UCLG·CGLU · www.uclg.org
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First Break And soon after the First Congress came the First Break in the early life of the newly established international municipal movement, namely the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918). This most horrifying and meaningless war (as all wars are) left no opportunity for the new organization to realize its main targets of world wide democracy and peace building in the cities, localities and countries. The organisation was exiled to Paris. During the 1920s we witnessed serious efforts to re-establish the broken links that the war had caused, and to re-launch the movement a new. In this context, the Second Congress of the organization took place in Amsterdam in 1924, where a constitution was drafted for the new body, and “the notion of international organizations on municipal terrain” was discussed. The Paris Congress of 1925 dealt with “municipal regimes in different countries; the land policy of localities and communities and major agglomerations (metropolitan areas)”. In 1926 a General Council was established to serve as a permanent body to represent the organization. Meanwhile, membership started to increase through the steady efforts of the Secretary General E.Vink, and other leading members. In the same period, the organization introduced a new name for itself: The International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), in place of International Union of Cities (UIV). During subsequent Congresses from 1919 Seville - Barcelona, 1930 Liege, 1932 London, 1934 Lyon, 1936 Berlin - Munich, 1937 Paris, 1938 Glasgow up to the Second World War, various topics were brought to the agenda of the international municipal movement: • Local government finance and local government economic enterprises. • Assurances of local governments and local services. ▲
• Management of municipal government.
UIV Congress in Berlin, 1936
• Training and development of municipal staff. • Creating of a communal / municipal science. • Political culture in local government. • Local government’s role in unemployment. • The fight against pollution and environmental degradation.
1913 2013