Blog

2019 Staff Reflections

2019 Staff Reflections

We’re going to be honest with you; our fundraising isn’t where it needs to be. We’ve raised just under half of what we’ll need to keep our programs going in 2020. We believe this work is important because we believe a better world is possible: just read from staff below. And we know that as a…

We were the only voice of dissent that day

We were the only voice of dissent that day

My name is Lucia Sandoval, and I am a member of Puente Human Rights Movement, a long-standing grassroots organization that campaigns to bring attention to the realities of policing and surveillance that harm us every day in the borderlands of Arizona. Last year, when we learned the annual National Homeland Security Conference (NHSC) would be…

Busting Border Patrol’s Recruitment Propaganda

Busting Border Patrol’s Recruitment Propaganda

Dear WRL Friends and Family,                          I’m Heath Rudd (pronouns they/them/theirs), WRL’s Fall 2019 Bilezikian Intern. Over the past three months, I had the special opportunity to work with WRL to develop a new resource to counter Border Patrol recruitment. As someone who loves interrogating history for the betterment…

December of Dissent: A Message from Bogota

December of Dissent: A Message from Bogota

Hi All, I’m Natalia, and I’m the Right to Refuse to Kill Programme worker at War Resisters’ International (WRI) based in Colombia. Last July, WRI organized the International Conference “Antimilitarismos en Movimiento” along with other grassroots antimilitarist organizations in Colombia. We were so lucky to have War Resisters League’s participation in the conference and to…

December of Dissent: From Turtle Island to Palestine

December of Dissent: From Turtle Island to Palestine

Dear Friends,  My name is Sandra Tamari, the Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project and a friend of The War Resisters League. My work is centered around fighting for the rights of Palestinians: as a Palestinian living in the United States, I have spent over 15 years connecting people across borders to resist settler-colonial violence—…

Political Education to Spread Antimilitarism

Political Education to Spread Antimilitarism

Friends, I’m Citlali Perez, I am a rising sophomore at DePaul University and have worked with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council as a youth leader. In the spring of 2019, I was part of WRL’s three-day Demilitarization School in Chicago, where I learned a lot about what militarization looks like around the world that I hadn’t…

Political Education to Spread Antimilitarism

Political Education to Spread Antimilitarism

Friends, I’m Citlali Perez, I am a rising sophomore at DePaul University and have worked with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council as a youth leader. In the spring of 2019, I was part of WRL’s three-day Demilitarization School in Chicago, where I learned a lot about what militarization looks like around the world that I hadn’t…

Larry Gara, Lifelong War Resister 1922 – 2019

Larry Gara, Lifelong War Resister 1922 – 2019

History professor, pacifist and WRL member (since 1940) jailed during World War II, prison abolitionist, jazz aficionado, birder, vegetarian. Gara died at age 97 on November 23, 2019, in his hometown of Wilmington, Ohio. He was a professor of history at Wilmington College from 1962 to 2002, when he retired from teaching. Larry called himself…

Meet WRL’s Communications Coordinator – Shiyam Galyon!

Meet WRL’s Communications Coordinator – Shiyam Galyon!

Dear Friends, What does a U.S.-based antiwar movement look like that has deep connections across the country and around the world? That is agile and responsive under systems of settler colonialism, under authoritarian systems, and towards refugees and migrants whose bodies are on the line between borders? That dismantles systems of oppression in the United…

Another Death in the Family: Simon Harak, 1948-2019

Another Death in the Family: Simon Harak, 1948-2019

Fr. G. Simon Harak SJ, the exuberantly pacifist Jesuit priest and onetime WRL Disarmament Coordinator, died November 3 in Campion Health Center, Weston, Mass. He was 71 and had dealt for some six years with frontotemporal degeneration (also called frontotemporal dementia). Simon was the kind of pacifist who sees peace and justice as inextricably bound…

It’s our 96th!

It’s our 96th!

Today on our 96th birthday, War Resisters League is as energized and hopeful as ever in working to dismantle the military industrial complex. When people ask us why, we say: it’s because the life and dignity of everyday people are worth fighting for, across the United States and around the world.  We are deeply moved…

Peter Kiger, 1938 – 2019

Peter Kiger, 1938 – 2019

Former WRL staff member Peter Kiger died on August 19 in New Castle, Indiana. He was 80 and had Parkinson’s disease. Born and raised in Spiceland, Indiana, Peter became a Quaker whose life mission was peacemaking. But during his freshman year at DePauw University (1956) — before becoming a pacifist — he won a Chicago…

How We Win – Summer Update

How We Win – Summer Update

Congratulations to Decolonize This Place and partners, whose campaign calling for the resignation of Safariland CEO and Vice Chairman of the Whitney Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, culminated in a successful win last Thursday with Warren Kanders’ announcement that he is resigning from the Whitney’s board. A result of cross-movement organizing, Decolonize This Place’s nine weeks…

Stop Urban Shield Coalition Victory: WRL Statement

Stop Urban Shield Coalition Victory: WRL Statement

Congratulations to the Stop Urban Shield Coalition on the recent victory of demilitarizing emergency preparedness in California’s Bay Area!  In other words: ending Urban Shield. Since 2013, this cross-community coalition has organized tirelessly against Urban Shield — a SWAT team training and weapons expo, that brought together local, regional, and international police to collaborate on,…

End of content

End of content