Author name: davidswanson

The Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence (Division 48 of the American Psychological Association) hosted this webinar — “Foreign Bases: Understanding the Backbone of Military Empires” — on July 8, 2026. Our speaker was David Swanson, author, activist, journalist, radio host, and executive director of World BEYOND War.

The webinar illuminated the role and prevalence of military bases on foreign lands, an obvious instrument of militarism. The presentation also included information read more

Wow, U.S. social media is suffering a pandemic of nationalism just in time for a celebration of a declaration of the crimes and abuses of King George, a laundry list of horrors that pale beside the accomplishments of any recent U.S. president — the quaint abuses of his royal highness of the blue piss who in reality was more read more

Legacy “news” outlets have declared a national disaster emergency. It seems that we the people of the United States may be in imminent danger of having about 10% of the U.S. Congress give a damn about us, and — what’s worse — perhaps 5% give a damn about the other 96% of humanity too.

The panic seems misplaced, not only because Uncle Sam’s Oligarchs have still got 90% of our court jesters, the one emperor, and a majority of the Supremes, but also because the read more

World BEYOND War’s David Swanson, Kathy Kelly, Sellah N. King’oro, and John Reuwer, spoke on June 19 at the University of Massachusetts – Amherest at the conference on Resistance Studies.

Part 1 of 4: War and Resistance Studies, by David Swanson, June 19, 2026

In the 1990s I was doing a Master’s in Philosophy at the University of Virginia when some UVA professors and students began a campaign to get everyone who worked there paid a living wage. It was the first organized activism I worked on, the first time I planned events, recruited people, and argued against misleading claims from opponents of positive change. I got involved in living wage efforts around the country and eventually ended up working for a group called ACORN, but the leading lights read more

By Parallax Views, June 18, 2026

LISTEN HERE: https://t.co/Ch1cvrESQK

— J.G. Michael (@ViewsParallax) June 18, 2026

On this special edition of Parallax Views, J.G. and a slew of top-notch guests delve into the antiwar movement and the attacks, past and present, on antiwar voices and dissidents.

When Iran moved toward a decent democratic government, the UK, U.S., and oil barons destroyed it and put in place a horrendously brutal dictatorship. When Iranians overthrew that dictatorship, religious lunatics seized power and treated the people of Iran so cruelly for so long that many of them longed for that dictatorship — or the CIA-owned son thereof — and still do. When Iraq attacked Iran, the U.S. provided targeting assistance and chemical weapons. Then the U.S. labeled Iran read more

If the U.S. government or state governments had a trillion dollars and a willingness to spend money on anything other than wars, and if they worked for us instead of for the oil companies, we could have solar power for almost every household in the country.

Even with little bits of a trillion dollars, we could have great things in the United States: free preschool for anyone who wants it ($35b), Medicaid for the uninsured ($214b), housing read more

Recently the least popular person alive said, “I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?”

Already unpopular with kind and decent people, Trump may have — with that comment — tanked his popularity with every weapons company public relations hack on Earth. Their most deeply held pretense has always been that military spending isn’t needed for wars but rather to prevent wars.

Of course, Trump promised not to start any read more

According to an email on Tuesday from The Hill newspaper, “The Iran war is on the ballot in South Carolina, where GOP primary voters will determine the political fate of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a steadfast ally of President Trump and one of the Senate’s most hawkish members. Graham is heavily favored to eventually secure the Republican nomination, but polls show he may need to win a runoff first, in what would be a first for the four-term senator.”

Everyone’s first thought read more

Remarks from a webinar about the Peace Manifesto.

Hi. This is David Swanson and I’m speaking as Executive Director of World BEYOND War. I’m honored to be a part of celebrating one year of the peace manifesto that people can find and promote at activatingpeace.org.

Maybe celebrating is the wrong word and recommitting is the right one. I am still sick and tired of the culture of war and supportive of a culture of peace. If it’s OK, I’ll tell you a bit about what I mean by that. read more

There are a lot of ways in which we could reduce electoral candidate scandals. I want to point to a few that are, I think, the most undervalued.

1. The Murder Problem

As a society, we recruit, train, and condition many thousands of people to engage in intense campaigns of mass killing and destruction abroad, and we reward and praise them for it. When they struggle with the shift to a nonviolent, non-hating environment after completion of their so-called “service,” we blame ourselves for not giving them more read more

Trump has a trillion dollars a year for wars — a record amount, more than most other countries combined, more than the non-war federal discretionary budget, enough to attack Venezuela and Iran on his whim, enough to send drone-murder missiles into houses and boats around the world, enough to keep the weapons falling on Gaza and Ukraine, enough to fill new countries with U.S. bases, enough to build new nukes, enough to create a “golden dome” fantasy death machine, enough to do read more

When I was a kid it was fun to hang out on the U.S. National Mall by the Washington Monument, which reflected just fine in the Reflecting Pool, on the Fourth of July. The Beach Boys would jam on an outdoor stage with about 35 opening acts. We’d bounce beach balls overhead. There were no jets or tanks in sight.

Now the psychopath across the road prefers weapons parades and is planning to put gladiators in a cage on the White House lawn and have them fight for his entertainment. This bothers read more