Peace Action

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Peace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (also known as "The Freeze"). It has mobilized for peace and nuclear disarmament since 1957. As of 2004, Peace Action is focusing on preventing the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, weapons sales to countries abusing human rights, and promoting a new U.S. foreign policy based on common security and peaceful resolution to international conflicts.

Peace Action believes that every person has the right to live without the threat of nuclear weapons, that war is not a suitable response to conflict, and that the United States has the resources to both protect and provide for its citizens. [1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 The 1950s 1.2 The 1960s 1.3 The 1970s 1.4 The 1980s 1.5 The 1990s 1.6 The 2000s 2 Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign 3 Bibliography 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

SANE was founded in 1957 by Coretta Scott King, Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Benjamin Spock and others in response to the nuclear arms race and the Eisenhower administration's policies on the production and testing of nuclear weapons, with the aim of alerting Americans to the threat of nuclear weapons. A full-page advertisement placed in The New York Times in November 1957 prompted a nationwide response, and by 1958, the membership of the organization had grown to 25,000. SANE was formally incorporated in July of that year. The name "SANE" came from the concepts put forth by Erich Fromm in his book The Sane Society (ISBN 1-199-36561-0)

The organisation worked for nuclear disarmament through its programs of public education and political lobbying, with the majority of the work in these areas carried out by volunteer members of SANE's local chapters.

In 1960, SANE was named during Senate Committee hearings investigating "Communist Infiltration in the Nuclear Test Ban Movement", leading the organization to expel members of the Communist Party, amid much controversy.

SANE also organized opposition to the Vietnam War, endorsing Eugene McCarthy as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1968 and leading the effort to secure the passage of the War Powers Resolution.

During the 1980s, SANE expanded its work to oppose U.S. military intervention in El Salvador and to end U.S. military aid to the Contras in Nicaragua.

SANE merged with the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in 1987 to form SANE/Freeze. The organization was one of the main U.S. opponents of the Gulf War in 1991. Under the leadership of William Sloane Coffin, the merged organization changed its name to Peace Action in 1993.

[edit] The 1950s

1957 The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy is founded and launches its first ad in the New York Times.

1958 The USSR announces a unilateral halt to atmospheric nuclear tests and the US responds with a one year testing moratorium. The National Student Council for a SANE Nuclear Policy is organized.

1959 Steve Allen hosts founding meeting of Hollywood SANE. Members included Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis.

[edit] The 1960s

1960 SANE Rally in Madison Square Garden, NYC, attracts 20,000 to hear Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Cousins, Norman Thomas, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Harry Belafonte call for an end to the arms race

1961 SANE hosts an eight day, 109-mile march from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey to UN Plaza. It is the largest of SANE's April Peace Mobilizations, which are attended by more than 25 000 people. International sponsors of SANE (including Martin Buber, Pablo Casals, Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer) petition President Kennedy to maintain a moratorium on testing in the atmosphere.

1962 Dr. Spock is recruited as a national sponsor; a "Dr. Spock is worried" ad appears in the New York Times, and is reprinted in 700 papers worldwide. Graphic Artists for SANE is organized, including Jules Feiffer, Ben Shahn, and Edward Sorel. SANE organizes a rally of over 10,000 on "Cuba Sunday" to express concern and outrage over the Cuban Missile Crisis. SANE works for the first time to elect congressional candidates "who come close to (SANE's) reasoned position"

1963 Dentists for SANE launch ad campaign -- "Your children's teeth contain Strontium 90." SANE's Norman Cousins acts as an unofficial liaison between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev on test ban negotiations. The Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed in Moscow on July 25; President Kennedy sends personal thanks to Mr. Cousins and SANE.

1964 President-elect Lyndon Johnson sends a personal greeting to SANE's Seventh Annual Conference, delivered by the Deputy Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

1965 The Vietnam War escalates: an early critic of armed intervention, SANE organizes an Emergency Rally on Vietnam which attracts 18,000 to Madison Square Garden, while a march on Washington in November draws 35,000. Vice-president Hubert Humphrey meets with SANE leaders Dr. Spock, Sanford Gottlieb and Homer Jack three days after march "to openly, responsibly, and frankly discuss their proposals" to end the war.

1966 Rev. William Sloane Coffin and Norman Thomas co-chair SANE's "Voter's Peace Pledge Campaign" to urge Congressional candidates to work for peace in Vietnam.

1967 Dr. Spock helps organize the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. SANE becomes the first national organization to advocate removal of President Johnson from office and joins the "Dump Johnson" movement.

1968 SANE endorses Senator Eugene McCarthy for President. President Johnson announces he "would not seek, nor accept the nomination of (his) party for another term."

1969 SANE produces ads attacking anti-ballistic missiles (ABM): "From the people who brought you Vietnam." SANE national conference on ABMs in Washington features Nobel Prize winner George Wald, Yale psychiatrist Dr. Robert J. Lifton, and Rep. George Brown (D-CA). The SANE Board changes its policy on the war, and urges the US government to withdraw unilaterally from Vietnam. SANE helps to coordinate a November march on D.C.

[edit] The 1970s

1971 SANE helps to organize an April war protest attended by an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people.

1972 SANE criticizes the ABM Treaty and SALT agreements for ignoring offensive strategic weapons. Following Richard Nixon's re-election, SANE advocates Congressional cut-off of funds for the Vietnam war.

1973 Vietnam War ends on April 30. SANE lobbies to have Congress end the bombing in Cambodia, and leads a successful effort to pass the War Powers Act. SANE takes on the military budget, and produces the "America Has a Tapeworm" ad.

1974 SANE alerts the public to the dangers of "limited" nuclear war plans and the connections between military spending and inflation.

1976 SANE's NYC conference on "The Arms Race and the Economic Crisis" features Seymour Melman, Senator Dick Clark (IA), and George Rathjens. SANE's Sanford Gottlieb testifies before the Democratic Platform Committee and wins an economic conversion plank in the party platform.

1977 SANE works with the National Campaign to Stop the B1 Bomber, helping achieve a 10 vote margin to suspend production and deployment of the weapon; also winning an amendment barring funds for the Neutron bomb. SANE produces "The Race Nobody Wins", narrated by Tony Randall.

1978 The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor suffers a partial meltdown.

1979 SANE builds a labor/peace alliance on reduced military spending and economic conversion with Machinists Union President William Winpinsinger. SANE lays the groundwork for a national STOP-MX Missile Campaign.

[edit] The 1980s

1980 The first of many nuclear freeze resolutions are approved in Western Massachusetts. A referenda against MX missiles is approved in Nevada.

1981 President Reagan unveils plans for a record $200 billion military budget along with unprecedented cutbacks in social programs. SANE sponsors a major conference opposing the spread of Pershing II cruise missiles in Europe. The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign is founded in D.C. SANE wins the cancellation of plans for MX missiles in Utah and Nevada.

1982 The Kennedy-Hatfield freeze resolution is introduced in US Senate. One million gather in New York City on June 12 - the largest peace and disarmament march in US history. A sister rally draws 100,000 to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The SANE Political Action Committee is formed; 16 of 32 SANE supported candidates win. More than 10 million voters approve freeze referenda in 8 states.

1983 The Nuclear Freeze resolution passes the US House of Representatives. SANE, working to link peace and civil rights, participates in 20th Anniversary Mobilization commemorating the historic civil rights march on Washington DC. Hollywood for SANE is revitalized, and publishes an ad in Variety magazine signed by over 250 celebrities including Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones, Sally Field, Jean Stapleton, Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft and Ed Asner.

1984 SANE's door canvass reaches over 250,000 households and recruits 10,000 new activists by early 1984; membership tops 100,000. President Reagan announces that Washington is ready for "mutual compromises" with Soviets to resume arms control negotiations. SANE's weekly radio program, "Consider the Alternatives", is on 140 stations. Despite a Reagan landslide, 106 of the 167 House and Senate candidates endorsed by SANE PAC go on to win. The MX missile program is killed.

1985 SANE and Freeze activists intensify participation in direct action protests at Nevada nuclear test site.

1986 The Chernobyl nuclear accident spreads radiation worldwide. Sane and the Freeze Campaign begin to merge. SANE/FREEZE opens an International Office in New York City. The US House of Representatives limits nuclear testing, Strategic Defense Initiative funding, and other weapons programs.

1987 The Reagan/Gorbachev summit marks the signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. SANE/FREEZE holds its founding Congress in Cleveland OH; Jesse Jackson's speech draws more than 1,000. SANE/FREEZE joins the International Peace Bureau, a Nobel Peace Prize winning coalition for disarmament organizations.

1988 Massive radioactive contamination causes Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons sites to close; SANE/FREEZE launches "Keep Them Shut!" campaign.

[edit] The 1990s

1990 SANE/FREEZE helps lead an historic public resistance to US military buildup in the Persian Gulf.

1991 SANE/FREEZE coordinates anti-Gulf War marches in Washington, DC, helping to mobilize 500,000 protesters. SANE/FREEZE launches a campaign against conventional arms with an international conference in New York City, co-sponsored by the Riverside Church Disarmament Program.

1993 SANE/FREEZE becomes Peace Action.

1994 Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) introduce Peace Action crafted legislation - the Arms Trade Code of Conduct - to restrict US weapons sales to dictators and human rights abusers.

1995 Peace Action presses for completion of a test ban at the 25th anniversary review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and leads a national dialogue over the 50th Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

1996 Peace Action wages Peace Voter '96, the organization's largest nationally coordinated campaign since the mid-eighties; over one million Peace Voter Guides are distributed. President Clinton signs the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Peace Action joins human rights groups to stop major weapons sales to Indonesia and Turkey.

1997 The US Senate ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention. Indonesia withdraws its request for US fighter jets due to "unwarranted criticism" of their human rights record. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (of which Peace Action is a member) wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Peace Action celebrates its 40th Anniversary with gala events in Boston, New York and Washington DC; honorees and speakers include Rep. Donald V. Dellums, Sen. Tom Harkin, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Randall Forsberg, Jane Alexander, William Sloane Coffin and Rep. Cynthia McKinney

1998 Peace Action expands its fledgling Student Peace Action Network to over 100 campuses across the nation. Peace Voter '98 reaches 4 million voters.

1999 Peace Action organizes against "cruise missile humanitarianism" by opposing the NATO bombing of Kosovo and helps to found the National Coalition for Peace and Justice, a body uniting most of the major peace groups in the country. Also in 1999, Peace Action commemorates the bombing of Nagasaki by staging the largest demonstration in the history of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The demonstration was led by Actor Martin Sheen.

[edit] The 2000s

2000 Peace Voter 2000 mobilizes voters in 39 House and 10 Senate races to bring peace issues to the elections. Television ads are run in 17 major media markets in 12 states and over 2 million voter guides are distributed throughout the country.

2001 The devastating terrorist attacks of September 11 shake the country. Peace Action responds to the war on terrorism and the bombing of Afghanistan with a call for Justice not War.

2002 Peace Action plays an important role in the movement against war on Iraq and participates in two national coalitions: Win Without War and United for Peace. Peace Acton affiliates around the country become local leaders for grassroots anti-war efforts and mobilize tens of thousands for national demonstrations against the war.

2003 Peace Action launches the Campaign for a New foreign Policy, a major initiatve to build grassroots support and congressional pressure for a US foreign policy based on human rights and democracy, nuclear disarmament and international cooperation.

2004 Peace Action caught wind of President George W. Bush's "Bunker Buster" campaign and launched a media campaign in the Washington D.C. Metro area, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times. Along with the progressive voter block, Peace Action and its members wrote thousands of letters to Congress. Along with targeted lobbying in Pete Domenici's district in New Mexico, the bill was not passed, saving America $1.15 Billion in the 2004 and 2005 fiscal budgets.

[edit] Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign

The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, initiated by Randall Forsberg's call to "freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race", was born in the early 1980s. The Freeze was a grassroots-based confederation of groups spanning the country. Freeze leaders included Randall Forsberg, Pam Solo, and Randy Kehler. Elected officials such as Rep. Patricia Schroeder and Sen. Ted Kennedy helped to lead the movement in Congress. The Freeze's grassroots network pushed for nuclear reductions through ballot initiatives in towns and cities across the nation.

[edit] Bibliography

• Milton S. Katz, Ban the Bomb: A History of SANE, 1957-1985 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986). ISBN 0-313-24167-8
• Pam Solo, From Protest to Policy: Beyond the Freeze to Common Security (Ballinger, 1988), ISBN 978-0887301124

[edit] See also

• Nuclear weapons
• Committee for Non-Violent Action
• Department of Peace

[edit] External links

• Peace Action official site
• Peace Action West official site (formerly California Peace Action)
• Records of Sane Inc., Swarthmore College Peace Collection