More than 30 years later, he remains a tireless activist for nuclear disarmament and a leading proponent of nonviolent strategies for political change. Last fall, as U.S. bombs fell in Afghanistan, hundreds celebrated his 86th birthday, an event recorded and recently released as a CD titled Nonviolent Warriors: Dave Dellinger and the Power of the People. He spoke with In These Times from his home in Vermont.

You have been on the ramparts of every major struggle for peace and justice in the past half-century. Where do you find hope now, when President Bush has declared 2002 to be "the war year"?

It is a hard time to be hopeful. But my wife, Elizabeth Peterson, and I speak at a lot of high schools, and each time we see the early signs of interest in peace and nonviolence, and we hear young people expressing the need for alternatives to war and violence. That gives us hope . . .

We also have grandchildren who are asking questions and displaying an interest in the world around them. That gives us hope. In fact, just being around young people energizes and inspires us . . . I see more and more young people opting out of the dominant culture and seeking alternative ways to live together simply and humanely, and that gives me extraordinary hope.

In the 1950s you were arrested repeatedly in the South as a freedom rider. Today, under the aegis of the "war on Terrorism," we are seeing a new oppression of people of color, especially Muslims and Arab-Americans. Can the lessons of the civil rights movement be applied to this situation?

Definitely. The civil rights movement taught us the importance of solidarity. And now, here in Vermont, we stand in solidarity with our Muslim and Arab brothers and sisters, taking measures to protect them--simple things like accompanying Muslim women to the grocery store and on errands, but also making public statement expressing the fact that our neighbors are not our enemies. The real enemy is war and violence and the ignorance and fear that make war possible.

You were a conscientios objector to World War II--an extraordinary courageous and unpopular thing to be--and you spent a year in prison as a result. What did you accomplish?

I received a conscription notice while at Union Theological Seminary in the 1940s. My studies exempted me from serving in the military, but I refused to accept the exemption. It seemed wrong to me that I could have a choice because I could afford to be in school while all over the country so many men, especially blacks and poor people, had no choice but to fight and be killed in the war.

So I went to jail. While in jail I fought the segregation of the prison system and their dehumanizing rules and tactics. I spent a lot of time in the "hole."

In Israel there are hundreds of soldiers who now are refusing to fight in the Occupied Territories.

I think by conscientiously objecting, my few friends and I expressed what a lot of people must have felt. Maybe we gave people the courage to speak out. That is what the Israeli "refuseniks" are doing. Their courage challenges their fellow citizens to take an equally principles stance against war and violence. I should also mention the courageous witnessws of the "Women in Black" who regularly hold vigils in Israel. My wife and I are part of a local Women in Black vigil. They let men participate as long as we wear black.

What other sorts of local activism are you involved in?

We are part of the Alliance for Prison justice, a Vermont-based organization working to support prisoners and fight the privatization of prisons. In our area, all the services within the prison--health and dental care, mental health, food service, the telephone--have been privatized.

We are also very active in alternative media. Over the years, I have been the editor of many peace publications. Since 1986, I have been co-chairman of the board of directors of Toward freedom magazine, a Vermont based publication. When the mainstream press does not tell the truth, we need alternative publications that can reach and teach people, inspire them, inform them and get them active for peace and justice.

What is the most important thing you have learned over your long life of resistance to war and commitment to peace?

Love. At the core of it all, there needs to be love. We need one another. We all benefit from the existence of a beloved community. My wife and I have struggled all these years to purge ourselves of hatred, to forgive our enemies, and to love. Love is a strong inner force, and from it powerful witnesses for peace and justice will flow.

Frida Berrigan
In These Times
July 22, 2002