A board member and former president and Vice President of the peace history society. Im 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, womens peace organizations and a progressive reformist impulse. Significantly, this movement contained a powerful secular impulse in the post1914 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 antiwar 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 peoples council, the antienlistment league, the no conscription league, and by the three organizations represented by this mornings panelists. I will kind of name them from your right to left. The u. S. Section of the Womens International legal for peace and freedom, which originated in the womens 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 copanelist has said and then we will turn to audience question. I will ask the first question from the podium before i sit. Well 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. Im glad to be here. Good morning. I would like to hear a good morning, everyone good morning. Im hairy hanson harrison, president of the u. S. Section of the Womens International league for peace and freedom. The reason im sitting in this chair is because were the oldest. Age before beauty. Were 102 years old, and ill start saying that, you know, we dont 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 were were sort of broken up into an international and u. N. And national branches. We have 38 im 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 womens peace, or the peace womens 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. Were 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 womens 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 dont know if you remember the iconic photo of us in the boat. Theres 47 women. Do you remember that, that we had in thursdays 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 humaneism 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 deweys being home ec. And if you remember home ec . Do you remember it . Also, you know, shop. But his idea and her idea, we dont know where john dewey begins and ends, jane adams ends because theirs was a handson theory because if youre 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 were going to work on it. It is not just a theory. Robert. Yes. Good morning. Im 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 nonpartisan. 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 womens 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 administrations 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 thats 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 dont 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 nonpartisan 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 harvarded 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 youve 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 wartime 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. Heres what he said, quote, bail was one of the many devices by which the courts operate for the benefit of the welltodo 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 socalled 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 antiwar 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. Thats the origin of the aclu. Can i add something . Lets 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 antivietnam 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 nonviolence 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 email 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. Ill 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 wont 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 nonviolence. It is a very active nonviolence. Through mobilizing for collective action at the grassroots. Were very grassrootsbased 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 were doing for anybody who is aware of War Resisters League, you might be aware of what we call our pie chart. Im 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 eve