Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Whilst Europe was engaged in the First World War, over 1,000 women from across Europe and America made the dangerous trip to The Hague with the aim of stopping the war
Once they arrived at the Women's Peace Congress in The Hague, they founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (or WILPF) "to study, make known and eliminate the causes of war". That same year they produced this manifesto which sets out their aims.
By 1919, WILPF held a second congress in Zurich; pictured here is the British delegation. It was the first time members of WILPF from opposing sides of the war had been able to meet since the 1915 congress. The number of countries represented rose by four to sixteen in 1919.
WILPF were critical of some aspects of the Treaty of Versailles. They gave the following statement at the 1919 Zurich congress: “This International Congress of Women expresses its deep regret that the terms of peace proposed at Versailles should so seriously violate the principles upon which alone a just and lasting peace can be secured…The terms of peace…create all over Europe discords and animosities which can only lead to future wars. ”
In 1926, WILPF established a joint council to plan a nationwide peace march under the slogan of "Law Not War". Pictured here is one of the armbands used by the London (Croydon) branch of WILPF.
The march (referred to as the "Peace Pilgrimage") went ahead in May of that year, with marches across the country all converging towards Hyde Park in London. An eyewitness remembers: “Here were women of the Guild House in blue cassocks and white collars, bearing their banners aloft; behind them walked members of the League of Nations Union, with bannerettes representing various countries of the world…At the head of each procession rode a woman in a Madonna blue cloak on a white horse.”
During the 1920s and 1930s, WILPF continued to actively campaign for worldwide disarmament. Ahead of the League of Nations World Disarmament Conference in 1932, WILPF circulated a disarmament petition. Shop fronts were taken over in Britain to promote the petition.
By the end of 1931, more than 3 million people had signed the petition, with Britain contributing over 1.5 million. The signatures were packed into crates and a large crowd gathered to see them off at Victoria station. To this day, WILPF continues to campaign for peace and political, economic and social justice.
Images from the archives of the British section of WILPF held at LSE Library. Text adapted from an LSE History blog post about the collection.
