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Records of War Resisters League, 1995-date
Collection: DG 040
Accessions after January 1995
Contact Information
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore, PA 19081-1399
U.S.A.
Telephone: 610-328-8557 (curator)
Fax: 610-690-5728
Email: wchmiel@swarthmore.edu (curator)
URL: http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace/
Descriptive Summary
Repository
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Creator
War Resisters League
Title
War Resisters League Records
Inclusive Dates
Dates of records 1995-date
Call Number
DG 040
Language of Materials
Materials in English
Extent
Abstract
The War Resisters League is a pacifist organization whose members are against all war. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for a similar organization in the United States, Dr. Jessie Wallace Hughan, together with colleagues from the Women's Peace Society and the Women's Peace Union established the War Resisters League as an independent organization. The War Resisters League 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." The League seeks to end war and social injustice through pacifist and nonviolent tactics.
Administrative Information
Restrictions to Access
None
Usage Restrictions
None
Alternate Form of Material
Yes, Reels 20 & 21 (War Resisters League News 191967 & 191968)
Acquisitions Information
Gift of War Resisters League 1994-1999, 2001, 2004, 2005
Finding aid for earlier accessions (1923-1994)
Processing Information
This finding aid prepared by Wendy Chmielewski, August 2007.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the War Resisters League Records (DG 040), Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law
Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online library/archival catalogs.
See tripod record
Related Collections
Records of the War Resisters International
Records of the Committee for Nonviolent Action
Papers of Devere Allen
Papers of David McReynolds
Papers of A.J. Muste
Papers of Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon
Historical Background
Although the War Resisters League declares its official birthday year as 1923, its roots go back to 1915 when Jessie Wallace Hughan, Tracy D. Mygatt, and John Haynes Holmes founded the Anti-Enlistment League to solidify protest against U.S. participation in World War I. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for an organization where war resisters of all persuasions, regardless of gender or religious convictions, could join together, Dr. Hughan formed the Committee for Enrollment Against War under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1923, that committee together with the Women's Peace Society and the Women's Peace Union established the War Resisters League as an independent organization.
The War Resisters League 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 COs. 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. It encouraged tax resistance as the Indochinese conflict escalated, and formed War Tax Resistance in 191969 to protest all taxes that benefited the military. In the 191970s, 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 191968.
The League has sought to promote pacifist and nonviolent tactics through various periodicals. In 1956, War Resisters League helped start Liberation, an independent monthly dealing with nuclear testing, civil rights, socialism, and nonviolent direct action. it was discontinued in 1977. WIN, a widely read peace periodical begun by the New York Workshop in Nonviolence, has received War Resisters League support. The League publishes its own bimonthly magazine, War Resisters League News. Its annual Peace Calendar reached annual sales of 20,000 in 1980.
War Resisters League is presently headquartered at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City with one regional office in Norwich, CT. There are or have been three branch offices, located in San Francisco, CA (War Resisters League-West), Austin, TX (War Resisters League South Central), and Chapel Hill, NC (War Resisters League Southeastern), with numerous local War Resisters League groups across the country.
A more complete history of War Resisters League, produced for its 1950th Anniversary, can by found in Series B, Subseries I, History.
Collection Overview
Records in these accessions are unprocessed and in the order in which they were received from the offices of the War Resisters League.
Archived web sites of the War Resisters League
These web sites were created by the national office of the War Resisters League. Beginning in 2001 the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archives (IA) cached War Resisters League's web site. Please check both URLs listed as there are some each may list different dates on which web sites were saved.
The links are provided here for the convenience of researchers interested in the history of War Resisters League's web presence. The Swarthmore College Peace Collection has no control over the web sites or how they are saved by IA.
Dates of web sites marked with an * indicate a change in that site from the last saved web site.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.warresisters.org/
http://wayback.archive-it.org/22March */http://www.warresisters.org/