Author: Gertjan Cobelens

11 August 2015
4 hours

WRI Archive Box 67.
Box 67 contains 2 folders.
Folder I consists of 2 subfolders.
* Subfolder 1. The cover states: 1^st Conference of the European Section / Offenbach / 4^th-5^th February 1967 / 1966-1967.
First attempt at creating a united European Section to combine efforts, organize common projects and create a united front for the assistance of conscientious objectors.
The file contains roughly 50 documents, predominantly letters, programs and reports.
* Subfolder 2. The cover states: Internationale Studien Arbeitslager / Bücheburg / 22th May – 3rd June 1967.
Several documents in German regarding the organization of the study day.

Folder II. Folder II contains 5 subfolders.
* Subfolder 1. The cover states: WRI Study Conference NATO / Jesshein (Norway) / July 1967 / Organized by FMK [Folkereissing Mot Krig] 
The WRI’s attempt to come up with a viable alternative to NATO. The alternative includes the disbanding of NATO and The Warsaw pact. Most of the program is coordinated by April Carter.
Roughly a hundred documents, mostly correspondence, announcements, programs and reports.
* Subfolder 2. The cover states: Study and Work Camps / Montoggio, Italy / 15^th August-2^nd September 1967.
A dozen or so documents, all in French, on the organization of the Study Camp.
* Subfolder 3. The cover states: Study/Work Camp / WRI-WPU / Loughborough / 27^th-15^th September 1967.
The WRI supported several summer camps in 1967. This one took place in Britain. The file contains roughly 20 documents.
* Subfolder 4. The cover states: 2^nd Meeting of European Section / Chateau de Chrabonieres / November 1967 / August 1967-February 1968.
Another 40 documents or so regarding the organization of the second conference of the European Section, this time predominantly focused on the legal status of conscientious objectors in Europe.
* Subfolder 5. The cover states: 3^rd Meeting of European Section / Basel / March 1968 / January-March 1968.
Roughly 30 documents on the organization of a joint peace march against NATO.

WRI Archive Box 68
Box 68 contains 3 folders.
Folder I consists of 2 subfolders. 
The year 1969 was Gandhi’s centenary year. The War Resisters’ International held two seminars for the occasion on subjects closely related to Gandhi’s work for liberation and peace: ‘Gandhi’s Relevance Today’ (Budapest) and ‘Problems of Economic Development’ (London). The seminars were organized by the WRI in co-operation with the World Council of Peace. It was a follow-up of the decision taken at the Ostend meeting between the WRI and the WCP. One of the objectives of WRI was to develop contacts and, if possible, work together with international organizations which might not have a pacifist base but were working for world peace. The WCP had shown interest in such an approach and a s a result the seminars were held in Budapest and London. A consequence of the approach was that the subject matter of the seminars was mainly focused on anti-imperialism and economic development and contained hardly any references to nonviolence. 
* Subfolder 1. The cover states: WRI-WCP Seminar on Gandhi’s Relevance Today / Budapest, 29^th September-1sdt October 1969 / I / Correspondence / May-September 1969.
Roughly 30 letters, mostly between Devi Prasad and Romesh Chandra.
* Subfolder 2. The cover states: Seminar on Gandhi’s Relevance Today / Budapest, 29^th September-1sdt October 1969 / Sponsored by the WRI and the World Council of Peace / II / Conference documents, reports.
150 documents or so consisting of correspondence, programs, minutes, draft versions and seven conference speeches.
- ‘Speech 1: In Commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Gandhi’s Birth’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Jozsef Bognar. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 18 pages.
Opening speech by Professor Bognar, the president of the Hungary Gandhi Centenary Committee. The typescript lacks most punctuation and is, in all likelihood, not a professional translation. The speech is an evaluation of Gandhi’s historical importance and offers a critique of his economics, especially of his dislike of (heavy) industry, (advanced) machininary and (large) cities. 
‘When ideas, concepts and rules which have an impact on mass behavior are assessed, these cannot be torn apart from their actual historical background. When speaking of Gandhi this is very important to keep in mind, because he was not a conventional political leading personality in the conventional sense; he was a prophet, the teacher of his people, in whose activity politics was not yet separated from moral precepts. […] Gandhi defined on the one hand general moral rules of conduct in respect of issues like the individual and justice, self control, man and machine, as well as problems like peace, democracy and people, poverty and riches, education etc.; on the other hand he organized simple political actions easy to understand by all (attack against the salt monopoly, the Kadhi movement) through the intermediary of which individuals of the smallest and most simple social standing become components of large-scale movements of the community. He was endeavoring, namely, to educate thereby the masses to engage in certain activities and to refrain voluntary from others. However he was never seeking to fill the gap between the general rules of conduct and the actual action with medium- or long-term political programs. Moral precepts have an impact on human conduct but do not constitute a firm coherent system of political objectives in which forces and power relationships, interests, the laws of evolution, or historical trends would be carefully taken into account. When the concepts and ideas of Gandhi are assessed this consideration has to be invariably kept in mind. […] Some ideas by Gandhi in the socio-economic field are, taken by themselves, mistaken, but still draw the attention of the people of India and of the world to certain basic correlations. I have in mind his dislike of modern technology and industry and his bias against towns in the first place. Industry is indispensable in India and in every developing country. Industry in turn is not only a productive activity but also one of the regulators of the way of life; where ever there is industry urbanization will be inevitable even if it is conceded that big cities do not present an attractive way of life for the population. […] Gandhi, being a personality who replaced economic laws by moral postulates, conceived that the ever recurrent gap in the balance of the economic development of society could be bridged not by the constant expansion of production and consumption but by reducing demand.’
- ‘Speech 2: On Disarmament’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Sandor Pirityi. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 12 pages.
Pirityi discusses the flawed relationship between the strategy of deterrence and the promise of disarmament: ‘Many see deterrence as a guarantee of the nonviolent settlement of conflicts and present it as an alternative to disarmament. They say the possibility of nonviolent settlement lies in the eventuality of exercising an annihilating force and that a means of preventing armed conflict is the firm threat of applying force.’ In reality, though, deterrence only breads mistrust, which may well result in an arms race that eventually defeats its own purpose.
- ‘Speech 3: Gandhi and National-Liberation Movement’
Typescript, (faded) carbon copy. Author: E. Chelishev. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 7 pages.
Speech by the Russian delegate Chelishev, offering a run of the mill portrait of Gandhi plus an analysis of Gandhi’s anti-imperialism and the relevance of his struggle for anti-imperialists today. ‘The country-wide anti-imperialist movement that spread under the leadership of Gandhi embraced different class groups and social strata of Indian society: workers and national business men, peasants and part of the landowners, as well as middle sections heterogeneous by their origin and status, mainly the intellectuals, peasants, etc. The masses of the people who were drawn into the political struggle, were divided into numerous national and caste and religious groups. India had an exceptional variety of social conditions, a peculiar interlacing of “traditional” and “modern” features in the economy, ideology, policy etc. Of great significance in this sense was Gandhi’s desire to unite all this variety and make it serve the chief aim, namely the anti-imperialist struggle for independence.’ 
- ‘Speech 4: Gandhi’s Concept of Freedom’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 8 pages.
See: WRI Archive Box 16: Folder 2, Subfolder 3. See also: www.satyagrahafoundation.org/gandhis-concept-of-freedom
- ‘Speech 5: Economic and Social Problems During the Present State of Liberation Movements’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Istvan Kubik. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 18 pages.
Dr. Kubik depicts India’s role in the chain of events that lead to the independence of over 60 countries during the fifties and sixties and discusses the factors that were responsible for the economic failures and relative successes in many of the newly independent countries. He also discusses the economic costs of the arms race.
- ‘Speech 6: One Thousand Million Hungry People and what the World Could Offer’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Mihaly Simai. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 16 pages.
An analysis of why 1 billion people (out of a total of 3.5 billion at the time) went hungry: old-fashioned farming methods, lack of use of artificial fertilizers and fossil fuel powered machinery as well as too little focus on rapid industrialization, and many other recommendations that are distinctly non-Gandhian. Compare his approach for instance to that of Sugota Dasgupta in his speech for the second Gandhi’s Relevance Today seminar, ‘Social structure and the growth in food production’ (see WRI Archive Box 122, folder II, subfolder 3). 
- ‘Speech 7’
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Kamal Bahaa’ El-Din. No title. Date: 1969. Format: A-4. 5 pages.
Kamal Bahaa’ El-Din was the Assistant Secretary General of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization. In his rather incomprehensible speech he tries to trace Gandhi’s influence on the modern-day anti-imperialist movement.
 
Folder II
Folder II contains 2 subfolders.
The second seminar, ‘Problems of Economic Development’, was attended by delegates from 17 countries. The discussion of the main subject, aid and development, raised many questions that are still valid today: Does it actually work?; Does it hold the potential of changing social and economic relations or is it mainly an expression of colonial and imperialist traditions? 
* Subfolder 1. The cover states: 2^nd seminar on Gandhi’s Relevance Today: Problems of Economic Development / London, 14^th-16^th February 1970 / sponsored by WRI and the World Council of Peace / I / correspondence November 1969-Fberuary 1970.
Roughly 75 letters regarding the organization of the second seminar. Among the people invited were President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and U Thant, the Secretary General of the United Nations.
* Subfolder 2. The cover states: 2^nd seminar on Gandhi’s Relevance Today: Problems of Economic Development / London, 14^th-16^th February 1970 / sponsored by WRI and the World Council of Peace / II / Documents 1969-1970.
The file contains roughly 50 documents, mostly consisting of letters, announcements and programs
- ‘War Resistance: Journal of the War Resisters, 2^nd and 3^rd quarters 1970, Vol. II, No. 33 & 34: Problems of Economic Development – International Gandhi Seminar, London, February 1970’
Periodical, quarterly. Publisher: WRI. Format: A5. Issue 33 & 34, 2^nd and 3^rd quarters 1970. 50 pages.
A special issue based on the speeches and discussions at the second seminar on ‘Mahatma Gandhi’s Relevance Today’. The first part of the issue is devoted to aid, the second to economic development and the third to food and agriculture. 
For more information see: WRI Archive Box 122, Folder II, subfolder 1.

Folder III.
Folder III consists of 2 subfolders. 
* Subfolder 1. The cover states: Meeting of Peace Internationals / London, 17^th February 1970 / November 1969-1^st quarter 1970.
Roughly 15 documents on the preparations for an ‘informal’ meeting of international peace groups one day after the second Gandhi’s Relevance Today seminar.
* Subfolder 2. The cover states: Evaluation Seminar on Training for Nonviolent Action / Preston Patrick / 27^th June-2^nd July 1970 / March-May 1970.
40 documents or so on the organization of a seminar aimed at evaluating the quality of training in nonviolence thus far and on finding ways on how to improve it.

WRI Archive Box 69.
Box 69 consists of 3 folders.
Folder I contains 1 subfolder. The cover states: Conference on Conscientious Objection in Europe / St. Louis (France) / 26^th May, 1973.
About a hundred documents regarding the one day conference on the legal status of conscientious objectors in Western and Eastern Europe.

Folder II.
Folder II contains 1 subfolder. The cover states: Consultation on conscientious objection and alternative service in Europe, Brussels 1974 / January / July 1973-March 1974.
Roughly 40 documents, mostly letters and programs. The ‘Consultation’ conference was a follow-up of the one in St. Louis aimed at looking for ways to include conscientious objection to the human rights chapter.

Folder III.
Folder III contains 1 subfolder. The cover states: Summer Work Camp in the Lazac for conscientious objectors and pacifists, 12-31 August 1974.
The file consists of announcements and programs for the Summer Work Camp as well as dozens of letters from conscientious objectors eager to join.

WRI Archive Box 70.
Box 70 contains 2 folders.
Folder I consists of 1 subfolder. The cover states: European Anti-Militarist Congress / 18^th-20^th October 1974 / Brussels / I / preparations, preparatory committee, documents.
Roughly a hundred documents regarding the conference on 25 years of NATO, the military-industrial complex, conscientious objection and disarmament. The overall theme: ‘The time of the Cold War is ending’.