GI Rights & Resistance

Since our founding in 1923, the War Resisters League has been committed to supporting conscientious objectors, GI resisters, and military families.

Currently, our work on this issue is done primarily through the GI Rights Hotline and through collaborative and coalition work with veteran's organizations to support the growing movement in CO's and resisters to the current wars. Click here for a map of organizations working on the GI Rights Hotline nationally.

Some of our recent collaborative projects include:

War Resisters League, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance announce the launch of a new organizing tool — Civilian Ally: A Guide to Organizing with Veterans and Servicemembers to Build a GI Resistance Movement.

Civilian Ally is a manual for peace activists who are organizing alongside veterans, servicemembers and conscientious objectors to end war or organizers who want to build those working relationships. Written by veteran and civilian organizers, it offers an orientation to working with servicemembers and veterans within the context of the growing GI Resistance movement.
Order from our online store.

What Every Girl Needs To Know About the U.S. Military

In the summer of 2007, the WRL, the Service Women's Action Network, and the Women of Color Resource Center partnered to co-published this pamphlet geared towards young women. This pamphlet amplifies the true experiences of military service women speaking to the realities of life in the military, and serves to demystify the lies told by military recruiters. PDF Download coming soon! Or you can order print copies from our store.

The GI Rights Hotline

The GI Rights Hotline provides free, confidential, and accurate information on US military regulations and practices to servicemembers, veterans, potential recruits, and their families. We are a network of nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations.

Iraq Veterans Against the War

We work closely with Iraq Veterans Against the War. Check out the video below for coverage about Operation First Casualty NYC, which we helped organize volunteers and logistics for.

Courage to Resist

Courage to Resist supports the troops who refuse to fight.  Thousands of GI's have resisted illegal war and occupation in a number of different ways--by going AWOL, seeking conscientious objector status and/or a discharge, asserting the right to speak out against injustice from within the military, and publicly refusing to fight.  While there are those who would like to dismiss war resisters as "cowards," the reality is that it takes exceptional courage to resist unjust, illegal, and/or immoral orders.