Dear , WRL’s founder Jessie Wallace Hughan described the significance of grassroots organizing and individual outreach in an early brochure, “What is War Resistance?”. Pacifists had seen governments make peace pacts and then ignore them in favor of war. She wrote: Accordingly, while we welcome each and every effort for disarmament and the peaceful settlement of controversies, we cannot place any considerable reliance upon pacts made by governments which stand prepared for war. … The method of war resistance, accordingly, is the continuous organization of men and women for the refusal of all support to war, whether by bearing arms, subscribing to war funds, or performing non-combatant service as an aid to winning the war.
One hundred years after our founding, the War Resisters League remains determined to end war and the causes of war — no matter how long it takes. Year after year our pie chart flyer — hot off the press and available here — shows a country that continues to prepare for war rather than invest in the civilian programs and diplomacy that could truly create a better future for all. The pie chart is still our most popular outreach tool. We print thousands and post it online in English and Spanish. Your financial support helps us to produce the pie chart and to work in all ways possible to end war and the causes of war. As a member of WRL’s 100th Anniversary History Committee, I’ve been spending a lot of time immersed in the past. While some of the writings could use updated language to make them more inclusive, so much of what the early WRLers wrote and the actions they took still inspire today. The antiwar activists of the WWI era acted in a time of extreme repression where socialists, pacifists, and Wobblies were prime targets of hatred and vigilante violence. I was impressed to read that phrase quoted above about not “subscribing to war funds.” While only about 5% of the population was subject to income tax at the time, the propaganda and pressure to buy war bonds was intense. |
