On the occasion of the celebration of the World Peace Congress in Barcelona, ICIP, Lafede.cat and the Center for the Study of Dictatorships and Democracies (CEDID) have organized a preliminary conference to discuss the different stages of the Casal de la Pau and to highlight its role in the pacifism of today. The event will take place on Thursday 7 October at 6pm at the Espai Arcadi Oliveres of Lafede.cat (Tàpies, 1-3, Barcelona).
Inspired by the Maison de la Paix in Brussels, the Casal de la Pau was the meeting place for activists and non-violent, pacifist and antimilitarist groups of the city of Barcelona. It became one of the most important epicenters of the city’s peace movement, and a place for the organization of campaigns such as the NATO referendum and the mass movement of civil disobedience to compulsory military service. It was also a space for cultural production, with the publication of antimilitarist magazines of great impact in Catalonia and the rest of Spain such as La Puça i el General and Mocador.
Opening of the Casal de la Pau in Barcelona on 23 March 1977. Photo: Robert Ramos.
This event aims to be an initiative to recover the memory of the Casal de la Pau twenty years after its disappearance. The center played an important role in the configuration of the networks of associations and activism for peace and antimilitarism in the city of Barcelona. It was also a veritable school of activism that influenced people who went on to pursue a wide variety of future careers.
From that first experience, lessons were learned that could help the current peace movement face the challenges of today. These challenges will be discussed in more depth during the World Peace Congress which will take place in Barcelona from 15-17 October.
The conference on 7 October will be two hours long and will be held in a partially face-to-face format, combining the possibility of following the event online with the attendance of a reduced number of people. The conference will be streamed on the ICIP YouTube channel.