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| Volume 56 Number 19, June 20, 2026 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
The International Conference Against War is taking place in London on June 20, 2026. Doors open at 9:30 for the Pre-Conference Assembly and 11:30 for the main International Assembly. The overall aim of the conference, as well as to exchange the experience of the anti-war movement internationally, is to co-ordinate the growing resistance to militarism, conscription and spiralling arms spending.
The Pre-Conference Assembly unites trade unionists and activists. As well as the chance for participants to meet and create links, the Assembly will focus on the role of the trade unions, the issue of conscription, and the fight against rearmament.
The main International Assembly is split into two sessions. At 1.00pm is the session titled "The New Era of Global War". At 3.15pm there is the session "The Drive to War in Europe".
The organisers write: "Working people are seeing the money that should be spent on health care, transport, education and housing swept away into the bottomless pockets of the arms manufacturers. Families that have not known military conscription for generations now listen in fear as military leaders and politicians warn that their sons and daughters must be prepared to fight and die.
"In the face of war, and the racist divisions it breeds, we must create our own international network which will organise for peace, oppose the revitalised US and European imperial project. We must fight for the livelihood, indeed the very lives, of working people."
Felix Kreklow Rojas, one of the organisers of the German school strikes against conscription, said in Brussels, "European governments are working in coordination to militarise and to attack social spending, we too have to be connected in our fight for peace. That is why this conference is so vital."
The conference comes as thousands of trades unionists, pro-Palestine and anti-war activists from across Europe marched through Brussels on Saturday against the drive to war across the continent. Reports say that metalworkers, teachers, nurses and council workers rubbed shoulders with Iranian activists, environmentalists, school students and many others, and that many of them are going to be in London for the international anti-war conference.
The holding of the Conference is testament to the broad unity of the people against war, and to the right to resist the violence of war and militarism. Violating the rule of law by the US and its allies, including Britain, cannot be accepted and will be met with justifiable resistance. The guilty must be held to account.