War Resisters League material

The War Resisters League was established in 1923 by Jessie Wallace Hughan. The membership pledge, which has remained essentially unchanged since its inception, reads: ""The War Resisters League affirms that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war.""

During World War II, War Resisters League especially supported... absolutist conscientious objectors who protested any form of military support, including alternative service. In 1948, it helped found the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors to further aid all Conscientious Objectors. It has continually lent its resources to the causes of war tax protest, draft resistance, and civil rights.

War Resisters League encouraged civil disobedience against civil defense drills in the early 1960s by sponsoring the Civil Defense Protest Committee,encouraged tax resistance as the Indochinese conflict escalated, and formed War Tax Resistance in 1969 to protest all taxes that benefited the military. In the 1970s, War Resisters League supported Campaign Freedom and the United Campaign for Peace in Indochina, both efforts to help improve conditions and free political prisoners in Vietnam. It helped focus nationwide attention on nuclear protest and civil liberties by organizing the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice in 1976.

War Resisters League is affiliated with War Resisters' International and the International Peace Bureau. Throughout its existence, it has worked closely with many other peace organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the American Friends Service Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1958, it helped start the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), which shared its headquarters and finally merged with War Resisters League in 1968.

Sourced from the War Resisters League Records Finding Aid