Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) grew out of the International Congress of Women held at The Hague in 1915 and the second congress of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace held in Zurich in 1919. The League was active throughout the 1920s in matters of peace and freedom around the world, and sent out a number of "peace missions" in the 1920s and 1930s. In the years preceeding World War II, the WILPF vigorously opposed the Nationalist Socialist regime in Germany and the regime's anti-Semitism. Advocating freedom over peace, the WILPF survived during the war but a formal "new beginning' took place in 1946. Throughout the 1950s the League continued to seek international alternatives to violence. During the 1960s, the campaign for universal disarmament continued, as did the WILPF's advocacy of human rights and its opposition to the war in Vietnam. The 1970s and 1980s saw the League opposing racism, colonialism, apartheid, and adding a concern for the enviro.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), established in 1915 in The Hague, Netherlands, was created to achieve world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, and an end to all forms of violence through peaceful means. Now located in Geneva, Switzerland, WILPF functions at the international, national, and local levels and has sections and branches worldwide.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915. It works towards disarmament, political solutions to international conflicts, equal participation of women in activities, economic justice and the elimination of racism and discrimination. To achieve these goals, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom organises meetings, conferences and campaigns.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915 at The Hague by women active in the suffrage movements in Europe and America who wished to end the First World War and to insure that no further wars occurred. The League began its work in Canada in 1920 in Vancouver, led by Dorothy Steeves and Laura Jamieson, with Lucy Woodsworth, Agnes McPhail and Violet McNaughton among its members. The League's work has been to promote peace education and to campaign for disarmament and anti-militarism. During World War II it opposed the introduction of military cadet training in schools and it has investigated textbooks which glorified war. During World War II and its aftermath, however, the movement declined with only the Vancouver branch surviving.

Founded in 1915 in The Hague, Netherlands, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is the oldest international peace organization still in existence. The WILPF was established by prominent women in the International Suffrage Alliance, who saw the connection between their struggle for equal rights and the struggle for peace. Jane Addams of Chicago was the WILPF's first president and was the first woman to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. The WILPF headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland and has a variety of sectional and branch offices in cities and towns around the world. Functioning on the international, national and local levels, the WILPF seeks to educate, inform and mobilize women for action to achieve its goal of establishing real peace. It sends missions to countries in conflict and reports to its members and friends and to the United Nations on their efforts to bring about peaceful settlements.

The International Office of WILPF is in Geneva. In Australia, there are branch offices in all states except the Northern Territory. The Australian Section was started in Victoria in 1920.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is an activist organization addressing a variety of issues including world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, and ending all forms of violence. Founded in 1915 by some 1,300 women from Europe and North America, WILPF is organized in 37 countries and lobbies governments at the international, national and local levels. The New York Metropolitan Branch of WILPF was established in 1920.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Chapel Hill Branch (N.C.) is a branch of an international peace advocacy organization founded in 1915.

Organizational History

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in 1915 at the First International Congress, held in The Hague, Netherlands. The delegates, representing more than 1,000 women from Europe and the United States, assembled to protest the First World War and to chart a course toward permanent world peace. The United States delegates were led by Jane Addams, a social reformer and the founder of Chicago's Hull House and the Women's Peace Party, an American peace organization. Addams would later become WILPF's first president as well as the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is one of the oldest and largest international women's peace and justice organizations in the world. It was founded on the principle that peace is achieved through economic and social justice, and it has continued to work for measures to remove the economic causes of war, for universal disarmament and for equal rights. In a policy statement delivered at its Third International Congress of 1921, WILPF declared its mission to "transform the economic system in the direction of social justice." [WILPF website: Principles and Policies: http://www.wilpf.org/history/about3.htm]

Throughout its history, WILPF took stands on nuclear disarmament and the Vietnam War and sponsored or participated in the International Year of the Child, the U.N. Seminar on World Disarmament, the International Women's Year and Stop the Arms Race (STAR).

The WILPF International Office is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is composed of 37 countries from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The United States Section, WILPF's national organization, is based in Philadelphia. The Jane Addams Peace Association, or JAPA, promotes WILPF educational programs and is also located in Philadelphia. WILPF's Legislative Office, based in Washington, DC, monitors national legislation, political activities and participates in lobbying efforts. The United Nations Bureau in New York City conducts programs and seminars in its capacity as a non-governmental organization, or NGO.

The United States Section is further composed of local branches and chapters, currently about 100. At the branch level, members elect local and national officers, hold monthly executive meetings and chapter meetings and choose their own action priorities. The National Board, comprised of branch officers, elects committee chairs and appoints members to the Executive Committee. Although the basic structure of WILPF has remained constant since its inception, the composition and naming conventions of its various national divisions have changed over the years, reflecting the nature and number of its membership. At one time, the California branch was formally subdivided into two state branches: the Northern and Southern California Branches. The California state branch was part of the Western Region, which was represented by Washington State, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and California. Currently, California consists of the following local chapters: Berkeley-East Bay, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Monterey County, Peninsula-Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Barbara. Each branch has a branch president, a secretary and a treasurer who represent their branch at regional and national board meetings.