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Unión del Compromiso de Paz

La Unión del Compromiso por la Paz ( PPU ) es una organización no gubernamental que promueve el pacifismo , con sede en el Reino Unido . Sus miembros son firmantes del siguiente...

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La Unión del Compromiso por la Paz ( PPU ) es una organización no gubernamental que promueve el pacifismo , con sede en el Reino Unido . Sus miembros son firmantes del siguiente compromiso: «La guerra es un crimen contra la humanidad. Renuncio a la guerra y, por lo tanto, estoy decidido a no apoyar ningún tipo de guerra. También estoy decidido a trabajar para la eliminación de todas las causas de la guerra» [ 1 ] y a hacer campaña para promover soluciones pacíficas y no violentas a los conflictos. [ 1 ] La PPU constituye la sección británica de la Internacional de Resistentes a la Guerra .

Historia

Formación

Cartel de la Unión del Compromiso de Paz

La PPU surgió de una iniciativa de Hugh Richard Lawrie 'Dick' Sheppard , canónigo de la Catedral de San Pablo , [ 2 ] en 1934, después de que publicara una carta en el Manchester Guardian y otros periódicos, invitando a los hombres (pero no a las mujeres) a enviarle postales comprometiéndose a no apoyar jamás la guerra . [ 3 ] 135.000 hombres respondieron y, con la coordinación de Sheppard, el reverendo metodista John CB Myer y otros, se convirtieron formalmente en miembros. El aspecto inicial del compromiso exclusivo para hombres tenía como objetivo contrarrestar la idea de que solo las mujeres participaban en el movimiento por la paz . En 1936, la membresía se abrió a las mujeres y el recién fundado Peace News fue adoptado como el periódico semanal de la PPU. La PPU reunió a varias figuras públicas destacadas como patrocinadores, entre ellas Aldous Huxley , Bertrand Russell , Storm Jameson , Rose Macaulay , Donald Soper , Siegfried Sassoon , Reginald Sorensen , JD Beresford , Ursula Roberts (quien escribía bajo el seudónimo de "Susan Miles") [ 4 ] y el general de brigada FP Crozier (un ex oficial del ejército convertido en pacifista). [ 5 ]

The PPU attracted members across the political spectrum, including Christian pacifists, socialists, anarchists and in the words of member Derek Savage, "an amorphous mass of ordinary well-meaning but fluffy peace-lovers".[3] The suffragist, Sybil Morrison, spoke to the historian, Brian Harrison, about her involvement with the Peace Pledge Union as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[6] In 1937 the No More War Movement formally merged with the PPU. George Lansbury, previously chair of the No More War Movement, became president of the PPU, holding the post until his death in 1940. In 1937 a group of clergy and laity led by Sheppard formed the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship as an Anglican complement to the non-sectarian PPU. The Union was associated with the Welsh group, Heddwchwyr Cymru, founded by Gwynfor Evans.[3] In March 1938, PPU George Lansbury launched the PPU's first manifesto and peace campaign. The campaign argued that the idea of a war to defend democracy was a contradiction in terms and that "in a period of total war, democracy would be submerged under totalitarianism".[3]

A large part of the PPU's work involved providing for the victims of war. Its members sponsored a house where 64 Basque children, refugees from the Spanish Civil War, were cared for. PPU archivist William Hetherington[7] writes that "The PPU also encouraged members and groups to sponsor individual Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to enable them to be received into the United Kingdom".[8][9]

In 1938 the PPU opposed legislation for air-raid precautions and in 1939 campaigned against military conscription.

Attitudes towards Nazi Germany

Al igual que muchos en la década de 1930, la PPU apoyó aspectos de la política de apaciguamiento , y algunos miembros sugirieron que la Alemania nazi cesaría su agresión si se anulaban las disposiciones territoriales del Tratado de Versalles . [ 10 ] Respaldó la política de Neville Chamberlain en Múnich en 1938, considerando legítimas las reivindicaciones de Hitler sobre los Sudetes . En el momento de la crisis de Múnich, varios patrocinadores de la PPU intentaron enviar «cinco mil pacifistas a los Sudetes como presencia no violenta», pero este intento fracasó. [ 3 ]

El editor de Peace News y patrocinador de la PPU, John Middleton Murry , y sus partidarios en el grupo causaron una considerable controversia al argumentar que Alemania debía controlar partes de Europa continental. En una publicación de la PPU, Warmongers , Clive Bell afirmó que se debería permitir a Alemania "absorber" Francia, Polonia, los Países Bajos y los Balcanes. Sin embargo, esta nunca fue la política oficial de la PPU y la postura rápidamente recibió críticas de otros activistas de la PPU, como Vera Brittain y Andrew Stewart. [ 11 ] Clive Bell abandonó la PPU poco después y, para 1940, ya apoyaba la guerra. [ 12 ]

Some PPU supporters were so sympathetic to German grievances that PPU supporter Rose Macaulay claimed she found it difficult to distinguish between the PPU newspaper Peace News and that of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), saying, "occasionally when reading Peace News, I (and others) half think we have got hold of the Blackshirt [BUF journal] by mistake".[13][14] There was Fascist infiltration of the PPU[15] and MI5 kept an eye on the PPU's "small Fascist connections".[16] After Dick Sheppard's death in October 1937, George Orwell, always hostile to pacifism, accused the PPU of "moral collapse" on the grounds that some members even joined the BUF.[17] However, several historians note that the situation may have been the other way around; that is, BUF members attempted to infiltrate the PPU. On 11 August 1939, the Deputy Editor of Peace News, Andrew Stewart, criticised those "who think that membership of British Union, Sir Oswald Moseley's Fascist organization, is compatible with membership of the PPU".[18] In November 1939, an MI5 officer reported that members of the far-right Nordic League were attempting "to join the PPU en masse".[19]

Historians have differed in their interpretation of the PPU's attitude to Nazi Germany. The historian Mark Gilbert said, "it is hard to think of a British newspaper that was so consistent an apologist for Nazi Germany as Peace News," which "assiduously echoed the Nazi press's claims that far worse offences than the Kristallnacht events were a regular feature of British colonial rule".[20] But David C. Lukowitz argues that, "it is nonsense to charge the PPU with pro-Nazi sentiments. From the outset it emphasised that its primary dedication was to world peace, to economic justice and racial equality," but it had "too much sympathy for the German position, often the product of ignorance and superficial thinking".[10] Research by the historian Richard Griffiths, published in 2017, suggests considerable division and controversy at the top of the PPU, with the editors of Peace News being generally more willing to play down the dangers of Nazi Germany than were many members of the PPU Executive.[21]

Controversy over the PPU's attitude towards Nazi Germany has continued ever since the war. In 1950, Rebecca West, in her book The Meaning of Treason, described the PPU as "that ambiguous organisation which in the name of peace was performing many actions certain to benefit Hitler". The publishers removed the phrase from subsequent editions of the book following representations by the PPU, but West refused to apologise.[22]

Second World War

Initially, the Peace Pledge Union opposed the Second World War and continued to argue for a negotiated peace with Germany.[3] On 9 March 1940, 2,000 people attended a PPU public meeting calling for a negotiated peace.[23] PPU membership reached a peak of 140,000 in 1940.[24]

For some members of the PPU, the focus was less on a negotiated peace and more on "nonviolent revolution" in both Britain and Germany. In 1940, the PPU published a booklet called Plan of Campaign, reprinting an article by the Dutch Christian anarcho-pacifist Bart de Ligt. He called for war to be made impossible by direct action, including "the most effective non-co-operation, boycott and sabotage". Not all PPU members were happy with this approach and the booklet was withdrawn from sale in London.[25]

En febrero de 1940, el periódico Daily Mail pidió la prohibición de la PPU. [ 26 ] Si bien el gobierno decidió no prohibir la PPU, varios de sus miembros fueron arrestados y procesados ​​por hacer campaña contra la guerra. En mayo de 1940, seis destacados activistas de la PPU —Alex Wood, Stuart Morris, Maurice Rowntree, John Barclay, Ronald Smith y Sidney Todd— fueron acusados ​​por la publicación de un cartel pacifista cuyo objetivo era alentar a personas de todas las nacionalidades a negarse a luchar. La acusación leída en el tribunal fue que "intentaron causar entre las personas al servicio de Su Majestad desafección que probablemente condujera a incumplimientos de su deber". [ 27 ] Fueron procesados ​​por el Fiscal General, Donald Somervell KC. Fueron defendidos por John Platts-Mills y fueron condenados, pero no encarcelados. El Consejo de la PPU votó por mayoría a favor de retirar el cartel en cuestión, aunque esta parece haber sido una decisión controvertida dentro de la PPU. [ 27 ] Otros miembros de la PPU también fueron arrestados por celebrar reuniones al aire libre durante la guerra y vender el periódico Peace News en la calle. [ 28 ] En 1942, el secretario general de la PPU, Stuart Morris, fue condenado a nueve meses de prisión por manejar documentos gubernamentales secretos relacionados con el dominio británico en la India, que supuestamente planeaba entregar a Gandhi u otros miembros del ala no violenta del movimiento independentista indio. El juicio se celebró en secreto. El Consejo de la PPU se desvinculó de las acciones de Morris. [ 29 ]

La actitud crítica hacia el PPU en este período fue resumida por George Orwell , quien escribió en la edición de octubre de 1941 de la revista Adelphi : "Dado que los pacifistas tienen mayor libertad de acción en países donde sobreviven vestigios de democracia, el pacifismo puede actuar con mayor eficacia contra la democracia que a su favor. Objetivamente, el pacifista es pronazi".

Following the fall of France, support for the PPU dropped considerably and some former members even volunteered for the armed forces.[30] The PPU abandoned the focus on peace negotiations.[3] PPU members instead concentrated on activities such as supporting British conscientious objectors and supporting the Food Relief Campaign. A few members of the PPU joined the Bruderhof in the Cotswolds, which was seen as a radical peace experiment.[31] This latter campaign attempted to supply food, under Red Cross supervision, to civilians in occupied Europe.[3] From 1941, the PPU campaigned against the bombing of German civilians and was one of several groups to back the Bombing Restriction Committee (most of whose members were not pacifists or even opposed to the war as a whole). The Birmingham branch of the PPU declared, "We pacifists, while determined to resist the Nazi system, believe that nothing can justify the continuation of this slaughter and the moral degradation that it involves".[24] Throughout the war, Vera Brittain published a newsletter, Letters to Peace Lovers, criticizing the conduct of the war, including the bombing of civilian areas of Germany. This had 2,000 subscribers.[32]

By 1945, membership of the PPU had fallen by more than a quarter, standing at 98,414 when the war ended[33] (compared to around 140,000 in 1940).[24]

After the Second World War

Since 1945, the PPU has consistently "condemned the violence, oppression and weapons of all belligerents".[8] Immediately after the war, there was a focus on support for famine relief in Europe and elsewhere.[34] The PPU condemned the use of nuclear weapons against Japan in August 1945 and in October 1945, prominent PPU members were among the signatories to an open letter asking what the moral difference was between mass killing by Nazis in concentration camps and mass killings by atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was followed by the publication of the PPU leaflet Atom War.[35] In 1947, the PPU voted to make a priority of campaigning for the abolition of conscription (known in law as National Service).[36] Conscription in the UK was phased out from 1960 and ended completely in 1963.

In the 1950s, the PPU paid more attention to ideas of nonviolent civil disobedience, as developed by Mohandas Gandhi and others. This was not without controversy even within the PPU, with some members resigning as they objected to the use, or what they saw as the too frequent use, of methods of civil disobedience.[37] However, members of PPU were well represented in the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) founded in 1957, which organised the first of the Aldermaston marches in 1958.[38] In practice, however, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the PPU lost some members to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, even though CND was not a pacifist-only organisation and, at least in its early days, was less focused on direct action.

Some recovery in the PPU's fortunes took place after 1965, when Myrtle Solomon was general secretary. The PPU organised protests against the US war in Vietnam and handed out leaflets to US tourists in Britain stating "not only are Vietnamese being killed, but American men are dying for a cause war cannot achieve".[39] The PPU also opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and condemned both the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands and the British response.[8] It has also promoted the ideas of pacifist thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Richard B. Gregg.[8]

The group had a branch in Northern Ireland, the Peace Pledge Union in Northern Ireland; in the 1970s this group campaigned for the withdrawal of the British army, as well as the disbandment of both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups.[40]

The Peace Pledge Union's 21st-century activity has included taking part in British protests against the 2003 Iraq War.[41] In 2005, the PPU released an educational CD-ROM on Martin Luther King's life and work that was adopted by several British schools.[42] In recent years, the PPU has focused on issues including Remembrance Day,[43] peace education,[44] the commemoration of World War One[45] and what they describe as the "militarisation" of British society.[46]

White poppy campaign

Fotografía
A Peace poppy wreath, made of Peace poppies, with a CND symbol inside at a British Remembrance Day event

The PPU's most visible contemporary activity is the White Poppy appeal, started in 1933 by the Women's Co-operative Guild alongside the Royal British Legion'sred poppy appeal.[47] The white poppy commemorated not only British soldiers killed in war, but also civilian victims on all sides, standing as "a pledge to peace that war must not happen again".[48] In 1986, Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher expressed her "deep distaste" for the white poppies,[49] on allegations that they potentially diverted donations from service men, yet this stance gave them increased publicity. In the 2010s, sales of white poppies rose. The PPU reported that around 110,000 white poppies had been bought in 2015, the highest number on record.[46]

Notable members

Members of the PPU have included: Vera Brittain, Benjamin Britten, Clifford Curzon, Alex Comfort, Eric Gill, Ben Greene, Laurence Housman, Aldous Huxley, George Lansbury, Kathleen Lonsdale, George MacLeod, Sybil Morrison, John Middleton Murry, Peter Pears, Max Plowman, Arthur Ponsonby, Hugh S. Roberton, Bertrand Russell, Siegfried Sassoon, Myrtle Solomon, Donald Soper, Reginald Sorensen, Donald Swann, Sybil Thorndike, Michael Tippett and Wilfred Wellock.

See also

References

  1. ^ ab"About Us". www.ppu.org.uk. Camden: Peace Pledge Union. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  2. ^Sybil Morrison, I Renounce War : The Story of the Peace Pledge Union : Sheppard Press, 1962. (99-100)
  3. ^ abcdefghAndrew Rigby, "The Peace Pledge Union: From Peace to War, 1936–1945" in Peter Brock, Thomas Paul SocknatChallenge to Mars:Pacifism from 1918 to 1945. University of Toronto Press, 1999. ISBN 0802043712 (pp. 169–185)
  4. ^Martin Ceadel, Pacifism in Britain, 1914–1945 : the defining of a faith Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1980. ISBN 0198218826 (pp. 321–22)
  5. ^Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists:The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford University Press, 2000 ISBN 0199241171 (p. 334)
  6. ^London School of Economics and Political Science. "The Suffrage Interviews". London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  7. ^"PPU Archives". Archived from the original on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  8. ^ abcdWilliam Hetherington, "Peace Pledge Union" in The World Encyclopedia of Peace. Edited by Linus Pauling, Ervin Laszlo, and Jong Youl Yoo. Oxford : Pergamon, 1986. ISBN 0-08-032685-4 (p.243-7).
  9. ^Juliet Gardiner The Thirties: An Intimate History, Harper Press, 2010, p.501.
  10. ^ abDavid C. Lukowitz, "British Pacifists and Appeasement: The Peace Pledge Union", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 9, No. 1, January 1974, pp. 115–127
  11. ^"Miss Brittain and others found objectionable Murry's advocacy of a "Pax Germanica" on the European continent" Quoted in Richard A. Rempel, "The Dilemmas of British Pacifists During World War II", The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 50, No. 4, Supplement, December, 1978, pp. D1213–D1229.
  12. ^James, Lawrence (2000). Warrior Race: A history of the British at war. London: Hachette UK. p. 620. ISBN 978-0748125357.
  13. ^Julie V. Gottlieb, Feminine fascism: women in Britain's fascist movement, London: I.B.Tauris, 2003
  14. ^Frank McDonough, Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War, Manchester University Press, 1998
  15. ^Julie V. Gottlieb, Feminine fascism: women in Britain's fascist movement, London: I.B. Tauris, 2003
  16. ^F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simpkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War (London: HMSO, 1990), p. 37
  17. ^Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat, Challenge to Mars: essays on pacifism from 1918 to 1945, University of Toronto Press, 1999 (p. 141).
  18. ^Griffiths, Richard (2017). What Did You Do During the War? The last throes of the British pro-Nazi Right, 1940-45. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-138-88899-9.
  19. ^Griffiths, Richard (2017). What Did You Do During the War? The last throes of the British pro-Nazi Right, 1940-45. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-138-88899-9.
  20. ^Mark Gilbert, "Pacifist attitudes to Nazi Germany, 1936-45", Journal of Contemporary History, July 1992, Vol. 27, pp. 493–511
  21. ^Griffiths, Richard (2017). What Did You Do During the War? The last throes of the British pro-Nazi Right, 1940-45. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 74–92. ISBN 978-1-138-88899-9.
  22. ^Morrison, Sybil (1962). I Renounce War: The story of the Peace Pledge Union. London: Sheppard Press. p. 51.
  23. ^Hetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story 1934–2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  24. ^ abcHetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story, 1934–2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  25. ^Griffiths, Richard (2017). What Did You During the War? The last throes of the British pro-Nazi Right, 1940–45. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-138-88899-9.
  26. ^"In a leading article the Daily Mail urges the Minister for Home Security (Sir John Anderson) to suppress the "near-treasonable work" of the Peace Pledge Union". "Peace Pledge Union National Menace".The Courier-Mail (Brisbane),24 February 1940, (p. 5)
  27. ^ abMorrison, Sybil (1962). I Renounce War: The story of the Peace Pledge Union. London: Sheppard Press. pp. 45–48.
  28. ^Spartacus SchoolnetArchived 2009-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^Griffiths, Richard (2017). What Did You Do During the War? The last throes of the British pro-Nazi Right, 1940–45. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-138-88899-9.
  30. ^Morrison, Sybil (1962). I Renounce War: The Peace Pledge Union story. London: Sheppard Press. p. 41.
  31. ^"A Christian Peace Experiment | WipfandStock.com". wipfandstock.com. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  32. ^Mark Abrams, The Population of Great Britain, Hughes Press, 2007
  33. ^Morrison, Sybil (1962). I Renounce War: The Peace Pledge Union story. London: Sheppard Press. p. 62.
  34. ^Hetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story, 1934-2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  35. ^Hetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story, 1934-2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  36. ^Hetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story, 1934-2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  37. ^Morrison, Sybil (1962). I Renounce War: The Peace Pledge Union story. London: Sheppard Press. pp. 70–74.
  38. ^Hetherington, William (2014). Swimming Against the Tide: The Peace Pledge Union story, 1934-2014. London: Peace Pledge Union. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-902680-54-8.
  39. ^"European Groups Grinding Out Protests Against Vietnam War", Spartanburg Herald-Journal, March 9, 1968, p. 19
  40. ^"Peace Pledge Union (PPU) in Northern Ireland", Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8), p. 837
  41. ^"They will be coming from every part of Britain representing bodies as diverse as the Peace Pledge Union, Britons vs Bush and the Woodcraft Folk. There will be people from dozens of small, newly formed anti-war groups from towns, villages, churches and colleges, many of whom have never been on a protest before". Quoted in Terry Kirby, "Doves on the warpath: a million ordinary Britons prepare to demonstrate for peace"The Independent (UK). 13 February 2003. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  42. ^Elizabeth Peirce, Activity Assemblies To Promote Peace:40+ Ideas for Multi-Faith Assemblies For 5-11 Years (Taylor and Francis, 2008, ISBN 0415466822), p. 72
  43. ^"White Poppies for Peace". www.ppu.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  44. ^"Learn Peace". www.ppu.org.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  45. ^"OBJECTING TO WAR". www.ppu.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  46. ^ ab"Peace Matters". www.ppu.org.uk. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  47. ^"White Poppies for Peace". www.whitepoppy.org.uk.
  48. ^"PPU: 100 years of action to peace, 1930-39". www.ppu.org.uk. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014.
  49. ^"Margaret Thatcher Foundation". www.margaretthatcher.org.

Further reading

  • Roger S. Powers; et al., eds. (1997). "Peace Pledge Union". Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-76482-0.

Logotipo de Wikimedia Commons Media related to Peace Pledge Union at Wikimedia Commons

  • Official website
  • About Dick SheppardArchived 22 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  • Information about white poppies on the PPU website
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