On February 25th 2022, as World without Wars and Violence, we issued a press release that began “Haven’t the 150 million people killed in the two world wars been enough?” We urged, on the one hand, the governments of the European zone not to be dragged into a war that is not theirs; to stop following the mandates of the United States; to have a truly neutral stance and question once and for all the very existence of NATO; not to use different measures when denouncing the occupation of territories. On the other hand, we call on Russia to withdraw all its troops sent to Ukraine, helping the de-escalation; to sign the TPNW nuclear weapons ban treaty; to reverse the sums invested in weapons in favour of health (the pandemic has revealed the lack of this in terms of investment) and education. At the same time, we call on populations to become protagonists, actively expressing their disapproval of these belligerent policies, lobbying their governments to sign the TPNW, and organising non-violently to create awareness that militarism can never lead to peace. The only way is a people-centred peace process with the methodology of non-violence.
In these thirteen months we have continued to exhort, to demand, to invite even though the situation is increasingly complex, the dialogue increasingly fragile. We have participated in several initiatives where we joined forces with others. The next one will be on 2 April with ‘Let us take peace into our own hands’, an event launched by ‘Europe for Peace, free of nuclear weapons’. We share the call “to turn off television and all social networks, war propaganda and filtered and manipulated information, and instead engage in direct communication with the people around us and organise activities for peace”.
As WWWV, we are continuing to promote the path of the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which will start in San Jose, Costa Rica on 2 October 2024 and return there on 5 January 2025. On this “path towards the journey” we gather the voices of so many everywhere to become one great cry “Peace, Peace, Peace! It is time to come out of prehistory, giving peace a chance!
