This is our centennial blog.
The broken rifle, long associated with WRL and War Resisters’ International predates both organizations. It first appeared in January 1909 on the cover of the Dutch publication De Wapens Neder (Down with Weapons), the periodical of the International Antimilitarist Union in the Netherlands. In 1915 it was on the cover of a pamphlet, Under det…
One of WRL’s earliest known street actions was a demonstration marking the 10th anniversary of the World War I armistice. On November 10, 1928, 27 pacifists and socialists — including the Youth Division of the War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Union Theological Seminary, Young People’s Socialist League, Bronx Free Fellowship – marched from Bowling…
Steve Sumerford, personal collection A Durham, North Carolina newspaper article on War Resisters League Southeast staff organizer Steve Sumerford’s arrest in Moscow’s Red Square during a War Resisters League-organized banner-drop in support of ending the nuclear arms race in both the US and USSR. A sister action took place simultaneously in Washington, D.C., September 4,…
Up until the first world war, peace and antiwar groups tended to be either religious (such as, AFSC and FOR) or women-only (Women’s Peace Society, Women’s Peace Union, Woman’s Peace Party, WILPF). Hughan sought to change that with the 1915 founding of the Anti-Enlistment League and its pledge to be “against enlistment” for war and…
“History is not a collection of dramatic dates of great leaps from oppression to liberation. It is more often seemingly endless night broken by dawn. History is made by people as ordinary as ourselves, but extraordinary in that they have been seized by a dream for which they are willing to struggle and to…
“As you know, the establishment of social justice in our nation is of profound concern to me. This great struggle is in the interest of all Americans and I shall not be turned from it. Yet no sane person can afford to work for social justice within the nation unless he simultaneously resists war and…
Founded 100 years ago this year as a secular militant pacifist organization, the War Resisters League is made up of people united in nonviolent opposition to all wars while seeking to remove the causes of war, including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation. Throughout its 100 years, WRL has held conferences, given out annual…
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