D.3.c. Studies of Particular Countries, Campaigns or Actions

Story of the rise of direct action against nuclear weapons in the British context. Includes diary of main protest in the 1957-1966 period, and interviews with those involved.

Charts the evolution of the movement from 1979 to deployment of missiles in Germany at the end of 1983, linking accounts of major protests in West Germany to internal political developments and US/USSR negotiations. The final chapter assesses the impact of the movement and its relation to the INF Treaty.

On a transnational expedition in 1959-60 attempting to prevent French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara.

Account of significant popular movement in 1970s and 1980s (including local councils declaring themselves nuclear-free) that led to government action to turn New Zealand into a nuclear-free zone and to refuse to allow US warships carrying nuclear weapons to dock in its ports (although it did not remove US monitoring bases).

Account of the emergence of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War and the Committee of 100 in Britain. Describes the main actions and internal debates within the movement.

Fazzi explores Eleanor Roosevelt’s involvement in the global campaign for nuclear disarmament during the early years of the Cold War. Based on an extensive research, it assesses her overall contribution and shows how she constantly tried to raise awareness of the real hazards of nuclear testing.

This paper examines the role and contribution of antinuclear and civil society efforts to establish a regional nuclear free zone in the period up to the signing of the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ) Rarotonga Treaty. The Treaty negotiated under the auspices of the South Pacific Forum (now Pacific Islands Forum), the regional organization of independent South Pacific island states, Australia and New Zealand. The antinuclear campaigns that led up to and contributed to the negotiation of the Treaty began some 25 years earlier and may be divided into three broad waves.

The introduction examinesthe dynamics of anti-nucelar activism in the Second Cold War. There is a chapter on mainstream movement building, but the emphasis is on nonviolent approaches and the role of pacifists.

Covers pacifist and anti-war campaigning in Britain from the ‘imperialist pacifism’ of the Victorian period, through both World Wars to the birth of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the New Left in the 1950s and 1960s. Written from a democratic socialist perspective. Final chapters cover CND’s ‘second wave’ in the 1980s, the Gorbachev initiatives, and the role of the European Nuclear Disarmament campaign seeking to transcend the Cold War divide.

Answers by range of peace activists to questions about the future of the movement, including whether it should focus on the arms race or more broadly on US foreign policy, its relationship to electoral politics, the role of civil disobedience and issues related to feminist separatism.

In the last decade of the Cold War, during the 1980s, the Peace Movement in Vancouver, BC, gained an unprecedented amount of traction. However, was short-lived as peace activists dwindled in the 1990s and beyond. In this article Christine Kim explores what were the factors that caused the peace movement in Vancouver to fail and whether its legacy is one that supports the value of political activism as a powerful agent for change. The author interviews students, professors, and activists from the Vancouver Peace Movement of the 1980s in an hour-long radio documentary.

Examines movement of the early 1980s which mobilized huge numbers in the US to protest against the dangers of nuclear weapons and strategies and demanding a US-Soviet agreement for a freeze on testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons, bombers and missiles. The movement gained some support in Congress, organized a mass lobby in Washington and demonstrated throughout the country in 1983, and engaged in electoral activity. This book examines the successes and failures of the Freeze, and broader implications for other movements. See also: Meyer, David S., A Winter of Discontent: The Nuclear Freeze and American Politics New York, Praeger, , 1990, pp. 320

After experiencing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945, Chinese-ink painter Iri Maruki and oil painter Toshi Maruki began their collaboration on the Hiroshima Panels in 1950. During the Allied occupation of Japan when reporting on the atomic bombing was strictly prohibited, the panels made known the hidden nuclear sufferings through a nationwide tour. In 1953, the panels began a ten-year tour of about 20 countries, mainly in East Asia and Europe, and disseminated the Hiroshima stories in the age of the US-Soviet arms race. The Marukis embarked on a new direction in the 1970s, with their emphasis on complex realities of war in which the victim/perpetrator dichotomy was not clear-cut, and explored other forms of violence such as pollution and discrimination.

Account of final voyage of Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior, trying to sail into French nuclear testing area near Mururoa Atoll, before it was blown up by French secret service agents in Auckland Harbour July 1985. See also: Sunday Times Insight Team, Rainbow Warrior: The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace London, Sunday Times, , 1986, pp. 302

Analyses the ‘Nuclear Freeze’ movement, the largest mass movement in the U.S. in the 1980s, that addressed the dangers of the ‘Second Cold War’ between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The book highlights the development of the movement; its social and political impact; and its transformation in the 1990s. 

Examines sinking of Rainbow Warrior, commenting on New Zealand’s reactions and the heightened awareness of the dangers of nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Autobiographical account of radical campaigning activities against nuclear tests in Nevada. Author argues that policy of testing nuclear weapons in the American West is rooted in 19th century attitudes and policies towards native American peoples.

This thesis focuses on the 1986 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament that lasted nine-month and covered 3,325 miles, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The author coins the term ‘endurance activism’ and explores two central questions: What is the relationship between long-distance walking and the politics of social movements? To what extent does ‘endurance’ shape meanings of the March’s related but twin goals: the building of a “prefigurative” community, and a mass movement capable of attaining media coverage and achieving concrete, or “strategic” political outcomes?

In 1963 medical and dental professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom played an important role in highlighting the health threat posed by atmospheric nuclear tests. Analysis of the deciduous teeth of American children born during the testing years showed the widespread presence of Strontium-90, a radioactive fission product that accumulates in babies’ teeth. The outrage of parents made fallout a central issue, and so put pressure on the US and UK governments to agree to the Partial Test Ban Treaty.