News and Media

For interviews and all other media inquiries, please call our office at 212.228.0450, or contact us by email at wrl [at] warresisters.org or via our Contact page.

Juanita Morrow Nelson -- August 17, 1923 – March 9, 2015

Juanita Morrow Nelson -- August 17, 1923 – March 9, 2015

Juanita Nelson was a Civil Rights activist, one of the 5 founders of the present day war tax resistance movement, a community land trust organizer, and organic farmer. Juanita and her partner Wally Nelson, a World War II resister, made their home at Woolman Hill, in her words to “lessen dependence on a violent society.”

During the 1980's when the WRL Organizer Training Program was held at Woolman Hill, Juanita and Wally were speakers and frequent guests during our 10 days as their neighbors. A mentor to many, Juanita's commitment to active nonviolence was an inspiration and a challenge to us all.

Narayan Desai, 1924-2015

Narayan Desai, 1924-2015

We mourn with sadness the passing of Narayanbhai - teacher, trainer, author, spinner: total revolutionary. He was a founder of the World Peace Brigades and Peace Brigades International, a chairperson of the War Resisters International, and a leader of India's Shanti Sena (Peace Army) and many other organizations and movements.

Run for Peace 2009

The War Resisters League does a lot of work for peace—organizing demonstrations, publishing a quarterly magazine, developing resources and trainings on nonviolence. Most of this work is done from the comfort of a chair. Now, the War Resisters League is taking our message of peace and pacifism and hitting the road —- literally. WRL National Committee members Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer and Frida Berrigan and long time WRL member Mike Levinson are marathoning for peace at the Hartford Marathon on Saturday, October 10th. Please join us. Please support us.

This December, Double the Resources for Resistance

Donate Button with Broken Rifle

We are absolutely thrilled to announce this special opportunity made possible by an anonymous donor and longtime friend of the War Resisters League in Texas.

To support WRL in reaching our fundraising goals this year, until the end of December, every one-time or sustainer donation you make online will be generously DOUBLED up to $20,000 by a matching contribution.

Your one-time online gift of $30 will be DOUBLED to $60 in support of youth counter-recruitment and education.

Prisoners for Peace Day

Prisoners for Peace graphic

Each year on December 1st War Resisters' International and its member mark Prisoners for Peace Day, when WRI and its affiliates (including WRL)  publicise the names and stories of those imprisoned for actions for peace. Many are conscientious objectors, in jail for refusing to join the military.

Training for a Nonviolent Mass Movement!

Participants at the November 2014 WRL Training for Trainers

Training across Generations Earlier this month over two dozen organizers from across the Northeast gathered at the Voluntown Peace Trust in Connecticut for the first in a series of planned "Training 4 Trainers" weekends.

"WRL has a long history of providing resources in nonviolence training. This past weekend strengthened our commitment by offering this unique Training 4 Trainers to long-standing and emerging movements."
-- Joanne Sheehan, WRL New England Staff and co-editor of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns.

War Resisters League is looking for a Freeman Intern for Fall 2014

We're looking for an energetic, passionate intern to help us relaunch our website, promote our organizing resources, and to be part of the life of our national office. The Freeman Internship is an opportunity for a young person to become involved with a national organization committed to revolutionary nonviolence and to develop computer, communications and outreach skills. There is a stipend provided.

We Pushed Urban Shield Out of Oakland, But the Struggle Continues!

Stop Urban Shield

On Friday, September 5th, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Marriott in Downtown Oakland, CA, to stand against Urban Shield and declare two major victories: Urban Shield will no longer be held at the Marriott and it will no longer take place anywhere in Oakland. Reclaiming the streets in celebration of our power, we made it loud and clear that we do not welcome militarization and policing of our communities.

Check out our Facing Tear Gas website for more info.

A Letter on the Current Iraq Crisis from the Right to Heal Initiative

Ahlam: Kites and Shattered Dreams by Maysaloun Faraj

 

 

 

June 19, 2014

U.S. Department of State
Attention: Secretary John Kerry
2201 C Street NW
Washington DC 20520

Dear Secretary Kerry:

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 incited a previously unimaginable deepening of sectarian divisions among the people of Iraq following the overthrow of the repressive Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein. The US government and its occupation forces set in place the most serious sectarian and ethnic tensions in Iraq’s modern history and have yet to address the humanitarian catastrophe set in motion by the war. On the 10-year commemoration of the US invasion in March 2013, the Right to Heal initiative brought together Iraqi social justice organizers and unionists with US military veterans opposed to the war and our group of politically-aligned organizations to call for reparations for the people of Iraq for the disastrous legacy US forces left behind.

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