Committee for Nonviolent Revolution
{{Short description|US pacifist organization}}
{{distinguish|text=the Committee for Non-Violent Action}}
The Committee for Nonviolent Revolution (CNVR) was a pacifist organization founded in Chicago at a conference held on February 6 to 9, 1946. Many of the founding members were conscientious objectors who had served time in prison or in Civilian Public Service camps for their refusal to fight in World War II. They included Dave Dellinger, George Houser,{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Andrew E.|authorlink=Andrew E. Hunt|title=David Dellinger: the life and times of a nonviolent revolutionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=785AOwJFGmoC&pg=PA88|accessdate=2 October 2011|year=2006|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-3638-8|page=88ff}} Lew Hill,{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Scott H.|title=Radical pacifism: the War Resisters League and Gandhian nonviolence in America, 1915-1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDJ5vXmgyRgC&pg=PA145|accessdate=2 October 2011|year=2003|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3003-6|page=145ff}} Ralph DiGia, and Igal Roodenko.{{cite book|last=D'emilio|first=John|title=Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uhqxlhZ888C&pg=PT111|accessdate=2 October 2011|date=25 June 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4165-6790-5|page=111}} Other members included Larry Scott, Alexander Katz, and A.J. Muste.
The activists, having been radicalized by their experiences during the war, were dissatisfied with the War Resisters League and other, more traditional pacifist organizations, such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation. They announced that "the time has come for radical elements from the groups devoted to war resistance, socialism, militant labor unionism, consumer cooperation, and racial equality to attempt to come together in a common program of revolutionary action."
The CNVR promoted civil disobedience, and it opposed the formation of the United Nations, picketing outside the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in 1946. The group also published a number of bulletins and managed to sponsor another conference, whose theme was Radicalism in the Next Five Years, from August 8 to 10, 1947. However, the wide variety of views held by the members, ranging from pacifism to anarcho-syndicalism, made effective organization difficult. By 1948, the group was essentially inactive, and many of its members had regrouped to form Peacemakers.
Former members of the CNVR also went on to found listener supported public radio stations in the Bay Area,
{{cite book|last1=Unger|first1=Irwin|authorlink1=Irwin Unger|last2=Unger|first2=Debi|title=The times were a changin': the sixties reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqlpwV2kf-cC&pg=PA283|accessdate=2 October 2011|year=1998|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-609-80337-0|page=283}} including KPFA.{{cite book|last1=Watson|first1=Bruce W.|last2=Watson|first2=Susan M.|last3=Hopple|first3=Gerald W.|title=United States intelligence: an encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hqTaAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=2 October 2011|date=May 1990|publisher=Garland Pub.|isbn=978-0-8240-3713-0}}