 Last week, we marked two annual celebrations: the one-year anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons coming into force, and the 46th anniversary of the start of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. As we watch with anxious anticipation the current rising tensions between the United States-led NATO and the Russian government over Ukraine, it is a fitting time to be reminded that, as of January 22, 2021, nuclear weapons are illegal under international law. But most people still don’t know that, and besides, it has always taken massive dramatic efforts to educate the public about the true dangers of nuclear weapons and our country’s nuclear strategy. Therefore, it is also a fitting time to look back on one of the most dramatic actions to educate the public and voice opposition to the US nuclear strategy in the last fifty years: a project that saw thousands of activists and regular people participate in a months-long cross-country trek to spread the message of peace and justice. (See our post from last year for an overview of the Continental Walk and its connections to VPT, including VPT members’ direct participation in the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace Also see our post from last week about the origins of the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/organizing-the-continental-walk-for-disarmament-and-social-justice-1976) Organizing a walk crossing 8000 miles through 34 states over 20 routes took an immense amount of effort. As the excerpt below outlines, a dozen organizers rotating in and out of the main office in NYC worked for over a period of more than 18 months, starting long before the first walkers commenced the journey and ending well after the Walk was completed. They had to arrange routes, permits, and rally sites; raise funds and coordinate with speakers for events along the Walk; process t-shirt orders and bills; write up and print manuals, newsletters, leaflets, and other literature; design bumper stickers, posters, and other advertisements; send out press releases and maintain media coverage; and more. Our own organization has a few deep connections to the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. Long-time VPT member Rick Gaumer and VPT Board Chair Joanne Sheehan were two of the dozen main national organizers of the Walk. Additionally, when trainings for the long distance walkers were held, VPT hosted the major New England training. As a founding member of the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, VPT continues this legacy of resistance to nuclear arms and to the flawed military strategy that justifies their continued existence. (Click the image below to download the PDF version of the original clipping)    —
Take Action To celebrate the one-year year anniversary of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has organized a demonstration in New London, CT for Friday, January 21, 2:45-4:00pm. Folks will line up along Howard St with signs and banners provided by the Committee. For more information including how to participate, please get in touch with us on Facebook at facebook.com/voluntownpeacetrust or email us at [email protected] — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source Leonard, Vickie and Tom MacLean, Ed. The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, 1977. Tomorrow, January 21, the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will demonstrate in downtown New London in support of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on its 1-year anniversary, and against the continued construction of nuclear submarines in our community. VPT is a founding member of this coalition and has been active in organizing the event. This is the second in what is becoming an annual protest — last year, the group demonstrated on the day the Treaty came into force (January 22) to thank the 51 countries that had initially ratified it. It just so happens that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force one day before the anniversary of the start of the 1976 Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. (See our post from last year for an overview of the Continental Walk and its connections to VPT, including VPT members’ direct participation in the Walk) On January 23, 1976, four hundred people gathered in the San Francisco Bay Area for a women’s rally in support of an ambitious peace project: a walk across the continental US as a demonstration against war and to demand greater investment in social justice causes. One week later, roughly 800 people would leave the city together on foot to start the action that would last 10 months and cross 34 states. They were partly inspired by another long protest walk: the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (1960-1961), the idea for which was initially conceived in New London, CT (see our posts from the last several weeks for more on that Walk). The participants of the 1976 Walk carried a simple message: with the Vietnam War finally over, haven’t we learned our lesson about war? Isn’t it time to divert our resources from the military and commit them to addressing the many historical injustices and ongoing social inequities in this country? It is both an urgent and perennial question demanded by the peace movement. It is the same question that the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will ask in New London tomorrow, very near the Hygienic where the idea for the first major Walk for Peace was born. (Click either image below to download the PDF version of the original pages)
Take Action To celebrate the one-year year anniversary of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has organized a demonstration in New London, CT for Friday, January 21, 2:45-4:00pm. Folks will line up along Howard St with signs and banners provided by the Committee. Visit the Facebook event page and RSVP by clicking the flier image below. For more information including how to participate, please get in touch with us on Facebook at facebook.com/voluntownpeacetrust or email us at [email protected]  —
Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source Leonard, Vickie and Tom MacLean, Ed. The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, 1977. On January 12, 1961, early in the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (1960-1961), the core team of walkers was passing through Casa Grande, Arizona when they were joined by a local older couple, Barbara and John Beecher. A day earlier, John Beecher had invited one of the walkers, Jerry Wheeler, to speak at two of his classes at the State University of Arizona. The next evening, when John and Barbara joined the walkers and the team was stopped by a radio reporter to get their stories, John shocked everyone by announcing that he was resigning from his professorship to join the walk to Moscow. Overview of the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace Organizing the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/organizing-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace-1960-1961 Excerpts from the first month of the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/excerpted-account-of-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-pt-1 Challenges on the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/challenges-on-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace-1960-1961 Excerpts from Walkers’ Reports: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/excerpts-from-reports-by-various-walkers-1961 In his statement, John Beecher recounted how he fought in WWII initially believing that the effort would “usher in the epoch of universal peace,” and how his first-hand experiences of war ultimately convinced him that only nonviolent action could bring in the new era. He also points to a rich family heritage of American heroes of justice that inspired him: including Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Henry Ward Beecher, an abolitionist pastor who helped convince Great Britain and other European powers from supporting the Confederacy. John Beecher concludes his statement with a call addressed to his peers in the intellectual and professional classes; after all, who would be better to address a group of people than one of their own? But his statement also reminds us that all of us with loved ones have a stake in the issue of nuclear arms proliferation: as he makes clear near the end, if it weren’t for his children and grandchildren, “hostages to fortune,” he could very well “dodge the compelling issue of the day.” But knowing how threatened his loved ones were by nuclear war, and how the threat was only increasing with time, John Beecher could no longer go on with his life ignoring the issue. It was time to take action. (Click the image below to download the PDF version of the original newsletter clipping)  — Take Action To celebrate the one-year year anniversary of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has organized a demonstration in New London, CT for Friday, January 21, 2:45-4:00pm. Folks will line up along Howard St with signs and banners provided by the Committee. For more information including how to participate, please get in touch with us on Facebook at facebook.com/voluntownpeacetrust or email us at [email protected] —
Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source Beecher, John. “John Beecher’s Statement and Call.” Polaris Action Bulletin. 30 January 1961 (Special Bulletin), page 3. Let us start the new year with a celebration of one of the most ambitious yet lesser-known actions of the mid-20th century peace movement: the San Francisco to Moscow Transcontinental Walk for Peace. This action, which was first thought up at the Hygienic Restaurant in New London, Connecticut, saw ten people in ten months walk across the entire width of the continental United States (and halfway down the East Coast), then the entire span of Europe from Britain to Moscow in the Soviet Union. Along the journey, hundreds of people walked parts of the way with the core team, and in the end, the team demonstrated for peace and nuclear disarmament in Moscow’s Red Square. Overview of the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace Organizing the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/organizing-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace-1960-1961 Excerpts from the first month of the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/excerpted-account-of-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-pt-1 Challenges on the Walk: http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/challenges-on-the-san-francisco-to-moscow-walk-for-peace-1960-1961 Today, we have some excerpts from the walkers’ personal logs from January 1961, published together in a special newsletter by the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), the organizers of the action. The excerpts offer an early, two-week snapshot of a 10-month walk across two continents. While much of it seems banal, there are some important (and humorous) points we can learn from the walkers’ experiences:
Two more notable moments:
(Click the image below to download the PDF version of the original newsletter clipping)  --
Take Action The CT Committee on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons organizes a few pro-disarmament demonstrations throughout the year. To participate in these demonstrations against nuclear arms and in support of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, please get in touch with us on Facebook or email us at [email protected] — Support Us If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source “Excerpts from reports by various walkers.” Polaris Action Bulletin. 30 January 1961 (Special Bulletin), page 1. |
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