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The Mouvement national pour la paix (MNP) was the first post-war association in Luxembourg entirely dedicated to peace. It was founded in March 1949, following an international appeal launched a month earlier in Paris. Its leading figure was professor and historian Pierre Biermann, a member of the resistance during the Second World War and a former prisoner of Nazi concentration camps. The MNP’s primary objective was to prevent the outbreak of another war, which this time risked being fought with atomic weapons.

One month after the MNP’s creation, the Luxembourg government signed the North Atlantic Treaty, giving birth to NATO. For the MNP, Luxembourg’s accession to this alliance meant not only the militarisation of the country, but also the Grand Duchy’s deliberate participation in a potential third world war. It openly opposed any national contribution to NATO, particularly the introduction of compulsory military service, for which it demanded a referendum. A petition to this effect garnered over 5,000 signatures.

The MNP participated in the World Congress of Peace Partisans, held in Paris from 20 to 23 April 1949, which brought together delegates from 60 countries. This congress gave rise to the World Peace Council (WPC), which is still active today. The MNP also joined the Stockholm Appeal, launched by the WPC in 1950, which called for a ban on nuclear weapons. As part of this campaign, the MNP managed to collect over 10,000 signatures from Luxembourg.

Among its other demands were opposition to the rearmament of Germany and to Luxembourg’s participation in the Korean War. The organisation had several thousand members and about twenty branches throughout the country, notably in Luxembourg-City, Differdange, and Echternach. In addition to demonstrations and petitions, it strove to raise public awareness through its newspaper Les Partisans de la Paix, and its cultural activities.

Although it hoped to attract members from all parties—arguing that the atomic bomb did not differentiate between political opinions—the MNP was considered to be closely linked to the Communist Party. As a result, its members were spied on by the newly established Luxembourg secret service, which tapped their communications. The MNP gradually disappeared from the public scene in 1956.

Beginning in 1963, the United States directly intervened in the Vietnam War out of fear that a victory by Ho Chi Minh would lead to the spread of Marxism across Asia. For Washington and its allies, including the Luxembourgish government, South Vietnam was thus fighting for the ‘free world’. Consequently, the United States heavily supported South Vietnamese troops while launching massive aerial bombing campaigns over North Vietnam.

War crimes and massacres of civilians, broadcast on television for the first time, sparked global indignation and galvanised the peace movement. The National Liberation Front (NLF) became a symbol of the anti-imperialist struggle. The youth in particular mobilised against the war and grew increasingly radicalised—a development that culminated during the protests of May 1968.

In Luxembourg, the student association ASSOSS became active in 1965 and caused a stir through its protest actions, such as its January 1968 picket line to boycott the screening of the film The Green Berets in Luxembourgish cinemas. The year 1968 also saw the creation of the Comité Vietnam-Luxembourg, with the young lawyer Gaston Vogel as its figurehead. The association organised public conferences, notably featuring NLF members, coordinated large-scale demonstrations and launched humanitarian fundraising campaigns for the North.

Conversely, a few organisations, such as the Association des anciens combattants luxembourgeois, showed solidarity with the United States and South Vietnam, as did the conservative Catholic daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort, which was strongly atlanticist and anti-communist. Meanwhile, Caritas Luxembourg concentrated its humanitarian aid efforts on South Vietnam.

The fall of Saigon in 1975 marked the communist victory and the reunification of the country. It triggered a mass exodus of ‘Boat People’ whose perilous escape by sea generated a wave of international sympathy. In March 1979, Luxembourg welcomed its first Vietnamese refugees. Their numbers would eventually reach nearly 300 people by 1982.

In June 1983, the Luxembourgish Green Party—composed primarily of activists from the peace, environmental, women’s rights, and Third World movements—was officially established. Already in 1984, it participated in its first legislative elections under the campaign manifesto ‘Liewen a Fridden’ (‘Living in peace’), successfully securing two seats. In the following years, its stance on war and peace was continuously adapted. During the Yugoslav Wars, for instance, intense internal debates emerged regarding military interventions. They were triggered by the German Green Party’s approval of the NATO intervention of 1999, despite its lack of a UN mandate. In response to this dilemma, the Luxembourgish Greens held a seminar that produced the policy paper An de Fridden investéieren (‘Investing in Peace’). Although the document did not condone the NATO intervention, the party agreed in principle that foreign military interventions could be justified to protect human life, provided they carried explicit UN approval. The Russian invasion of Ukraine precipitated another internal crisis. This time, the party was part of the governing coalition and held the defense portfolio. Following its decision to support Ukraine militarily, specifically through the delivery of military equipment, several members, including founding members, left the party, accusing it of betraying its foundational pacifist principles and actively driving the militarisation of Luxembourg.

The so-called ‘Ouschtermarsch’ is a peace march that takes place annually during Easter. The first Easter Marches originated in the United Kingdom in 1958. Peace activists affiliated with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) staged three-day protest marches from the town of Aldermaston—where a nuclear weapons research center was based—to London. German peace activists adopted the concept in 1960. The movement gained massive popularity during the 1980s, drawing several hundred thousand participants.

Inspired by the German peace movement, Luxembourg’s first ‘Ouschtermarsch’ took place in 1984, between the southern towns of Belvaux and Esch-sur-Alzette. Before this first march, another initiative had been launched by the Livre de la Paix. Modeled after Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Salt March, organisers staged a three-day walk through Luxembourg, inviting citizens to join the procession. Several hundred people joined this peace initiative. Starting from 1984, Easter marches took place annually across various towns, attracting people from all walks of life.

As the peace movement of the 1980s gradually faded, the marches disappeared alongside it. However, the tradition was revived in the 2000s by a coalition of peace groups, notably the Friddens- a Solidaritéitsplattform. Luxembourgish peace activists have also joined events in Germany, such as in 2018, when a Luxembourgish delegation participated in the march in Büchel to protest against the US nuclear weapons stationed there.

The decision by both the United States and the Soviet Union to install new nuclear missiles in Europe led to large peace mobilisations throughout the continent in the 1980s. The situation was seen as reminiscent of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which had risked plunging the world into a nuclear war. Many people feared an impending atomic conflict between the two superpowers that would be fought on European soil. Concepts like ‘Euroshima’ or ‘nuclear holocaust’ became widespread, and peace activists consequently demanded that governments on both sides of the Iron Curtain disarm.

The peace movement was especially large in Germany. On 22 October 1983, half a million people—including many Luxembourgers—gathered in the German city of Bonn. In Luxembourg itself, the Liga géint de Krich raised awareness against the new arms race from 1980 onward. While it never succeeded in mobilising the masses, it has the merit of being the first Luxembourgish organisation to actively campaign against the impending arms race.

Mass mobilisation only truly began when the Lëtzebuerger Friddenskomitee, which was closer to communist and left-wing circles, was founded in 1982. In response, the more centrist Aktioun fir de Fridden, aligned rather with socialist and left-leaning Catholic circles, was established shortly thereafter. Despite their ideological differences, both organisations managed to stage joint demonstrations, such as the protests on 15 May and 22 October 1982, which gathered several thousand protesters. Both groups agreed that Europe should become a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

More generally, the 1980s peace movement opposed the militarisation of Luxembourg, which was physically manifesting through the construction of several US military depots. A local peace committee formed in the municipality of Sanem to mobilise against the construction of a military storage facility. The committee managed to collect more than 3,000 signatures to initiate a referendum on the issue. Conversely, proponents of the bases argued that Luxembourg needed such facilities for economic reasons, noting that unemployment—especially among young people—had reached an all-time high due to the economic recession triggered by the steel crisis.

Alongside these larger associations, a plethora of smaller initiatives emerged. These included Sportler fir de Fridden and Pädagogen fir de Fridden, as well as local youth groups for peace in Esch, Diekirch and Luxembourg City. They all attempted to pressure the government by organising vigils, picket lines, sit-ins, conferences, debates and other non-violent actions. Critics, however, dismissed them as naive at best, and labeled them ‘useful idiots’ for the Soviets at worst.

Viewing the Western Hemisphere as its backdoor, the United States pursued an interventionist policy in Latin American countries to contain communist influence. It orchestrated the overthrow of democratically elected governments and backed military regimes by providing diplomatic, military, and intelligence support. With the emergence of international solidarity movements, American interventionist policy mobilised peace activists all over the world—including in Luxembourg.

Shortly after the military coup in Chile on 11 September 1973, which overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and established a military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet, the Comité Chili Libre was formed in Luxembourg to organise protest rallies against the regime. The coup also triggered a massive wave of refugees, some of whom sought asylum and settled in Luxembourg. The Comité Chili Libre actively dedicated itself to supporting these refugees and facilitating their integration.

Another conflict in Latin America that mobilised many peace activists was the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. In 1984, an association called Amistad Luxemburgo-Cuba was founded by a group of Luxembourgish teachers to express support for the people of Cuba and to condemn the US blockade put in place in 1960. In 1991, it participated in the international campaign Un bateau pour Cuba, which delivered humanitarian aid to the island. The organisation hosted the annual Fiesta Cubana, the proceeds of which funded material aid. Ten years later, the association Solidarité Luxembourg-Cuba, an NGO providing project-based assistance, particularly in the medical and educational sectors, was established.

No doubt the biggest and longest-serving organisation focusing on Latin America was the Association Solidarité Luxembourg-Nicaragua (ASLN), created in December 1979, shortly after the Sandinista revolution against the US-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. Its aim was to support the Nicaraguan people both morally and materially, including through solidarity trips to assist with manual labor, such as harvesting coffee or building schools. In Luxembourg, it organised conferences, street theater, and other activities to raise awareness about the situation in Nicaragua and the ongoing struggle of the Sandinistas against the US-backed Contra militias. While its main focus remained Nicaragua, it also addressed other conflicts in Central America, such as the US invasion of Grenada or the civil war in El Salvador.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is the longest-running ongoing conflict and one with far-reaching repercussions throughout the region and the world. Its unresolved status can be described as one of the major failures of both multilateralism and the civil peace movement. At the heart of the conflict lies the opposition between, on the one hand, Zionism—a political ideology originating in 19^th-century Europe, which aims to create a Jewish nation-state in the biblical lands—and, on the other hand, the right to self-determination of the indigenous Palestinian people in the same territory.

After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Luxembourgish public opinion was generally favourable to Zionism. Israel was seen as a haven of peace for the Jewish people, victims of antisemitic persecution in Europe for hundreds of years. During the Six-Day War of 1967, demonstrations for peace in solidarity with Israel thus took place in Luxembourg-City. However, the war of 1967 also led to the creation of the first Luxembourgish anti-Zionist movement, a small and short-lived group spearheaded by Professor Pierre Biermann. Highly critical of all monotheistic religions, Biermann defined Zionism as inherently discriminatory. His motto was: “A Jew is not worth less than an Arab, but not worth more either. An Arab is not worth more than a Jew, but not worth less either”.

Following the massacres of Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese camps of Sabra and Shatila in September 1982, a new association advocating for Palestinian rights—the Comité luxembourgeois de soutien au peuple palestinien—was founded. Twenty years later, the Comité pour une paix juste au Proche-Orient was created. It still exists today and became an NGO accredited by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006. It uses international law to denounce the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories and to support a two-state solution.

Jewish citizens have also voiced their opinions from a very early stage. Starting in 1948, the association Les Amis d’Israël demonstrated solidarity with Tel Aviv, which it described as the Jewish homeland surrounded by hostile nations. In 1960, the first Jewish counter-narrative emerged with the group Zedeq, which brought together non-Zionist Jews who considered Israel a colonial venture. In 2022, a post-Zionist group called Jewish Call for Peace emerged, basing its defense of Palestinian rights on the values and teachings of Judaism.

Since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 and the Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip that have been ongoing since then, a host of new associations have emerged, adopting a wide variety of viewpoints and methods of protest. Every Saturday for several years, these groups organised demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in the city centre.

After the attacks of 11 September 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush launched the ‘War on Terror’, designating Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the ‘Axis of Evil’. Following the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the United States attacked Iraq in March 2003, claiming the country possessed weapons of mass destruction that threatened global peace. Despite the veto of France at the UN Security Council, a ‘coalition of the willing’ launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. This invasion, illegal due to its lack of UN authorisation, sparked massive protests worldwide. Peace activists argued that the war was driven by economic interests and control over Iraqi oil rather than democracy or disarmament.

In Luxembourg, the group Aktioun géint Krich an Terror (AKT) organised a protest against the war in Afghanistan in December 2001. Renamed Friddensinitiativ, this group joined forces in December 2002 with Jugend fir Fridden a Gerechtegkeet and the Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient to form the Coordination contre la guerre en Irak. On 15 February 2003, during the global day of action against the Iraq War, 14,000 people demonstrated in Luxembourg—likely the largest peace mobilisation in the country’s history.

Opposition to the war mobilised a new generation of activists, such as Jugend fir Fridden a Gerechtegkeet, founded in December 2001 and aligned with the alter-globalisation movement. Youth mobilisation peaked with a student strike on 20 March 2003, the day the invasion began. Thousands of students protested across the country, including outside the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg City, leading to clashes with police.

Initially hesitant, the CSV-DP government of Luxembourg ultimately decided not to join the ‘coalition of the willing’. This decision was facilitated both by grassroots mobilisation and by the refusal of countries like France and Germany to participate to the war. Although Luxembourg did not send troops to Iraq, it contributed to the ‘War on Terror’ for example by deploying soldiers to Afghanistan. Domestically, the government introduced new anti-terrorism laws, which organisations like Jugend fir Fridden a Gerechtegkeet condemned as threats to civil liberties. The risk of arbitrary abuses had already been evident when special forces raided the homes of Muslim families, forcibly arresting men accused of being jihadists. It later emerged that those targeted were innocent.