a board member and former president and vice president of the peace history society. i'm delighted to moderate this session. world war i spawned the modern american peace movement. this modern movement advocated both peace and social justice and was characterized by liberal and radical citizen peace activists, women's peace organizations and a progressive reformist impulse. significantly, this movement contained a powerful secular impulse in the post-1914 peace movement marked an important milestone in what john chambers and charles moscose termed the shift from safer to secular resistance and towards a new conscientious objection. historically peace activism was based on religious motives, although in the decade or so before 1914 secular middle class peace societies emerged, including the cornegy endowment for international peace and the world peace foundation. world war i accelerated this trend toward secularization. during the war socialists, anarchists and other political radicals based their dissent on secular principles, political, philosophical and humanitarian. often more anti-war than pacifist, these radicals were motivated by internationalism, by worker solidarity and by a refusal to fight in a capitalist war. similarly, ceos rooted in these political traditions often based their objections on secular grounds. world war i era organizations that reflected this secularization of conscience included the socialist party, the industrial workers of the world, the american union against militarism, the people's council, the anti-enlistment league, the no conscription league, and by the three organizations represented by this morning's panelists. i will kind of name them from your right to left. the u.s. section of the women's international legal for peace and freedom, which originated in the women's peace party, represented by mary hanson harrison. the american civil liberties union, represented by robert remore, and the war resistors league represented by joanne sheehan. their biographies are printed on page 25 of the program. last night michael kaizan in his key not noted that peace movements confronted a challenge and that they had to be organized anew each time we had a war perhaps. but if so, we are fortunate to have these three organizations provide a foundation and a fount of experience, an institution experience and wisdom to help with those new peace movements. regarding the format, i will pose hopefully three questions to the panelists. time permitting, i might ask the panelists to offer a comment responding to something one of their co-panelist has said and then we will turn to audience question. i will ask the first question from the podium before i sit. we'll start with mary hanson harrison. the first question is really two. she will provide a brief capsule overview of the organization she represents, and then she will explain the circumstances, the context and the secular principles that gave rise to the organization, and then we will just follow down the line. so mary. >> good morning, everyone. i'm glad to be here. >> good morning. >> i would like to hear a good morning, everyone! >> good morning. >> i'm hairy hanson harrison, president of the u.s. section of the women's international league for peace and freedom. the reason i'm sitting in this chair is because we're the oldest. age before beauty. we're 102 years old, and i'll start saying that, you know, we don't look 102 years old but under this administration right now i think it is trying. so we celebrated our 100th year at the hague, and i will come back and tell you a little bit more about that. but i will tell you how we're -- we're sort of broken up into an international and u.n. and national branches. we have 38 -- i'm sorry, 34 sections across the globe where our international base is in geneva. we also have a base in new york right across the street from the u.n. it houses two of our programs reaching critical will and women's peace, or the peace women's section of the u.n. dealing we -- programs that we have because we -- we do have consultative status, we can speak at the u.n., and we are fortunate enough to have been on the steering committee with i can. so we chair our join and celebration with matthew bolton and his partner, emily welty. [ applause ] >> we have our national section that has 34 branches across the united states. we're active in bringing hopefully a global grassroots movement into fruition, and we are planting the seeds for another 100 years of trying to bring peace and to join with other -- others to celebrate the coming of our resistance. we are, of course, a women's -- a feminist organization, and we -- we do enjoy some -- we have men in the well, and hopefully you all will be able to join us, too. we did go to the hague in 1915, and i don't know if you remember the iconic photo of us in the boat. there's 47 women. do you remember that, that we had in thursday's -- thursday plenary. to see that here just sort of overwhelmed me because here we are all in the same boat once again. this is bringing me to our idea of political will and how we move our organization to peace and freedom. for really our roots are in hull house, if anybody knows where hull house is, in chicago. jane adams was our first president. she founded the settlement house in 1889 and it was fashioned after toyneby hall. the settlement house was to deal with the immigration that was occurring for the need for refuge, and it had a principle of political will as well behind it. she wanted to move the rights of women and immigrants and our fashioning of what we see as humanitarian assistance. she was also founding with ellen gates starr the principle of reform, and we form at that time for her meant joining with john dewey and the american practicing pragmatist movement. john dewey was responsible for reforming education, and of course james' interest was educating the immigration that she incorporated in the settlement house that belonged to an overall journey to educate and to bring a philosophical and assistance on moving forward with the -- the peace movement in a very practical way. american pragmatism was putting theory into action, humanitarian theory into action. she had a number of -- she was one of the first women who really could be called a social theorist. she had that philosophical background. she had a -- certainly connections with the chicago school and eventually became labeled the mother of the chicago school of sociology. so her impetus was to reform and to bring together that humanism, and i prefer it would be humane-ism into the chicago midwestern area of the heartland to forward the -- the particular -- the particular rise and education of -- well, for instance, a very practical education of john dewey's being home ec. and if you remember home ec? do you remember it? also, you know, shop. but his idea and her idea, we don't know where john dewey begins and ends, jane adams' ends because theirs was a hands-on theory because if you're going to educate people you have to have them be active in working hard for a common goal. and this common goal, of course, radiated out into the community and brought the idea forward in our heartland that we are capable of seeking peace and we're going to work on it. it is not just a theory. >> robert. >> yes. good morning. i'm rob remar, the vice president and treasurer of the national aclu. the aclu is the largest civil liberties organization in the united states. we currently have 1.6 million members, which is up from 500,000 in november of 2016. you can all imagine why. >> yes. >> we have national offices in new york and washington and our real strength is that we have 50 autonomous affiliate offices in every state and in the district of columbia. the aclu currently has 400 national staff and 1200 affiliate staff. we have 300 affiliate and national staff lawyers and also 2,000 lawyer volunteers every year who bring almost 2,000 cases in state and federal courts to protect the civil liberties and civil rights of people within the united states. we are non-partisan. we receive no governmental funding. all of our budget comes from dues, contributions and grants. our core mission is to protect the civil liberties and civil rights of anyone who is in this country. and we deal with a full panoply. we protect the rights guaranteed by the first amendment, freedom of press, of assembly, freedom of religion. we are committed to racial justice and we have a racial justice program. we have a women's rights program. we have an lgbt project. immigrants' rights is now at the forefront of our week. we recently just this week were able to obtain an injunction against the trump administration's latest muslim ban. [ applause ] >> we are committed to protecting reproductive rights, which as you know are under serious challenge by this administration. the same with voting rights and the commission that's been created, which is really a commission designed to impede the access to the ballot particularly by minorities. we are opposed to capital punishment and we have a criminal justice reform focus as well. we don't just litigate. we have a communications department, which is designed to engage in public advocacy, advocacy in education, and we have a political advocacy group which is non-partisan but nonetheless political. let me tell you a little bit about the origin of the aclu. i notice sam walker was on the program. is sam here? sam walker wrote a book, which is the definitive history of the aclu, so i would urge you to see if you can find a copy of it. the aclu had its origins in the american union against militarism, which since 1914 was working in opposition to war. crystal eastman was a young lawyer who was the executive secretary of auam, and she was joined in 1917 by roger baldwin who was a harvard-ed indicatuca social worker in what in those days was boston brahman, remember the cabots only speak to the lodges and the lodges only speak to god. roger was one of those. he moved to new york city in 1917 to work for the auam against the war. when war was declared in april of 1917 and then the selective service act passed shortly thereafter and the espionage act passed in june of 1917, there was as you've heard a whole sale suppression of civil liberties in our country. freedom of speech and freedom of dissent were suppressed. even president wilson was quoted as saying the authority to exercise censorship is absolutely necessary to the public safety. so in july of 1917 eastman and baldwin created as a division of the auam the civil liberties bureau, which was designed to protect the free speech and dissent rights of americas, particularly those opposed to the war. however, shortly after there was dissent within the organization as to whether the civil liberties bureau should become part of a coalition of radical organizations, and it split off. in august of 1917 eastman and baldwin set up a separate organization called the national civil liberties bureau. it was created by three groups of individuals. there was eastman and baldwin who were social workers who saw free speech fight as an extension of their prewar so much reform activism. there was a second group led by protestant clergy including norman thomas who the war-time crisis shattered much of their old faith and puts them more to a secular civil libertarian outlook. contrary to today, there was a group of conservative lawyers who believed in the constitution and were outraged by the violations of free speech and due process that were occurring as the war broke out. by the fall of 2017 the national civil liberties bureau was handling 250 conscientious objector cases a week. in september of 1918 roger baldwin himself refused induction as a conscientious objector. he presented himself for arrest and he refused to be released on bail pending trial. here's what he said, quote, "bail was one of the many devices by which the courts operate for the benefit of the well-to-do and against the poor." that is as true today as it was 100 years ago. baldwin was convicted in october of 1918, was released in july of the following year, and at that time the so-called red scare was underway with palmer raids, where attorney general palmer in november of 1919 and january of 1920 arrested thousands of people without a warrant and without regard to their constitutional right against unlawful seizure and search. hundreds of people were deported and hundreds of people were kept in really brutal conditions. at that point a new organization was founded out of the national civil liberties bureau, and that was the american civil liberties union. it was founded in 1920, and the individuals who founded it were a cross section of secular, free speech and anti-war movement. they were helen keller, roger baldwin, crystal eastman, water nells, morris ernst, albert dasilva, and, by the way, we currently have a dasilva society for those who want to put us in your will. felix frankfurter and elizabeth gurley flynn. that was the origin of the aclu. the first major case that goss gnat agency attention was when aclu recruited clarence darrow which you can all see in the play and movie "inherit the wind." that's the origin of the aclu. >> can i add something? >> let's wait until joanne -- >> hi, everybody. i am joanne sheehan, the staff person in new england. i have also been involved with wrl since i became a member in 1970 when i moved to new york to do anti-vietnam war work and have been on -- i think played many roles within wrl over the years. i have also nationally am the point person for our non-violence training and resources work. so war resistors league is 94 years and two days old. so just celebrated. any of you on the war relisters league list will know that as an e-mail blast went out two days ago to remind you. a quick capsule of who the war resister league is, our mission, which is shared with war resisters international, states we affirm that war is a crime against humanity. we therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive nonviolently for the removal of all causes of war including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation. i'll say a little in the talk about how that has changed a bit in the 94 years. i think one of the things that is key about war resisters league is that we both make a personal commitment with that pledge to say we won't participate in war of any kind, but then we also are working collectively as we strive nonviolently to remove the causes of war. so it really asks of us kind of a very intentional participation in this. it is not an organization to just join and get our -- get our materials that we really encourse activie encourage activism on all levels. we were international early on and we continue to did that work through war resisters international and with organizing with people across war diasporas which is something we have been doing more in the past few years. we are very intergenerational, and at this point very intersectional. i think to best describe some of our perspectives and the way we work is to look at our theory of change, which says we believe change happens through the implementation of revolutionary non-violence. it is a very active non-violence. through mobilizing for collective action at the grassroots. we're very grassroots-based organization. by placing the most impacted people at the center of these change efforts, so that in working with allies and in working with those most affected through political education and tools that lead to a changed consciousness, through building strategic alliances which i think has always been something that war resisters league has done over the years, and building and supporting alternative systems of violence. just a few things about the present program that we're doing for anybody who is aware of war resisters league, you might be aware of what we call our pie chart. i'm going -- i have several hundred of these i will put out there. where your income tax money really goes. one of the things that war resisters league has done over the year is to promote war tax resistance. the irs is next door. not everyone in wrl is a tax resister. i have to say proudly i have never paid the federal government any money through my income tax, and to see it averages about 50% of your income tax goes to the military in terms of either paying for past wars, present wars or future wars. other work that we do through our non-violence training and through war resisters international, this is the second edition of a handbook for nonviolent campaigns. i think the exciting thing about this is that it was done internationally and i'm proud to say i was part of that effort. it has now been translated into 11 languages because the grassroots people in those places wanted it and wanted it translated. another big part of our work that we do is police militarization, which i know has been brought up in a number of the sessions i have been in, "fund peace, not police." we have an amazing campaign happening right now in chicago over this, but also staff that go around the country to -- particularly to these large exhibits like urban shield and the like where militarization of the police is really promoted. so in terms of our history, jesse wallace hewin who was a new york city school teacher with a ph.d. in colombia in political economy was a committed pacifist, socialist, who worked in the suffrage movement when war broke out in europe. in 1915 at the age of 38 she formed the anti-enlistment league with her friend tracey migot and reverend john haines holmes. that league was an enrollment group for men and women who opposed participation in all wars, both international and civil. so you begin to see kind of this commitment from even prewar resistors league. another friend, frances witherspoon, was the first to join. i saw on the voices of conscious exhibit there's a little piece there on jesse wallace hewin and the anti-enlistment league. when congress declared war -- when war and conscription began, the anti-enlistment league which had enrolled by that point 3,500 men and women, was disbanded. before that the fellowship of reconciliation had been founded and part of their aim was to have a group for christians committed to personal renunciation of war. but to show some of these connections, witherspoon, migot and hewin were part of the reconciliation. while you see it is a secular organization, we have always for 94 years and more worked together with faith-based groups as well. during the war a small group of passivists struggled to defend first amendment freedoms as rob just said, and they -- they supported those conscientious objectors who refused to take up arms. again, i don't want to repeat what rob just said, but i think the important thing here to see is that the very people who had started the anti-enlistment league then were working with the american union against militarism with roger baldwin and that the american union against militarism board included founders of wealth and that jane adams was part of it, the war resisters league and that john haines holmes was part of it and he himself spent ten months in jail for refusing to submit to a medical exam after registering for the draft, and that frances witherspoon was the executive secretary of the bureau of legal advice. we see that really strong connections between the anti-war and women's activism and civil liberties at that period of time and continuing. during the war jesse wallace hewin attempted to convince passivist leaders to establish a no conscription fellowship. any of you who have seen the movie "whatever the penalties" or can see it tonight, it is the story of the no conscription fellowship which inspired jessie a lot. she was attracted to their bringing men and women together who refused to support war. that didn't happen initially but she didn't give up. in jessie's diary from october 19, 1923, reads, straysy -- mean evening straysy migot. trailsy to dinner, had hair done, organized war resistors league. >> three woog. >> you can see that having hair done is not something we have continued in our tradition at war resisters league. can't remember the last time. the reverend worked with jessie wallace hewin who worked with the other group of folks and was one of the original founders. so just to kind of summarize what some of the passivist principles here, what some of the principles here would be, would clearly be passivism, clearly would be the importance of following one's conscience in supporting those who supporting those who follow one's conscience and are imprisoned. a strong socialist, which i think is also anti-capital ba e because there's a lot of anti-capitalist in war resisters league. support for civil liberties. i think as erica said in the opening, you need to be radical to be both feminist and passivist and certainly war resistors league has the strong feminist radical approach and an early commitment to non-violence and taking notice of what was happening in india. i will talk more about that later. >> all right. thank you. i'm going to have to do a better job as moderator. i can't see you down there. so the second question, i'm asking each of the panelists to reflect on the transformation that secular organizations, in particular the organization that they represent, have undergone in the century since 1914. they might consider key turning points and shifts in the peace, justice and civil liberties movements, and they might also consider that some of the people that started each of their groups worked together during world war i, even though afterwards they went -- and their organizations went in somewhat different directions. so each of you will have five minutes or a little less. why don't we start with you, joanne, just to change the order. >> sure. soon after war resister's league's founding between world war i and world war ii, wrl remained a single-issue organization focusing really on war resistance. that took on many forms during the war. but john haines holmes was a unitarian minister, one of the early members of wrl, served as war resisters league chair during the '30s. he was really the first to popularize gandhi in the united states, paying attention to gandhi very early on, and gandhi's work in south africa and then in india, and went to india to meet him in 1931. so through his writings, through his sermons, through his speeches, through his connection to other peace movement anti-war groups really spread what was happening in india that was also happening through people who were involved in a number of these organizations, particularly to note richard gregg in 1935 wrote "the power of non-violence." internationally bart dilict involved in war resisters internationally. and in 1938, an indian who had been part of the movement came to columbia and wrote "war without violence." he lived in the harlem ashram with members of fellowship and reconciliation and war resisters league. so that has been a really important part of wrl's history but also really our history in the united states. in the 1930s wrl initiated for no more war parades. it was very active in that area. jessie wallace hewin again was recognizing against another war but was doing it this time with an established organization. so i think as we talked about michael talking last night, yes, we need to establish kind of a new anti-war movement, but having a group like war resisters league that is already established, already has a sense of principles becomes a cutting edge. the movement took a long time to grow but groups like the war resisters league, they're on dutyi cutting edge, on the forefront of making that call against war. at that time during world war ii you also began to see the connection between people doing anti-war work and the beginning of desegregation. so you have people like -- like jim peck who was in danbury prison who was part of a group of 19 who went on a work strike and then a hunger strike to desegregate the dining room in danbury. jim wrote later, "it seems to me that the campaigns against racial discrimination may be counted as one of the most important accomplishments of the cos in world war ii." max yesterday talking about fellowship of reconciliation talked about the journey of reconciliation, that was the first freedom rides organized by byron who worked with f.o.r. and other groups. it was byron who was a minister, also a war resister, all of these men who spent time during world war ii in prison, spent time studying gandhi, and came out and george and byron did the first training in this country for the journey of reconciliation to prepare people who were many war resister league members who were part of that group of 16, including people who some of you may know like e.l. radanko. so wrl's involvement in the civil rights movement from that time had remained quite strong and also doing disarmament work together. let's see here time wise. so, again, as a passivist organization kind of looking at the vietnam war, looking at the beginning of the vietnam war, being influential there, i think one of the things about these organizations like wrl which is small organization -- we only have four full-time people and two part-time people and me up in new england -- is how we spread those seeds, but at the same time like the world war ii resisters are far more influential sometimes than seems to be. so to tell a quick story here that in 1969 randy keeler, who was on the war resisters league west staff, was a resister who was on his way to prison and was invited to speak at a war resisters conference in haverford, pennsylvania. one of the people in that audience was daniel elsburg. daniel was so impressed with what the young man said. he said, i can't let this man go to war without doing something about it, and that was the spark for releasing the papers. randy didn't know what was happening that day as he spoke about his commitment to refuse to go to war. i think the role of women has always been strong in war resisters league. from the very beginning, although i do have to say -- and i have heard this before from other folks not movements, that while jesse wallace hewin was clearly in many ways so central to that, she saw herself as the secretary and put the men up forward, believing society would pay more attention to them than they would to her. i'll leave it at that for now. >> thank you. robert.