News and Media

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Long-time WRL member Dr. Linnea Capps, MD, MPH passes away on April 19th, 2021

April 21st, 2021

Dear friends,

War Resisters League is saddened to learn of the passing of our long-time member, Dr. Linnea Capps, MD, MPH. She will be dearly missed. We will be sharing reflections about her, starting with this one from Matt Meyer:

It is with deep sadness (and some relief that she went without pain and is done with her worldly ordeals) that I have to report on the passing of Linnea Capps, an extraordinary spirit—a quiet and unassuming, humble yet persistent, absolute world-changing force. Linnea was a friend for forty years, and I write this now, with some photos collected through the years, to heal myself by reflecting on her beauty and strength and list some of the many accomplishments she was involved in. Thus, this is a personal as well as political remembrance to one of the most committed and true healers I have ever know, who also happened to be a medical doctor.

Take action tonight before Mumia's heart surgery tomorrow.

April 14th, 2021

Dear friend,

Earlier in March, we wrote to you with calls to action for Mumia Abu-Jamal as his health took a serious decline after contracting COVID-19.

Tomorrow, Mumia is scheduled to have heart surgery. This call to action was put together by the International Movement to Free Mumia. Please read, take action, and share:

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (ID = AM8335) TO UNDERGO HEART SURGERY

Call for Pitches | A Critical Look at Authoritarianism(s)

Call For Pitches: A Critical Look at Authoritarianisms. Email pitches@warresisters.org by May 2nd 2021

Authoritarianism is a driving force of war, both at home and abroad. But what exactly is authoritarianism and what are the strategies to resist it? The War Resisters League’s Editorial Committee invites pitches for articles that can help us both amplify ongoing work resisting this political phenomenon and clarify opportunities for antiwar and antimilitarist movements to understand and organize against it.

When we sat down to discuss rising authoritarianism around the world, we quickly realized it would be helpful to think in the plural authoritarianisms to account for the myriad forms of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism can manifest itself through the state or through privately organized groups, under the banner of explicit fascism (such as the Golden Dawn in Greece or the Alternative for Germany), as counter-revolutionary forces (like Hezbollah, which worked against both the Syrian and Lebanese revolutions), and as reactionary forces (like the Sisi regime in Egypt). Authoritarians can come into power via a military coup like the one in 1973 that brought the long-ruling Pinochet regime into power in Chile. Some authoritarians are also monarchs, like Mohamad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia but they can also be elected, like right-wing demagogue Donald Trump. Another category are those presidents who are “elected” in sham elections like Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has been in power for over 45 years and is the world’s longest-ruling, non-royal politician. It is important to name this because there are false perceptions of who can be authoritarian and how they come into power—indeed, authoritarians and authoritative culture can exist under any political context.

Guidelines on how to pitch the Editorial Committee

Image description: Text says "War Resisters League Pitching Guidelines." The background is a pale yellow, and there are black and golden abstract shapes on the left-hand corners. The are a pair of pencils with flames on the lower right hand corner.

War Resisters League’s Editorial Committee regularly puts out calls for submissions to foster conversation on a variety of antiwar/antimilitarist topics. We want to hear from people directly impacted by war: grassroots activists, academics, our membership, and freelance journalists and writers from around the world who are committed to resisting the root causes of war: racism, sexism, and all forms of exploitation. Your art, your voice, your documentation, your research, and your analysis are all forms of that resistance.

The Editorial Committee puts out calls for submissions on our Movement Updates email list, which you can join here. Accepted submissions are published on our War Resisters community page on Waging Nonviolence.

We regularly receive questions on how to write a successful pitch. Here are some tips:

Nonviolence is an exploration- Join us!

March 22, 2021

Dear friends,

I often quote Barbara Deming’s reminder that “nonviolence is an exploration, one that has just begun” at trainings with groups looking to achieve justice using nonviolence strategies. By engaging in this exploration, we continue to both learn new aspects of the power of nonviolence and develop more creative ways to use it to reach our revolutionary goals: dismantling white supremacy, sexism, and all forms of exploitation.

Your Submissions, Published: A Critical Look at Borders

An image of a lightbulb, outlined in gold, with the text: your submissions, published. The background is black, the text is white.

In December, War Resisters League’s Editorial Committee put out a letter taking a critical look at borders where we discussed how borders motivate both conflict and cooperation between states, and discussed their impact on Indigenous communities. We asked you to join in the conversation through our call for submissions.

We received many strong pitches, more than we had the capacity to accept. Today we are happy to share with you the pieces that were published on our community page, War Resisters, on Waging Nonviolence. We hope you enjoy reading:

Order WRL’s famous pie...chart.

Image of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Text says: Order our famous pie chart

March 14th, 2021
 

Dear friends,

It's Pi day and we couldn't resist a little pun. For almost 40 years, War Resisters League has researched and produced an annual pie chart flyer to call attention to the vast amount of our income tax dollars spent on the military and war. Since World War II, roughly 50 percent of every income tax dollar goes to wars, preparations for war, and costs of past wars, no matter whether the president is Republican or Democrat. 

Action Alert | Free Mumia, bring him home to heal!

Today we write to you with serious news. Mumia Abu-Jamal is experiencing a severe decline in health and we must act now to secure his release from prison.

While Mumia Abu-Jamal— the 66 year old award winning journalist, former Black Panther, and US political prisoner— has been ill for years with Hepatitis C and other ailments, he is having difficulty breathing and chest pains. Like so many incarcerated elders, he is vulnerable to COVID-19 behind bars. We must act now.

For 39 years, a wide coalition of solidarity organizers have worked tirelessly to release Mumia from prison, where he is unjustly incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, and to abolish the prison industrial complex. After 25 years, organizers were successful in removing him from death row— but the fight continues for his release and the abolition of the prison industrial complex. 

Today we must make phone calls and demand Mumia's release.

Biden dropped seven 500lb bombs last night. Here is what you need to know.

Last night, Biden dropped seven 500-pound bombs on a small cluster of buildings on the Syrian side of the Syria-Iraq border¹. The bombings destroyed these buildings, ammunition and weapons stored inside, and killed at least 17 militia members affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah and other groups.² These militia members are Iraqi, backed by Iran through Iran’s policy of expansionism in the region.³

We knew Biden would continue the U.S. War on Terror, despite decrying “forever wars” in the presidential debates,⁴ because war is a bi-partisan effort in the United States. The U.S. Led Coalition— started by Obama and carried forward by Trump and Biden— is responsible for over 13,000 civilian casualties across Iraq and Syria.⁵ Yesterday’s targeted airstrike from the Biden administration is a continuation of our proxy war with Iran: last year, Donald Trump ordered targeted strikes against Qassem Suleimani and members of Kataib Hezbollah. Our political analysis is the same: No war with Iran. No war with Iraq. No war with Syria.

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