WRL is saddened by the death of long time WRL organizer and former NC member Bob Meola on November 17, 2021.
In the 1980’s Bob was a co-founder of the Southern California War Resisters’ League.
After he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, Bob became active with WRL West. He faithfully organized the May 15th Berkeley Conscientious Objectors and War Resisters Day gathering each year – the most consistent observation of International Conscientious Objection Day (CO Day) in the US. CO Day was created by the War Resisters’ International to celebrate those who have resisted war, and those who continue to resist – especially by refusing to be part of military structures.
Bob was a member of WRL’s National Committee from 2008 to 2016 and a member of WRL's International Task Force until his death. This is how he described himself in his National Committee bio:
"Bob Meola has been a radical involved in struggles for peace and justice since the 60s. He has worked to end the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Central America, and everywhere else since then and has been an organizer and peace and justice and anti-draft and anti-nuclear activist. He is a Gandhian pacifist, has been a non-violence trainer and has committed numerous acts of civil disobedience. He realized he was an anarchist when he realized his communist comrades had forgotten about Marx's withering away of the state. Bob was a founder of Southern California War Resisters' League and Southern California War Tax Resistance. He is a long-time member of WRL and is a contact for WRL-West. Bob has been a draft counselor, veterans' counselor and volunteer on the G.I. Rights Hotline. He is a Commissioner and past Chairperson of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission in Berkeley, CA and a member of both the Courage to Resist Organizing Collective and of the Chelsea Manning Support Network Steering Committee."
We share this moving tribute to Bob by Courage to Resist:
