North American First

International Peace Bureau conference

By Stephen Dankowich | 1991-09-01 12:00:00

Everyone is invited to the first International Peace Bureau (IPB) Conference in North America, from September 13-15, 1991.

Founded in 1892, the IPB is the world's oldest non-aligned international peace organization, drawing members from over 100 major peace organizations in 37 countries.

The Conference theme is Building World Community: Reconciliation and Resistance.

Registration is $60. Contact ACT for Disarmament, 736 Bathurst St., Toronto M5S 2R4, (416) 531-6154.

The Program

Wed. Sept.11: Dance with early arriving delegates at a fund-raising social at the BAMBOO CLUB
Thurs. Sept. 12 : The Friends Service Committee hosts a welcoming Social at The Quaker House, 60 Lowther Ave., 6-10 pm.
Fri. Sept. 13: Registration at 9am at the 519 Church St. Community Centre. Welcoming remarks at 10 with Bruce Kent, President of the IPB, and keynote addresses from Katya Komisaruk and Archbishop Ted Scott. Plenary, including a discussion of the Gulf War and the prospects for peace, from 10:45 until noon. Workshops in the afternoon.

Friday Workshops

First Session: Share in the concerns of indigenous peoples here in Canada, learn with Bruce Kent and Archbishop Ted Scott about the issues that link faith with peace, discuss U.N. reform or explore computer networking for peace.
Second Session: Peace in the Middle East-creative proposals for peace with resource people Toma Sik of Tel Aviv's International Movement of Conscience and War Resisters and Mubarak Awad (the father of the Intifada). Another workshop will focus on the arms trade and conversion.
Third Session: Learn more about the arms race at sea, explore the connections of peace and ecology with Dimitri Roussopoulos, editor of Black Rose Books and Our Generation, or join in spirited consideration of women, violence and militarization with resource people Susan Kranjc, Maggie Helwig and Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg.
PUBLIC FORUM. Friday evening at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor St. W., from 7-10 pm. Speakers include Ursula Franklin, recipient of The Order of Canada and member of the Voice of Women; Bruce Kent, president of the IPB and former chair-person of the dynamic Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); Adi Roche, National Secretary of Irish CND, who has developed a brilliant curriculum for peace education in 45 schools; Costa Sizaba of the Organization for Peace & Development in Southern Africa; a female delegate from the Civic Peace Coalition (based in Moscow); Mubarak Awad who will speak on non-violent resistance to the occupation of the West Bank. Entertainment by Toronto vocalist Honey Novick and the Raging Grannies.

Saturday Workshops

First Session: You can learn about campaigns that challenge the legality of nuclear weapons or discover the linkages between development and peace.
Second Session: Poverty and peace; peace media and getting peace into the media; freedom for East Timor; youth, conscription and resistance; global non-alignment and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly.
From 1 -2:15 : The prospects for peace in the USSR, with Tair Tairov of the Civic Peace Coalition, former head of the Soviet Peace Council; the ways and means for conflict resolution; the connections between racism and war; nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
From 2:30-3:30: We are reconvening the workshops on the Arms Trade and Conversion, Indigenous Peoples and Ecology, and Women, Non-Violence and Militarization to work out concrete proposals for international campaigns.
In the 519 auditorium, a KEYNOTE ADDRESS from Anatol Rapoport, acclaimed peace theorist and Professor at the University of Toronto. Metta Spencer of Peace Magazine will introduce him.
From 4-5:15 the FINAL PLENARY will hear reports from all the workshops, then a DEMONSTRATION protesting the international arms trade and supporting the victims of war will march from the 519 along Wellesley to Yonge and down Yonge to the Cenotaph at Old City Hall.
A SOCIAL AND DANCE aboard the cruise ship Stella Borealis ($19.75 for on-board meal, with drinks extra) will top off the day.
Sunday Sept. 15, from 10:30 am, the IPB will convene its Annual General Assembly, where each IPB member has one vote.
In conjunction with the IPB General Assembly, ACT for Disarmament will be facilitating the reconvening of the ONTARIO PEACE CONFERENCE, From 1-6pm on the l5th.