The U.S. Peace Council is the American branch of the World Peace Council, an international organization that advocates for a left-of-center to radical-left foreign policy agenda, including universal disarmament. Both groups were historically considered front groups of the Soviet Union and the American communist movement, specifically the Communist Party USA. ¹ The U.S. Peace Council conducts fact-finding missions and pronounces statements condemning U.S. military interventions, including actions in Iran, Venezuela, and Syria. ²

The U.S. Peace Council’s website states that it receives tax-deductible donations. However, the organization cannot be found on searches of U.S. nonprofit tax-exempt organizations registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the organization does not describe its corporate structure on its website. ³

Background

The U.S. Peace Council is the American branch of the World Peace Council, an advocacy group founded in 1949 to advocate for nuclear disarmament and anti-imperialism in the aftermath of the nuclear bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and in anticipation of the Soviet-backed 1950 Stockholm Peace Appeal. ⁴ According to Michael Myerson, a self-proclaimed communist and the former director of the U.S. Peace Council, the World Peace Council was “an initiative” of the Soviet Union. ^{5 6}

The U.S. Peace Council was founded in 1979 with a conference in Philadelphia. It maintained headquarters in New York City until 1990 when it moved to Philadelphia, and then in 1992 it relocated to Michigan. ⁷ According to ex-U.S. Peace Council president Michael Myerson, the World Peace Council established an American branch because the United States was “the world’s foremost military power and purveyor of war.” ⁶

From its founding, the U.S. Peace Council was identified as a Soviet front-group by the U.S. State Department. ⁸ Myerson has acknowledged that the organization’s leadership was historically chosen by the Communist Party USA. ⁶

According to conservative writer and ex-communist Ronald Radosh, the U.S. Peace Council was founded by communists and operated as “an old-fashioned communist front” that consistently condemned U.S. military interventions abroad while downplaying or ignoring comparable Soviet military interventions. Radosh claimed that the U.S. Peace Council functioned as a means by which the Communist Party USA could infiltrate the American isolationist movement and attract followers without alienating anti-communists. ¹ In a 2019 interview, former U.S. Peace Council president Al Marder stated that during the 1980s it became increasingly difficult for non-American members of the World Peace Council to attend the organization’s meetings hosted in the United States due to the anti-communist policies of the Reagan administration. ⁹

Positions

In January 2026, the U.S. Peace Council published and endorsed a statement by the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York, also known as American Federation of Teachers Local 2334, condemning the U.S. military’s attack on Venezuela and deposition of its purported President Nicolas Maduro. The statement referred to the attack as an act of “aggression” that was “based on unproven claims of drug smuggling.” ¹⁰

In 2025, the U.S. Peace Council referred to the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza as “genocidal.” ²

In June 2025, the U.S. Peace Council issued a statement condemning the joint U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, along with other attacks by the Israeli military against Iran, which the organization called an “unprovoked” and “blatant act of aggression.” The statement read in part: “The narrative of the Imperialists was always false and full of lies, from the non-existing Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the threats of fundamentalist forces which were created, funded and used by the imperialists themselves till the Iranian capacity to obtain nuclear weapons which has been never proved.” ²

In 2018, the U.S. Peace Council held the first International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases, held in Dublin, Ireland and co-hosted by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance and the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases. ^{11 9}

In 2016, the U.S. Peace Council organized a week-long fact-finding mission to Syria that met representatives of the government of then-dictator Bashar al-Assad; after returning, the U.S. Peace Council expressed support for the Assad regime and condemned support given to anti-Assad forces by the United States and other Western governments. ^{9 12}

Leadership

The U.S. Peace Council does not list its organizational leaders on its website. ¹³

Al Marder, who died in December 2023, was involved for a long time in the leadership of the World Peace Council and the International Association of Peace Messengers, and worked as president of the U.S. Peace Council. Marder was a lifelong communist activist and member of the Communist Party USA. ^{14 9}

Michael Myerson was also a president of the U.S. Peace Council. He claims he was asked to lead the organization by the Communist Party USA after being a member of the party for 13 years. Myerson is also a lifelong communist activist and has ties with numerous communist and Marxist groups, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic People’s Republic of Yemen, and the Communist Party of Lebanon. ^{6 5}

According to Myerson, while there are communists in the U.S. Peace Council, it is not an entirely communist organization. Rather, the group has members from across the political left, including many peace and labor union activists. ⁵

1. Radosh, Ronald. “THE ‘PEACE COUNCIL’ AND PEACE.” Reagan Library. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/public/2021-01/40-139-196027094-R29-042-2020.pdf#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Peace%20Council%2C%20Forsberg%20says%2C%20is,movement%20in%20the%20United%20States%20who%20feel.
2. “Statement of the WPC about the Recent Attack of the USA against Iran.” U.S. Peace Council. June 22, 2025. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://uspeacecouncil.org/statement-of-the-wpc-about-the-recent-attack-of-the-usa-against-iran/.
3. “Support U.S. Peace Council.” U.S. Peace Council. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://uspeacecouncil.org/campaigns/make-a-donation/donate/.
4. “600.001/9–1450: Telegram.” U.S. Department of State, September 14, 1950. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v02/d228.
5. Myerson, Michael. “I Was a Communist Party Activist for Decades — and I Don’t Regret It.” Jacobin. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://jacobin.com/2022/12/michael-myerson-communist-party-usa-world-peace-council.
6. Myerson, Michael. “All We Are Saying Is, Give Peace a Chance.” Portside. June 12, 2022. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://portside.org/2022-06-12/all-we-are-saying-give-peace-chance.
7. “U.S. Peace Council Records.” TriCollege Libraries. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-153.
8. Archibald, George. “Sandinistas, Qaddafi fund U.S. protest.” April 24, 1987. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000100200001-1.pdf.
9. Godels, Greg. “An Interview with Al Marder, President, US Peace Council.” Marxism-Leninism Today. March 12, 2019. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://mltoday.com/an-interview-with-al-marder-president-us-peace-council/.
10. “Oppose Military Aggression Against Venezuela.” U.S. Peace Council. January 4, 2026. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://uspeacecouncil.org/oppose-military-aggression-against-venezuela/.
11. “First International Conference against US/ NATO Military Bases.” International Peace Bureau. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://ipb.org/events/first-international-conference-against-us-nato-military-bases/.
12. “U.S. Peace Council President Alfred Marder speaks to the…” Getty Images. August 9, 2016. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/peace-council-president-alfred-marder-speaks-to-the-press-news-photo/587907642.
13. “Homepage.” U.S. Peace Council. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://uspeacecouncil.org/.
14. Bass, Paul. “Al Marder, True Believer To The End, Dies At 101.” New Haven Independent. December 19, 2023. Accessed January 9, 2026. https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2023/12/19/al_marder_crusading_true_believer_to_the_end_dies_at_101/.