Vila Nova de Gaia hosts 3rd Meeting for Peace
On 28 October 2023, around 800 people attended the 3rd Meeting for Peace promoted by the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) and 12 other organisations and entities, namely the MPPM, the Vila Nova de Gaia, Évora and Setúbal City Councils, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers - National Trade Union (CGTP-IN), the Catholic Workers' Youth (JOC); the National Teachers' Federation (FENPROF); the Portuguese Confederation of Cultural, Recreational and Sports Organisations (CPCCRD); the Portuguese Catholic Work for Migrations (OCPM); Municípios pela Paz (Municipalities for Peace); the Women's Democratic Movement (MDM); and the Union of Portuguese Anti-Fascist Resistants (URAP).
This 3rd Meeting for Peace, which comes after previous meetings in Loures (2018) and Setúbal (2021), took place at the Vila Nova de Gaia Municipal Hall, in Oliveira do Douro, from 10.30am to 5.30pm, under the motto "Peace and the 50 years of April". After a performance by the drum group of Associação Recreativa "Os Mareantes do Rio Douro," the meeting was opened by speeches from the Mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, and the President of CPPC, Ilda Figueiredo.
The work took place in three tables. The panel of each table was made up of some of the promoting organisations and, after their speeches, the audience was given the opportunity to speak. Held in the midst of Israel's aggression against the people of the Gaza Strip, solidarity with the people of Palestine ran through many of the speeches made during this III Meeting for Peace.
The topic of the first panel was "Peace and Disarmament." Rui Garcia, Vice-President of CPPC; Regina Marques, from MDM; José António Gomes, from MPPM; and Teresa Lopes, from URAP, took part.
The speech by MPPM director José António Gomes [full text attached] called for "an end to the complacency and military and financial support of the USA and other countries, particularly Europe, for the warmongering, human rights abuses, and genocidal logic of the state of Israel," and urged "the Portuguese government and other governments to listen to the clamour that is rising throughout the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people (voices that cannot be silenced, neither by these governments nor by the dominant media) and to demand from these governments positions condemning Israel's violation of international and humanitarian law and defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
The topic of the second panel was "Culture and Education for Peace." The panel included José Costa, of FENPROF; Paula Carvalhal, councillor of Gaia City Council; Adelino Soares, of CPCCRD; Pedro Pina, councillor for culture at Setúbal City Council; and Gabriel Esteves, coordinator of JOC.
During the debate, Jorge Cadima, of MPPM, [full text attached] intervened saying that "there is no more important idea for the culture of, and the education for, peace than the one expressed in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [which] begins like this: 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.' And since all actions against civilians are reprehensible, we cannot accept the idea that is being peddled to us that there are first-rate civilians and second-rate civilians. It is urgent and pressing to put an end immediately to the massacre that Israel is committing in Gaza and throughout Palestine."
The third panel dealt with the theme of "Solidarity and Cooperation." It was composed of Joaquim Tavares, Deputy Mayor of Seixal, representing Municípios pela Paz; Catarina Martins Bettencourt, representing OCPM; Isabel Camarinha, General Secretary of CGTP-IN; and Carlos Sá, Mayor of Évora, who coordinates the Mayors for Peace movement in Portugal.
In the public speaking section, MPPM Vice-President Carlos Almeida [full text attached] spoke: "The word I want to bring to you here is just one: urgency! urgency! The urgency of solidarity, solidarity with a people who are fighting for their survival, for their freedom. In the name of our shared sense of humanity, of the most basic and most elementary values that are the foundations of the notion of community, which unites and must unite all human beings, equal in rights and duties. For every bomb dropped on Gaza, for every child buried under the rubble of their home, each of us dies a little. Yesterday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations published a brief note on a social network that ended with the phrase: this is a time of truth. Today is our turn, this is our time, this is our responsibility. We must stop the genocide, the road to the abyss, the hysteria and irrationality, the most monstrous campaign of dehumanisation we know, so cruel, so brutal that the simple demand for a ceasefire has become a radical demand."
The 3rd Meeting for Peace ended with JOC's coordinator reading out the Appeal for the Defence of Peace, approved by the organisations promoting the meeting.
After the end of the meeting, a rally in solidarity with Palestine took place in front of the Pavilion, which was animated by Associação Cultural e Recreativa "Fanfarra da Alameda de São João."
A Call for the Defence of Peace
On the 50th anniversary of April, for peace all of us are not too many!
On behalf of the organisations that promoted this 3rd Meeting for Peace, we salute all those who took part and contributed to its preparation and organisation. Its success demonstrates the timeliness and importance of this Meeting at such a complex time in the international situation, and from it radiates the willingness and determination to continue and further expand the convergence of wills for action in defence of peace, considering it essential to human life and an indispensable condition for freedom, sovereignty, democracy, rights, social progress, and the well-being of all peoples—for building a better world for all humanity.
Recognising that the defence of the spirit and principles of the United Nations Charter and international law is the fundamental basis for ending militarism, arms escalation, and war, as well as for defending and promoting peace and the development of more equitable relations between peoples throughout the world, we affirm our commitment and call for the promotion of a culture of peace and solidarity between peoples, paying particular attention to those who are victims of interference, aggression, and oppression, including migrants and refugees, and developing action to encourage peace and cooperation as an alternative to war and rivalry in international relations.
Attaching the utmost importance to education for peace, particularly among the younger generations, this Meeting highlighted the current relevance of the values of peace, friendship, solidarity, cooperation, dignity, and justice—values that should characterise relations between states and between peoples—motivating our commitment and call for initiatives in this area to be promoted in schools, associations, and local authorities, particularly around the International Day of Peace (21 September), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
Aware of the urgent need to put an end to weapons of mass destruction, particularly all nuclear weapons, we affirm our commitment and call for the promotion of public initiatives that do not forget and that contribute towards ensuring that there will never be a repetition of atomic bombings such as those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (6 and 9 August); that mark the International Day for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (26 September); or that call for Portugal to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Stressing that 25 April 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the April Revolution, which put an end to 48 years of fascism, including 13 years of colonial war, and is a major event in the history of Portugal, which enshrined freedom, democracy in its many aspects, national sovereignty, peace, and social progress, and established fundamental principles that should govern Portugal's international relations—such as national independence and equality between states, respect for human rights, the rights of all peoples, including the right to self-determination and independence and to development, the peaceful resolution of international conflicts, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, general, simultaneous, and controlled disarmament, the dissolution of political-military blocs, the creation of an international order capable of ensuring peace and justice in relations between peoples or cooperation with all other peoples for the emancipation and progress of humanity—we affirm our commitment and call for initiatives to celebrate the values of April and strive for their defence and implementation.
Aware that peace is a fundamental right of humanity, without which no other right is guaranteed, and warning of the serious dangers that threaten it, we consider this 3rd Meeting for Peace to be an important step for the peace movement in our country, and we affirm our will to continue to join forces in Portugal in defence of world peace, pledging to carry out new initiatives with this objective, including a new Meeting for Peace, because for peace, all of us are not too many!
Meeting for Peace, Vila Nova de Gaia, 28 October 2023
