In the two years since I published an account of the activism that created the Pact, I have found a great deal of interest in reviving awareness of it. People may not be as sick of war now as they were following World War I, or at least not as open to the possibility of abolition, but many are pretty far down that road. Groups and individuals have launched petitions. City councils are creating a peace holiday on August 27th, the day the treaty was signed in 1928 in a scene well described in the song Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream. A fan of the story has created an essay contest that's received thousands of entries. Drone protesters have educated judges about the Peace Pact when they've been hauled into court for making use of the First Amendment. A Congress member has put into the Congressional Record his recognition that the Kellogg-Briand Pact made war illegal. And I've been in touch with other nations not party to the treaty and not party to any wars, encouraging them to sign on to the Pact and then urge certain other parties to begin complying with it.
When
someone wants to legalize torture or campaign bribery they point to
court proceedings marginalia, overridden vetoes, speeches, and
tangentially related ancient precedents. When we want to de-legalize
war, why not point to the Kellogg-Briand Pact? It is a treaty to which
the United States is party. It is the Supreme Law of the Land. It not
only does what we want. It does more than most people dare to dream.
I've found that some people are inspired by the Pact's existence and by
the fact that our great-grandparents were able to create a public
movement that brought it into existence.
This seems to me a good place to start.
David Swanson is the author of When the World Outlawed War.
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