Lucy Law Webster
Citizens for Global Solutions
Lucy Webster has been an active world federalist since she was in 10th grade in 1947. At that time she was 16 years old and was in charge of the Social Service Committee at her school. When she was nine, she had written an anti-war poem, which was her response to the violence of the Second World War and what she knew about the Holocaust. Her poem, which was published by Parents Magazine, contained a phrase “when All the world’s laws obey”. This has become a theme of the goals of her life.
In 1952 when Lucy was at Wellesley College she was elected National Student Chairman of the United World Federalists and spent much of her senior year at college providing leadership for the U.S. student federalists and creating a New England Student Council for the world federalists with programs at some 8 colleges including Harvard, MIT, Smith, Mt. Holyoake and Wellesley. In her role heading the U.S. student federalists, Lucy was in very frequent contact with the Secretary General of the World Student Federalist office in Amsterdam, who was David Webster.
After David left Amsterdam the World Student Federalist office was at first directed by Gwyneth Morgan-Phillips (who later became a British MP) and then by Bill Andrews who was an American world federalist studying international law at the University of Amsterdam on a Fulbright scholarship. Bill was actually the elected President of the World Student Federalists and he contributed a large part of his scholarship money to employ the staff for the WSF office. After Lucy graduated from Wellesley, Bill suggested that she become the Secretary General of the WSF office, but she only agreed to take the job for four months while someone else was found. This period included the Copenhagen Congress of the World Movement for World Federal Government, the World Student Federalists and the Parliamentary Group for World Government. There were some 400 people at this congress, which was held in the Danish Parliament building, the Christiansborg Castle; some 230 were leaders of WMWFG groups in some 15 countries, about 70 participants were WSF youth and students and about 100 were members of parliaments.
While based in Amsterdam and encouraging her successors to take charge, Lucy spent about two months in Paris, took several trips to Bonn where the German Student Federalists were one of the strongest WSF groups, and she also went to England to speak to the Cambridge student UN Association/ WSF group. It was on that trip that she actually met David Webster, who by then was working for the BBC. David escorted her to lunch in Soho on the back of his motor scooter.
In December 1953, Lucy returned to New York and spent about six months studying international relations at Columbia, working for the Institute for World Order and representing the U.S. world federalists on the U.S. Committee for the World Assembly of Youth. In the summer of 1954 she arranged to attend the World Assembly of Youth in Singapore where she represented the World Student Federalists. The trip was financed by some 50 U.S. chapters of the United World Federalists which each contributed $35 in advance to “send Lucy Law around the world to you.” Going to Singapore via Europe was the first leg of a round-the-world speaking tour where toward the end she spoke in the 50 sponsoring cities on her return to California and across the country during 1955. On her way to Singapore she worked for the Pakistan Delegation to the UN Economic and Social Council during its 1954 summer session in Geneva and also visited the WSF office in Amsterdam. The central part of the round-the-world trip was to visit 8 countries in east and southeast Asia where she stayed with local families and met with young people.
In December 1955, Lucy married David Webster at the Community Church of New York. The Rev. Donald Harrington conducted the service, and the best man was Abe Bargman who knew David when he had studied at LSE and at the United Nations where he and David were both working in 1955, David on secondment from the BBC. Don Harrington had been the Treasurer of the World Movement for World Federal Government when it met in Rome in 1950 and had received quiet support from the Vatican.
After a honeymoon in Bermuda, David and Lucy settled in London, where, in due course she became active in Federal Union and the Association of World Federalists and in the international WMWFG. She took up a career in public relations and in international marketing and economic research, working for the largest London advertising agency, The London Press Exchange. Later she started her own marketing research consultancy when her two sons were young.
From 1971 to 1975 when David worked in New York for the BBC, Lucy did a few studies for the UN and for UNIDO. She continued to be active in the international world federalist movement and served as its Executive Committee Chairman for a number of years including during the world federalist congress in Tokyo in 1980.
In 1981, Lucy came to New York to work for UNICEF and later for the United Nations Secretariat. She was Special Assistant to the Secretary General of the Second World Conference to Combat Racism, worked on several UN Human Rights projects and obtained a Master of Science Degree in international relations. Her main work in the UN was as a Political Affairs Officer in the Department for Disarmament Affairs where she edited two UN publications, served as Secretary of UN Disarmament Commission working groups and was the UN liaison officer with the press and NGOs at the 1990 and the 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conferences.
After reaching the mandatory UN retirement age, Lucy worked for Economists for Peace and Security as Executive Director and as Program Director where one project involved drafting a letter signed by prominent U.S. economists opposing plans for war in Iraq. During this period she earned a second MA, in Global Political Economy and Finance, and she remains active on the EPS Board. She is currently the Executive Director of the Center for War/Peace Studies and a member of the Steering Committee of the World Federalist Institute where she contributes to its journal, Minerva. She is also Vice Chair of the Council of the World Federalist Movement, President of the New York Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions and an advisor to the Executive Committee of the World Alliance to Transform the UN (WATUN).
Lucy views herself as a catalyst who can serve best by encouraging others and trying to think ahead. She has been impressed by the idea that the things that need doing worldwide for people in all corners of the globe, now and into the future, are best done sooner, not later when effective options tend to be fewer. Thus she tries to affect the way global governance develops on a wide front of challenges.