The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States, having been founded in 1923. [1] [2]
Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International. [3] It continues to be one of the leading radical voices in the anti-war movement. [1]
Many of the organization's founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service. From the Fellowship of Reconciliation many Jews, suffragists, socialists, and anarchists separated to form this more secular organization.
Although the WRL was opposed to US participation in World War II, it did not protest against it; the WRL complied with the Espionage Act, ceased public protests, and did not solicit new members during this period. [4] During World War II, many members were labeled conscientious objectors. [5] In the 1950s, WRL members worked in the civil rights movement and organized protests against nuclear weapons testing and civil defense drills. [2]
In the 1960s, WRL was the first pacifist organization to call for an end to the Vietnam War. [2] WRL also organized the first demonstration against the war with a September 21, 1963 vigil at the U.S. Mission to the UN, followed by an October 9, 1963 picket of Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu speaking at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. [6] WRL was among the primary groups (along with Committee for Nonviolent Action, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Socialist Party, and the Student Peace Union) to organize coordinated nationwide protests against the Vietnam War on December 19, 1964. [7]
The organization's opposition to nuclear weapons was extended to include nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s. The WRL has also been active in feminist and anti-racist causes and works with other organizations to reduce the level of violence in modern culture.
WRL published many important periodicals including The Conscientious Objector (1939–1946); WRL News (1945–1984); the WRL Peace Calendar from 1955–2012; Liberation magazine (1956–1977); WIN Peace & Freedom Through Nonviolent Action (1966–1984); The Nonviolent Activist (1984–2006); and the quarterly magazine WIN through revolutionary nonviolence (2006–2015), and other materials. See the external links below to find the archived publications.
WRL celebrated the centennial of its founding in 2023 by producing a traveling exhibit consisting of eight 7-foot tall freestanding panels on various topics and a 12-foot wide timeline banner. The entire contents of the traveling exhibit is contained within an 84-page full-color book published by the League. [8]
In addition the Judd Foundation hosted celebrations of WRL's centennial with a reception on October 18, 2023, followed by "The Art of War Resistance" panel discussion on October 25, 2023, at its SoHo gallery in New York City.
Among other centennial projects, a weekly blog highlighting specific events and publications in WRL's history began posting in January 2023 and continues through 2024.
The War Resisters League actively organized against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to protest what it perceives as U.S. militarism and commitment to endless war, as well as the impact of war at home. [9] Much of its organizing is focused on challenging military recruiters and ending corporate profit from war.
WRL is involved in a number of national peace and justice coalitions, including National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth and the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. Starting in 1958, WRL awarded almost annually the War Resisters League Peace Award to a person or organization whose work represents the League's radical nonviolent program of action. The Covid-19 pandemic curtailed the peace award ceremonies.
The War Resisters League annually publishes a pie chart showing how much of the U.S. federal budget actually covers current and past military expenses, listing the total as 37% based on the FY2023 proposed federal budget:
Using the larger total spending that includes trust funds, official government figures produce smaller percentages for military spending:
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Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism or violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa, which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).
David Ernest McReynolds was an American politician and social activist who was a prominent democratic socialist and pacifist activist. He described himself as "a peace movement bureaucrat" during his 40-year career with the War Resisters League. He was a resident of New York City. McReynolds was twice a candidate for President of the United States, running atop the ticket of the Socialist Party USA in 1980 and 2000. He was the Socialist Party USA's first openly gay presidential candidate. He was also America's first gay presidential candidate if not counting John Hospers - although multiple sources, including the Libertarian Party, have referred to John Hospers, who was in 1972 the first presidential nominee of the newly formed Libertarian Party, as the first openly gay person to run for president of the United States, The Guardian’s obituary stated that his family “strenuously denied” he was gay.
Nonresistance is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of principled nonviolence or pacifism which rejects all physical violence, whether exercised on individual, group, state or international levels. Practitioners of nonresistance may refuse to retaliate against an opponent or offer any form of self-defense. Nonresistance is often associated with particular religious groups, such as Anabaptist Christianity.
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1914 in response to the horrors of war in Europe. Today IFOR counts 71 branches, groups and affiliates in 48 countries on all continents. IFOR members promote nonviolence, human rights and reconciliation through public education efforts, training programs and campaigns. The IFOR International Secretariat in Utrecht, Netherlands facilitates communication among IFOR members, links branches to capacity building resources, provides training in gender-sensitive nonviolence through the Women Peacemakers Program, and helps coordinate international campaigns, delegations and urgent actions. IFOR has ECOSOC status at the United Nations.
Peacemakers was an American pacifist organization founded following a conference on "More Disciplined and Revolutionary Pacifist Activity" in Chicago in July 1948. Ernest and Marion Bromley and Juanita and Wally Nelson largely organized the group. The group’s organizational structure adopted a multidivisional organizational structure with a loose hierarchy, prioritizing local committees including but not limited to the Tax Refusal and Military Draft Refusal Committee.
War Resisters' International (WRI), headquartered in London, is an international anti-war organisation with members and affiliates in over 40 countries.
Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position according to which pacifism and non-violence have both a scriptural and rational basis for Christians, and affirms that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Christian pacifists state that Jesus himself was a pacifist who taught and practiced pacifism and that his followers must do likewise. Notable Christian pacifists include Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy, Adin Ballou, Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, and brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan.
Igal Roodenko was an American civil rights activist, and pacifist.
Ralph DiGia was a World War II conscientious objector, lifelong pacifist and social justice activist, and staffer for 52 years at the War Resisters League.
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Some of the methods used to achieve these goals include advocacy of pacifism, nonviolent resistance, diplomacy, boycotts, peace camps, ethical consumerism, supporting anti-war political candidates, supporting legislation to remove profits from government contracts to the military–industrial complex, banning guns, creating tools for open government and transparency, direct democracy, supporting whistleblowers who expose war crimes or conspiracies to create wars, demonstrations, and political lobbying. The political cooperative is an example of an organization which seeks to merge all peace-movement and green organizations; they may have diverse goals, but have the common ideal of peace and humane sustainability. A concern of some peace activists is the challenge of attaining peace when those against peace often use violence as their means of communication and empowerment.
Anna Ruth Fry, usually known as Ruth Fry, was a British Quaker writer, pacifist and peace activist.
Jessie Wallace Hughan was an American educator, a socialist activist, and a radical pacifist. During her college days she was one of four co-founders of Alpha Omicron Pi, a national fraternity for university women. She also was a founder and the first Secretary of the War Resisters League, established in 1923. For over two decades, she was a perennial candidate for political office on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America in her home state of New York.
Different Muslim movements through history had linked pacifism with Muslim theology. However, warfare has been an integral part of Islamic history both for the defense and the spread of the faith since the time of Muhammad.
The Committee for Nonviolent Revolution (CNVR) was a pacifist organization founded in Chicago at a conference held on February 6 to 9, 1946. Many of the founding members were conscientious objectors who had served time in prison or in Civilian Public Service camps for their refusal to fight in World War II. They included Dave Dellinger, George Houser, Lew Hill, Ralph DiGia, and Igal Roodenko. Other members included Larry Scott, Alexander Katz, and A.J. Muste.
Devere Allen (1891–1955) was an American socialist and pacifist political activist and journalist. Allen is best remembered as the main editor of The World Tomorrow following the departure of Norman Thomas from the magazine in 1922. Allen was the author of more than 20 books and pamphlets and was active in the leadership of several political organizations, including the League for Independent Political Action (1928–1932) and the Socialist Party of America.
Frances May Witherspoon was an American writer and activist, co-founder with Tracy Dickinson Mygatt of the War Resisters League, and executive secretary of the New York Bureau of Legal Advice, a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union.
