Welcome to our online resource center documenting, honoring and encouraging peace, justice, and nonviolent social change around the world ( and right here at home, too! ).

This website carries forward the work of Quaker peace activist David Hartsough (1940-2025) and his wide circle of co-workers.

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David Hartsough: Presente! A Shining Light for a Nonviolent World — A Remembrance from Nonviolence Internatioal

We share the passing of David Hartsough, a long-time supporter of Nonviolence International and the global nonviolence movement. David died at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer. He was a loving husband of Jan and of 2 children. He co-founded Nonviolent Peaceforce, Nonviolent Peaceworks, and World Beyond War, David was a Quaker who dedicated his life to nonviolence and a just world. His vision and commitment to nonviolence shaped countless movements. His memoir, Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, tells the remarkable story of his decades spent on the front lines of nonviolent action. Can you believe he drove to Red Square in 1961 in a VW Bug from Berlin and protested against nuclear weapons? 

Col. Ann Wright called him the “Forrest Gump” of the US Peace Movement implying that he had a knack for being present at so many historic anti-war events for 70 years. In addition to ubiquitous protesting he actively worked on numerous campaigns for peace and justice. In the late 1950’s, he was arrested for nuclear & chemical weapons ban protests, in the 1960’s, he was among the earliest to oppose the Vietnam War, through the then newly created Washington Peace Center and the Friends Committee on National Legislation. In the 1970’s he worked for the American Friends Service Committee where he opposed US wars in Central America and supported the pioneering use of nonviolence intervention by Peace Brigades and Witness for Peace. He became so enamored with nonviolent intervention that In 1996 he presented his idea of a large scale nonviolent army to intervene in conflicts around the world at NVI’s global conference Mainstreaming Peace Teams. His dream later came to fruition at the 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace where he met Michael Beer, Mel Duncan and Timmon Wallis and Nonviolent Peaceforce was provisionally born. 

In 1996, he traveled to Kosovo to support and train the nonviolent student movement in its resistance to Serbian rule and repression. He then encouraged NVI Director, Michael Beer to follow to provide more coaching and training on nonviolent resistance. In the 2000’s, he was repeatedly arrested for opposing US wars against Muslim countries and co-led a peace delegation to Iran.  He then helped David Swanson start the World Beyond War, for which NVI, through David’s suggestion, served briefly as a fiscal sponsor.  He was a life-long war-tax resister and supporter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

But his legacy was not just about ending war. He met Dr. King in Alabama as a young teenager and was a courageous activist in the sit-in movement that ended segregation in the DC area. He was arrested uncountable times for environmental, poverty alleviation, anti-racism, and social justice issues.  In 2011, he was one of the co-founders of the Occupy Movement in Washington DC. Although not a wealthy man, he was a generous financial supporter of all NVI initiatives including our projects in Russia, Iran, Kosovo, Tibet,  Palestine, Burma, and Western Sahara. He donated his massive nonviolent training collection that has been partially digitized and uploaded to NVI’s Nonviolence Training Archives.

NVI is sad to see him leave us but grateful for his relentless support and encouragement. What a remarkable nonviolent life!

(From the Nonviolence International website)

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  RECENT INTERVIEWS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Latest additions to the Peaceworkers Library

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Nonviolence Radio Interview — August 15, 2024

David Hartsough’s lifelong devotion to nonviolence
From his Quaker upbringing to his participation in
the civil rights movement and beyond, David Hartsough
explains how the power of nonviolence has guided his life.

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Susan Crane has been part of the US Peace Delegation to Germany that has been organized by John LaForge of Nukewatch, Wi. She has been part of several Plowshares actions, and is currently living and working at the Redwood City Catholic Worker in California. Facing 229 days of prison time in Germany for her anti-nuclear-weapons protest in Germany, she discusses the process of living for peace in a world addicted to war and armaments-making.

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We live in a world deeply addicted to violence and war, resulting in tremendous devastation to human life, the natural environment and the hopes and dreams of future generations. The danger of nuclear war threatens the very existence of life on this planet. In the face of all this fear and destruction, millions of people around the world are experimenting with powerful and effective nonviolent tools to break the rules of war. They are building nonviolent movements to challenge and change violent and oppressive conditions and regimes, and laying the groundwork for a just and lasting peace.
These movements have taken place all over the world, with inspiring examples from Chile, South Africa, Serbia, the Ukraine, Georgia, India, China, Burma, Tibet, Zimbabwe, and the United States. We, the world’s people, need to learn more about these lessons and join together to foster more of these successful nonviolent responses to the world’s most pressing challenges.

The mission of The Peaceworkers Library is to support, strengthen and promote nonviolent movements for peace and justice and nonviolent peacemaking efforts in the US and around the world.

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Recent Documents and Evolving News Stories:

• The Chord of Conscience — Undestanding the Eight Audiences of Nonviolence
  By Dennis Rivers
  
• Proposal to End All War — David Swanson and David Hartsough
  
  
• Peaceworkers Jeju Island Resource Guide
  
  
• Randy Kehler: Personal Reflections on the State of the World
  
  
• January 2013 — Peaceworkers Report from the Front Lines
  
  

• David Hartsough interviewed on Talk Nation Radio 12-25-2012
  
  

• Israeli forces fire on Gaza Farmers and Internationals in Khuza’a
  
  
• Following the UN vote, the Dalu family calls for the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel
  
  
• David Hartsough’s Statement Protesting Drone Attacks 
  
  
• OCCUPY! Protesters Speak Out  Against Endless War and Reckless Greed

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