World War I

How America Used WWI To Crush Internal Dissent

December 11, 2022 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report History, State Repression, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, World War I

Behind the triumphant narrative of the American entry into WWI is another story of a society riven by powerful contradictions. In 1917 the US was overwhelmed by labor disputes, rising anti-immigrant ‘nativism,’ and unrelenting racial violence, particularly against Black people. In his new book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, historian Adam Hochschild traces the untold story of how WWI reshaped America’s domestic politics. The Great War provided the occasion to clamp down on the Socialist Party of America and the International Workers of the World, muzzle the press, and stroke ethnic and racial strife between communities of workers left to fight over scraps. Adam Hochschild joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the secret history of WWI and its relevance over a century later to our current political crises.

The Importance Of The December 1914 Christmas Truce

December 24, 2019 Brian Willson, www.brianwillson.com Educate! Peace, Wars and Militarism, World War I

The emergence of vertical authority structures, the rule of kings and nobles, ripped people from historical patterns of living in small tribal groups. Along with forced stratification, the separation of people from their intimate connections with the earth produced deep insecurity, fear, and trauma to the psyche. Ecopyschologists suggest that such fragmentation led to an ecological unconscious. Thus, humans desperately need to re-discover and nourish examples of disobedience to political authority systems which have created 14,600 wars since the advent of civilization some 5,500 years ago. Over the past 3,500 years there have been nearly 8,500 treaties signed in efforts to end warfare, to no avail because the vertical structures of power have remained intact which demand obedience in their efforts to expand territory, power or resource base. The future of the species, and lives of most other species, are at stake, as we wait for humans to come to our right mind, both individually and collectively. The 1914 Christmas Truce of one hundred years ago was an extraordinary example of how wars can only continue if soldiers agree to fight. It needs to be honored and celebrated, even if it was only a flash of a moment in time. It represents the potential of human disobedience to insane policies.

The War to End War 100 Years On: An Evaluation & Reorientation Of Our Resistance to War

November 15, 2018 By Robert J. Burrowes, Popular Resistance Strategize! Violence, Wars and Militarism, World War I

If we consider war as an outcome not of political and economic differences manifesting as military violence but, fundamentally, as an outcome of psychological dysfunctionality preventing intelligent resolution of conflict, then our strategy for ending war can acquire a sophistication it must otherwise lack. Put simply, by understanding the psychological roots of violence we can develop and implement a strategy that intelligently addresses these, both in the short and medium terms. So how do we tackle, strategically, the interrelated set of problems that constitute the institution of war?

On Armistice Day, Let’s Celebrate Peace

November 12, 2017 Kathy Kelly, www.vcnv.org Resist! Armistice Day, Peace, World War I

By Kathy Kelly for Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Wilfred Owen, an English poet who was killed in action exactly one week before the Armistice that finally ended World War I was signed, wrote about the horrors of living in trenches and enduring gas warfare. In “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” he revises the Biblical narrative about Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Believing God willed the slaughter, Abraham prepared to bind Isaac and slay him. Owen transforms Abraham into the European powers who were willing to slaughter youthful generations in the trenches of World War I. Only in this telling, Abraham refuses to heed the angel who urges that the son be spared. The old man “slew the son, and half the seed of Europe, one by one.” Thirty million soldiers were killed or wounded and another seven million taken captive during World War I. Some 50 to 100 million perished from a flu epidemic created by the war.

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