Bartholomeus de Ligt (17 July 1883 – 3 September 1938) was a Dutch

anarcho-pacifist Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism rejects ...

and

antimilitarist Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (esp ...

. He is chiefly known for his support of conscientious objectors.

Life and work

Born on 17 July 1883 in

Schalkwijk, Utrecht Schalkwijk () is a small village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It consists of a small village centre on the railway line between Utrecht and 's-Hertogenbosch and a 5 km long ribbon of farms along the small channel Schalkwijksche Weterin ...

, his father was a Calvinist pastor. Following in his father's footsteps, he became a theology student at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

. While there, he was exposed to liberal thinking and

Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

philosophy for the first time and, in 1909, became a member of the League of Christian Socialists. In 1910, he was appointed pastor of the

Reformed Church Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

Nuenen Nuenen () is a town in the municipality of Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten in the Netherlands. From 1883 to 1885, Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen. In 1944, the town was a battle scene during Operation Market Garden. The local dialect i ...

, near

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Brabant Brabant is a traditional geographical region (or regions) in the Low Countries of Europe. It may refer to: Place names in Europe * London-Brabant Massif, a geological structure stretching from England to northern Germany Belgium * Province of Bra ...

where

van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

's father had been pastor 25 years before.

First anti-war activities

In 1914, de Ligt joined with fellow pastors A. R. de Jong and Truus Kruyt to write "The Guilt of the Churches", charging that the Christian establishment had been complicit in the events that produced World War I. Afterwards, all of his writings became forbidden literature for the Dutch armed forces. His impassioned sermons in support of conscientious objection resulted in his being banned from those parts of the Netherlands considered to be in the war zone. In 1918 he resigned as pastor declaring that, because of his increasingly universalist approach to religion, he no longer considered himself to be specifically a Christian.

Later activities

In 1918, De Ligt married the Swiss activist Catherina Lydia van Rossem, with whom he had a son. He was imprisoned in 1921 for organizing a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coa ...

to gain the release of Herman Groenendaal, a jailed conscientious objector who had gone on a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

. Later that year, he founded the IAMB (International Anti-Militarism Bureau). As he was becoming more involved with the work of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...

, in 1925 he moved to Geneva, where he remained for the rest of his life. However, De Ligt became sceptical about the League's efforts, viewing it as how the colonial powers maintained an unjust world order. De Ligt instead regarded the Brussels Congress Against Colonial Oppression and Imperialism, held in 1927 as more representative of the world's population. At a meeting of the War Resisters International in 1934, he presented his now-famous "Plan of a Campaign Against All Wars and Preparation for War". (The full text of which may be found in ''The Conquest of Violence''.) De Ligt also took a firm stand against

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and t ...

and

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

in the 1930s. During the 1930s, De Ligt also promoted the ideas of Simone Weil. De Ligt's ideas were especially influential in Britain; they strongly influenced the British

No More War Movement The No More War Movement was the name of two pacifist organisations, one in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand. British Group The British No More War Movement (NMWM) was founded in 1921 as a pacifist and socialist successor to the No-Consc ...

. Writing in the pacifist magazine '' Peace News'', playwright R. H. Ward praised De Ligt as "the Gandhi of the West". De Ligt's last work was a biography of

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

, whom Van Den Dungen argues De Ligt strongly identified with: "''He recognized in Erasmus a kindred spirit who.. had fought,..not only against war and violence, but also for the idea of free thought and for the liberation of humanity''". In 1938, after a brief illness, he collapsed from exhaustion and died at the railway station in Nantes.

''The Conquest of Violence''

''The Conquest of Violence : an Essay on War and Revolution'' is a book written by De Ligt which deals with non-violent resistance in part inspired by the ideas of

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, and details his rejection of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

and

Bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, ...

. ''The Conquest of Violence'' drew on British philosopher Gerald Heard's idea that human aggression had become "a useless evil" with the advent of industrialized warfare. Anarchist historian

George Woodcock George Woodcock (; May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel wri ...

reports that ''The Conquest of Violence'' "was read widely by British and American pacifists during the 1930s and led many of them to adopt an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

ic point of view".

Major writings

* ''The Conquest of Violence : an Essay on War and Revolution'', introduction by

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

; new introduction by Peter van den Dungen ; translated by Honor Tracy from the French text revised and enlarged by the author. Pluto ; Winchester, MA, USA : * ''La Paix Créatrice; Histoire des Principes et des Tactiques de L'Action Directe Contre la Guerre'', 2 vols., Paris, Marcell Riviere, (1934). * ''Erasmus'', Arnhem, (1936).

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ligt, Bart De 1883 births 1938 deaths 20th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers Anarcho-pacifists Anarcho-syndicalists Anti-fascists Calvinist pacifists Calvinist and Reformed Christian socialists Christian anarchists Dutch anarchists Dutch anti-capitalists Dutch Christian pacifists Dutch humanists Dutch members of the Dutch Reformed Church Dutch pacifists Dutch socialists Former Calvinist and Reformed Christians League of Christian Socialists politicians People from Houten Utrecht University alumni