World without Wars and Violence, the driving force behind last year’s World March for Peace and Nonviolence has taken six months out of the public view, with the exception of May’s NPT conference in New York, to transform itself into a fully democratic institution where grassroots members have a full say in all the decisions of the Federation.

Launched in 1995 in Spain by Rafael de la Rubia of the Humanist Movement, the organisation’s highpoint was last year, when together with hundreds of organisations and thousands of unpaid volunteers, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence circled the globe passing through nearly 100 countries calling for nuclear disarmament, an end to wars, massive cuts in military spending and the renunciation of the use of wars by governments as a foreign policy tool.

At the end of the World March in Argentina three days of meetings by World without Wars activists saw the foundations laid for a new organisational structure with three levels of participation; grassroots, national and international. A provisional coordination body was put in place to oversee the internal elections and on the 31st of May and the 1st of June fee-paying members of the organisation in 40 countries around the world went on line to register their votes to elect the World Coordination Team.

A team of 12 people were elected from; Iraq, Mozambique, Poland, Greece, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Canada, Argentina and Brazil.

Finally on the 13th of June the team met to start work on the important issues of coordination, ideological positions, campaigns, website, communications and visibility among others.

Also important was the subject of who would be the International Spokesperson for the next two years and this task was given to Tony Robinson, an Englishman resident in Poland, and a member of the International Base Team of last year’s March.

After the meeting he said, *“World without Wars and Violence is back! We’ve been dealing with important internal matters for 6 months, and now is the moment when we can really advance with resolution on the development of the social movement necessary to eradicate violence from the planet.”*

*“We’ve been at the United Nations to observe how international diplomacy works and it’s a painful experience to watch. But what more should we expect? The diplomats reflect the will of their Governments and without public pressure on Governments how do we expect the diplomats to work on our behalf?”*

This new World Coordination Team made up of 12 people, men and women of all generations from 11 countries and 4 continents has a great deal of work ahead of it. Their task is to help the growth at the grassroots level in every possible way.

When asked what can be expected from World without Wars and Violence in the next two years, Mr. Robinson added, *“We aspire to do for war and violence what Greenpeace does for environmentalism. We have to keep pushing the message that a world without violence is the destination and nonviolence is the path. What happens in our domestic lives, in the relationships with our friends and family is directly connected to the system of values so deeply entrenched in our society. It’s been said before, but Money is Everything. We reject that vision of society. Our task is to make sure that through the fact of having been born, every human being has the possibility and the right to reach their full potential without threat of war, hunger, disease, poverty and violence in any of its forms. Great things can be expected in the next two years!”*