THE NEW NUCLEAR THREAT

On the 20th Anniversary of the anti-nuclear rally in Central Park,
a participant looks back and to the challenges ahead

By Frank Farkas

    It is the second year of a right-wing Republican administration that won election through dirty tricks. The administration's stated goal is to defeat a worldwide enemy bent on destroying the American way of life. It portrays the struggle with the foe in apocalyptic terms as the ultimate battle between good and evil. The administration is seeking a huge increase in military spending, including funding for Star Wars. The President affects a folksy charm but has to be spoon-fed information by his staff.

    It may sound familiar but the setting is not 2002. It is 1982. The administration is headed by Ronald Reagan, not Dubya. A million New Yorkers march through the streets of Manhattan, on a beautiful June day, to a giant rally in Central Park. They have assembled there to counter the insanity in Washington with a call to "freeze" the nuclear arms race. What makes the turnout so surprisingly large and diverse, and catapults the event into one of the grandest demonstrations in American history, is that its organizers bring together the peace movement with the labor movement.

    I was there on June 12, 1982 with my wife and my 2-year old, now a college graduate. So I was more than routinely interested to learn that a coalition headed by New York State Peace Action had decided to commemorate June 12th on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. What makes the commemoration truly meaningful for me and my generation of peaceniks, and for that matter, for any peace-minded individual, is that it's much more than just nostalgia. In fact, the coalition intends to launch a new movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and is currently seeking signatories for a Call with a number of specific proposals for ending the nuclear nightmare.

    I attended the commemorative meeting at the Ethical Culture Society in Manhattan, curious and hopeful about the possibility of a new movement to pick up where the last one left off. As it turned out, the Rally Against the New Face of Nuclear War, as it was called, gave cause for optimism. At first blush, one would not think that a new anti-nuclear movement could possibly withstand, let alone flourish, under the war hysteria that the administration has been whipping up. Yet it stands to reason that a nation scared half to death by the Bush administration's loose talk of a preemptive nuclear attack, and the India-Pakistan nuclear standoff, would find "no nukes" a compelling message.

    The handout announcing the rally showed the face of George W. Bush morphing into an atomic mushroom cloud. Alongside old demands that have suddenly acquired new relevance:

    No Nuclear Testing, and No Star Wars--No Weapons in Space

    it listed others that could have been prompted by the mornings newspapers:

    No Permanent War Budget--No Endless War,

    No New Nuclear Weapons, No New Nuclear Targets, and No New Pretexts for Nuclear War.

    The speakers list was an impressive array of prominent American activists, including cultural figures (Ossie Davis, Jane Alexander, and Grace Paley), veteran peaceniks and organizers of the first June 12th (Leslie Kagan, Cora Weiss, and Randell Fosberg); by proxy, a member of Congress from Ohio (Democrat Dennis Kucinich); the renowned theologian William Sloane Coffin (also by proxy); and the originator of the call, longtime intellectual gadfly, and recent lecturer at Manhattan College in the Bronx, writer Jonathan Schell.

    As a group, the speakers were right on target. They spoke forcefully and convincingly about the new danger of nuclear armageddon, and linked it to the other major threats to world peace, justice, and sustainability. William Sloane Coffin, for example, redefined the "axis of evil" as environmental degradation, pandemic poverty, and a world awash with weapons, and warned that the planet was on the brink of destruction. He lamented the fact that the United States spends more on military expenditures than the next eight countries combined.

    To the Ashcrofts of this country he countered that "dissent isn't disloyal, subservience is." Kagan cautioned that successful mass movements are built at the base out of diverse community groups with a variety of political perspectives, and involved in a multitude of issues. She said too that the anti-nuclear struggle must be part of the struggle to end militarism and interventionism, and nuclear power, and to turn around national priorities.

    In a rousing talk, veteran peace activist and Bronx resident, Cora Weiss, saluted U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who are suing the Bush administration for pulling out of the ABM treaty without Senate approval. She deplored the occupation of the West Bank, and mused about the Palestinians and Israeli people together writing their own peace agreement. "Justice, justice and more justice," was her solution for the inequities that give rise to terrorism. Weiss also condemned the administration's involvement in the civil war in Colombia as likely to result in needless slaughter, and warned against the erosion of civil liberties in this country.

    Finally, Jonathan Schell spoke about the recently leaked Pentagon Nuclear Posture Review favoring the use of first-strike, which the Pentagon calls "offensive deterrence." The message of this administration is: "We possess nuclear weapons but you can't, and if you try to, we'll blow you to pieces." Schell argued that the message should be: "Lets all get rid of them." Schell hoped that activists would work on disseminating and gaining signatures for the Call, the centerpiece of this new anti-nuclear movement, in addition to whatever else they were doing. Referring to the danger of nuclear warfare, he argued that "there is nobody in the world whose business this is not." Who could disagree with that?

    To learn more about The Call and how you can add your name,
go to www.urgentcall.org.

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