Opposition to Any Military Draft Legislation, With or Without Women

Statement: November 11, 2021

As the inclusion of women in a military draft is debated in Congress, we of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, United States Section (WILPF US) would like to remind the US President, the Executive Branch, and our Members of Congress to recall the courageous example of one of our WILPF founders of more than a century ago, Rosika Schwimmer.  She campaigned, as did other founders of WILPF, for an end to the “Great War” (now known as the First World War or World War I).  Schwimmer was refused citizenship in the USA because of her honest response that she was unwilling to kill in the service of her country. This dubious doctrine of exclusion, was regrettably upheld by the US Supreme Court in1929, in the case of Schwimmer v. United States.  However, happily this precedent was reversed in the same Court in 1946 and by immigration and naturalization legislation of Congress in 1952.

Today we stand with our sister Rosika Schwimmer and favor a single standard of nonconscription and nonviolence for women, men, and nonbinary people alike. This is not to exclude the idea of universal national service for all young people in organizations including the military, but also in the Peace Corps and in VISTA.  Possibly an Energy and Conservation Corp could wage what the philosopher William James called "the moral equivalent of war" in the crisis of global climate change.

We reaffirm our call for repeal of the Military Selective Service Act and our opposition to military draft registration for all persons.  We urge members of Congress to take action to repeal the Military Selective Service Act.

WILPF US, as a pacifist and feminist organization, advocates equality of the sexes in peace and opposes military conscription. 

But we must say more:

• Let us recall how military draft registration was reintroduced by the Carter Administration in 1979, in response to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
• Let us honestly acknowledge that in any hypothetical "equal-opportunity" military draft, conscripted young women are far more likely to be fighting in dubious wars of offense and empire, rather than defending their own communities.  Yet what endangers their neighborhoods currently are poverty, deteriorating infrastructure, and climate change.
• Let us rally against today’s infrastructure collapse and environmental threats, rather than wage counterproductive wars in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.  Already over the last two decades those wars have claimed an estimated 2-3 million lives – close to a thousand times the tragic toll of September 11, 2001 – that fateful date we all remember and point to as a “day of infamy”. 
• Let us learn from our pain the importance of moving the energy of our youth and the wealth of the public treasury from war to  rebuilding our cities and infrastructure, realigning our technology toward renewable and sustainable energy sources. 
• Let us adopt the Moral Budget of the Poor People's Campaign and the calls to revoke the 2001 and later Authorizations for the Use of Military Forces.

Understanding that there may be no vote this year to abolish military draft registration, we therefore URGE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO TAKE ACTION SUPPORTING amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act  –

• to eliminate legal and extralegal sanctions and punishments for refusal to register.
• to restrict mandatory military draft registration until a Congressionally declared national emergency. 

Issued on behalf of the General Membership by Darien De Lu,
President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, United States Section
on the Occasion of Armistice Day, November 11, 2021

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, United States Section
Opposition to Any Military Draft Legislation, With or Without Women
For further Information email, president@wilpfus.org