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104-582: The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd , in New York City , May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of which the oldest, the New York Peace Society , dated from 1815. Ladd was an advocate of a "Congress and High Court of Nations." The society organized peace conferences and regularly published

208-430: A brand of nonviolence (or ahimsa ) which he called satyagraha  – translated literally as "truth force". This was the resistance of tyranny through civil disobedience that was not only nonviolent but also sought to change the heart of the opponent. He contrasted this with duragraha , "resistant force", which sought only to change behaviour with stubborn protest. During his 30 years of work (1917–1947) for

312-500: A broad moral guideline against violence between individuals. No philosophical program of rejecting violence between states, or rejecting all forms of violence, seems to have existed. Aristophanes , in his play Lysistrata , creates the scenario of an Athenian woman's anti-war sex strike during the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BCE, and the play has gained an international reputation for its anti-war message. Nevertheless, it

416-484: A campaign of nonviolent resistance in the event of a fascist invasion or takeover. As the prospect of a second major war began to seem increasingly inevitable, much of France adopted pacifist views, though some historians argue that France felt more war anxiety than a moral objection to a second war. Hitler's spreading influence and territory posed an enormous threat to French livelihood from their neighbors. The French countryside had been devastated during World War I and

520-465: A form of pacifist individualist anarchism . At some point anarcho-pacifism had as its main proponent Christian anarchism . The Tolstoyan movement in Russia was the first large-scale anarcho-pacifist movement. Violence has always been controversial in anarchism. While many anarchists embraced violent propaganda of the deed during the nineteenth century, anarcho-pacifists directly opposed violence as

624-715: A former British ambassador to the United States. These and other initiatives were pivotal in the change in attitudes that gave birth to the League of Nations after the war. In addition to the traditional peace churches, some of the many groups that protested against the war were the Woman's Peace Party (which was organized in 1915 and led by noted reformer Jane Addams ), the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) (also organized in 1915),

728-420: A leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her novel, Die Waffen nieder! ("Lay Down Your Arms!") in 1889 and founded an Austrian pacifist organization in 1891. In colonial New Zealand , during the latter half of the 19th century European settlers used numerous tactics to confiscate land from the indigenous Māori , including warfare . In the 1870s and 1880s, Parihaka , then reported to be

832-694: A means for change. Tolstoy argued that anarchism must be nonviolent since it is, by definition, opposition to coercion and force, and that since the state is inherently violent, meaningful pacifism must likewise be anarchistic. Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis was also instrumental in establishing the pacifist trend within the anarchist movement. In France anti-militarism appeared strongly in individualist anarchist circles, as Émile Armand co-founded "Ligue Antimilitariste" in December 1902 with fellow anarchists Georges Yvetot , Henri Beylie , Paraf-Javal , Albert Libertad and Émile Janvion . The Ligue antimilitariste

936-454: A peaceful classless society is claimed to be incompatible with the competitive nature of capitalism which can ultimately lead to violent conflict. Anarcho-pacifists frequently denounce the perceived tendency of the capitalist economic system to perpetuate systematic violence in the forms of exploitation, hierarchies of political and economic power as well as dispossession. However, the socialist criticism of capitalism that often appear within

1040-571: A peaceful voluntarist society. The main early influences were the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy while later the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi gained significance. Anarcho-pacifist movements primarily emerged in the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States before and during World War II . Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an important early influence in individualist anarchist thought in

1144-763: A periodical entitled Advocate of Peace . The Society was only opposed to wars between nation states ; it did not oppose the American Civil War , regarding the Union's war as a "police action" against the "criminals" of the Confederacy . Its most famous leader was Benjamin Franklin Trueblood (1847–1916), a Quaker who in his book The Federation of the World (1899) called for the establishment of an international state to bring about lasting peace in

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1248-437: A strictly pacifist interpretation of Christianity . They stated their beliefs in a declaration to King Charles II : "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ ... which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for

1352-413: Is Luke 22:36: "He said to them, 'But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one .'" Pacifists have typically explained that verse as Jesus fulfilling prophecy, since in the next verse, Jesus continues to say: "It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what

1456-588: Is Within You , Tolstoy provides a detailed history, account and defense of pacifism. Tolstoy's work inspired a movement named after him advocating pacifism to arise in Russia and elsewhere. The book was a major early influence on Mahatma Gandhi , and the two engaged in regular correspondence while Gandhi was active in South Africa. Bertha von Suttner , the first woman to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, became

1560-484: Is both fictional and comical, and though it offers a pragmatic opposition to the destructiveness of war, its message seems to stem from frustration with the existing conflict (then in its twentieth year) rather than from a philosophical position against violence or war. Equally fictional is the nonviolent protest of Hegetorides of Thasos . Euripides also expressed strong anti-war ideas in his work, especially The Trojan Women . In Plato's Republic Socrates makes

1664-440: Is clear. Violence is authoritarian and coercive, and so its use does contradict anarchist principles... (Errico) Malatesta is even more explicit when he wrote that the "main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations". Anarcho-pacifists tend to see the state as 'organised violence' and so they see that "it would therefore seem logical that anarchists should reject all violence". Anarcho-pacifism criticizes

1768-445: Is described as difficult to abide by consistently, due to violence not being available as a tool to aid a person who is being harmed or killed. It is further claimed that such a pacifist could logically argue that violence leads to more undesirable results than non-violence. Tapping into just war theory conditional pacifism represents a spectrum of positions departing from positions of absolute pacifism. One such conditional pacifism

1872-409: Is inevitable and so, for anarcho-pacifists, the consistent pacifist must be an anarchist just as the consistent anarchist must be a pacifist". A main component of anarcho-pacifist strategy is civil disobedience as advocated by the early anarchist thinker Henry David Thoreau in the essay of the same name from 1849 (although Thoreau strongly supported the gun rights and self-defense). Leo Tolstoy

1976-752: Is named for pacifism : " lemba, lemba " (peace, peace), describes the action of the plant lemba-lemba ( Brillantaisia patula T. Anders ). Likewise in Cabinda, " Lemba is the spirit of peace, as its name indicates." The Moriori , of the Chatham Islands , practiced pacifism by order of their ancestor Nunuku-whenua . This enabled the Moriori to preserve what limited resources they had in their harsh climate, avoiding waste through warfare. In turn, this led to their almost complete annihilation in 1835 by invading Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori from

2080-498: Is of Jesus, besides preaching these words, surrendering himself freely to an enemy intent on having him killed and proscribing his followers from defending him. There are those, however, who deny that Jesus was a pacifist and state that Jesus never said not to fight, citing examples from the New Testament. One such instance portrays an angry Jesus driving dishonest market traders from the temple . A frequently quoted passage

2184-432: Is particularly important for anarchists since, as one himself, de Ligt specifically addressed those who lust for revolution. 'The more violence, the less revolution,' he declared. He also linked Gandhian principled nonviolence with the pragmatic nonviolent direct action of the syndicalists. (The General Strike is an expression of total noncooperation by workers, though it should be added that most syndicalists believed that

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2288-421: Is sometimes identified as anarchist, although they did not identify themselves as such. For Andrew Cornell "MNS popularized consensus decision-making, introduced the spokescouncil method of organization to activists in the United States, and was a leading advocate of a variety of practices – communal living, unlearning oppressive behavior, creating co-operatively owned businesses – that are now often subsumed under

2392-422: Is the common pacificism , which may allow defense but is not advocating a default defensivism or even interventionism . Institutional pacifists object to the foundation and continued existence of institutions that enable and encourage war, similarly to those who criticise the influence of the military–industrial complex . The term may have been coined by American sociologist Charles A. Ellwood , writing for

2496-670: Is the opposition or resistance to war , militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence . The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa (to do no harm), which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism . While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since

2600-507: Is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." Others have interpreted the non-pacifist statements in the New Testament to be related to self-defense or to be metaphorical and state that on no occasion did Jesus shed blood or urge others to shed blood. Beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation gave rise to a variety of new Christian sects, including the historic peace churches . Foremost among them were

2704-676: The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong says: "As for the military, it is not an auspicious instrument; it is the way of heaven to despise it", and the Wei Liaozi writes: "As for the military, it is an inauspicious instrument; as for conflict and contention, it runs counter to virtue". The Taoist scripture " Classic of Great Peace ( Taiping jing )" foretells "the coming Age of Great Peace ( Taiping )". The Taiping Jing advocates "a world full of peace". The Lemba religion of southern French Congo, along with its symbolic herb,

2808-754: The American Union Against Militarism , the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the American Friends Service Committee . Jeannette Rankin , the first woman elected to Congress, was another fierce advocate of pacifism, the only person to vote against American entrance into both wars. After the immense loss of nearly ten million men to trench warfare , a sweeping change of attitude toward militarism crashed over Europe, particularly in nations such as Great Britain, where many questioned its involvement in

2912-480: The Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1943. Since the 2010s, some authors have expressed a renewed interest in institutional pacifism , often contrasting it with the more individually-oriented types of personal pacifism , and highlighting the role of human institutions in permitting accumulation of military resources. One writer suggested that institutional pacifism can be further categorised into juridicial pacifism and social pacifism, while another attempted to cite

3016-510: The French Revolutionary Wars based on Christian ideals of peace and brotherhood. Bohemian Bernard Bolzano taught about the social waste of militarism and the needlessness of war. He urged a total reform of the educational, social, and economic systems that would direct the nation's interests toward peace rather than toward armed conflict between nations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pacifism

3120-734: The League to Enforce Peace was established in the U.S. to promote similar goals. Hamilton Holt published a 28 September 1914, editorial in his magazine the Independent called "The Way to Disarm: A Practical Proposal" that called for an international organization to agree upon the arbitration of disputes and to guarantee the territorial integrity of its members by maintaining military forces sufficient to defeat those of any non-member. The ensuing debate among prominent internationalists modified Holt's plan to align it more closely with proposals offered in Great Britain by Viscount James Bryce ,

3224-609: The Peace Pledge Union in 1934, which totally renounced war and aggression. The idea of collective security was also popular; instead of outright pacifism, the public generally exhibited a determination to stand up to aggression, but preferably with the use of economic sanctions and multilateral negotiations. Many members of the Peace Pledge Union later joined the Bruderhof during its period of residence in

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3328-641: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Amish , Mennonites , Hutterites , and Church of the Brethren . The humanist writer Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most outspoken pacifists of the Renaissance , arguing strongly against warfare in his essays The Praise of Folly (1509) and The Complaint of Peace (1517). The Quakers were prominent advocates of pacifism, who as early as 1660 had repudiated violence in all forms and adhered to

3432-742: The Service Civil International and the Peace Pledge Union (PPU). The League of Nations also convened several disarmament conferences in the interbellum period such as the Geneva Conference , though the support that pacifist policy and idealism received varied across European nations. These organizations and movements attracted tens of thousands of Europeans, spanning most professions including "scientists, artists, musicians, politicians, clerks, students, activists and thinkers." Pacifism and revulsion with war were very popular sentiments in 1920s Britain. Novels and poems on

3536-616: The Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. The invading Māori killed, enslaved and cannibalised the Moriori. A Moriori survivor recalled : "[The Maori] commenced to kill us like sheep ... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women and children indiscriminately." In Ancient Greece , pacifism seems not to have existed except as

3640-663: The Union 's military campaign, arguing they were carrying out a " police action " against the Confederacy , whose act of Secession they regarded as criminal. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , French pacifist René Gérin urged support for the Spanish Republic . Gérin argued that the Spanish Nationalists were "comparable to an individual enemy" and the Republic's war effort

3744-465: The Warring States period , the pacifist Mohist School opposed aggressive war between the feudal states. They took this belief into action by using their famed defensive strategies to defend smaller states from invasion from larger states, hoping to dissuade feudal lords from costly warfare. The Seven Military Classics of ancient China view warfare negatively, and as a last resort. For example,

3848-616: The Yoshida Doctrine as an example of institutional pacifism. Although all pacifists are opposed to war between nation states , there have been occasions where pacifists have supported military conflict in the case of civil war or revolution . For instance, during the American Civil War , both the American Peace Society and some former members of the Non-Resistance Society supported

3952-421: The civil rights movement . Pacifism covers a spectrum of views, including the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved, calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war, opposition to any organization of society through governmental force ( anarchist or libertarian pacifism ), rejection of the use of physical violence to obtain political, economic or social goals,

4056-586: The fascists of Germany , Italy and Japan . During the period of the Napoleonic Wars , although no formal peace movement was established until the end of hostilities, a significant peace movement animated by universalist ideals did emerge, due to the perception of Britain fighting in a reactionary role and the increasingly visible impact of the war on the welfare of the nation in the form of higher taxation levels and high casualty rates. Sixteen peace petitions to Parliament were signed by members of

4160-510: The "abolition of all compulsory legislation, law courts, police, and prisons, as well as all forcible restraint of man by man". Due to Tolstoy's religious views combined with his advocacy for the total dismantlement of the state and its apparatus in favour of the establishment of a voluntarist society, he is seen as a prominent instigator of Christian anarchism. Anarcho-pacifism is often combined with socialist criticism of capitalism regarding economic class . The anarcho-pacifist ideal of

4264-430: The 'Artistocracy' movement – a movement advocating life in the service of art. His ideal was an anti-elitist aestheticism: "All men should be artists". Jean-René Saulière (also René Saulière) ( Bordeaux , 6 September 1911 – 2 January 1999) was a French anarcho-pacifist, individualist anarchist and freethought writer and militant who went under the pseudonym André Arru . During the late 1950s he establishes inside

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4368-555: The 1940s and used his journal politics to promote these ideas. For Andrew Cornell "Many young anarchists of this period departed from previous generations both by embracing pacifism and by devoting more energy to promoting avant-garde culture, preparing the ground for the Beat Generation in the process. The editors of the anarchist journal Retort , for instance, produced a volume of writings by WWII draft resistors imprisoned at Danbury, Connecticut, while regularly publishing

4472-718: The 19th century, ancient references abound. In modern times, interest was revived by Leo Tolstoy in his late works, particularly in The Kingdom of God Is Within You . Mahatma Gandhi propounded the practice of steadfast nonviolent opposition which he called " satyagraha ", instrumental in its role in the Indian Independence Movement . Its effectiveness served as inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. , James Lawson , Mary and Charles Beard , James Bevel , Thich Nhat Hanh , and many others in

4576-535: The American anarcho-pacifist, Paul Goodman ." Other notable anarcho-pacifist historical figures include Ammon Hennacy , Dorothy Day and Jean-Paul Sartre , albeit the latter only for a brief period between 1939 and 1940 . Dorothy Day , (8 November 1897 – 29 November 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of distributism . She

4680-707: The Cotswolds, where Englishmen and Germans, many of whom were Jewish, lived side by side despite local persecution. The British Labour Party had a strong pacifist wing in the early 1930s, and between 1931 and 1935 it was led by George Lansbury , a Christian pacifist who later chaired the No More War Movement and was president of the PPU. The 1933 annual conference resolved unanimously to "pledge itself to take no part in war". Researcher Richard Toye writes that "Labour's official position, however, although based on

4784-571: The French economist Frédéric Passy was also the founding father of the first international organisation for the arbitration of conflicts in 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union . The National Peace Council was founded in after the 17th Universal Peace Congress in London (July August 1908). An important thinker who contributed to pacifist ideology was Russian writer Leo Tolstoy . In one of his latter works, The Kingdom of God

4888-602: The French politician Duc de Sully , the philosophers Émeric Crucé and the Abbe de Saint-Pierre , and the English Quakers William Penn and John Bellers . Pacifist ideals emerged from two strands of thought that coalesced at the end of the 18th century. One, rooted in the secular Enlightenment , promoted peace as the rational antidote to the world's ills, while the other was a part of the evangelical religious revival that had played an important part in

4992-694: The Fédération des Libres Penseurs des Bouches du Rhône, the Group Francisco Ferrer and in 1959 he joins the Union des Pacifistes de France (Union of Pacifists of France). From 1968 to 1982, Arru alongside the members of the Group Francisco Ferrer publishes La Libre Pensée des Bouches du Rhône . " Movement for a New Society (MNS), a national network of feminist radical pacifist collectives that existed from 1971 to 1988",

5096-451: The Māori, which proved more successful in preventing land confiscations than acts of violent resistance. Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India, instrumental in the Indian independence movement . The Nobel prize winning great poet Rabindranath Tagore , who was also an Indian, gave him the honorific " Mahatma ", usually translated "Great Soul". He was the pioneer of

5200-714: The Peace Society in 1850 on a full-time basis, a position which he would keep for the next 40 years, earning himself a reputation as the 'Apostle of Peace'. He helped secure one of the earliest victories for the peace movement by securing a commitment from the Great Powers in the Treaty of Paris (1856) at the end of the Crimean War , in favour of arbitration. On the European continent, wracked by social upheaval ,

5304-410: The U.S. In Britain, the prominent activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse was jailed for refusing military service, citing his convictions as a "socialist and a Christian". Many socialist groups and movements were antimilitarist , arguing that war by its nature was a type of governmental coercion of the working class for the benefit of capitalist elites. The French socialist pacifist leader Jean Jaurès

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5408-480: The United States and Europe. Thoreau's essay " Civil Disobedience " ( Resistance to Civil Government ) was named as an influence by Leo Tolstoy , Martin Buber , Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. due to its advocacy of nonviolent resistance . According to the Peace Pledge Union of Britain, it was also the main precedent for anarcho-pacifism. Thoreau himself did not subscribe to pacifism, and did not reject

5512-782: The Western world after 1900, often focusing on treaties that would settle disputes through arbitration, and efforts to support the Hague conventions. The sudden outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 dismayed the peace movement. Socialist parties in every industrial nation had committed themselves to antiwar policies, but when the war came, all of them, except in Russia and the United States, supported their own governments. There were highly publicized dissidents, some of whom were imprisoned for opposing draft laws, such as Eugene Debs in

5616-519: The Younger criticised warfare in his book Naturales quaestiones (c. 65 CE). Maximilian of Tebessa was a Christian conscientious objector. He was killed for refusing to be conscripted. Throughout history many have understood Jesus of Nazareth to have been a pacifist, drawing on his Sermon on the Mount . In the sermon Jesus stated that one should "not resist an evildoer" and promoted his turn

5720-417: The abolition of the state. Irreligious or even anti-religious tendencies have emerged such as the French individualist anarchist anarcho-pacifist tendency exemplified by authors and activists such as Charles-Auguste Bontemps , André Arru and Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers which aligned itself with atheism and freethought . The anarcho-punk band Crass polemicised a variant of anarcho-pacifism whilst at

5824-406: The anarchistic characteristics of Christianity, Greek author Alexandre Christoyannopoulos argues that the concept of the state should be rejected by Christians due to its inherent contradiction of the teachings of the religion. Following the definition of the state posited by Max Weber in his 1921 essay Politik als Beruf , Christoyannopoulos contends that the state is founded upon a monopoly over

5928-473: The aspiration towards a world socialist commonwealth and the outlawing of war, did not imply a renunciation of force under all circumstances, but rather support for the ill-defined concept of 'collective security' under the League of Nations. At the same time, on the party's left, Stafford Cripps 's small but vocal Socialist League opposed the official policy, on the non-pacifist ground that the League of Nations

6032-513: The campaign for the abolition of slavery . Representatives of the former included Jean-Jacques Rousseau , in Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de Monsieur l'Abbe Saint-Pierre (1756), Immanuel Kant , in his Thoughts on Perpetual Peace , and Jeremy Bentham who proposed the formation of a peace association in 1789. Representative of the latter, was William Wilberforce who thought that strict limits should be imposed on British involvement in

6136-500: The civil rights movement's march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, they have called for armed protection. The interconnections between civil resistance and factors of force are numerous and complex. An absolute pacifist is generally described by the BBC as one who believes that human life is so valuable, that a human should never be killed and war should never be conducted, even in self-defense (except for non-violence type). The principle

6240-499: The colonies, Quakers chose to trade peacefully with the Native Americans , including for land. The colonial province was, for the 75 years from 1681 to 1756, essentially unarmed and experienced little or no warfare in that period. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, a number of thinkers devised plans for an international organisation that would promote peace, and reduce or even eliminate the occurrence of war. These included

6344-478: The costs of war and interpersonal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found. Some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence , believing that nonviolent action is morally superior and/or most effective. Some however, support physical violence for emergency defence of self or others. Others support destruction of property in such emergencies or for conducting symbolic acts of resistance like pouring red paint to represent blood on

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6448-478: The creation of libertarian communities – particularly farming communities – within present society, as a kind of peaceful version of the propaganda by deed . They divide, however, over the question of action.". Anarcho-pacifists can even accept "the principle of resistance and even revolutionary action ( nonviolent revolution ), provided it does not incur violence, which they see as a form of power and therefore nonanarchist in nature. This change in attitude has led

6552-464: The entire nation was reluctant to subject its territory to the same treatment. Though all countries in the First World War had suffered great losses, France was one of the most devastated and many did not want a second war. Anarcho-pacifism Anarcho-pacifists do not reject the use of non-violent revolutionary action against capitalism and the state with the purpose of establishing

6656-521: The first peace congress was held in Brussels in 1848 followed by Paris a year later. After experiencing a recession in support due to the resurgence of militarism during the American Civil War and Crimean War , the movement began to spread across Europe and began to infiltrate the new socialist movements. In 1870, Randal Cremer formed the Workman's Peace Association in London. Cremer, alongside

6760-701: The grounds of internationalism . In 1833, their office was listed as 129 Nassau Street in New York City, NY. As of 1834 the society operated from headquarters on Wall Street in New York City. In Boston it worked from offices on Cornhill (ca.1840s–1850s); Chauncey Street (ca.1864); Winter Street (ca.1868–1869); and Somerset Street (ca.1870s–1890s). Annual meetings took place in various venues in Boston, including Park Street Church (1851). Officers included George C. Beckwith , William Jay , Howard Malcom, John Field, William C. Brown. Pacifist Pacifism

6864-492: The historical theory of anarchism." He was an active member of CND . Among the works on anarchism by Comfort is Peace and Disobedience (1946), one of many pamphlets he wrote for Peace News and the Peace Pledge Union , and Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State (1950). He exchanged public correspondence with George Orwell defending pacifism in the open letter/poem "Letter to an American Visitor" under

6968-479: The independence of his country from British colonial rule , Gandhi led dozens of nonviolent campaigns, spent over seven years in prison, and fasted nearly to the death on several occasions to obtain British compliance with a demand or to stop inter-communal violence. His efforts helped lead India to independence in 1947, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom worldwide. Peace movements became active in

7072-526: The kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. Throughout the many 18th century wars in which Great Britain participated, the Quakers maintained a principled commitment not to serve in the army and militia or even to pay the alternative £10 fine. The English Quaker William Penn , who founded the Province of Pennsylvania , employed an anti-militarist public policy. Unlike residents of many of

7176-649: The largest Māori settlement in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to land confiscations. One Māori leader, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai , quickly became the leading figure in the movement, stating in a speech that "Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns... I want not war". Te Whiti-o-Rongomai achieved renown for his non-violent tactics among

7280-532: The memory of the International Brigades and other militaristic interventions. Shortly after the war ended, Simone Weil , despite having volunteered for service on the republican side, went on to publish The Iliad or the Poem of Force , a work that has been described as a pacifist manifesto. In response to the threat of fascism, some pacifist thinkers, such as Richard B. Gregg , devised plans for

7384-409: The mid-nineteenth century. The London Peace Society, under the initiative of American consul Elihu Burritt and the reverend Henry Richard , convened the first International Peace Congress in London in 1843. The congress decided on two aims: the ideal of peaceable arbitration in the affairs of nations and the creation of an international institution to achieve that. Richard became the secretary of

7488-403: The movement does not imply that anarcho-pacifism is inherently social anarchist in nature. Anarchist schools of thought can be generally distinguished from one another by their perspectives on two key elements, namely revolutionary methods and economic organisation. Anarcho-pacifism differs from social anarchism in rejecting the use of violent revolutionary methods to achieve social change and

7592-464: The name of one of his book's chapters, "the absurdity of bourgeois pacifism." For de Ligt, and all anarchists, violence is inherent in the capitalist system and any attempt to make capitalism pacifistic is doomed to failure. This is because, on the one hand, war is often just economic competition carried out by other means. Nations often go to war when they face an economic crisis, what they cannot gain in economic struggle they attempt to get by conflict. On

7696-671: The obliteration of force, and opposition to violence under any circumstance, even defence of self and others. Historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat define pacifism "in the sense generally accepted in English-speaking areas" as "an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare". Philosopher Jenny Teichman defines the main form of pacifism as "anti-warism", the rejection of all forms of warfare. Teichman's beliefs have been summarized by Brian Orend as "... A pacifist rejects war and believes there are no moral grounds which can justify resorting to war. War, for

7800-407: The other cheek philosophy. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well ... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." He also believed that murder is a sin and repeated the commandment of " Thou shalt not kill ". The New Testament story

7904-402: The other hand, "violence is indispensable in modern society... [because] without it the ruling class would be completely unable to maintain its privileged position with regard to the exploited masses in each country. The army is used first and foremost to hold down the workers... when they become discontented." [Bart de Ligt, Op. Cit., p. 62] As long as the state and capitalism exist, violence

8008-450: The outside of military recruiting offices or entering air force bases and hammering on military aircraft. Not all nonviolent resistance (sometimes also called civil resistance ) is based on a fundamental rejection of all violence in all circumstances. Many leaders and participants in such movements, while recognizing the importance of using non-violent methods in particular circumstances, have not been absolute pacifists. Sometimes, as with

8112-629: The pacifist anarchists to veer toward the anarcho-syndicalists , since the latter's concept of the general strike as the great revolutionary weapon made an appeal to those pacifists who accepted the need for fundamental social change but did not wish to compromise their ideal by the use of negative (i.e., violent) means." Anarcho-pacifism is frequently associated with various forms of religious anarchism such as Tolstoyan Christian anarchism and Buddhist anarchism. Notably, Christian anarchism places emphasis on Jesus Christ 's blessing of peacemakers and teachings involving non-violent resistance. Concerning

8216-455: The pacifist, is always wrong." In a sense the philosophy is based on the idea that the ends do not justify the means. The word pacific denotes conciliatory. Pacifism may be based on moral principles (a deontological view) or pragmatism (a consequentialist view). Principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that

8320-465: The pacifistic argument that a just person would not harm anyone. In Plato 's earlier work Crito Socrates asserts that it is not moral to return evil with further evil, an original moral conception, according to Gregory Vlastos , that undermines all justifications for war and violence. Several Roman writers rejected the militarism of Roman society and gave voice to anti-war sentiments, including Propertius , Tibullus and Ovid . The Stoic Seneca

8424-486: The party to oppose Neville Chamberlain 's policy of appeasement . The League of Nations attempted to play its role in ensuring world peace in the 1920s and 1930s. However, with the increasingly revisionist and aggressive behaviour of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan , it ultimately failed to maintain such a world order. Economic sanctions were used against states that committed aggression, such as those against Italy when it invaded Abyssinia , but there

8528-444: The poetry and prose of writers such as Kenneth Rexroth and Norman Mailer . From the 1940s to the 1960s, then, the radical pacifist movement in the United States harbored both social democrats and anarchists, at a time when the anarchist movement itself seemed on its last legs." A leading British anarcho-pacifist was Alex Comfort who considered himself "an aggressive anti-militarist," and he believed that pacifism rested "solely upon

8632-573: The pseudonym "Obadiah Hornbrooke." In the 1950s and 1960s, anarcho-pacifism "began to gel, tough-minded anarchists adding to the mixture their critique of the state, and tender-minded pacifists their critique of violence". Within the context of the emergence of the New Left and the Civil Rights Movement , "several themes, theories, actions, all distinctly libertarian, began to come to the fore and were given intellectual expression by

8736-519: The public, anti-war and anti- Pitt demonstrations convened and peace literature was widely published and disseminated. The first peace movements appeared in 1815–16. In the United States the first such movement was the New York Peace Society , founded in 1815 by the theologian David Low Dodge , and the Massachusetts Peace Society . It became an active organization, holding regular weekly meetings, and producing literature which

8840-484: The revolution should be defended by armed workers.)" The Conquest of Violence alludes to Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread . As a global movement, anarchist pacifism emerged shortly before World War II in the Netherlands , United Kingdom and United States and was a strong presence in the subsequent campaigns for nuclear disarmament . The American writer Dwight Macdonald endorsed anarcho-pacifist views in

8944-471: The rubric of " prefigurative politics ." MNS leader George Lakey stated that "anarchists claim me but I'm always a little surprised when they do because I'm fond of social democracy as it's been developed in Norway." Lakey has supported electoral politics , including the re-election of Barack Obama as U.S. president. According to the authors of An Anarchist FAQ , "the attraction of pacifism to anarchists

9048-400: The same time explicitly rejecting all religions, especially the symbols of establishment Christian theology . Opposition to the use of violence has not prohibited anarcho-pacifists from accepting the principle of resistance or even revolutionary action provided it does not result in violence. It was their approval of such forms of opposition to power that led some anarcho-pacifists to endorse

9152-595: The separation between means and ends. "Means... must not merely be consistent with ends; this principle, though preferable to 'the end justifies the means', is based on a misleading dichotomy. Means are ends, never merely instrumental but also always expressive of values; means are end-creating or ends-in-the making". An anarcho-pacifist critique of capitalism was provided by Bart de Ligt in his The Conquest of Violence . A report in An Anarchist FAQ describes how "all anarchists would agree with de Ligt on, to use

9256-570: The theme of the futility of war and the slaughter of the youth by old fools were published, including, Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington , Erich Remarque 's translated All Quiet on the Western Front and Beverley Nichols 's expose Cry Havoc . A debate at the University of Oxford in 1933 on the motion 'one must fight for King and country' captured the changed mood when the motion was resoundingly defeated. Dick Sheppard established

9360-408: The use of armed revolt. He demonstrated this with his unqualified support for John Brown and other violent abolitionists, writing of Brown that "The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in which you use it." In the 1840s, the American abolitionist and advocate of nonresistance Henry Clarke Wright and his English follower Joseph Barker rejected the idea of governments and advocated

9464-596: The use of violent force in order to enforce law and order, and is therefore directly at odds with the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ. Reflecting on the implications of this contradictory relationship, Christoyannopoulos invokes the Tolstoyan notion that the force utilized by the justice system to enforce the outcomes of legal proceedings is also at odds with the teachings of Christianity. Aylmer Maude (the friend, biographer and translator of Leo Tolstoy ) states that Christianity involves anarchism as it necessitates

9568-643: The war. After World War I's official end in 1918, peace movements across the continent and the United States renewed, gradually gaining popularity among young Europeans who grew up in the shadow of Europe's trauma over the Great War. Organizations formed in this period included the War Resisters' International , the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom , the No More War Movement ,

9672-535: The world. In 1834 the headquarters of the society were removed to Hartford , in 1834 to Boston, Massachusetts , in 1911 to Washington, D.C. The group is now based in Washington . Its official journal is World Affairs . The American Peace Society house , its headquarters from 1911 to 1948 near the White House , is a U.S. National Historic Landmark . The American Peace Society was opposed to Zionism on

9776-503: Was 'nothing but the tool of the satiated imperialist powers'." Lansbury was eventually persuaded to resign as Labour leader by the non-pacifist wing of the party and was replaced by Clement Attlee . As the threat from Nazi Germany increased in the 1930s, the Labour Party abandoned its pacifist position and supported rearmament, largely as the result of the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton , who by 1937 had also persuaded

9880-591: Was also considered to be an anarchist , and did not hesitate to use the term. In the 1930s, Day worked closely with fellow activist Peter Maurin to establish the Catholic Worker movement, a nonviolent, pacifist movement that continues to combine direct aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent direct action on their behalf. The cause for Day's canonization is open in the Catholic Church . Ammon Hennacy (24 July 1893 – 14 January 1970)

9984-539: Was an American pacifist , Christian anarchist, vegetarian , social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a Wobbly . He established the " Joe Hill House of Hospitality " in Salt Lake City, Utah and practiced tax resistance. Charles-Auguste Bontemps was a prolific author mainly in the anarchist, freethinking , pacifist and naturist press of the time. His view on anarchism

10088-547: Was assassinated by a nationalist fanatic on 31 July 1914. The national parties in the Second International increasingly supported their respective nations in war, and the International was dissolved in 1916. In 1915, the League of Nations Society was formed by British liberal leaders to promote a strong international organisation that could enforce the peaceful resolution of conflict. Later that year,

10192-541: Was based around his concept of "Social Individualism" on which he wrote extensively. He defended an anarchist perspective which consisted on "a collectivism of things and an individualism of persons." Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers was a French writer, art critic, pacifist and anarchist . Lacaze-Duthiers, an art critic for the Symbolist review journal La Plume , was influenced by Oscar Wilde , Nietzsche and Max Stirner . His (1906) L'Ideal Humain de l'Art helped found

10296-553: Was equivalent to the action of a domestic police force suppressing crime. In the 1960s, some pacifists associated with the New Left supported wars of national liberation and supported groups such as the Viet Cong and the Algerian FLN , arguing peaceful attempts to liberate such nations were no longer viable, and war was thus the only option. Advocacy of pacifism can be found far back in history and literature. During

10400-440: Was influenced by it and he saw that a "great weapon for undermining (rather than overthrowing) the state was the refusal by individuals to cooperate with it and obey its immoral demands". Also the concepts of passive and active resistance have relevance as they were developed later by Mohandas Gandhi . For anarchist historian George Woodcock "the modern pacifist anarchists,...have tended to concentrate their attention largely on

10504-506: Was no will on the part of the principal League powers, Britain and France, to subordinate their interests to a multilateral process or to disarm at all themselves. The Spanish Civil War proved a major test for international pacifism, and the work of pacifist organisations (such as War Resisters' International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation ) and individuals (such as José Brocca and Amparo Poch ) in that arena has until recently been ignored or forgotten by historians, overshadowed by

10608-604: Was not entirely frowned upon throughout Europe. It was considered a political stance against costly capitalist-imperialist wars, a notion particularly popular in the British Liberal Party of the twentieth century. However, during the eras of World War One and especially World War Two , public opinion on the ideology split. Those against the Second World War, some argued, were not fighting against unnecessary wars of imperialism but instead acquiescing to

10712-624: Was spread as far as Gibraltar and Malta, describing the horrors of war and advocating pacificism on Christian grounds. The London Peace Society (also known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace) was formed in 1816 to promote permanent and universal peace by the philanthropist William Allen . In the 1840s, British women formed "Olive Leaf Circles", groups of around 15 to 20 women, to discuss and promote pacifist ideas. The peace movement began to grow in influence by

10816-631: Was to become the French section of the Association internationale antimilitariste (AIA) founded in Amsterdam in 1904. Tolstoy's philosophy was cited as a major inspiration by Mohandas Gandhi , an Indian independence leader and pacifist who self-identified as an anarchist. "Gandhi's ideas were popularised in the West in books such as Richard Gregg 's The Power of Nonviolence (1935), and Bart de Ligt 's The Conquest of Violence (1937). The latter

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