The first two issues were dedicated to the commemoration of Gandhi's 125th birthday and our correspondences to the followers of Leo Tolstoy in Russia. The annual membership is 360 Deutschmarks, reduced membership is 120 Deutschmarks. This manifesto has been translated into more than 25 languages and it has been signed by many signatories, among them four Nobel Peace Laureates. It is aimed to have the Manifesto signed by more individuals who are publicly active in Peace, Ecology and Human Rights issues or in Scientific and Cultural spheres. In the name of humanity, for the sake of all civilians threatened by war crimes, especially women and children, and for the benefit of Mother Nature suffering from war preparations and warfare, We, the undersigned, plead for the universal abolition of conscription as one major and decisive step towards complete disarmament.
Conscription involves the degradation of human personality, and the destruction of liberty.
It is debasing human dignity to force men to give up their life, or to inflict death against their will, or without conviction as to the justice of their action. The State which thinks itself entitled to force its citizens to go to war will never pay proper regard to the value and happiness of their lives in peace. Moreover, by conscription the militarist spirit of aggressiveness is implanted in the whole male population at the most impressionable age. By training for war men come to consider war as unavoidable and even desirable. It is a form of servitude.