War Resisters' International or WRI is an international anti-war organization with members and affiliates in over thirty countries. Its headquarters are in London, UK. Image File history File links Wri. ... Anti war protest in Melbourne, Australia, 2003 Anti_war is a name that is widely adopted by any social movement or person that seeks to end or oppose a future or current war. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

History

Founded in Bilthoven, Netherlands in 1921, WRI adopted the broken rifle as its symbol and a founding declaration that has remained unchanged: Bilthoven is one of six villages in the muncipality of the bilt stituated in the middle of the Netherlands. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ...

Many of its founders had been involved in the resistance to the First World War: its first Secretary, Herbert Runham Brown, had spent two and a half years in a British prison as a conscientious objector. Witnessing the collapse of the policy of an "international general strike against war" (adopted by the Socialist International), they decided to launch an anti-militarist international. Two years later, in 1923, Tracey Mygatte, Frances Witherspoon, Jessie Wallace Hughan, and John Haynes Holmes founded the War Resisters League in the United States. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The War Resisters League (WRL) was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters’ International. ...

WRI members refuse to support war or preparations for war. Their conscientious objection to war takes various forms. Some refuse to engage in military service. Others refuse to pay taxes that support the military. Still others refuse to work for military contractors. WRI has been involved in movements that have transformed these individual acts of personal witness into collective acts of noncooperation, such as draft card burnings in the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Each year on December 1, Prisoners for Peace Day, WRI produces an Honour Roll of those imprisoned for nonviolent action against war preparations. If the name gives an image of a network mainly of young men resisting military service, the reality is much more varied. WRI cuts across age groups, drawing on the experience of several generations of organizers of nonviolent action and from a variety of cultures. In addition, it has organized four international women's conferences and has an active Women's Working Group. Military service is service in an army or other military organisation, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). ... The AK-47 has been produced in greater numbers than any other assault rifle and has been used in conflicts all over the world. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

WRI members also are fundamentally committed to promoting nonviolent action as a form of social struggle. WRI has provided training in nonviolence, held international conferences on themes such as "Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defense" and "Feminism and Nonviolence," and organized nonviolent action campaigns.

Within the WRI network, from the Dutch anarchist Bart de Ligt and the U.S. Quaker Richard Gregg onwards, there have always been many people interested in nonviolent struggle as a means of social change. This, together with the organization's analysis that the injustice of colonialism was a cause of war, led to a keen interest in the Indian independence struggle and, later, close working relationships with sections of the Gandhian movement. Richard Bartlett Gregg (1885-1974) was an American social philosopher said to be the first American to develop a substantial theory of nonviolent resistance and an influence on the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr and civil-rights theorist Bayard Rustin. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Gandhian is a person who lives his life practicing the teaching of Mahatma Gandhi, that is, one who follows Gandhism or the Gandhian philosophy. ...

Peak periods of activity in WRI occurred in the 1930s, the 1960s (with the first wave of antinuclear campaigning, the U.S. civil rights movement, and the international anti-Vietnam War movement), and the 1980s. In the 1930s and 1940s, WRI helped to rescue people from persecution under Francisco Franco and under the Nazis and found them safe homes with WRI members in other countries. It paid particular attention to the plight of Spanish orphans, children separated from their parents, and widows (see, for example, José Brocca). Under Nazi occupation, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian members of WRI played prominent roles in organizing nonviolent resistance to frustrate the occupiers' plans and to deny them the fruits of their aggression. (The secretary of the Dutch section was executed by firing squad in December 1944 for printing illegal papers and pamphlets.) The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. ... Opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began slowly and in small numbers in 1964 on various college campuses in the United States. ... Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde (4 December 1892–20 November or possibly 19 November[1] 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and commonly known as Generalísimo Francisco Franco (pron. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Jose Brocca (Professor José Brocca Ramón) was a pacifist and humanitarian of the Spanish Civil War, who allied himself with the republicans but sought non-violent ways of resisting fascism. ... Execution by firing squad is a method of capital punishment, especially in times of war. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

During the Cold War, WRI consistently sought out war resisters in the Soviet bloc: first individuals, and later groups. After the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, WRI organized protest demonstrations in four Warsaw Pact capitals. In the 1980s, it adopted the idea of personal peace treaties: peace activists from the Eastern and Western blocs declared their loyalty to the values they held in common and not to the machinery of state and military that divided them; they then vowed to support each other in their struggle against the militarism of their respective blocs. Other actions were less public, such as private visits where material or information was smuggled in or out of a country. For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... Unofficial Seal of the Warsaw Pact Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement about airlines financial liability and the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) between West Germany and the Peoples Republic of Poland. ...

WRI has also supported the alternative press in countries in which conscription is in force, through advertising. In 1988, a WRI advert was cited as one of the reasons for the seizure of an edition of the Weekly Mail in South Africa, after the banning of the local End Conscription Campaign. The End Conscription Campaign was an anti-apartheid organisation of conscientious objectors in South Africa. ...

There also have been many testing times for WRI. During the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the Vietnam War, and the 1990s' wars in the Balkans, peace movements have found themselves divided. Faced by what they see as a defensive war against a brutal aggressor, many individuals have questioned their commitment not to support any kind of war. This article is about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

WRI has tried to develop nonviolent strategies for effective action in such situations, trying to pose another way, an alternative between submission and taking up arms, and to find means of breaking the cycle of war and violence. In 1971, when Pakistani troops were blockading what was then East Pakistan, WRI launched Operation Omega to Bangladesh, a nonviolent direct action project to take in relief supplies. More recently, the International Deserters Network associated with WRI has offered support for people resisting the Gulf War of 1991 and, on a much larger scale, the wars in the Balkans, where it was also engaged with several other peace organizations in an experiment in international nonviolent intervention, the Balkan Peace Team, working for human rights and in support of civil society initiatives in nonviolent conflict resolution. 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf, Peter de la Billière, Khalid bin Sultan, Saleh Al-Muhaya, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War or the Persian Gulf War... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...

Organization

War Resisters' International is a network of member groups. A list of member groups can be found below or (with addresses and weblinks) on the WRI website [1]. An international conference takes place at least once every four years (for historical reasons, conferences since 1994 have been referred to as "triennials" despite departing from that frequency).

The chair is elected by postal vote in advance of the international conference. Since the office of chair was created in 1926, chairs have been:

• Fenner Brockway (1926-1934)
• Lord Ponsonby (1934-1937)
• George Lansbury (1937-1940)
• Herbert Runham Brown (1946-1949)
• Harold Bing (1949-1966)
• Michael Randle (1966-1973)
• Devi Prasad (1973-1975)
• Myrtle Solomon (1975-1986)
• David McReynolds (1986-1988)
• Narayan Desai (1989-1991)
• Jørgen Johansen (1991-1998)
• Joanne Sheehan (1998-2006)
• Howard Clark (2006- )

Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (November 1, 1888 - 1988) was a British anti-war activist and politician. ... Under a cloud (with a silver lining). ... David McReynolds David McReynolds (born October 25, 1929) is an American socialist politician. ... Narayan Mahadev Desai. ...

Publications

• WRI's main publication is the quarterly bulletin The Broken Rifle (in hard copy [non-standard tabloid or A4 paper size], PDF, and HTML editions, in English, French, German, and Spanish, and occasionally in other languages such as Russian and Korean).

• The Women's Working Group of WRI produces an occasional A5 magazine, WRI Women.

• Two e-bulletins -- CO-Update and War Profiteers' News -- appear regularly in English with subsequent translation into other languages.

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Affiliated groups

Key: S = section A = Associated organisation AP = Associated publication

The McLibel case is the nickname for an English court action filed by McDonalds Corporation against unemployed environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris. ... Laurence Housman (July 18, 1865 - [February 20,1959]]) was an English playwright. ... A magazine, first published in 1936 to server the peace movement. ... The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR or FOR) is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. ... The Peace Pledge Union is a British non-governmental organization which emerged from an initiative by Richard Sheppard, canon of St Pauls Cathedral, in 1933. ... Graswurzelrevolution (German for grassroots revolution) is an anarcho-pacifist magazine founded in 1972 by Wolfgang Hertle in West Germany. ... The German Peace Society (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft) was founded in 1892. ... New Profile is a movement for civilization of the Israeli society. ... . Nipponzan Myōhōji is a neo-religious movement to emerge fron the Nichiren sect of Japanese Buddism (founded 1947) The community reveres the Lotus-Sūtra (jap. ... Women in Black is a world wide organization of women, committed to non - violence and non agression, both as a goal and as a means. ... The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS), or Svenska freds- och skiljedomsföreningen, is a non-governmental organization in Sweden, dedicated to peace, disarmament and democratization. ... The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR or FOR) is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. ... The War Resisters League (WRL) was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters’ International. ...

See also

• Nonviolence
• Pacifism
• Antimilitarism

Nonviolence (or non-violence) can be both a political strategy or moral philosophy that rejects the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political change. ... Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes. ... Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and socialist movement, which may be both characterized as internationalist movements. ...

References

Beyer, Wolfram: "60 years the War Resisters' International (WRI) - with special reference to the period 1921 - 1939", Berlin 1985, published by 'Schriftenreihe des Libertären Forums Berlin' (engl. Translation from german Language by Hilda Morris, GB - theses for diploma at the Free University of Berlin)

Clark, Howard: "War Resisters' International", in Encyclopaedia of Nonviolence, Garland Publishing 1997

Prasad, Devi: War is a Crime against Humanity: The story of War Resisters' International, London: War Resisters' International 2005

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External links

• War Resisters' International
• WRI archives