Anti-war movement

{{short description|Social movement opposed to armed conflicts}} {{about||movements against violence in general|Peace movement}} {{more citations needed|date=September 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} [[File:Russian Embassy London - Ukraine - Anti-War signs 27Feb2022 (2).jpg|thumb|Ukrainian anti-war protests in front of the Embassy of Russia in London against the Russian invasion of Ukraine (27 February 2022)]]

[[File:Arms Fair Protest -DSEI.jpg|thumb|Protest against the arms trade at a London arms fair|alt=Protestors holding signs with messages like "No more arms fairs: human rights before arm company profits".]]

An '''anti-war movement''' is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts, or to anti-war books, paintings, and other works of art. Some activists distinguish between anti-war movements and peace movements. Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government (or governments) to put an end to a particular war or conflict or to prevent one from arising.

[[File:SOORAJ (6).JPG|thumb|Anti-war rally of schoolchildren in Pilathara, India]]

==History==

===American Revolutionary War===

During the American Revolutionary War, substantial opposition to British war intervention in America led the British House of Commons on 27 February 1783 to vote against further war in America, paving the way for the Second Rockingham ministry and the Peace of Paris.

===Antebellum United States=== Substantial antiwar sentiment developed in the United States roughly between the end of the War of 1812 and the commencement of the Civil War in what is called the Antebellum era. A similar movement developed in England during the same period. The movement reflected both strict pacifist and more moderate non-interventionist positions. Many prominent intellectuals of the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau (''see'' ''Civil Disobedience'') and William Ellery Channing contributed literary works against war. Other names associated with the movement include William Ladd, Noah Worcester, Thomas Cogswell Upham, and Asa Mahan. Many peace societies were formed throughout the United States, the most prominent of which being the American Peace Society. Numerous periodicals (such as ''The Advocate of Peace'') and books were also produced.<ref>Beckwith, George (ed), ''[https://archive.org/details/bookofpeacecolle00amerrich The Book of Peace]''. American Peace Society, 1845.</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20671774Journals of the American Peace Society: Advocate of Peace (1837-1932] Retrieved 18 December 2025 {{dead link|date=December 2025}}</ref><ref>[https://academic.oup.com/book/27304/chapter-abstract/196960403?redirectedFrom=fulltext1 1816–1870: The Peace Society, the First International, and the Reform League] Retrieved 18 December 2025</ref>

A recurring theme in this movement was the call for the establishment of an international court to adjudicate disputes between nations. Another distinct feature of antebellum antiwar literature was the emphasis on how war contributed to a moral decline and brutalization of society in general.<ref>[https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/unit-11/anti-war-literature/study-guide/s0tTKsnYTofqM2kT American Literature 1860 to PresentUnit11Review] Retrieved 18 December 2025</ref><ref>[https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/war-against-war-americans-for-peace-in-world-war-i.'War against war': Americans for peace in World War I] Retrieved 18 December 2025</ref>

===American Civil War=== {{Main|Opposition to the American Civil War}} thumb|Rioters attack federal troops. A key event in the early history of the modern anti-war stance in literature and society was the American Civil War, where it culminated in the candidacy of George B. McClellan for US president as a Peace Democrat against incumbent President Abraham Lincoln. The outlines of the antiwar stance are seen: the argument of the costs of maintaining the present conflict not being worth the gains that can be made, the appeal to end the horrors of war, and the argument of war being waged for the profit of particular interests.

During the war, the New York Draft Riots were started as violent protests against Lincoln's ''Enrollment Act of Conscription'' to draft men to fight in the war. The outrage over conscription was augmented by the ability to "buy" one's way out, which could be afforded only by the wealthy.<ref>Roberts, Sam (26 December 2010). "New York Doesn't Care to Remember the Civil War". ''The New York Times''.</ref>

After the war, ''The Red Badge of Courage'' described the chaos and sense of death which resulted from the changing style of combat: away from the set engagement, and towards two armies engaging in continuous battle over a wide area. {{citation needed|date=September 2025}}

===Second Boer War=== {{Main|Opposition to the Second Boer War}}

William Thomas Stead formed an organization against the Second Boer War, the Stop the War Committee.<ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stead, William Thomas". ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 817.</ref><ref>Biography of W.T. Stead, W.T. Stead and his "Books for the Bairns", Sally Wood-Lamont, Salvia Books, Edinburgh, 1987</ref>

===World War I=== {{Main|Opposition to World War I}}

[[File:The Deserter.jpg|alt=|thumb|''The Deserter'' by Boardman Robinson, ''The Masses'', 1916]] In Britain, in 1914, the Public Schools Officers' Training Corps annual camp was held at Tidworth Camp, near Salisbury Plain. Head of the British Army Lord Kitchener was to review the cadets, but the imminence of the war prevented him. General Horace Smith-Dorrien was sent instead. He surprised the two-or-three thousand cadets by declaring (in the words of Donald Christopher Smith, a Bermudian cadet who was present) "that war should be avoided at almost any cost, that war would solve nothing, that the whole of Europe and more besides would be reduced to ruin, and that the loss of life would be so large that whole populations would be decimated. In our ignorance I, and many of us, felt almost ashamed of a British General who uttered such depressing and unpatriotic sentiments, but during the next four years, those of us who survived the holocaust-probably not more than one-quarter of us – learned how right the General's prognosis was and how courageous he had been to utter it."<ref>''Merely For the Record: The Memoirs of Donald Christopher Smith 1894–1980''. By Donald Christopher Smith. Edited by John William Cox, Jr. Bermuda.</ref> Having voiced these sentiments did not hinder Smith-Dorrien's career, or prevent him from carrying out his duty in the First World War to the best of his abilities.

With the increasing mechanization of war, opposition to its horrors grew, particularly in the wake of the First World War. European avant-garde cultural movements such as Dada were explicitly anti-war.

The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 gave the American authorities the right to close newspapers and jail individuals for having anti-war views.<ref>Harold Edgar and Benno C. Schmidt Jr., "The Espionage Statutes and the Publication of Defense Information", ''Columbia Law Review''. v. 73. no. 5, May 1973, 950–951</ref><ref>Stone, Geoffrey R., ''Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism'' (NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004), pg. 541</ref>

On 16 June 1918, American socialist Eugene V. Debs made an anti-war speech and was arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917. He was convicted, sentenced to serve ten years in prison, but President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence on 25 December 1921.<ref>{{cite news|title=Eugene Debs in jail|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=1 July 1918|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115358863/eugene-debs-in-jail/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=24 December 1921 |title=Harding Frees Debs and 23 Others Held for War Violations |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0DE2D71539E133A25757C2A9649D946095D6CF |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |access-date=2010-03-03}}</ref>

===Between the World Wars=== {{Main|Pacifism#Between the two World Wars}} Many WWI veterans, including US General Smedley Butler, spoke out against wars and war profiteering on their return to civilian life.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

In 1924, Ernst Friedrich published ''Krieg dem Krieg!'' (''War Against War!''): an album of photographs drawn from German military and medical archives from the first world war. In ''Regarding the Pain of Others'', Sontag describes the book as "photography as shock therapy" that was designed to "horrify and demoralize".

It was in the 1930s that the Western anti-war movement took shape, to which the political and organizational roots of most of the existing movement can be traced. Characteristics of the anti-war movement included opposition to the corporate interests perceived as benefiting from war, to the status quo which was trading the lives of the young for the comforts of those who are older, the concept that those who were drafted were from poor families and would be fighting a war in place of privileged individuals who were able to avoid the draft and military service, and to the lack of input in decision making that those who would die in the conflict would have in deciding to engage in it. {{citation needed|date=September 2025}}

In 1933, the Oxford Union resolved in its Oxford Pledge, "That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country."

Veterans were still extremely cynical about the motivations for entering World War I, but many were willing to fight later in the Spanish Civil War, indicating that pacifism was not always the motivation. These trends were depicted in novels such as ''All Quiet on the Western Front'', ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''Johnny Got His Gun''.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

===World War II=== {{Main|Opposition to World War II}}

[[File:WHProtest1941.jpg|thumbnail|right|Protest at the White House by the American Peace Mobilization]] Opposition to World War II was most vocal during its early period, and stronger still before it started while appeasement and isolationism were considered viable diplomatic options. Communist-led organizations, including veterans of the Spanish Civil War,<ref name="ALBA-vol_1941_02b"> [http://www.alba-valb.org/volpdf/vol_1941_02b.pdf Volunteer for Liberty] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206011824/http://www.alba-valb.org/volpdf/vol_1941_02b.pdf |date=2006-12-06 }}, newsletter of the ''Abraham Lincoln Brigade'', February 1941, Volume III, No. 2</ref> opposed the war during the period starting with the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact but then turned into hawks after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

The war seemed, for a time, to set anti-war movements at a distinct social disadvantage; very few, mostly ardent pacifists, continued to argue against the war and its results at the time. However, the Cold War followed with the post-war realignment, and the opposition resumed. The grim realities of modern combat, and the nature of mechanized society ensured that the anti-war viewpoint found presentation in ''Catch-22'', ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' and ''The Tin Drum''. This sentiment grew in strength as the Cold War seemed to present the situation of an unending series of conflicts, which were fought at terrible cost to the younger generations.

===Vietnam War=== {{Main|Opposition to the Vietnam War}}

thumb|left|U.S. Marshals arresting a Vietnam War protester in Washington, D.C., 1967 Organized opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began slowly and in small numbers in 1964 on various college campuses in the United States and quickly as the war grew deadlier. In 1967 a coalition of anti-war activists formed the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam which organized several large anti-war demonstrations between the late 1960s and 1972. Counter-cultural songs, organizations, plays and other literary works encouraged a spirit of nonconformism, peace, and anti-establishmentarianism. This anti-war sentiment developed during a time of unprecedented student activism and right on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, and was reinforced in numbers by the demographically significant baby boomers. It quickly grew to include a wide and varied cross-section of Americans from all walks of life. The anti-Vietnam war movement is often considered to have been a major factor affecting America's involvement in the war itself. Many Vietnam veterans, including future Secretary of State and U.S. Senator John Kerry and disabled veteran Ron Kovic, spoke out against the Vietnam War on their return to the United States.

Mrs. Ngo Ba Thanh, a Vietnamese peace activist, aligned her Vietnamese Women's Movement for the Right to Live with international activists of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Women Strike for Peace. Her imprisonment and publications about the war brought international attention to the social and economic issues created by the war and fostered international opposition to it.<ref name=Frazier>{{cite book |last=Frazier |first=Jessica M. |title=Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/womensantiwardip0000fraz/page/108/mode/1up |date=2017 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, NC |isbn=978-1-4696-3178-3}}</ref>{{rp|109–110}}<ref name=Nguyen>{{cite journal |last=Nguyen |first=An Thuy |title=The Vietnam Women's Movement for the Right to Live: A Non-Communist Opposition Movement to the American War in Vietnam |journal=Critical Asian Studies |date=March 2019 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=75–102 |doi=10.1080/14672715.2018.1542522 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.2018.1542522 |access-date=21 October 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames, England |s2cid=149982568 |issn=1467-2715 |oclc=7965329217 |id={{EBSCOhost|134057139}}|url-access=subscription }}{{subscription required}}</ref>{{rp|85, 89–90}} Her arrest and lack of a trial sparked Bella Abzug and WILPF members to write to the United States Congress and petition President Richard Nixon to appeal to South Vietnamese officials for her release,<ref name=Frazier />{{rp|126}}<ref name=Nguyen />{{rp|90}} which was widely covered in the press.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cavaliero |first1=Eric |title=Woman Activist Wages Ceaseless Political War with Thieu |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-honolulu-advertiser-cavaliero-eric/133767000/ |access-date=22 October 2023 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |date=5 December 1973 |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |page=E14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Frail from Hunger Strike, Saigon Critic Leaves Jail |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-associated-press-frail-from/133766434/ |access-date=22 October 2023 |work=The Record |agency=Associated Press |date=23 September 1973 |location=Hackensack, NJ |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=|title=Sick Woman Charged |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/102204910?searchTerm=Ngo%20Ba%20Thanh |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=The Canberra Times |date=23 March 1972 |location=Canberra, ACT |page=4 |via=Trove}}</ref> Campaigns opposing the war and conscription also took place in Australia.<ref>{{cite web |last=Scates |first=Bob |date=10 October 2022 |title=Draftmen Go Free: A History of the Anti-Conscription Movement in Australia |url=https://commonslibrary.org/draftmen-go-free-a-history-of-the-anti-conscription-movement-in-australia/ |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU |archive-date=2 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102114745/https://commonslibrary.org/draftmen-go-free-a-history-of-the-anti-conscription-movement-in-australia/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===South African Border War=== {{main|South African resistance to war}}

Opposition to the South African Border War spread to a general resistance to the apartheid military. Organizations such as the End Conscription Campaign and Committee on South African War Resisters, were set up. Many opposed the war at this time.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

===Yugoslav Wars=== [[File:Rim-Tuti-Tuki-Gile.jpg|thumb|Srđan Gojković performing at the anti-war concert as part of ''Rimtutituki'']] Following the rise of nationalism and political tensions after Slobodan Milošević came to power, as well as the outbreaks of the Yugoslav Wars, numerous anti-war movements developed in Serbia.<ref name=Udovicki>{{cite book|title=Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia|url=https://archive.org/details/burnthishousemak00udov|url-access=limited|first1=Jasminka|last1=Udovicki|first2=James|last2=Ridgeway|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2000|isbn=9781136764820|location=Durham, NC |pages=[https://archive.org/details/burnthishousemak00udov/page/n265 255]-266}}</ref><ref name=Fridman>{{cite journal |last=Fridman|first=Orli |title='It was like fighting a war with our own people': anti-war activism in Serbia during the 1990s |journal=The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity |year=2010 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=507–522 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2011.579953 |s2cid=153467930}}</ref><ref name=republika>{{cite web|url=http://www.republika.co.rs/492-493/20.html|title=Antiratne i mirovne ideje u istoriji Srbije i antiratni pokreti do 2000. godine|year=2011|work=republika.co.rs|access-date=4 May 2020|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319044658/http://www.republika.co.rs/492-493/20.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=globalvoices>{{cite web|url=https://sr.globalvoices.org/2016/08/secanje-na-antiratni-pokret-u-jugoslaviji-pocetkom-1990-ih/|title=Sećanje na antiratni pokret u Jugoslaviji početkom 1990-ih|year=2016|work=globalvoices.org|access-date=4 May 2020|archive-date=25 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425112051/https://sr.globalvoices.org/2016/08/secanje-na-antiratni-pokret-u-jugoslaviji-pocetkom-1990-ih/|url-status=live}}</ref> The anti-war protests in Belgrade were held mostly because of opposition the Battle of Vukovar, Siege of Dubrovnik and Siege of Sarajevo,<ref name=Udovicki /><ref name=republika /> while protesters demanded the referendum on a declaration of war and disruption of military conscription.<ref name=Vreme>{{cite web|url=https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=592022|title=Spomenik neznanom dezerteru|year=2008|work=Vreme|access-date=4 May 2020|archive-date=5 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005010352/https://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=592022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Udovicki|Ridgeway|2000|p=258}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Powers |first=Roger S. |date=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmlWr4aAt4EC |title=Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage |publisher=Routledge |page=467 |isbn=978-1-136-76482-0 }}</ref>

More than 50,000 people participated in many protests, and more than 150,000 people took part in the most massive protest called "The Black Ribbon March" in solidarity with people in Sarajevo.<ref>{{harvnb|Udovicki|Ridgeway|2000|p=260}}</ref><ref name=Fridman /> It is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army, while between 100,000 and 150,000 people emigrated from Serbia refusing to participate in the war.<ref name=Vreme /><ref name=republika /> According to professor Renaud De la Brosse, senior lecturer at the University of Reims and a witness called by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it is surprising how great the resistance to Milošević's propaganda was among Serbs, given that and the lack of access to alternative news.<ref name=IWPR>{{cite web|url=https://iwpr.net/global-voices/comment-milosevics-propaganda-war|title=Comment: Milosevic's Propaganda War|work=Institute for War and Peace Reporting|access-date=5 May 2020|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607115109/https://iwpr.net/global-voices/comment-milosevics-propaganda-war|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most famous associations and NGOs who marked the anti-war ideas and movements in Serbia were the ''Center for Antiwar Action'', Women in Black, Humanitarian Law Center and Belgrade Circle.<ref name=republika /><ref name=Udovicki /> The Rimtutituki was a rock supergroup featuring Ekatarina Velika, Električni Orgazam and Partibrejkers members, which was formed at the petition signing against mobilization in Belgrade.<ref name=buka>{{cite web|url=https://www.6yka.com/novosti/manje-pucaj-vise-tucaj|title=Manje pucaj, više tucaj|year=2012|work=Buka|access-date=4 May 2020|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607114826/https://www.6yka.com/novosti/manje-pucaj-vise-tucaj|url-status=live}}</ref>

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War triggered debates over the legitimacy of the intervention.<ref name="Coleman">{{cite book|last=Coleman|first=Katharina Pichler|title=International Organisations and Peace Enforcement: The Politics of International Legitimacy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-521-87019-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E1D9123FF93BA35755C0A9669C8B63|title= Rights Group Says NATO Bombing in Yugoslavia Violated Law|last=Erlanger|first=Steven|date=2000-06-08|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=5 May 2020}}</ref> About 2,000 Serbian Americans and anti-war activists protested in New York City against NATO airstrikes, while more than 7,000 people protested in Sydney.<ref name=Anti-NATO_1999>{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/28/kosovo.protests/|title=Anti-NATO protests in Australia, Austria, Russia|publisher=CNN|access-date=5 May 2020|archive-date=18 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118033038/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/28/kosovo.protests/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The most massive protests were held in Greece, and demonstrations were also held in American cities, French cities, Italian cities, London, Moscow, Brussels, Amsterdam, Toronto, Madrid, Berlin, Stuttgart, Salzburg and Skopje.<ref name=BBC_1999>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/305185.stm|title=World: Europe Greeks protest at Nato strikes|publisher=BBC News|access-date=5 May 2020|archive-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417223404/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/305185.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=WSWS_1999>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/05/grk-m03.html|title=Greece: Antiwar protests intensify|work=International Committee of the Fourth International|date=3 May 1999 |access-date=5 May 2020|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806184606/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/05/grk-m03.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Anti-NATO_1999 />

===2001 Afghanistan War=== [[File:June 22, 2007 protest in Quebec City against Canada's involvement in the Afghan war.jpg|thumb|Demonstration in Québec City against the Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan, 22 June 2007]] {{Further|Opposition to the 2001 Afghanistan War}} There was initially little opposition to the 2001 Afghanistan War in the United States and the United Kingdom, which was seen as a response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and was supported by most of the American public. Most vocal opposition came from pacifist groups and groups promoting a left-wing political agenda. Over time, opposition to the war in Afghanistan has grown more widespread, partly as a result of weariness with the length of the conflict and partly as a result of a conflating of the conflict with the unpopular war in Iraq.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/28/cnn-poll-support-for-afghanistan-war-at-all-time-low/|title=CNN Poll: Support for Afghanistan war at all time low|work=cnn.com|access-date=2012-02-26|archive-date=2023-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206171611/https://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/28/cnn-poll-support-for-afghanistan-war-at-all-time-low/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Iraq War === {{Main|Opposition to the Iraq War}}

[[File:Washington March15 2003-02.jpg|thumb|Anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., 15 March 2003]] [[File:Day119fwhitehouseb.JPG|thumb|Thomas on the White House Peace Vigil]] The anti-war position gained renewed support and attention in the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and its allies. Millions of people staged mass protests across the world in the immediate prelude to the invasion, and demonstrations and other forms of anti-war activism have continued throughout the occupation. The primary opposition within the U.S. to the continued occupation of Iraq has come from the grassroots. Opposition to the conflict, how it had been fought, and complications during the aftermath period divided public sentiment in the U.S., resulting in majority public opinion turning against the war for the first time in the spring of 2004, a turn which has held since.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm|title=Iraq|work=pollingreport.com|access-date=2008-02-21|archive-date=2016-12-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161205075857/http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The American country music band Dixie Chicks' opposition to the war caused many radio stations to stop playing their records, but they were supported in their anti-war stance by the equally anti-war country music star Merle Haggard, who in the summer of 2003 released a song critical of US media coverage of the Iraq War.{{cn|date=January 2026}}

Anti-war groups protested during both the Democratic National Convention and 2008 Republican National Convention protests held in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in September 2008.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

===2014 Russo-Ukrainian war=== {{further|2014 anti-war protests in Russia}} [[File:Марш мира Москва 21 сент 2014 L1460776.jpg|thumb|Anti-war/Putin demonstration in Moscow, 21 September 2014]] A series of demonstrations were held opposing the Russian military intervention in Ukraine that took place in Russia in 2014. Protesters held two anti-war protest rallies on 2 and 15 March 2014. The latter, known as the March of Peace ({{langx|ru|Марш Мира}}, ''Marsh Mira''), took place in Moscow a day before the Crimean referendum. The protests have been the largest in Russia since the 2011–2013 Russian protests by the Russian opposition against the alleged electoral fraud committed by United Russia during the 2011 Russian legislative election. Reuters reported that around 20,000 people participated in the 15 March demonstrations.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dw.com/en/anti-war-protesters-march-through-moscow/a-17938261 |title=Anti-war protesters march through Moscow |website=Deutsche Welle |access-date=13 December 2015 |archive-date=22 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222145813/http://www.dw.com/en/anti-war-protesters-march-through-moscow/a-17938261 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=reut>{{cite news|title=Ukraine crisis triggers Russia's biggest anti-Putin protest in two years|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-russia-rallies-idINL6N0MC0JC20140315|access-date=16 March 2014|newspaper=Reuters|date=15 March 2014|archive-date=22 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622232507/https://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-russia-rallies-idINL6N0MC0JC20140315|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen=== {{further|Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen}} [[File:065 Procession (39025167311).jpg|thumb|Protest against U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, New York City, 2017]] {{Expand section|date=January 2026}}

===2021 Israel–Palestine crisis=== {{further|International protests over the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis}} In May 2021, protests broke out following a flare-up of the Israel–Palestine conflict. In the U.S., thousands gathered in at least seven major cities across the country in solidarity with Palestinians.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/us/israel-palestinian-conflict-us-protests-trnd/index.html |title=People across the US join pro-Palestinian protests |publisher=CNN |date=18 May 2021 |access-date=13 June 2021 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206013727/https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/us/israel-palestinian-conflict-us-protests-trnd/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The 2021 conflict lasted from 6 May until 21 May when a ceasefire was signed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-middle-east-57183127|title=Israel-Gaza: How the ceasefire fared on its first day |work=BBC News |access-date=2021-06-13|archive-date=2021-06-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606032231/https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-middle-east-57183127|url-status=live}}</ref> The following day, an estimated 180,000 protestors gathered in Hyde Park, England, in what may have been the largest pro-Palestine demonstration in British history. Speeches were made by anti-war campaigners and trade union members including demands that the UK government disinvest and sanction Israel. Messages such as "free Palestine" and "stop the war" were displayed on banners and placards and chanted by protesters.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/22/thousands-gather-in-london-for-palestine-solidarity-march |title=Thousands gather in London for Palestine solidarity march |work=The Guardian |date=22 May 2021 |access-date=2 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522150201/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/22/thousands-gather-in-london-for-palestine-solidarity-march|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite the ceasefire, protests continued into June, with, for example, protestors in Oakland, California, attempting to block an Israeli cargo ship from entering the Port of Oakland on 4 June.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Pro-Palestinian-protesters-at-Port-of-Oakland-16224999.php|title=Pro-Palestinian protesters at Port of Oakland attempt to block unloading of Israeli cargo ship |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=4 June 2021 |access-date=2 May 2023 |archive-date=7 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607133937/https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Pro-Palestinian-protesters-at-Port-of-Oakland-16224999.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

===2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine=== {{main|Protests against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|}}

[[File:We Stand with Ukraine 2022 Helsinki - Finland (51906116525).jpg|thumb|right|Street protesters with signs are demonstrating in Helsinki, Finland after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.]] Beginning in 2022, the anti-war movement was renewed following tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Protests escalated in Russia on 24 February 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knutson |first=Jacob |date=2022-02-24 |title=Over 1700 Russians arrested during anti-war protests, human rights organization says |url=https://www.axios.com/photos-people-protest-russia-war-against-ukraine-c7fecd0e-6dfe-436f-8959-7016797ceeca.html |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=Axios |language=en |archive-date=2022-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228084119/https://www.axios.com/photos-people-protest-russia-war-against-ukraine-c7fecd0e-6dfe-436f-8959-7016797ceeca.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced prison sentences of up to 15 years for publishing "fake news" about Russian military operations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Even Russia's Kremlin-backed media is going off message and beginning to question Putin's war on Ukraine |url=https://fortune.com/2022/03/11/russia-kremlin-backed-media-off-message-question-putin-war-ukraine-invasion/ |work=Fortune |date=11 March 2022 |access-date=30 March 2023 |archive-date=11 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311190412/https://fortune.com/2022/03/11/russia-kremlin-backed-media-off-message-question-putin-war-ukraine-invasion/ |url-status=live }}</ref> As of December 2022, more than 4,000 people, including Russian opposition politicians and journalists, had been prosecuted under Russia's "fake news" laws for criticizing the war in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Weir |first1=Fred |title=In Russia, critiquing the Ukraine war could land you in prison |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2022/1205/In-Russia-critiquing-the-Ukraine-war-could-land-you-in-prison |work=CSMonitor.com |date=5 December 2022 |access-date=30 March 2023 |archive-date=2 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602022102/https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2022/1205/In-Russia-critiquing-the-Ukraine-war-could-land-you-in-prison |url-status=live}}</ref>

===2023 Israel–Gaza war=== {{main|Gaza war protests}}

Multiple protests against the war took place around the world since the start of the Gaza war, mostly in support of Palestine.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/16/mapping-protests-held-in-solidarity-with-palestine |title=Mapping protests in solidarity with Palestine against Israel's assault |date=2023-10-16 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-war-protesters-take-to-streets-around-the-world-to-show-support-for-palestinians-12983897 |title=Israel-Hamas war: Protesters take to streets around the world to show support for Palestinians |work=Sky News}}</ref>

===Possible Venezuela War=== {{main|2026 United States strikes in Venezuela}} Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026 by US forces, there were small protests in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.<ref>{{cite web |title=Protesters gather in Los Angeles, elsewhere to protest US military action|url=https://apnews.com/live/trump-us-venezuela-updates-01-03-2026#0000019b-86a6-dc32-a3df-8ea69c280000 |website=AP News |access-date=4 January 2026 |language=en}}</ref>

==Arts and culture== [[File:Peace symbol (bold).svg|thumb|A peace symbol, originally designed for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament movement (CND)]] {{see also|List of books with anti-war themes}}  English poet Robert Southey's 1796 poem After Blenheim is an early modern example of anti-war literature that was written generations after the Battle of Blenheim but while Britain was again at war against France.<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/document/865524837/4-After-Blenheim4 After Blenheim]Retrieved 10 January 2025</ref><ref>[https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/after-blenheim]Retrieved 10 January 2025</ref>

World War I produced a generation of poets and writers influenced by their experiences in the war. The work of poets, including Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, exposed the contrast between the realities of life in the trenches and how the war was seen by the British public at the time and the earlier patriotic verse penned by Rupert Brooke. The German writer Erich Maria Remarque penned ''All Quiet on the Western Front'', which has been adapted for several mediums and has become of the most often cited pieces of anti-war media.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Pablo Picasso's 1937 painting ''Guernica'' on the other hand, used abstraction, rather than realism, to generate an emotional response to the loss of life from the Condor Legion and Aviazione Legionaria's bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The American author Kurt Vonnegut used science fiction themes in his 1969 novel ''Slaughterhouse-Five'', depicting the bombing of Dresden in World War II, which Vonnegut witnessed.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The second half of the 20th century also witnessed a strong anti-war presence in other art forms, including anti-war music such as "Eve of Destruction", "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "One Tin Soldier", and films such as ''M*A*S*H'' and ''Die Brücke'', opposing the Cold War in general or specific conflicts such as the Vietnam War. The war in Iraq has also generated significant artistic anti-war works, including the American filmmaker Michael Moore's ''Fahrenheit 9/11'', which holds the box-office record for documentary films, and the Canadian musician Neil Young's 2006 album ''Living with War''.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

==Anti-war intellectual and scientist-activists and their work== Various people have discussed the philosophical question of whether war is inevitable, and how it can be avoided; in other words, what are the necessities of peace. Various intellectuals and others have discussed it from an intellectual and philosophical point of view, not only in public, but participating or leading anti-war campaigns despite its differing from their main areas of expertise, leaving their professional comfort zones to warn against or fight against wars.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

===Philosophical possibility of avoiding war=== * Immanuel Kant: In (1795) "Perpetual Peace"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm|title=Immanuel Kant, "Perpetual Peace"|publisher=Mtholyoke.edu|access-date=24 July 2009|archive-date=6 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406161945/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Immanuel |last=Kant |title=Perpetual Peace |translator-first=Jonathan |translator-last=Bennett |date=2010–2015 |url=http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/kant1795_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215081159/http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/kant1795_1.pdf |archive-date=2017-02-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ("''Zum ewigen Frieden''").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/themen/Theorie/kant.html|title=Immanuel Kant: Zum ewigen Frieden, 12.02.2004 (Friedensratschlag)|publisher=Uni-kassel.de|access-date=24 July 2009|archive-date=23 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923155158/http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/themen/Theorie/kant.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Immanuel Kant booklet on "Perpetual Peace" in 1795. Politically, Kant was one of the earliest exponents of the idea that perpetual peace could be secured through universal democracy and international cooperation.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Levin |first1=Noah |title=Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource, collected and edited by Noah Levin |last2=Nobis |first2=Nathan |last3=Svolba |first3=David |last4=Wooldridge |first4=Brandon |last5=Grob |first5=Kristina |last6=Salazar |first6=Eduardo |last7=Davies |first7=Benjamin |last8=Spelman |first8=Jonathan |last9=Stanton |first9=Elizabeth |last10=Seemuth Whaley |first10=Kristin |last11=Jacko |first11=Jan F |last12=Prabhpal |first12=Singh |publisher=N.G.E Far Press |year=2019 |editor-last=Levin |editor-first=Noah |location=Huntington Beach, California}}</ref>

=== Leading scientists and intellectuals=== Here is a list of notable anti-war scientists and intellectuals: * Linus Pauling was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace activism (his second Nobel Prize).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1962 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1962/pauling/facts/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> He circulated multiple petitions among scientists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Narrative - 41. Another Petition - Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement |url=https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/peace/narrative/page41.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=scarc.library.oregonstate.edu}}</ref> * Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein had correspondences on violence, peace, and human nature.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}} * Bertrand Russell mostly was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed anti-imperialism.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Richard Rempel|year=1979|title=From Imperialism to Free Trade: Couturat, Halevy and Russell's First Crusade|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=40|issue=3|pages=423–443|doi=10.2307/2709246|jstor=2709246|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Russell, Bertrand|title=Political Ideals|publisher=Routledge|orig-year=1917|year=1988|isbn=0-415-10907-8}}</ref> Occasionally, he advocated preventive nuclear war, before the opportunity provided by the atomic monopoly is gone, and "welcomed with enthusiasm" world government.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bertrand |last=Russell|title=Atomic Weapon and the Prevention of War|work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |volume=2 |issue=7–8 |date=1 October 1946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwwAAAAAMBAJ|page= 20}}</ref> He went to prison for his pacifism during World War I.<ref>Samoiloff, Louise Cripps. ''C .L. R. James: Memories and Commentaries'', p. 19. Associated University Presses, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8453-4865-5}}</ref> Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticised Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament.<ref name="Gallery">{{cite web |url=http://russell.mcmaster.ca/~bertrand/ |title=The Bertrand Russell Gallery |publisher=Russell.mcmaster.ca |date=6 June 2011 |access-date=1 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928232717/http://russell.mcmaster.ca/~bertrand/ |archive-date=28 September 2011}}</ref> In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/index.html The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950 — Bertrand Russell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702151048/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/index.html |date=2018-07-02 }}: ''The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950 was awarded to Bertrand Russell "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".'' Retrieved on 22 March 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9to64vR8RvQ|title=British Nobel Prize Winners (1950)|date=13 April 2014|publisher=YouTube|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032216/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9to64vR8RvQ|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Manifestos and statements by scientist and intellectual activists === * Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and eight other leading scientists and intellectuals signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto issued 9 July 1955.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/peace/narrative/page25.html | title=Russell/Einstein | access-date=13 December 2007 | first=Thomas | last=Hager | date=29 November 2007 | publisher=Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections | archive-date=5 April 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140405020718/http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling/peace/narrative/page25.html | url-status=live }}</ref> * The Mainau Declaration of 15 July 1955 was signed by 52 Nobel Prize laureates.<ref name=Snow>{{cite book|last1=Hermann|first1=Armin|title=The New Physics: The Route Into the Atomic Age: in memory of Albert Einstein, Max von Laue, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner|date=1979|publisher=Inter Nationes|location=Bonn-Bad Godesberg|page=130}}</ref> * The Dubrovnik-Philadelphia Statement of 1974/1976<ref name=Dubrovnik>{{cite web|title=The Dubrovnik-Philadelphia Statement /1974–1976/ (short version) |url=http://www.intlh.com/statement.html |website=International League of Humanists |access-date=28 May 2015 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924035630/http://www.intlh.com/statement.html |archive-date=24 September 2015 }}</ref> was signed by Linus Pauling and others.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== {{refbegin|40em}} * Chickering, Roger. ''Imperial Germany and a World Without War: The Peace Movement and German Society, 1892-1914'' (Princeton University Press, 2015). * Curti, Merle. ''The American peace crusade, 1815-1860'' (1929) [https://archive.org/details/americanpeacecru0000curt online free to borrow] * Davenport, Christian, Erik Melander, and Patrick M. Regan. The ''Peace Continuum: What it is and how to Study it'' (Oxford University Press, 2018). * Gledhill, John, and Jonathan Bright. "Studying peace and studying conflict: Complementary or competing projects?", ''Journal of Global Security Studies'' 4.2 (2019): 259–266. * Howlett, Charles F. "Studying America's Struggle against War: An Historical Perspective." ''History Teacher'' 36#3 (2003), pp. 297–330. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1555689 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807052524/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1555689 |date=2019-08-07 }}. * Jarausch, Konrad H. "Armageddon Revisited: Peace Research Perspectives on World War One." ''Peace & Change'' 7.1-2 (1981): 109–118. * Jeong, Ho-Won. ''Peace and conflict studies: An introduction'' (Routledge, 2017). * Kaltefleiter, Werner, and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff. ''The Peace Movements in Europe and the United States'' (Routledge, 2019). * Patler, Nicholas. [http://quakertheology.org/Morrison-Patler-Remembering-Norman.pdf ''Norman's Triumph: the Transcendent Language of Self-Immolation''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019155635/http://quakertheology.org/Morrison-Patler-Remembering-Norman.pdf |date=2017-10-19 }} Quaker History, Fall 2105, 18–39. * Patterson, David S. ''The Search for Negotiated Peace: Women's Activism and Citizen Diplomacy in World War I'' (Routledge. 2008) * Peterson, Christian Philip, William M. Knoblauch, and Michael Loadenthal, eds. ''The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750'' (Routledge, 2018). {{refend}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * War-Related Protests (WRP) dataset for Africa, 1990 to 2017 * [https://www.theguardian.com/antiwar/subsection/0,,884056,00.html Guide to anti-war websites] by ''The Guardian'' * [http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/peace1.htm Essays and speeches from the Antebellum Era peace movement] * [https://www.berlin1969.com/stories-geschichte/troubled-times-unruhige-zeiten/demonstration/ 1969 anti-war march in Berlin] * Scates, Bob (2022). "[https://commonslibrary.org/draftmen-go-free-a-history-of-the-anti-conscription-movement-in-australia/ The draftmen go free: a history of the anti-conscription movement in Australia]". Book review and whole book. The Commons Social Change Library.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti-War}} Category:Anti-war movement Category:Non-interventionism Category:Pacifism Category:Peace movements Category:Political movements Category:War