ARMISTICE REMEMBRANCE DAY FOR PEACE ANTHOLOGY, NOVEMBER 11, 2026

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice,  Ecology, and Democracy

What’s at Stake:  The First World War ended in November 1918 when an armistice between Germany and the Allies was declared at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” marking a moment of hope and the promise of peace. For many years, this day served as a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and a collective vow of “War No More.” This is still the case in some countries. In 1954, the U.S. Congress redefined this national holiday as “Veterans Day,” thus shifting its focus to the glorification of war and those who wage it.   Reclaim Armistice Day!     Veterans For Peace.

CONTENTS
Veterans for Peace

World Beyond War
About Face

TEXTS

• Armistice Day:   Wednesday, November 11, 2026, marks the 108th anniversary of the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at 5:45 a.m. in Compiègne, France, leading to the official cessation of World War I hostilities on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918.

France & Belgium: Observed as a national/public holiday (Jour de l’Armistice) with official ceremonies, wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (such as at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris), and a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m..

US changed the name and the purpose to Veterans Day, a federal public holiday honoring all military veterans.  That is, instead of celebrating a momentous day of peace, ending a historic slaughter, the US chose to celebrate warriors and war on that day of peace.   AI Overview

Wisconsin remains the only U.S. state that does not recognize it as an official or paid state holiday

President Donald Trump proposed to rename Veterans Day (observed on November 11) to “Victory Day for World War I”, while also proposing to designate May 8 (Victory in Europe Day) as “Victory Day for World War II”. 

AI Overview

From Armistice to Veterans Day: Critics point out that November 11 was historically established as Armistice Day (marking the 1918 agreement when the guns fell silent) rather than a day focused strictly on military conquest.   

Major veterans’ groups—including VoteVets, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)—objected to the proposal, arguing it champions conquest over sacrifice and leaves the vast majority of living veterans uncommemorated.

Constitutional and Legal Limits: Legal scholars and analysts note that federal holidays are formally established by act of Congress, meaning a president cannot unilaterally alter or rename Veterans Day. Authoritarian Parallels: Commentators and critics have compared the unilateral holiday rebranding to methods used by authoritarian regimes focused on state-led messaging of dominance and “winning” rather than participatory historical reflection.

• White House Reversal/Adjustment (May 2025): White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back the proposed name change, stating that Veterans Day would retain its official name and that the administration would instead issue additional presidential proclamations honoring World War I and World War II.
• Arlington Remarks (November 2025): Despite the earlier retreat and the fact that federal holiday names cannot be altered unilaterally by executive order, Trump repeated references to Victory Day during observance events at Arlington National Cemetery. The federal holiday remains legally designated as Veterans Day.

“RECLAIM Armistice – A Day of Peace!”

Veterans For Peace  11-11-26

View this email as a web page.   November 11, 2026 On the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”  Reclaim Armistice! THANK YOU for your dedication to peace and to reclaiming Armistice Day. Thank you for envisioning a world where peace is possible, for if we cannot imagine a peaceful world, we cannot bring it about. Through the hard work of VFP members and chapters, more people are learning about Armistice Day each year. For the next several years, we have a unique opportunity to help millions learn its history and realize that peace is possible. Recent midterm outcomes show that the majority of people in the U.S. have turned against the forever wars and are seeking answers that lead to peace and prosperity amid the problems and conflicts they face every day. You have been part of this change, and we will continue to push for a world where everyone’s humanity is respected, and children do not have to fear dying from bombs, bullets, or hunger. Today, remember that you are part of a community of veterans and allies who believe in peace and are actively working to achieve it. Please take advantage of the resources on our Armistice Day page. Celebrate Armistice Day with VFP chapters across the country. Gird yourself for the work ahead, and always remember that you are not alone. We do this work together. Albany, NY Chapter 10 Tucson, AZ Chapter 13  Chicago, IL Chapter 26  New Haven, CT Chapter 33 New York City Chapter 34 Spokane, WA Chapter 35 Monterey, CA Chapter 46 Syracuse, NY Chapter 51 Santa Fe, NM Chapter 56 Sonoma County, CA Chapter 70  Bimghamton, NY Chapter 90 Seattle, WA Chapter 92 Asheville, NC Chapter 99 Milwaukee,  WI Chapter 102 Baltimore, MD Chapter 105 Long Beach, CA Chapter 110  Tacoma, WA Chapter 134 Iowa City, IA Chapter 161   Find inspiration in the special, 16-page Armistice Day 100th anniversary paper produced by Veterans For Peace in 2018.   Stop the military integration Here’s an action you can take today. Phone bank to stop provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that merge elements of the U.S. and Israeli militaries. Follow this link to participate. Learn more about the proposed military integration here.      Phonebank today!

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NOVEMBER 11

Armistice Day is fast approaching. We have a unique opportunity to spread a message of peace and justice during one of the most contentious and divisive moments in U.S. history. People are searching for answers to these troubled times. Let’s ensure our message is seen and heard.Below is the Veterans For Peace 2026 Armistice Day statement and a link to our Armistice Day page, which includes resources to use leading up to and during Armistice Day, November 11. Don’t miss our one-page Armistice Day statement, a PDF handout ready to download, print, and hand out at local events.

Veterans For Peace says: Reclaim Armistice Day— a Day of Peace! Stop the War on Iran! Stop the War at Home! The First World War ended in November 1918 when an armistice between Germany and the Allies was declared at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” marking a moment of hope and the promise of peace. For many years, this day served as a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and a collective vow of “War No More.” This is still the case in some countries. In 1954, the U.S. Congress redefined this national holiday as “Veterans Day,” thus shifting its focus to the glorification of war and those who wage it. Veterans For Peace has for years been working to reclaim November 11 as “Armistice Day,” a day that is dedicated to ending war once and for all. In 2026, the call to end war is more urgent than ever. The U.S. government is complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine, waging an illegal war against Iran, kidnapped Venezuela’s president, and is starving the Cuban people with an illegal oil blockade. The U.S. has 850 foreign bases in over 80 countries, and threatens nuclear war against its perceived “enemies.” In the United States, the Trump administration is organizing violent ICE attacks on immigrants and leaving them to die in for-profit prisons, conducting mass deportation, the mass incarceration of poor, primarily people of color, and state-sponsored killing using the “death penalty.” The Trump administration is actively undermining an election it knows it cannot win. The majority of people in the U.S. are opposed to the wars abroad and the war at home. Veterans For Peace is calling for a permanent end to the U.S./Israeli war on Iran, Palestine, and throughout the Middle East. We call for an end to U.S. attacks on Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. We want peace with Russia and China and the abolition of nuclear weapons. We continue to work for Peace at Home and Peace Abroad! Reclaim Armistice Day— a Day of Peace! Say No to U.S. Intervention, War and Genocide! Defend Our Immigrant Neighbors Abolish State-Sponsored Killing   Veterans in Crisis Need More Than a Thank You By Ron Carver, David Cortright, and Barbara Doherty Every year, we pause on Veterans Day to celebrate our veterans for their service. But for decades now, many returning veterans have asked us for more than platitudes.   [VFP-all] Armistice Day, NOT Veterans Day Mike Ferner via uark.onmicrosoft.com  Also see this from the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day [a collection of excellent articles and photos published in 2018  –D]: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/files/8815/4057/6104/Armistic_paper_second_proof.pdf plus powerful op ed that follows. Mike Navy Corpsman 1969-73 Former National President, Veterans For Peace   General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think. — Brecht Click here to see the Madmen Arsonists!   [VFP film about the war profiteering corporate-military-presidential-congressional warmakers.    –D] From: Crossing Rubicons  by Sean Griobhtha <griobhtha1@substack.com> Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2026 at 5:33 AM Subject: Armistice Day, NOT Veterans Day To: <mike@veteransforpeace.org> Too long for email? Want audio? Click the title and read online. If you use the Substack app (or the web queue link), the pleasant “Oliver” voice provided by Substack will read this to you — through bluetooth in your car, TV, LR stereo, headphones, etc… “He” has quirks, but does a nice job and doesn’t get tired. If you’re in the UK or another state that blocks content, you’ll have to use a VPN to read this. Mozilla Firefox now contains an integrated VPN you can switch on when needed. Armistice Day, NOT Veterans Day “THE ASSASSINATION OF ARMISTICE DAY: The Laundering of Grief and the Myth of the Super-Citizen” by Sean Griobhtha (Nov 10, 2026).   Crossing Rubicons / Griobhtha, Rubicon, Idalgo, Bond, Rose Hemisphere Of Plunder: Angel in Public, Devil in Secret: An Autopsy of the American Empire. Volume 1: The Isthmus and the Proxies. Order now / release 17 November 2026. ePub 979-8-2562-6963-0 · paperback 979-8-2562-1555-2 · hardcover 979-8-8690-4958-2. LCCN 2026920704.    Order Now    Bookshop — Barnes & Noble — Amazon Volume 2: The Condor and the Cartels (ISBN 979-8-2562-7910-3, March 2027) Volume 3: The Archipelago and the Core (ISBN 979-8-2562-7914-1, June 2027) Vanguard “THE ASSASSINATION OF ARMISTICE DAY: The Laundering of Grief and the Myth of the Super-Citizen” 11 November was originally designed to be a tombstone.  People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.  — Carl Jung — Psychology and Alchemy When the guns finally fell silent on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the world stood knee-deep in the pulverized remains of a slaughtered generation. The original intent of Armistice Day was absolute, unvarnished mourning. It was a global, somatic recognition of the grotesque horror of mechanized warfare. It was a promise, written in blood-mud, that humanity would remember the cost of the slaughter so that it would never, ever be permitted to happen again.    The American empire looked at that day of mourning and recognized an existential threat. You cannot sustain a perpetual, hemispheric machine of corporate extraction and proxy warfare if your citizens are actively mourning the dead. Mourning implies that a tragedy occurred; remembering the horror implies that the architects of the war committed a crime. The national security state — the CIA, the Pentagon, the defense contractors — required a public that did not weep for the dead, but cheered for the next deployment.                                            The Assassination of Armistice (The Paved Grave) So, the state executed a brilliant, sociopathic psychological operation. They assassinated Armistice Day. They erased the word Armistice — a word that literally means the cessation of arms, the stopping of the war — and replaced it with Veterans Day. A day NOT of Remembrance that’s co-opted for capital and the celebration of super-citizens. A linguistic bait-and-switch achieved. The state took a day dedicated to the somatic reality of death and the vow of peace, and chemically washed it into a jingoistic celebration of a label. They replaced the horrifying reality of the blood-mud with the sterile, marketable aesthetic of the uniform. By declaring every single person who ever wore a uniform to be a “hero,” a “warrior,” and a super-citizen, the empire created a psychological shield for itself. This is the mass dissociation of the American public. You are trained to stand at parades, wave your flags, and utter the focus group produced, US Government ApprovedTM, hollow, fawning, ignorant robotic incantation: “Thank you for your service.” — TM © United States of America You do this because it is easy. It requires zero moral courage. Saying “Thank you for your service” completely absolves you of having to ask the veteran what they actually did in your name. It insulates you from the severed heads, the white phosphorus, and the executed teenagers. You celebrate the label so you do not have to look at the corpse. . . .MORE Join us to reclaim Armistice Day as a day of peace (Your Letters) Published: Nov. 05, 2026, 8:30 a.m. A soldier attends the annual Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on Armistice Day in London, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)AP To the Editor: As we have done for the past eight years, the Syracuse Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP) will commemorate Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 2026. This year, VFP calls upon all to join us at 6:30 p.m. at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, 3800 East Genesee St., to reclaim Armistice Day. Mayor Sharon F. Owens has issued a proclamation, declaring the 11th day of November 2026 to be Armistice Day for Peace in the City of Syracuse and she will speak at our event. At the end of World War I, the so-called “War to end All Wars,” Nov. 11 was recognized as Armistice Day, the day the guns finally fell silent. Around the world, it became a day to remember and to honor all those killed and injured in wars: soldiers, civilians, men, women and children. It was meant to remind future generations of the cost of empire and the necessity of peace and celebrated with a global resolve to never again allow such devastation and tragic loss of life. Unfortunately, in 1954, the U.S. Congress changed Nov. 11 to Veterans Day and the focus became soldiers and veterans of the U.S. military. Gone was the recognition of the many ways that all people suffer from war and violence. Gone was the emphasis on “no more wars” and the need to stop humans from slaughtering each other. Our societal narrative was shifted from the necessity of peace to to one that we must make war in the futile attempt to “make ourselves safe.” Making the distinction between Veterans Day and Armistice Day this year is more critical than ever. Historically, there have been many voices that warned of the combination of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry. In his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower, a former military general, warned us of the corrupting influence of the “military-industrial complex,” i.e., the network of contracts and flows of money and resources between defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians. Eisenhower warned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders, which now includes “big tech” as a central piece, created a disastrous rise of misplaced power. We must acknowledge that our present sociopolitical reality did not magically appear, nor is it the sole result of the Trump administration. Today, the same weapons manufacturers and security firms arming Israel’s destruction of Palestine build the surveillance tech used by ICE and the police to terrorize immigrants and poor communities here at home. The same billion-dollar prison corporations running detention camps profit from wars and occupations abroad. Every drone strike has its mirror image in every ICE raid, no-knock warrant, and act of state violence against Black, Brown, queer, Indigenous and immigrant lives. Militarism overseas and militarism at home are but one system. We will come together to remember the millions of civilians killed, wounded, widowed, imprisoned, orphaned and displaced, as well as the veterans who were killed or deeply wounded — physically and/or mentally — by past and current wars. We will collectively reflect and renew our commitment to work for an end to all wars, to foster justice and peace and uphold the VFP mission: “Peace at home and peace abroad.” This event is free and open to all. Ronald L. VanNorstrand, Syracuse https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2026/11/join-us-to-reclaim-armistice-day-as-a-day-of-peace-your-letters.html

“Armistice / Remembrance Day.”WORLD BEYOND WAR

Actions You Can Be Part of for Peace

Join in or create an event anywhere on or about November 11, because it should be a day to end all wars.

November 11, 2026, is Remembrance /Armistice Day 109 — which is 108 years since World War I was ended in Europe (while it continued for weeks in Africa) at the scheduled moment of 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 (with an extra 11,000 people dead, wounded, or missing after the decision to end the war had been reached early in the morning — we might add “for no reason,” except that it would imply the rest of the war was for some reason).

Find or create an event, find resources, and learn more here.

In many parts of the world, principally but not exclusively in British Commonwealth nations, this day is called Remembrance Day and should be a day of mourning the dead and working to abolish war so as not to create any more war dead. But the day is being militarized, and a strange alchemy cooked up by the weapons companies is using the day to tell people that unless they support killing more men, women, and children in war they will dishonor those already killed.

For decades in the United States, as elsewhere, this day was called Armistice Day, and was identified as a holiday of peace, including by the U.S. government. It was a day of sad remembrance and joyful ending of war, and of a commitment to preventing war in the future. The holiday’s name was changed in the United States after the U.S. war on Korea to “Veterans Day,” a largely pro-war holiday on which some U.S. cities forbid Veterans For Peace groups from marching in their parades, because the day has become understood as a day to praise war — in contrast to how it began.

Can you help make Armistice / Remembrance Day a day to mourn all victims of war and advocate for the ending of all war.   GET INVOLVED  

Need help? Have questions? Have suggestions? Let us know!    Thanks for all you do for peace!
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Thom Keppen.  “A Call From Veterans: Fight Fascism This Veterans Day.”   About Face (11-11-26). 

Dear Dick,

My name is Thom Keppen, I’m an Army veteran, and a proud organizer with About Face: Veterans Against The War.

This Veterans Day, supporting me and other veterans means fighting fascism, authoritarianism, and their endless wars for plunder. It means keeping U.S. boots off of all grounds, whether it be underserved communities in Memphis, TN, or the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah. This Veterans Day, About Face is raising $2000 to do just that.   Support the Veteran Fight Against Fascism!

When I left the military in 2016, I didn’t know where to turn. I was angry and ashamed by the atrocities committed by our government and our military across Afghanistan and the region, but I had no idea how to do anything about it. About Face changed my life. It didn’t just give me a home of like-minded veterans, it gave me a real fighting chance to intervene in militarism through grassroots organizing, campaigning, and more.

Over the last few years, our membership has swelled, with thousands of members spread across nearly every state across the country. This number is only growing as the U.S. continues to bomb Iran, fund war crimes in Gaza & Lebanon, and mobilize federal agencies to vulnerable neighborhoods. Donating today lets us build the infrastructure and resources needed to absorb these people and strengthen the veteran movement against war and fascism.

About Face is a movement funded by people, and every dollar you donate goes directly to seeing our work come to life. This veterans day, I humbly ask you to contribute to our $2000 goal, and help build a world free from militarism and endless war possible.

In Solidarity, Thom Keppen, Member since 2024
About Face: Veterans Against The War

            [The following 2025 text arrived too late to be included in the 2025 Anthology.]

Re: [VFP-all] My Annual Armistice Day Rant

When people say to me “Thank you for your service.”, I respond with “My service started when I began to oppose war.”

Patrick McCann

P.S. Proud to be an E-1 when leaving the military with an undesirable discharge!

On Tuesday, November 11, 2025 at 09:04:22 PM EST, phoenix rainbowpuddle.com <phoenix@rainbowpuddle.com> wrote:

Armistice Day 2025

I’m thinking right now of The Wall in DC, of long ago trips to some Brooklyn Armory with my dad, a WWII vet. I’m thinking of dad’s brother, my Godfather and their cousins, all Anti Fascists! I am thinking of the Vietnamese people whose United Front defeated U.S. Imperialism at a cost of almost four million Vietnamese lives. There is still U.S. sanctioned death in Vietnam known as, “Unexploded Ordinance,” that routinely maims or kills AND Agent Orange, STILL responsible for birth defects in the current generation of Vietnamese woman! 

I’m thinking of those two hundred plus names on that Wall, and faces I can’t remember, eighteen and nineteen year old kids from my Basic Training company, KIA (Killed In Action) before their 19th birthday.   

I’m feeling the emotion spent at The Wall searching for MY name amongst the couple hundred from my Basic Training Company who’s end lives are listed, on The Wall. 

I’m thinking of Gaza and Sudan. Places that have been decimated by U.S. weapons sold directly or indirectly. I would never thank the IDF for their service, a military whose ethos seems to be, “IDF stands for Ethnic Cleansing & Genocide. I would never thank U.S. drone operators for their service in international waters. They are murderous war criminals who need to refuse orders. I would never thank U.S. Armed Forces for making war on Venezuela! I do thank the man who shot Charlie Kirk, for HIS service. A good nazi is a dead nazi. 

Every time I hear, “Thank-you for your service!” I want to reply, “Thank you and Fuck You and Fuck THAT!” then ask “For which of the following are you thanking me?”

a) Learning how to do field abortions on “pregnant gook girls” (in bayonet training Ft. Dix Dec 65)

b) Being part of a military that is responsible for millions of deaths in Vietnam; (& millions more in colonizing this country, The Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Greece, Chile, etc & etc).

c) Refusing orders to Vietnam; 

d) Participating in the GI Movement that helped to end that war; 

e) Thinking for myself; 

f) Not thinking for myself; 

g) Following or not following orders? 

h) Killing or not killing old people and children?

My generation’s military service WAS NOT in defense of America, our allies, your families or friends. WE ARE NOT HEROES! America was NOT being attacked by the Vietnamese, much in the same way that America is NOT being attacked by Iraqis or Venezuelans. The U.S. legislation that authorized Executive Actions in Viet Nam (Tonkin Gulf) have long proven a fucking distortion of the truth, at best, and at worst, an outright lie that caused the subsequent deaths of millions! We were NOT “Heroes” in much the same way today’s Iraq and Afghan vets are NOT “Heroes” for simply having served. 

I for one, do NOT thank current soldiers for their service in Africa, Iraq or Afghanistan! I do thank medics and those who risk their lives to pull injured soldiers out of the line of fire. I do commend those who volunteer to defend The Constitution. Overall, I thank and honor those who repudiate this nation’s militarism. I thank Iraq Veterans Against the War and About Face for their leadership, thought, action and lives. I salute those young & women, those newly minted veterans who organized and testified at the IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings a few years back. ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony

Why thank anyone for killing tens of thousands of civilians cause you can’t find the right cave and invaded the wrong nation? Should I thank today’s soldiers for being lied to and believing in that lie? Perhaps their “good intentions” deserve a salute? I do recognize the intention of America’s youth who in their righteous desire to defend America, bought into layers of lies from Bush I & II and President Obama. 

On Armistice Day, I salute, in addition to IVAW & About Face, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, The National Liberation Front of Vietnam, WWII Allied Forces led by General Dwight Eisenhower and the Soviet Red Army; The Abe Lincoln Brigade and Resistance fighters and saboteurs against the nazi’s throughout Europe; Resistance movements from South Africa to East Los Angeles to Harlem and from Philadelphia to Nicaragua where my government spent millions attempting to overthrow a democratic government who’s president had the nerve to be critical of the United States. 

I salute the 600 – 700 U.S. military veterans who choose to take their own lives EVERY FUCKING MONTH! These veterans are people who were used then discarded like last week’s newspaper. 

On this Armistice Day, I again salute those veterans, from the armed forces of all nations who use their training, intelligence and compassion to seek ways in which our governments can find peace without increased militarization of the planet and our ways of life. 

You may thank me, and I’d be honored, for my resistance to imperial war, for my support of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, for my continued activism that nourishes my soul and gives me reason to live and create.    Just don’t blindly thank me for anything you don’t know about.    Perhaps that’s why I can’t seem to find my name on that Wall in a waking state. 

Hal Muskat, VFP SF (69)

“Sir, NO Sir!”

(Cover photo “Win Magazine” September 1969 as I walk in to my 2nd Ft. Dix, NJ, Courts Martial for distribution of “unauthorized literature.”)

END ARMISTICE DAY 2026