News and Media
October Actions Against the War in Afghanistan 2009
Join the War Resisters League in saying “No to War in Afghanistan. No to Torture and Vengeance.” The War Resisters League is standing with other organizations and communities to mark eight years of war and destruction in Afghanistan, to say no to war and torture, and to call on the Obama administration to listen to…
Peace Protests at Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Space Command will fire a test ICBM Minuteman to Kwajalein on in June 5, 2010. A peace protest will be held at the front gate of Vandenberg AFB in Santa Barbara County, CA on June 5 at 1pm during World Nuclear Weapons Abolition Day. For more information, go to www.vandenbergwitness.org
Prophecy Tickets
NEARLY SOLD OUT! Call for tickets now: 212.228.0450 x17 Theater Three Collaborative, Inc. presents A fierce and funny new American play about bearing witness and finding family Friday, June 4, 2010 7:30 p.m. A Benefit for the War Resisters League Written & Directed by Karen Malpede Buy your tickets today! Call 212.228.0450×17
WRL Track Club Invitation
War, Empire and the Economy Got You Down? We have the Solution! Don’t Just Stand There…. Run! The War Resisters League Track Club is committed to building community and building muscles, and we want to run with you. After a decade long (or so) hiatus, we reformed in 2009, and ran the Hartford Marathon and…
Afghanistan Escalation 2009
As the war in Afghanistan has entered into its ninth year and as President Obama has issued orders for a swift deployment over the next six months of 30,000 additional US troops, WRL calls on its members and supporters in a moment of national urgency. By promising a timetable for troop withdrawl alongside an escalation…
WRL Action Alert 12/21/09: Help the Gaza Freedom March Cross the Gaza-Egypt Border!
From The Gaza Freedom March Steering Committee: UPDATE December 21, 2009 We are determined to break the siege We all will continue to do whatever we can to make it happen Using the pretext of escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed us yesterday that the Rafah border will be closed…
Bill Sutherland, 1918-2010
Bill Sutherland, unofficial ambassador between the peoples of Africa and the Americas for over fifty years, died peacefully on the evening of January 2, 2010. He was 91. A life-long pacifist and liberation advocate, Sutherland became involved in civil rights and anti-war activities as a youthful member of the Student Christian Movement in the 1930s….
CALL TO ACTION: Join Witness Against Torture January 11-22, 2010 in a Fast and Vigil to Shut Down Guantanamo, End Torture and Build Justice
CALL TO ACTION: Join Witness Against Torture January 11-22, 2010 in a Fast and Vigil to Shut Down Guantanamo, End Torture and Build Justice “I believe strongly that torture is not moral, legal or effective.” Guantanamo is “a damaging symbol to the world… a rallying cry for terrorist recruitment and harmful to our national security,…
Karl Bissinger, 1914-2008
Beloved longtime WRL staff member Karl Bissinger succumbed to a stroke on November 19. Karl was an energetic and creative fund raiser, an enthusiastic civil disobedient, a generous host to countless meetings, and – most important – a loyal and supportive friend to hundreds of Greenwich Village artists and activists and a devoted, loving partner…
Dennis Brutus Memorial
Please join us for a Memorial for Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) South African poet, anti-apartheid fighter, and human-rights activist Sunday January 17, 2010 2 pm . . . . . Download the flyer here. Statement from the Brutus Family on the passing of Professor Dennis Brutus Professor Dennis Brutus died quietly in his sleep on the…
A letter to President Obama from the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
September 15, 2009 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear President Obama: We are writing on behalf of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance to seek a meeting to discuss the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. We are greatly concerned that the people of Afghanistan, like…
Thursday, September 17 – October Actions Organizing Call
September 3, 2009 Dear Friends, We will be having an organizing call around the October 5th Actions next Thursday, September 17th at 12:00 (noon) EST. The call-in number is 518-825-1300, code 116563. We invite all those of you who are interested in coming to DC or who would like to plan something in your hometown…
Thursday, September 17 – October Actions Organizing Call
September 3, 2009 Dear Friends, We will be having an organizing call around the October 5th Actions next Thursday, September 17th at 12:00 (noon) EST. The call-in number is 518-825-1300, code 116563. We invite all those of you who are interested in coming to DC or who would like to plan…
Resources for Organizing for October 5th
Resources for Organizing WRL is in the process of creating a web-based handbook for people organizing for October 5th. That will include tools for organizing to bring people to Washington, and tools for people planning regional actions. Until that is ready, we encourage you to refer to the following resources. The basic scenario for the…
WRL Featured in HBO doc “Shouting Fire”
Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech premieres on HBO on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 9 pm (8 pm CST). The film centers on noted free speech attorney Martin Garbus (father of the film’s director Liz Garbus) and is illustrated by a half-dozen controversial stories of free speech abuse by the government….
Nicholson Baker to Give the War Resisters League’s “Dave Dellinger Lecture on Nonviolence”
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact the NYC War Resisters League Phone: 718-768-7306 Email: nycwrl [at] worldnet.att.net Award-Winning Author to Talk About War, Nonviolence and History Nicholson Baker to Give the War Resisters League’s “Dave Dellinger Lecture on Nonviolence” Nicholson Baker, author of the…
Nicholson Baker to Give the War Resisters League’s “Dave Dellinger Lecture on Nonviolence”
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact the NYC War Resisters League Phone: 718-768-7306 Email: nycwrl [at] worldnet.att.net Award-Winning Author to Talk About War, Nonviolence and History Nicholson Baker to Give the War Resisters League’s “Dave Dellinger Lecture on Nonviolence” Nicholson Baker, author of the recent controversial book Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II,…
100 Days to Close Guantanamo
Speakers at WRL Forum on War, Prisons and Torture on Monday, April 27, 2009 Protesters outside the White House on the 100th day, April 30, 2009 See media releases on the 100 Days Campaign: May 1, 2009 – 61 Anti-Torture Demonstrators Arrested at The White House April 29, 2009 –…
WRL- Delaware News: April 2009
If you would like to join the new chapter or for any additional information on events, you can contact WRL Delaware at www.wrl-delaware.tk. April 26, 2009 Our new chapter got off to a good start on the March 20 – 22 Iraq War anniversary weekend. On the 20th, two of our small group (now numbering…
MEDIA ADVISORY:”Killing People Is Not What I Am,” Says AWOL GI
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Daniel Marble: 732-644-5820 Attorney Larry Hildes: 360-715-9788 Chuck Fager, Quaker House: 910-323-3912 MEDIA ADVISORY “Killing People Is Not What I Am”, Says AWOL GI A soldier who went AWOL two years ago rather than take part in combat is enroute to Fort Bragg to face military authorities. PFC Daniel Marble, 25, went…
National Counter-Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference
The National Counter-Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference will be held July 17 to 19th, 2009 in Chicago For more information: Call: 312.427.2533 Email: crconf [at] gmail.com Website: http://nnomy.org or write: AFSC 637 South Dearborn St #3 Chicago Illinois 60605
Anti-Torture Activists to Fast and Rally Sunday to Call on Obama to Close Guantanamo
PRESS ADVISORY Witness Against Torture www.100dayscampaign.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 8, 2009 CONTACT: Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928, frida.berrigan [at] gmail.com Gary Ashbeck, 410-913-2342, cruz69j [at] hotmail.com ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS TO FAST AND RALLY SUNDAY TO CALL ON OBAMA TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO AND BAN TORTURE IMMEDIATELY WASHINGTON — On Sunday, January 11 — the seven-year anniversary of the…
Memorial for long-time WRL staff member Karl Bissinger
Karl Bissinger, 1914-2008 A memorial for long-time War Resisters League staff member Karl Bissinger will be held on Thursday, January 29, 6 pm in the Community Room at Westbeth (155 Bank Street) in the west Village. Westbeth, with entrances mid-block at 55 Bethune Street or through courtyard at Bank Street, is on a block…
Report from Rafah: Doctors Stopped At Borders
January 10, 2009 Report from Rafah: Doctors Stopped At Borders By Bill Quigley Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola New Orleans. He is in Egypt as a human rights representative of the National Lawyers Guild, the Society of American Law Professors, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and…
Volunteering at WRL
December 2008 LITERATURE AND ORGANIZING RESOURCES Volunteers Needed The War Resisters League designs, produces and distributes thousands of pieces of literature and organizing resources each year, including books, brochures, organizing guides, buttons, t-shirts and a range of current and classic anti-war posters. We need volunteers to help us fulfill the dozens of orders we receive…
43rd Annual Peace Award Performers
Steve Earle from steveearle.com: “The city hasn’t changed as much as real estate agents would have you believe,” Steve Earle explains about his adopted hometown of New York City. “Specifically, my neighborhood hasn’t changed that much. I point people in the right direction so that they can take their picture like the cover of Freewheelin’…
The Return of the Intrepid War Museum demonstration Oct. 2, 2008
After two years of repairs the Intrepid aircraft carrier and war museum returned to its NYC dock. We greeted it with a silent vigil of signs, banners, and leaflets.
Million Doors for Peace
Join United for Peace and Justice coalition, of which WRL is a member group, in a Million Doors for Peace on Saturday, September 20. 1 million doors. 1 million conversations. 1 million voters. Be one of the 25,000 peace activists to knock on a Million Doors for Peace on Saturday, September 20. United For Peace…
War Resisters Block IRS Headquarters, 32 arrested
March 19, 2008 — Thirty-two people were arrested this morning as they staged a nonviolent blockade at the national headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC. The protestors had placed yellow police tape saying “WAR CRIME SCENE” across four entrances to the building, including the main entrance on Constitution Ave. and additional entrances…
Jericho 10th Anniversary Weekend of Resistance
“One of the first steps we are going to become involved in as an Organization of Afro-American Unity will be to work with every leader and other organization in this country interested in a program designed to bring your and my problem before the United Nations … We must take it out of the…
WRL Hiring new WIN Editor/Publisher
JOB OPENING: Editor/Publisher of WIN Magazine The War Resisters League is seeking a seeking a self-motivated, professional, and skilled half-time Editor/Publisher to produce and manage (in consultation with Publications Committee) all phases of our quarterly publication, WIN Magazine. As one of the leading radical voices in the antiwar movement, we challenge military recruitment and war…
WRL Report on the Antiwar Movement Coming in Late May
Special Issue of WIN magazine will feature interviews from a cross section of grassroots organizers from across the country. Ordering information coming. For a preview, check out this adapted article from the NY Indypendent: What Is To be Done? Assessing The Antiwar Movement By Matthew Smucker Remember February 15, 2003? That day saw the largest…
IRS Blockade Media Reports
Media Reports about the IRS Blockade in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2008 Washington Post “Cries Against War Sparse But Fierce” Fewer Than 1,000 Protest, 33 Arrested In Scattered Displays in the District, Michael E. Ruane (March 20) Detailed roundup with reference to RMO in lead; Ed Hedemann quoted “An Antiwar Blockade Amid the Apathy…
Death and Taxes . . . and a whole lot of fun
by Ruth Benn 3/2/2008 It’s like a double whammy losing Ralph at this time of year. He died on February 1, early on in tax season and just as Ed and I were working on the “Where Your Income Taxes Really Go” flyer. It’s also just when baseball season is starting up. Players are heading…
Remembering Ralph
by David McReynolds 02/05/08 (from EdgeLeft: An occasional column which can be freely used, sent on, etc.) This afternoon, February 1st, I got a call from Ruth Benn that Ralph DiGia, 93, had died at St. Vincent’s here in New York City. I had visited him this past Saturday and sensed he was losing his…
Ralph DiGia: 1914-2008
Ralph DiGia, lifelong war resister and pacifist died February 1 in New York City. Ralph had a bad fall a couple of weeks ago, broke his hip, and has had a series of serious health problems following his admission to St. Vincent’s Hospital. Ralph, 93, has been the heart and soul of War Resisters League…
War Resisters Block IRS HQ, 31 arrested
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928 War Resisters Block IRS HQ, 31 arrested March 19, 2008 — Thirty-one people were arrested this morning as they staged a nonviolent blockade at the national headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC. The protestors had placed yellow police tape saying “WAR CRIME SCENE” across the…
Shut Down the IRS March 19, 2008
SHUT DOWN THE IRS / SHUT DOWN THE WAR On March 19, 2008, we will set up a nonviolent blockade of the national Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington, DC, as part of the day of actions against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as military recruiters supply the bodies for the war, the…
Activist Profile: Lancaster SDS
Becca Rast is a senior at J.P. McCaskey High School, in Lancaster, PA. Nick Martin is a recent graduate from Penn Manor High School, also in Lancaster. In February 2007 they co-founded Lancaster Students for a Democratic Society, one of the few SDS chapters that is primarily made up of high school students. They have…
Operation No Recruits: Daily Reports
Operation No Recruits DAILY REPORTS FROM THE TIMES SQUARE RECRUITING STATION September 8, 10, 11 – 15, 2007 Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007 — NYC WRL / Washington Heights Counter-Recruiters / Rude Mechanical Orchestra At 8:30 am the NYC War Resisters League began blocking the front door of the yet-to-be-opened recruiting center. Shortly after, two counter-demonstrators…
War Profiteers
Individuals, companies and corporations have always taken advantage of warfare to make enormous economic profit. For centuries, ordinary people, who suffer most from war, have resisted these war profiteers. One of the major factors in Harry S. Truman’s rise to the U.S. presidency was his relentless (“Give ’em Hell, Harry!”) pursuit of war profiteers. But…
What We Ask of Members
What we ask of our members: • Signing on to the Statement • Financial support if possible. $26 per year (or more) will allow us to maintain our totally independent and autonomous funding structure. In fact, the majority of our annual budget comes from member and supporter donations like this, not grants or huge donations.
Looting By Any Other Name
September 15, 2005 Looting By Any Other Name: The Profit-Driven War By Brian J. Foley [Text of speech given at the conference, “The Failure of Global Empire…] More than two years later, many people still ask, “Why did the US invade Iraq?” Some people answer, “For oil.” Others say, “To remove a dangerous dictator,” or,…
Stopping the Merchants of Death
Stopping the Merchants of Death A Strategic Conference for Grassroots Activists Sept. 29 – Oct. 2, 2006 University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN According to all attendees, the SMoD National Conference was a success! To download a MS Publisher version of the official program, please click on the image (right) Click here to…
Recruiting Latinos: Selling the American Nightmare
Nonviolent Activist, March-April 2006 Recruiting Latinos: Selling the American Nightmare By Oskar Castro Facing a drop in African American recruitment numbers, yet still hoping to entice poor people of color, military recruiters are currently working overtime to swell the ranks with young Latinos and Latinas. Latinos are 14 percent of the U.S. population aged 18…
Activist News (NVA Mar-Apr 2006)
Nonviolent Activist, March-April 2006 ACTIVIST NEWS U.S. Troops in Iraq Say End War in 2006 An overwhelming 72 percent of American troops serving in Iraq think the United States should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International…
From Soldier to Objector: Jose Vasquez
Nonviolent Activist, March-April 2006 INTERVIEWS: VETS AGAINST THE WAR From Soldier to Objector: Jose Vasquez Interviewed by Francesca Fiorentini and Steve Theberge Born in the Bronx, Jose Vasquez grew up in San Bernadino, Calif. In 1991, a junior in high school, he enlisted in the Army’s Delayed Entry Program. During his four-and-a-half-year tour of duty,…
Blacks, Military Recruitment & Antiwar Movement: Not Showing Up
Nonviolent Activist, March-April 2006 Blacks, Military Recruitment & Antiwar Movement: Not Showing Up By Kenyon Farrow When I was the Southern Region Coordinator for Critical Resistance I once spoke at an event in New Orleans entitled “What Now: War, Occupation, and the Peace Movement.” I was asked specifically to address why more people most adversely…
The Mercenary Challenge to Anti-militarism: Privatizing (In)Security
Nonviolent Activist, January-February 2006 The Mercenary Challenge to Anti-militarism: Privatizing (In)Security By Celine Joiris Mercenaries are nothing new; people outside of national armies have been fighting and dying for pay since the days of ancient Rome. Now in the midst of another empire’s reign, “private security companies”—as they are benignly called—have been on the rise…
Activist Reviews
Nonviolent Activist, January-February 2006 ACTIVIST REVIEWS Busting Myths By G. Simon Harak War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death By Norman Solomon 2005, John Wiley & Sons; 314 pages; $24.95, hardcover In his latest work, Norman Solomon continues his mission of myth-busting. He shows how mainstream media accede to, or…
WRL NEWS
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 WRL NEWS WRL Organizers Meet in NC Up until a couple of years ago, the structure of the WRL involved twice-yearly meetings of the elected National Committee plus representatives of each local. But the meetings were primarily concerned with business and the structure didn’t meet the locals’ needs to…
Activist News: NVA Jan-Feb 2006
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 ACTIVIST NEWS UFPJ Rejects Future Work With A.N.S.W.E.R. On December 12, the antiwar coalition United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) issued a statement entitled “Ending the War in Iraq, Building a Broad Movement for Peace and Justice, and Our Experience with ANSWER,” in which they announced the steering committee’s…
NVA Letters
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 NVA LETTERS Déjà Vu I am deeply troubled by the article written by Bill Weinberg in your Nov-Dec 2005 issue: “The Question of International A.N.S.W.E.R.” As a 72-year-old who remembers the intra-left squabbles of the many “Socialist/Socialist Workers/SPF”groups of the 1950s and how those futile conflicts served mainly to…
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 Excerpts from a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to…
Merchant of Death of the Month: Science Applications International
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 Merchant of Death of the Month: Science Applications International By Frida Berrigan WANTED: SAI, Inc. Aliases/Subsidiaries Bechtel SAIC Corporation LLC, a joint venture with Bechtel to “meet the unique challenge of science and engineering for the Yucca Mountain Project;” ANXeBusiness Corp., a computer corporation; Data Systems & Solutions, a…
Policing Dissent
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 Lessons from the Global Justice Movement Policing Dissent By Mike McGuire In November 1999, a relatively small number of committed activists took on the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the streets of Seattle and won. In addition to marching, activists devised a tactic of several layers of human blockades—some…
Witness Against Torture Marches to Guantánamo
Nonviolent Activist, January – February 2006 Carrying outrage, compassion, and tourist visas, 25 U.S. activists began an 80-mile-march from Santiago, Cuba, on December 5, in the hopes reaching the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay and visiting prisoners detained there under horrific conditions. The activists, drawn largely from Catholic Worker communities across the United States,…
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the 2004 RNC – Report and Aftermath
Next Meeting of the WRL organizing group. Thursday, December 2 , 7 pm, 339 Lafayette St. (Bleecker St.) in Manhattan. We’ll evaluate the Nov. 3 demonstration and discuss plans for future events. Nov. 3rd Day-After-Election-Day Anti-war Demonstraton. Information about the planning for the “no matter who’s elected we need to demonstrate against the war”…
Civil Disobedience Action Planned at Republican National Convention
Aug. 30, 2004: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Ruth Benn (718-768-7306) Frida Berrigan (347-683-4928) Ed Hedemann (718-768-8841) PRESS RELEASE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ACTION PLANNED AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION New York, NY — At 7 pm on Tuesday, August 31, a mass nonviolent “die-in” at the Republican National Convention will be staged by the War Resisters League…
A Call for Mass Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the Republican National Convention
A Call for Mass Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the Republican National Convention Tuesday August 31, 2004 Our aim is to confront the administration with the death and suffering for which they are responsible: more than 10,000 Iraqis and Afghanis, as many as 1,000 Americans killed, thousands more wounded and scarred for life, as well as…
Decades of Nonviolence Training
From The Nonviolent Activist, July – August 1998 Practicing Nonviolence By Joanne Sheehan The acquisition of the spirit of nonresistance is a matter of long training in … appreciation of the hidden forces within ourselves. It changes one’s outlook on life. — Mohandas Gandhi We have to practice nonviolence before we can practice nonviolence. I…
Share