As an organization dedicated to peace, justice and nonviolent liberation, the War Resisters League stands firmly in solidarity with the Movement For Black Lives' newly released Vision for Black Lives Platform. The Vision for Black Lives is an important, comprehensive analysis and policy platform rooted in dozens of organizations' work across the country.
War Resisters League condemned in the strongest terms Symposium on Islamic Terrorism held on August 24th and 25th in San Diego, hosted by the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO). The epitome of a growing culture of fear increasingly relied on by policing, this symposium featured infamous anti-Islam conspiracy theorist Ryan Mauro as their top presenter.
On this MLK day, let us recall Dr. Martin Luther King's deepest legacy. He understood that denouncing the violent extremism of young, angry men in the ghettos could not be done without hypocrisy unless one also condemned the far greater violence of the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. When governments decide political problems can be solved through violence, it is no surprise their citizens reach the same conclusion.
Stop Urban Shield is a broad coalition of grassroots community and social justice organizations primarily based in the Bay Area but with partnering community groups across the nation who have come together united against Urban Shield. Urban Shield, a SWAT team training and weapons expo that brings together local, regional, and international police-military units to collaborate on and profit from new forms of surveillance, state repression, and state violence.
The War Resisters League (WRL) is proud to offer two powerful banner designs to support activism and advocacy efforts concerning the situation in Gaza. WRL is subsidizing the production of these banners, making them available at a greatly reduced cost to you.
The War Resisters League was founded in the aftermath of a horrendous European war by those who resisted conscription and their supporters. They united around a powerful affirmation: war is a crime against humanity. Over the course of almost 100 years since that time, our commitment to this principle has been tested by many political struggles and military conflicts in different parts of the globe, yet we have continued to affirm our founding principles. Today, the eyes of the world are again fixed on war in Europe because of Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine, and we are challenged again to articulate what it means for people in the United States to resist war.
The Journey of Reconciliation in 1947 was the first major national project organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). An interracial group of 16 rode on buses through the upper South to test the implementation of the 1946 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on interstate travel.
On September 11, 2001, War Resisters League staff person David McReynolds, wrote this from the WRL National Office which was only a mile and half north of the World Trade Towers.