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The Canadian Peace Congress and the Challenge to Postwar Consensus, 1948–1953
Author(s) -
Huard Victor
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.1994.tb00597.x
Subject(s) - dissent , political dissent , political science , politics , state (computer science) , political economy , variety (cybernetics) , cold war , law , sociology , algorithm , artificial intelligence , computer science
This article delineates the nature of peace activism in Canada in the immediate post‐World War 11 period. It contends that in the politically charged atmosphere of the Cold War any peace activism was, by definition, a highly politicized project. In turn, the range of dissent dictated by the postwar liberal “consensus” was narrowed dramatically. Consequently, peace activists who did not conform found themselves marginalized by a host of political and cultural forces, primarily the state and media. Negative responses to attempts by the Canadian Peace Congress to challenge aspects of the postwar order indicate how Western democracies view peace activism as dissent and how this dissent is marginalized and minimized through a variety of mechanisms.