Direct action was principally to be carried out by the World Federation of Trade Unions, to which the deregistered New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union was affiliated. WFTU's General Secretary, Louis Saillant, said at Stockholm in March, 1950:—

"We find ourselves in a period in which propaganda and direct action can no longer be separated. It even seems that now is the time for direct action by the masses against the preparation of a new world war.

We should state that one of the essential duties of the Defenders of Peace is the refusal to work on and produce war material in all capitalist countries. The working class is in the forefront of this activity."