Peace Manifesto

a document adopted by the Meeting of Representatives of 64 Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Moscow in November 1957.

The “Peace Manifesto” appeals to people of good will in every country, regardless of political or religious views, to use all possible means to prevent a thermonuclear world war. The manifesto states emphatically that “war is not inevitable, it can be prevented; peace can be defended and strengthened” (Programmnye dokumenty bor’by za mir, demokratiiu i sotsializm, Moscow, 1964, p. 26). At the same time the manifesto warns that the “danger of a monstrous war that would annihilate humanity has not passed” and that the “capitalist monopolies, which have grown fabulously wealthy as a result of two world wars and the present-day arms race,” have a direct interest in war (ibid. , p. 27).

The manifesto calls upon all peace-loving forces to fight to end the arms race and ban the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons; dismantle military blocs and military bases on foreign soil; halt the rearmament of the German militarists; stop the machinations and military provocations of the imperialists in the Middle East; and support the policy of collective security, peaceful coexistence between states with differing social systems, and broad economic and cultural cooperation between peoples.

The manifesto was approved by all the Marxist-Leninist parties.