Jim Haber reflects on creating the 2008 War Resisters League calendar, Salaam, Shalom, Solh: Nonviolence and Resistance in the Middle East and Beyond in this week's #WRLcentennialhistoryblog. The calendar's 52 weekly entries provide a snapshot of grassroots, nonviolent organizing in the region in the mid-2000's. Jim says, "The calendar is relevant today so we feel connected to a global lineage of peaceworkers."
Where there is war, there are also people who bravely and conscientiously refuse to participate. That is true in the Ukraine, in Israel, in the U.S., and around the globe. International Conscientious Objectors Day, observed on the 15th of May, is a time to promote the right of conscientious objection and to support those who refuse war. This year, WRI is launching the international action #RefuseWar!
As students demonstrate in support of Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza on university campuses across the U.S. and beyond, this week's WRL 100th History blog looks back at the student actions of May 1970.
With the slogan “If the government won’t stop the war [in Vietnam], we’ll stop the government,” the largest mass arrests in U.S. history – 13,500 – occurred in May 1971 as hundreds of autonomous affinity groups from around the country converged on Washington, DC.
It’s been more than 50 years, but I still remember the ITT demonstration as one of the most creative and dramatic WRL actions of that furiously turbulent time in the antiwar movement. It was also one of the most fun.
WRL's 100th Anniversary Project Coordinator Mary McClintock shares a WRL story she heard in response to the letter she wrote for WRL in fall 2023. She wants to hear your WRL story.
I write this overview of the WRL peace calendars focused on young people as tens of thousands of them are now facing the horrors of war. Thus, some of the children’s personal statements in the calendars have a heartbreaking immediacy.
Long-time WRL staffer Wendy Schwartz reflects on volunteers who helped in the WRL office in the mid-20th century. WWI and WWII draft resisters, an FBI informer, and many others did office work at 5 Beekman Street and later at the Peace Pentagon.
Today, March 14, is Pi Day (3.14), which brings to mind WRL’s annual pie chart. With millions of copies distributed, it is the most disseminated piece of literature in WRL’s history.
