Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Australia

The Australian Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was formed in Melbourne in 1920. During the 1920s WILPF branches formed in Hobart, Newcastle, Perth, and Rockhampton. In 1924 the Australian Section drafted a Charter of Peace – Safeguards Against Tyranny, which was presented at the fourth biennial international WILPF conference held the same year in Washington, USA. In 1928, in Perth, WILPF members organised an Armistice Day celebration, which was attended by over a thousand people.

In 1931 WILPF Australia collected 117,740 signatures on the Worldwide Disarmament Declaration initiated by WILPF International. Bundles of signatures were presented to the Prime Minister in the presence of politicians, church leaders and other prominent citizens at a meeting in Melbourne in November that year. Of the eight million signatures gathered worldwide from 56 different countries, Australia’s contribution was the highest percentage per head of population in the world.

References/Further Reading:

Honest History. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Australia: 100 Years.