Our Story

In 2017, a team of organizers came together and spent two years front-loading what the organization would become and laying out a strategy to innovate beyond familiar organizing models and make a unique intervention and contribution to the broader movement – one that would make the connection between militarism against Black and Latinx communities in the US as well as wars abroad. This group included younger anti-war organizers frustrated with the liberal peace movement’s failure to center those impacted by militarism and bring in young people, abolitionist organizers rooted in Black liberation traditions, the children of Iraqi, Korean, and Vietnamese refugees, all of whom were committed to resisting wars waged abroad as well as the wars waged by police, ICE and other agencies on communities within the U.S. Coming from different movement backgrounds – labor, racial justice, criminal justice reform, climate, and immigration justice – they were united by a dream of an intersectional, grassroots anti-war movement led by young people of color, that bridges the international and domestic struggles for safety and self-determination.

We built our frontloading team: we organized an advisory team of 18 people, and a core team of 8 to support the frontloading of the organization. Many of the organizers who have supported this frontloading process continue to serve on the staff and advisory team after we launched.