Changing Minds - Raising Peace Issues in Elections

John Morris; The Pacifist Party - Peace, Co-Operation, Environment (U.K.)

Introduction and History

"The Pacifist Campaign" was established in 1996 specifically to contest the next General Election in the Guildford Constituency. In May, 1997 the seat was contested by John Morris who used as his description: "Pacifist for Peace, Justice, Cooperation, Environment". He received 294 votes. The aim was to widen the Campaign to other areas and to form alliances with other electoral peace groups. As far as John was aware there was only one other pacifist political party in the U.K., the Fellowship Party, established in the 1950s. It contested the Greenwich seat, as it had in a number of other general and by-elections.

With a change in the electoral law in 2000, the Pacifist Campaign converted itself into a recognised U.K. political party and called itself "The Pacifist Party - Peace, Co-operation, Environment", using the maximum of six words permitted by the legislation as a party name. The Party wanted to have as full a description as possible for the ballot paper to ensure that voters would have as full a reminder as possible of the existence of the Party and what it stands for when they reached the polling booth.

John Morris contested the Guildford seat again in June, 2001 and polled 370 votes which, in a lower-than-1997 turnout meant that his share of the vote increased by nearly 50%!

Presenting the Peace Message

So, pacifists in Guildford have been able to use the General Election twice to present the message of peace and non-violence to the electorate, a message which is quite contrary to the messages of the other parties who have contested the Elections. Electors have received leaflets not only at election times but from time to time in between. Various organisations in the constituency have arranged meetings to which all the candidates have been invited to speak and answer questions. These have included Amnesty international, The University of Surrey, Churches Together in Guildford and The Guildford Environmental Forum. The local press has reported on these meetings and occasionally on other issued raised. With limited human resources, it has also been possible to canvass for support on doorsteps and in public places. An occasional "Peace Stall" has been arranged where leaflets have been handed out, petitions have been available for signature and publications, mainly of the Peace Pledge Union and Campaign Against the Arms Trade, have been offered for sale.

The effect of the campaigning has been almost impossible to gauge but we hope it has raised the peace profile at a time when the electorate's interest in issues of all kinds is heightened.

Aims of The Pacifist Campaign

A pacifist candidate challenges the electorate to work for a world:

• where all problems and conflicts are solved peacefully and non-violently (that is, where war, and violence of any kind, are totally rejected as a means to an end since they corrupt moral and spiritual values);
• where all people come to know that aggression and violence are characteristics of behaviour that are learned from other people - that they are not inborn;
• where people and communities know that they can learn to control and subdue their own and to challenge others' aggressive and violent tendancies to help the world become a place of peace;
• where every person in the community, without exception, is valued equally to every other and is treated as such;
• where all people know that human life is to be nurtured and protected by them and that NO person has the right to take the life of another;
• where there is real security, since every person knows that everyone respects and supports everyone else;
• that the only true hope for the future lies in a world without violence;
• where justice may be seen to be done by all.

Objectives:

In order to achieve these aims:

• children and adults will have every opportunity to learn about, and practise, peace-making including techniques of reconciliation, of mediation and the non-violent resolution of conflict;
• decisions will be made by consensus by all members of the community and structures will be developed to allow this to happen;
• decisions will be implemented by individuals, families, communities and larger groups co-operating with each other;
• participation in larger organisations will only occur where those bodies work co-operatively and for peaceful purposes;
• the community (be it local, regional or world) will actively care for all its members and will establish the ways and means to ensure that this is done in a just way;
• the environment will be cared for by all to ensure that life may be continuously nurtured and protected;
• manufacturing industry will only concern itself with the production of peaceful products and trade will only deal in products for peaceful purposes since armaments production and trade denies that all problems can be solved peacefully;
• transport systems will be developed to enable every person to have as equal access to them as every other.

(These aims and objectives have formed the basis of the election literature circulated within the Guildford constituency. It is hoped to have sample of leaflets available at the Conference.)

John Morris