Anti-war social work: Is it for you?

Our unique role in resisting American militarism today

November 5, 2026
7:00pm Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Presented by Sam Coleman, PhD, MSW
Organized by the Social Welfare Action Alliance

OVERVIEW

We’ll overview the stunning multifaceted harms to the American people from our country’s bloated “security state” budget and incessant warmaking since 1945. As radical social workers we are particularly qualified to address the many abuses that veterans and their loved ones experience.  This is a crisis of care created by America’s militarized culture and our country’s sick policy priorities, but the time is ripe for the helping professions to redirect the American war machine’s resources to serve human needs instead.

We’ll survey the military-related disorders that result from the American way of war and those veteran populations most at risk but least recognized: women, working class enlisted (versus commissioned), and aging veterans, as well as minorities. We can discuss the most promising interventions, too. For wrap-up we’ll discuss individual actions and next organizational steps, including information regarding antiwar organizations.

Recommended (not mandatory) Preparatory Reading:

Norman Solomon’s 2023 War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine (The New Press).

Chris Hedges’ 2022 The Greatest Evil Is War (Seven Stories Press).

Brief Presenter Bio:

Sam Coleman. PhD, MSW is a recognized conscientious objector who performed 15 months of alternative service for the draft as a nursing assistant / operating room technician at the Palo Alto, California Veterans Administration Hospital (1969 – 1971).  A Lifetime Associate Member of Veterans for Peace, he has applied his social work education (MSW California State University Long Beach, Older Adults and Families Concentration, 2002) by facilitating the VFP Military Trauma Working Group from 2014 to 2023.  Coleman also applies his knowledge about war as a cultural anthropologist (PhD, Columbia University 1978). He taught the Anthropology of War at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Oregon.

SWAA is funded only through memberships. These help us to maintain our website and Zoom accounts and offer honorariums to webinar hosts.