Summer 2009
Dear Friends,
Like most of you, I ask myself every day how we can move people away from the violence and wastefulness of war. As our government remains entrenched in Iraq and sends bombs against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we are devastated by the cruelty and ignorance of those who claim to represent us. I feel fortunate to be on the staff of the War Resisters League, an 86-year-old organization that truly represents me and the thousands of you who have been passionately speaking and acting against war, and I hope that you'll join me now in supporting WRL's work.
More than any other lesson, my 20 years of activism have taught me the necessity of building and strengthening alternative institutions that will counter the forces of profit, national power, and mass killing. WRL has played an important role not only representing, training, and supporting the countless individuals who reject war and its proponents, but it has done the vital if sometimes less visible work of nurturing its allies and partners and the coalitions in which it participates.
In the past year WRL:
Was crucial to the decision by the largest U.S. antiwar coalition, United for Peace and Justice, to designate support for GI resistance as one of two key issues around which UFPJ is encouraging its 2,000 member groups to focus;
Supported Iraq Veterans Against the War by helping train 50 chapter leaders and 100 chapter members and giving ten of them more intensive leadership development and coaching, which helped strengthen the national war resistance work of active-duty soldiers and veterans;
Played a key role in the development of UFPJ's Beyond War campaign connecting war, poverty, and racism;
Supported New England WRL as they organized YouthPeace X, the tenth anniversary of their "YouthPeace Experiment" weekend trainings for high school students, attended by hundreds of youth in the last decade; and
Edited and contributed articles to War Resisters' International's new Handbook for Nonviolent Action.
As a ballooning war economy has greatly worsened conditions at home and abroad, more and more people are looking for substantive change. With the ongoing contributions of people like you, War Resisters League is:
Actively organizing allies to do GI resistance support;
Helping coordinate and staff the national GI Rights Hotline;
Conducting trainings on nonviolence, direct action, and campaign building;
Publishing new materials and updating existing ones, including a GI resistance support manual, counter-recruitment materials, brochures on women and militarism, and materials focusing on nonviolence;
Helping shape national counter-recruitment work and doing counter-recruitment in New England;
Coordinating the Bite the Bullet antiwar-profiteering network and working with national groups to develop nonviolent campaign strategies exposing and confronting war profiteers;
Providing war tax resistance information and counseling; and
Working to strengthen our locals and affiliates network.
The optimism born from the defeat of the Bush administration has combined with the troubled economy to make this an unprecedented moment to evaluate and organize against military spending and war. Your support will help WRL to ensure that even during these difficult times we will have a full staff able to focus on organizing, working in coalitions, and equipping grassroots activists with skills and relevant materials.
The work of challenging all wars is a huge commitment, one that requires a long view, an understanding of the complex forces that perpetuate militarism and state-sponsored violence, and the intentional and demanding labor of building a movement. I feel proud to be a part of WRL because its commitment to revolutionary nonviolence translates into bold direct action, solidarity between struggles, an incisive analysis of the causes of war, and the seeds of a culture of peace. Please consider making a generous gift. Be it $25, $250 or $2,500, it is a much-needed investment in a world without war.
Toward peace,
Liz Roberts
Development and Membership Coordinator
WRL National Office
