ‘Power Concentration in West-Germany’
Typescript. Author: Fritz Katz. 1966. 8 pages.
West-Germany analyzed through the lens of C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite.
* Document 9: ‘Social Change and the International System’
Typescript. Author: Stanley Gray. 1966. 5 pages.
Gray departs from the interconnection between achieving world peace and the realization of fundamental social change. The question is how. The answer: that depends on the system you are living in. 
Copies in French, German and Esperanto.
* Document 10: ‘Experiments with Peace-Oriented Socialist Parties’
Inventory of ‘left socialist’ pacifist parties in Europe and Japan. What is their common denominator? What are their chances of success?
Copies in German, French and Esperanto.
* Document 11: ‘A contribution to the discussion on the future strategy of peace movements towards political action on national and international levels’
Typescript. Author: John Papworth. 1966. 4 pages.
Papworth raises subjects such as: a new analysis of the factors that produce war; the dangers of the centralization of government; what is the maximum size of a community that can conduct itself democratically?; what is the role of institutions and ‘machine giantism’ (‘Peace is a moral concept, just as democracy, freedom […] only human beings can make moral judgments […] machines and institutions are by their nature amoral. If we want peace, we must restore the power of human communities.’)?
* Document 12: ‘Some Notes on Participatory Democracy’
Typescript. Author: Richard Flacks. 1966. 7 pages.
Participatory democracy can be described as ‘men must share in the decisions which affect their lives and alternatively: each man has responsibility for the actions of his institutions in which he is embedded; all authority ought to be responsible to those “under” it.’ Flacks promotes participatory democracy as an essential precondition for worlds peace.
Copies in German.
* Document 13: ‘Parliamentary Democracy and Direct Democracy’
Typescript. Author: John Morris. 1966. 10 pages.
A lengthy essay on the ‘death’ of parliamentary democracy and political parties (which have been useful and quite successful for over a hundred years but are now outdated) and the ‘rebirth’ (local, for now) of direct democracy as a basis for social change and peace.  
* Document 14: ‘Is Decentralization Compatible with Internationalism?’
Typescript. Author: George Delf. 1966. 2 pages.
Decentralization (to regional units of up to 5 million inhabitants) is a necessary precondition for effective democratic internationalism. These regional components form the building blocks of a continental regionalism, which is itself linked to a world assembly.
Copies in German and French.

Folder II
Folder II contains 1 subfolder
Subfolder 1. The cover states: Background papers for part II of the conference / Business session.
* ‘For an International Institute of Human Rights’
Typescript. Author: Pierre martin. 1966. 4 pages.
Paper calling for a new section of the UN that is solely devoted to the promotion of human rights.
Copies in French, German and Esperanto.
* A Word about the Constitution – Proposals for Amendments’
Typescript. No author. 1966. 3 pages.
The paper recognizes that the democratic procedures of the WRI hardly need improving. In the area of conventions and traditions, especially when applied to personal conflicts or ideological differences, there is still some work to be done, though.

Subfolder 2. The cover states: Various, correspondence.
Roughly 40 to 45 letters discussing the venue, dates, theme and contents of the 1966 conference.

Subfolder 3. The cover states: Manifesto’s, letters etc. sent to the conference.
The folder contains manifesto’s, articles and letters in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Esperanto, that all tie in with the papers and speeches that have been prepared for the conference. 
* ‘Journal of Peace Research’
Journal, Norwegian. Publisher: Universitatsfolaget. 1965. 14 pages.
The journal contains one article: ‘Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Decisions’ by Jerome Laulicht.
* ‘Macht und Organisationsformen’
Typescript. Author: Dr. Gerhard Schmidt. 1966. 15 pages.
A sociological exploration of power and its (ab)use in political, economical and cultural organizations.

WRI Archive Box 14
Box 14 contains 2 folders.
Folder I contains 1 subfolder.
Subfolder 1. The cover states: Speeches.
* ‘Greeting Address to the Attendees of the Triennial Conference of the WRI, Rome, Domus Pacis, April 7^th, 1966’
Typescript, with corrections in pencil. Author: Aldo Capitini. 1966. 3 pages.
Capitini, speaking on behalf of the Italian non-violent movement, presents a short history of the pacifist movement in Italy and calls upon the WRI ‘to draw up a constitution for a Non-Violent International, that will unite all centers, individuals and associations that are engaged in spreading the spirit and techniques of non-violence.’
* Politics, Social Change and Non-Violence’
Typescript. Author: Danilo Dolci. 1966. 9 pages.
Dolci distinguishes between the idea that social change nearly always precedes political change (this is what he calls the Western position: ‘small groups that originate general change, which in turn is built up into political change’) and the concept (the ‘Eastern position’) that ‘change is determined by contradictions existing within the social structure; as the contradictions become apparent they impel change.’ Dolci opts for the latter.
Copies in Italian.
* ‘The Factory for Peace – an Experiment in Industrial Democracy’
Typescript, with corrections in pencil. Author: Tom McAlpine. 1966. 9 pages.
McAlpine provides a series of examples of non-violent industrial action, both from the factory in Glasgow where he is working and similar places where they practice ‘industrial democracy’ and democratically decide on matters such as wages, hiring and firing, factory expenses and how to spend profits. In McAlpine’s (small but quite successful) Glaswegian factory profits are spent on ‘activities promoting peace, giving aid to developing countries, encouraging human dignity and supporting the local community.’
* ‘Die Rolle, die der Druck des Volkes spielen kann, bei der Bildung einer Demokratischen Außenpolitik’
Typescript. Author: Reinhold Settele. 1966. 19 pages. Language: German.
Speech on the role of popular pressure in the formation of a democratic foreign policy.

Folder II