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The History of the Peace Symbol

The logo commonly recognized as the “peace sign” since the late ‘50s supposedly began as the logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). According to the CND, it was designed in 1958 by an English professional artist/designer named Gerald Holtom, who had graduated from the Royal College of Arts. Holtom, a conscientious objector who had preferred working on a Norfolk farm during WWII instead of joining the conflict, incorporated the hand-held flag symbols (semaphores) for N and D into his logo, the N standing for “nuclear” and the D for “disarmament.” In semaphore, the letter N is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down V, and the letter D is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. By superimposing the flag orientation of these two letters, the bars of the peace sign were derived.

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The Resistance Center steps into national counter recruitment conversation with NNOMY

Miranda Groux - With recruiters viewed as a commonplace in high schools, we can’t deny the fact that our public schools are militarized. The normalization of violence and conflict threatens students everywhere in the US. No student should face the risk of falling victim to the dangers of war at school. Now more than ever, our children need an active counter-recruitment movement.

For years, the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) has lead the conversation by uniting more than 80 demilitarization and counter recruitment organizations across the country. Representatives from 8 of these organizations serve on NNOMY’s Steering Committee. As of January 2019, The Resistance Center is pleased to be represented on the Steering Committee.

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United States Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide

This website is designed with three purposes in mind.  One is to provide a coherent overview of United States foreign policies, covering the nation’s wars, military interventions, and major doctrines over the course of 240 years.  Written for the general public and undergraduate students, each entry draws on the work of experts in the area of study, summarizing major developments, analyzing causes and contexts, and providing links to additional information and resources.

The second purpose is to examine great debates over U.S. foreign policies and wars, focusing especially on leaders and movements advocating peace and diplomacy.  Controversy has been the hallmark of U.S. foreign policy from the War for Independence to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 21st century.

The third purpose is to evaluate U.S. foreign policies and wars from a principled perspective, one that reflects ”just war” and international humanitarian norms today.  This is a history about the United States’ role in the world, but it does not define “success” and “progress” in terms of the advancement of national power and interests, even the winning of wars.

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The Objector Church

The Objector Church is a different kind of spiritual community, one that is rooted in the principles of peace and religious humanism.

By peace, we are meaning much more than just the absence of war and violence, but something deeper and broader, speaking to the positive values of social justice, equality, sustainability and harmony with each other and the earth. Yet it is because of our positive peaceful values that we also object — we object to dehumanization, to hatred, to nationalism and empire and most importantly to war. Objection is part of our DNA and is why we are named “The Objector Church.”
To discuss the concept of religious humanism, we must define these two words.

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Activist or protester Surveillance Self-Defense

How to keep you and your communications safe wherever your campaigning takes you.

The revolution may not be tweeted, but modern activism is nonetheless often reliant on online organizing. This playlist will teach you how to understand the risks activists face and how to protect against them.


Read More from the Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Long Road Home

An example of the Pentagon subsidizing a TV film series in exchange for it including what the Army emails called “strategic messaging.”

The National Geographic drama series, “The Long Road Home,” tells a version of the story of the battle for Sadr City in 2004, a key moment in Iraq War, and newly-released emails and other documents from the United States Army detail the extensive military support for the TV series and how the Pentagon repeatedly bent its own rules on providing assistance to entertainment productions.

Army Specialist Tomas Young was shot during the fighting in Sadr City and paralyzed from the waist down. He had been in Iraq for only five days, having signed up just after the 9/11 attacks.

Young became an anti-war campaigner, one of the first Iraq war veterans to do so, and he met Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey, the long-term protest outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. (Young was later profiled in the documentary, “Body of War,” before he tragically died from his injuries.)

“The Long Road Home” depicts this meeting between Tomas and Cindy, but in a move Sheehan described as ‘cowardly’, the producers asked the military’s permission to include banners and t-shirts in this scene bearing the names and logos of various peace and anti-war organizations

Cindy Sheehan commented on the production. “To use the set that my own son trained on to go and be killed is appalling.”

The film does not reference Camp Casey or even identify it in a subtitle. While Tomas, Cindy, and others are shown attending an event, there is no dialogue. None of them articulate to the audience why they became peace activists or how they went from signing up for the war to protesting the war.

Over 8 hours, it devotes much of its time to glamorizing the war, and never allows 30 seconds for a main character to explain why they changed their mind.

As Sheehan put it, ‘The military [was] involved to make war look heroic and glamorous. It’s almost as bad as the overt propaganda films of World War II.”

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Maryland Bill Would Ban Lead Ammo in the Schools

A bill in the Maryland legislature would ban the use of lead ammunition in high school firing ranges.

Lead accumulates on the floor at the muzzle end of the gun and at the target backstop. Tiny lead particulates become airborne and delicate cleaning procedures are often not followed.

Can you reach out to your delegate and others to support this legislation? So far 36 Democrats have signed on!  

Please contact your delegate and ask her/him to support HB 523.

Read the Summary / and the Bill / Learn More

Tell New York State Education Officials:
Protect Student Privacy!

Note: Signers must be residents of New York State. This stands as a good example of what can be done in other states who wish to protect student privacy so please share and to alert friends and family of New York of this important campaign.

The Department of Defense's military aptitude test (ASVAB) is given to thousands of 10th, 11th & 12th grade public school students in NY State. Their test scores, personal data including social security number, contact information, and academic skills are gleaned from the test and stored on a Department of Defense database for future release to the military for potential recruiting outreach. To ensure students' privacy requires participating high school administrators to select Release Option 8: Access to student test information is not provided to recruiting services.  

NY Commissioner of Education Elia is currently requesting public comments concerning student privacy. The ASVAB test has been left off her list of privacy concerns. It is our responsibility to petition the NY Board of Education and Board of Regents to enact a state-wide Directive denying this release of data. Urging our education officials to protect students' privacy rights and enact a 2019 NY Directive requiring selection of Release Option 8 for all students taking the ASVAB is imperative for our children.

 It's urgent that we send a brief privacy letter to ensure Release Option 8 for each student during this open comment period. Your letter will be sent to the NY Commissioner of Education, Chief Privacy Officer, Chancellor of the Board of Regents, and all members of the Board of Regents.

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Please Donate to fund counter-recruitment nationally

Help Fund NNOMY to De-Militarize Schools. Your donation to NNOMY supports the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth's efforts to balance the message of military recruiters in our public schools where minors are routinely primed for recruitment through Department of Defense school programs designed for youth.

 Making a financial contribution supports NNOMY's national demilitarization work with activist organizations inside middle and high schools.

Click to Make Your Donation

(Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.) through our fiscal sponsor Alliance for Global Justice. Make sure you select from the causes list, The National Network Opposing he Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), or make a check out to:"NNOMY/AFGJ" and mail it to: AFGJ, 225 E. 26th St. Suite 1, Tucson, AZ 85713