History lesson: Peace Walks past and future

 

 

Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament (1986) Audio Video Archive

 

A few weeks after the march left Cleveland, PM Magazine from WJW Channel 8, Cleveland's CBS affiliate, aired this thoughtful report. 

Several marchers are asked they are from and their answers show marchers came from all over the world. The segment closes with a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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This is one of the great stories from the late 1980's when the US and former Soviet Union were staring each other down in a nuclear arms race.

The Great Peace March was a wonderful event that drew massive support after another group which tried to organize the walk across America failed before it got out of the starting gate.

 

 

After the Great Peace March arrived in Washington DC about 200 of the marchers came to Florida where the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (which I coordinated at the time) was organizing a peace walk from Kings Bay nuclear submarine base in St. Marys, Georgia to Cape Canaveral in Florida. It began in January of 1987 and concluded with well over 5,000 people protesting the first test launch of the Trident D-5 nuclear weapon that were put on submarines after the testing phase.

Nearly 200 people were arrested for going over the base fence at Cape Canaveral - the last mile of the 'Peace Pilgrimage to Stop the Trident' was led by famous baby doctor and activist Benjamin Spock who was the first person to climb the fence.

 

 

Today we see the US refusing to renounced 'first use' of nukes (which Russia and China have done). The US since 2001 has been pulling out of various arms control treaties with Russia (such as the ABM Treaty) in order to gain the fleeting goal of 'full spectrum dominance'.

And now we witness US-NATO's failing proxy war on Russia and war with China next on their hit list.

We need a similar shot of activism and true peace making during these difficult times like we witnessed from the Great Peace March. Without it we will continue to descend as a nation into the vipers pit.

Veterans For Peace (and other sponsors including the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space) are now in the process of organizing a peace walk across America beginning next January in Santa Monica, California. The walk is scheduled to arrive in Washington in time for the early July NATO meeting which will mark the 75th year of that archaic war-mongering organization.

 

I plan to participate in the coming peace walk in 2024. I have organized 10 peace walks during my career (5 thru Florida and 5 thru Maine) and believe in their power to transform lives of walkers and those who witness the walks. I've already given some input into the planning process and hope to do more as we go along.

Stay tuned for more details. For more info write to Tarak Kauff at takauff@gmail.com

Bruce