War kills workers (Labor Day 2012)

You are probably familiar with the names of some Nobel Peace Prize winners—for example, Desmond Tutu, Linus Pauling, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Leon Jouhaux
Nobel Prize portrait of Leon Jouhaux, in public domain.

But can you name the 1969 winner of the Peace Prize?

It was the International Labour Organization (ILO). Yes, a labor organization won a Nobel Peace Prize. This should not be surprising given the historical connection between labor movements and peace movements.

The ILO, like the League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations), grew out of the deadliness and devastation of World War I. It was the first specialized agency within the U.N.

Included in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI, the preamble of the ILO constitution says, “Universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.”  Can anyone fault this belief?

The Treaty of Versailles also included three proposals from American delegates to the peace commission:

  • “that labor should not be treated as a commodity;
  • that all workers had the right to a wage sufficient to live on;
  • and that women should receive equal pay for equal work.”

Have these commitments been achieved? Won and lost? Why?

In their 1969 acceptance speech, the ILO quoted 1951 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leon Jouhaux, who warned that:

“War not only kills workers by thousands and millions, and destroys their homes…but also, by increasing men’s feelings of impotence before the forces of violence, it holds up considerably the progress of humanity toward the age of justice, welfare, and peace.”

On this Labor Day, let’s honor the work of labor on behalf of peace and social justice.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Call for an international meeting of the wise people of the world

[Today we welcome guest contributor Dr. Majed Ashy]

United Nations flag
U.N. flag. Image in public domain.

The world is facing serious political, economic, and social upheavals and challenges.

This calls for wisdom that goes beyond the narrow visions of ideologies, politics, parties, interests, pride, specialized knowledge and professions, strategies, and power conflicts.

What we need is wisdom derived from deep integrative knowledge characterized by a sensitive, perceptive and unfragmented view of the world, nature, knowledge and time. Such wisdom will derive from lessons of history, philosophy, and the deep underlying wisdom of religions.

We need wisdom that is devoted to the revelation of a holistic truth and justice–as much as humans can do that–and not to winning.

Thus, I would like to suggest an international meeting to be organized by the United Nations. Participants would include wise people from every nation without exception. These individuals would embody respect, experience, and the ability to put their own needs and narrow interests and visions aside.

Their task would be to:

  • Discuss the current international political and economical situations.
  • Declare to the Security Council and everyone in the world the truth as they see it.
  • Recommend a course of action.

This body in the UN can include wise people from various walks of life such as ex-politicians, economists, scientists, social scientists, ex-military officers, philosophers, religious scholars, and others. In addition, known international figures such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Aung San Suu Kyi would be included.

In the day of the Internet and social networks it will not be difficult to identify the people in each nation who are considered wise and are respected for their wisdom.

Majed Ashy, Ph.D., Associate Researcher in Psychiatry, Harvard University/McLean Hospital; Assistant Professor in Psychology, Bay State College

Why not a Father’s Day for Peace?

This blog has featured a Mother’s Day for Peace, describing the roots of the current flowers-and-candy-for-Mom day in the work of Julia Ward Howe.

A nod towards initiating a Father’s Day of Peace was made in 2007 in a brief video from Brave New Foundation. The video provided a poignant reminder that fathers around the world love their children and want to see them survive, but little seems to have been done since then to promote a Father’s Day of Peace. Why not?

It’s time for fathers to link themselves to peace, not war.

Role models are available for men of peace: Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Liu Xiabo, Muhammed Yunis, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Elie Wiezel, Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa, and thousands of other less well-known men. Maybe your own dad is among them.

Perhaps Veterans for Peace (VFP) could take up this banner. Their goal is to “change public opinion in the U.S. from an unsustainable culture of militarism and commercialism to one of peace, democracy, and sustainability.” They have over 100 chapters in the United States, funded in part through a grant from Howard Zinn. One of their participating groups is the Smedley Butler chapter in Boston, MA, which provided active support for Occupy Boston in 2011.

Learn more about VFP’s mission through this video, then write to them and ask them to add the promotion of a Father’s Day of Peace to their projects.

No dad needs another necktie on Father’s Day. What he needs is a path that offers his children the best opportunity for growing to maturity in a world of peace.

Promote a Father’s Day for Peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology