“Reclaiming Armistice Day”

Ellen Barfield will discuss the original intention of 11 November as a day to mourn the terrible bloodshed of World War I, and the frightening distortion of the day to “Veterans Day”, yet another official U.S. holiday to glorify war and militarism, and thereby facilitate subsequent wars.

Ellen Barfield is a co-founder of the Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter of Veterans for Peace. She served in the U.S. Army from 1977 to 1981 and was discharged with the rank of Sergeant. She is active with Veterans For Peace, War Resisters League, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, School of the Americas Watch, and the Plowshares movement. She has been a nonviolent activist for nearly 30 years, after leaving the U.S. Army with an unformed wish to challenge war-making, oppression, and environmental destruction, and having the very good fortune to meet and work with many amazing colleagues in the movement.