Quotes
“…they hate conscription? Don’t force them to join the army!!”
Mikhail Bakunin, Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis (1870)
“When soldiers are wise enough to go on strikes, kings and aristocrats will be compelled to do their own fighting.”
The Alarm, Chicago (Nov.29, 1884)
“For us, it is truly the very existence of the army that we want to destroy, however it is organized. It is loathing for the role of soldier — the role of slave and cop combined — that we must inspire in the spirit of the people and especially of the youth.”
Errico Malatesta, Fatti ed Opinioni, La Rivoluzione Sociale, London (1902)
“Military power is always against the interest of the working class. […] The defenders of the army are the enemies of mankind.”
Industrial Worker, Spokane (Apr.29, 1909)
“The humblest soldier who now refuses military service or is guilty of insubordination — and there seem to be many such instances according to private reports — contributes more towards the resurrection of the international solidarity of the people than all the diplomats, the Kropotkins and the Jean Graves.”
Mother Earth, New York City (Jan. 1915)
“The government can murder. If it wants to — and it will do so at the given hour — it can murder hundreds of thousands of people. It has these great abilities. But it does not have the ability to force me to work for it.”
B. Traven, Der Ziegelbrenner, Cologne (Dec.21, 1921)
“I owe and swear first allegiance to the sovereignty of my tribes and my people.”
Hank Adams, quoted in ‘Won’t Answer if Drafted, Says Adams‘, Aberdeen World (Mar.18, 1964)
“I personally am also critical of forced recruitment, but I would say I have a compromise position because I see the need to confront the evil with the tools we have.”
Ex-anarchist turned statist soldier Dmitry Petrov (Ilya Leshy), Russischer Anarchist verteidigt Ukraine: “Wir kämpfen gegen Putins Regime“ (2023)
Resources
About Face: Veterans Against The War
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Articles/Stories
(In reverse chronology)
Clarity Contra Complicity, by K. C. Sinclair (2025)
The Defector is the Hero of the Future, by Gerardo Femina (2025)
Ukraine police launch nationwide search for draft dodgers, by Verity Bowman (2025)
‘Dozens’ of Ukraine soldiers deserted while training in France, by Agence France-Presse (2025)
Russian deserters risk deportation from Germany, from Deutsche Welle (2024)
Deconstructing a Military Mindset, by Joy Metzler (2024)
Ukraine: About 300 criminal cases against conscientious objectors (2024)
Why is Ukraine’s army facing a desertion crisis?, by Shola Lawal / Al Jazeera (2024)
The Heavy Toll of Desertion From the Russian Army, by Sarah A. Topol / New York Times (2024)
Three Israeli army refusers: ‘We will not participate in genocide’, by Oren Ziv (2024)
Unlocking the ‘Mystery’ – Ilan Pappé Writes In Memory of Aaron Bushnell (2024)
Palestinian town of Jericho names street after US soldier who set himself on fire (2024)
Aaron Bushnell was my friend. May he never be forgotten, by Levi Pierpont (2024)
Burnt Offerings: Aaron Bushnell and the age of immolation, by Erik Baker (2024)
Memories of Aaron Bushnell as Recounted by His Friends, edited by CrimethInc (2024)
Taking Aaron Bushnell at His Word (and Deed), by Lyle Jeremy Rubin (2024)
US airman dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy, by Al Jazeera (2024)
Why Would Anyone Kill Themselves to Stop a War? On Aaron Bushnell and Others, by Ann Wright (2024)
Graphic by Veterans Against the War
Refuseniks Forsake Israel Army Amid Post-October 7 Nationalism, by Prem Thakker (2024)
Who are the Israeli refuseniks picking jail over the Gaza war?, from Al Jazeera (2023)
Lilian Wolfe (1875-1974), de Paris Luttes (2022)
Ethnic Minorities Hit Hardest By Russia’s Mobilization, Activists Say, by Leyla Latypova (2022)
The Kinmel Park Riot, by the Canadian Encyclopedia (2021)
The Columbia Eagle mutiny, by Working Class History (2019)
Ginger Goodwin is killed near Cumberland, by John Mackie / The Vancouver Sun (2018)
US Navy nurse, jailed for protest, revisits Việt Nam, from Việt Nam News (2018)
The Forgotten History Of A Prison Uprising In Vietnam (2018)
The GI resistance in Vietnam, by Working Class History (2018)
Camp Logan Mutiny resolution, by the NAACP Houston Branch (2018)
The 1917 Houston Riots/Camp Logan Mutiny, by Prairie View A&M University (2017)
Mutiny in Victoria, by Victoria Resists (2016)
To Praise Ginger Goodwin Is to Revere a Radical, by Mark Leier (2014)
The Story of the WWI Christmas Truce, by Mike Dash (2021)
I’m Prepared To Give My Life For This Or Any Country, from The Onion (2007)
GI resistance in the Vietnam War, by Libcom (2006)
I Support The Occupation Of Iraq, But I Don’t Support Our Troops, from The Onion (2005)
‘Sir! No Sir’ review, by Robert Koehler / Variety (2005)
Mutinies: Vietnam, by Prole.info (2004)
BC’s 1944 “Zombie” Protests Against Overseas Conscription, by Peter Russell (1999)
The Ninety-Third Division: Black US Soldiers’ Struggles in World War II, by Nelson Peery (1995)
Decolonising Feminism, by Susanna Ounei-Small (1995)
(1991)
The Unknown Deserter, by Clifford Harper (1990)
Louise Olivereau and the Seattle Radical Community (1917-1923), by Sarah Ellen Sharbach (1986)
Abolish the Police and the Military!, by the Surrealist Group in Sweden (1987)
Mutinies 1917-1920, by Dave Lamb (1977?)
So I Started Fighting For My People, by John Waubanascum Jr. (1976)
Palestine’s Struggle, from FighT bAck (1975)
She [Lilian Wolfe] Lived Her Politics, by Sheila Rowbotham (1975)
Lilian Wolfe: 1875-1974, by Nicolas Walter (1974)
Disaffection, 1797 to 1974, by Wildcat Inside Story (1974)
Lilian Wolfe – Lifetime Resistance, by Sandy Martin (1972)
In the Other Army, by Kuwasi Balagoon (1971)
(1969)
To Draft Board 1, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1967)
Lilian Wolfe: On Her 90th Birthday, by Vernon Richards (1965)
“We had absolute unanimity is this [1965] song being the touchstone,” says Doug Bradley, a Vietnam War veteran. “This was the Vietnam anthem. Every bad band that ever played in an armed forces club had to play this song.”
‘We Gotta Get Out of this Place:’ Music, memory and the Vietnam War, by Brian Mattmiller (2006)
(1963)
The Avalanche, by Clara Cole (1947)
Ten Years a Soldier, from War Commentary (1944)
The Issues in the Present War, by Marcus Graham (1943)
Tribunals and Political Objectors, by Albert Meltzer and Vernon Richards (1940)
How to End War, by T-Bone Slim (1939)
A Day Mournful and Overcast…, by an “uncontrollable” from the Iron Column (1937)
Militians, Yes! But Soldiers, Never!, by various Spanish anarchist militias (1936)
An Interview with Durruti about the Militarisation of the Militia (1936)
No Conscription!, by the No Conscription League of New York (1917)
Articles in the New York Times on the No Conscription League of New York (1917)
On the March, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1917)
The Roundup, by Enrique Flores Magón (1917)
The Deadly Parallel, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1917)
Good Prospects for Anti-Militarism, by Emma Goldman (1916)
Don’t Become a Murderer!, from The Blast (1916)
The Psychology of War, from The Blast (1916)
The Meaning of Margaret Sanger’s Stand, by Rebekah E. Raney (1916)
The Revolutionist and War, by Anna Strunsky (1915)
The Barricade and the Trench, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1915)
Observations and Comments on Kropotkin and the European War, from Mother Earth (1915)
First Year of the War, by Emma Goldman (1915)
Between Ourselves, by Emidio Recchioni (1915)
To the Anti-Militarists, Anarchists, and Free Thinkers, by Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis (1915)
The Last War, by George Barrett (1915)
Concerning Atrocities, by James Peter Warbasse (1915)
War and the Worker, by W. S. Van Valkenburgh (1915)
The Main Enemy Is At Home!, by Karl Liebknecht (1915)
The African Roots of War, by W.E.B. Du Bois (1915)
The Conquerors of Bread, by Anselmo Lorenzo (1915)
Where We Stand on War, by Mary E. Marcy (1915)
Economic Conscription, by James Connolly (1915)
Is This the Last War?, by W.T. Crick (1915)
Down with Wars!, by Islina Bórquez (1914)
Let Us Make War Against War, by Leonard D. Abbott (1914)
If We Must Fight, Let It Be For The Social Revolution, from Mother Earth (1914)
To the Soldiers, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1914)
Anti-Militarism: Was It Properly Understood?, by Errico Malatesta (1914)
Our Foreign Policy, by Errico Malatesta (1914)
The Working Class and War, by Vincent St. John (1914)
Have the Leopards Changed Their Spots?, by Thomas H. Keell (1914)
Correspondence on Kropotkin’s Letter to Professor Steffen, by Fred W. Dunn (1914)
Should I Ever Be a Soldier, by Joe Hill (1913)
From ‘Industrial Worker’, April 3, 1913, Spokane
Patriotism A Bloody Monster, by Caroline Nelson (1912)
The Workers and War, by Lucy Parsons (1912)
War and the Workers, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
Insurrection Rather Than War, from Industrial Worker (1911)
Cannon Fodder, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1910)
War — What For?, by George R. Kirkpatrick (1910)
Militarism and Anti-Militarism, by Karl Liebknecht (1907)
Military Power, from Industrial Worker (1909)
As to Militarism, by Emma Goldman (1908)
To the Conscripts, from l’anarchie (1906)
Rebellion of the Soldier, by Manuel González Prada (1906)
Which Makes the Greater Savage, the Blanket or the Uniform?, by Emily G. Taylor (1902)
Imperialism: Monster of the Twentieth Century, by Kōtoku Shūsui (1901)
The Effect of War on the Workers, by Emma Goldman (1900)
The Roots of Modern War, by James Connolly (1898)
What does the refusal of military service mean?, by Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis (1893)
The Conscripts Strike, by Louise Michel (1881)
#28 in the Celebrate People’s History Poster Series
“In 1917, during the First World War, we saw an Italian soldier hanging by the thumbs from a tree as punishment, so we cut him down. I became an antimilitarist and have remained so since. At the same time I remain strongly antireligious: how can ‘God’ allow such tragedies to occur? I was fourteen, a born rebel.”
Attilio Bortolotti, interviews with Paul Avrich, 1988/1990, Anarchist Voices (1995)
Attilio Bortolotti, Federico Arcos, David Watson, and Fredy Perlman (Michigan, June 8, 1985)
Further Reading
Anarchists & Fellow Travellers on Palestine
Anarchists on National Liberation