World Peace Forum Society

The World Peace Forum Society was established to organize the World Peace Forum in Vancouver in June of 2006. As a result of the success of the forum the members of the society voted in the winter of 2007 to continue working to create spaces and events where activists, academics and artists committed to promoting peace, social justice and sustainability could get together to discuss and plan.

Teach In 2009

1929-1939
FROM CRASH TO CATASTROPHE
A TEACH-IN ON WHAT HAPPENED
AND ITS LESSONS FOR TODAY
NOVEMBER 7, 8 & 11
MARITIME LABOUR CENTRE
1880 Triumph Street

The ‘Great’ Depression, the rise of fascism, the debates that shook the workers’ movement, the Spanish Civil War, the transformation from coal to oil, the rise of the American Empire, the origins of mass media, the birth of mass industrial unions, youth, anti-war and solidarity movements and much more—the ‘thirties’ were a decade that had a huge impact on the world we live in today and the tasks that face activists. Following the success of the 2008 World Peace Forum Teach-In, which looked at the impact of World War I, this gathering of academics, artists and activists will discuss and debate the decade between the great ‘crash’ of October 1929 and the official beginning of the Second World War in September of 1939.

With the goal of supporting peace, economic and social justice and ecological sustainability, the World Peace Forum is creating a program featuring speakers from across North America who will shed light on the roots of the present in the past. In plenary sessions and smaller workshops the lessons of history and the tasks of today will be discussed and debated. On Remembrance Day, November 11, there will be a special series of panels for young people—the generation who will decide what the future of humanity will look like and whether there will be one.