[Time for a new movement to stop the nuclear arms race.]
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WHY THE SPIRIT OF JUNE 12, 1982, MATTERS  
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Leslie Cagan
June 10, 2022
The Nation
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_ Time for a new movement to stop the nuclear arms race. _

Anti-Nuclear Rally in Central Park on June 12, 1982, in New York
City., PL Gould / Getty Images

 

Forty years, and the memory is as vivid as ever. It was a beautiful
spring day. The United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament
was about to get underway, and we were determined to be heard. The
arms race had to stop, we said; nuclear weapons had to be
abolished—and instead of endlessly pouring extravagant amounts of
money into military budgets, it was time to put our national treasury
to use meeting the needs of our communities.

Ronald Reagan was president. His administration was planning to place
new short-range nuclear missiles in Europe, just minutes from the
Soviet Union. Massive marches opposing these plans had already been
held in capital cities throughout the continent. It was time for the
US peace movement to step up.

For 18 months, the June 12 Rally Committee (the national coalition
leading this effort) worked to put together the strongest possible
demonstration of opposition to nuclear weapons. There were serious
struggles within the coalition: Should we address
militarism—including US intervention—more directly? How do we
include more people of color in the leadership of the coalition? Could
we build a structure that was not top-down but instead encouraged and
nourished new initiatives? These represented real differences within
the coalition, and in my opinion, the best decisions were not always
made.

The work kept expanding. Throughout the country, local groups—some
long-standing and others created for this demonstration—took up the
call and became the backbone of the mobilization. Some 600 groups
spread the word and organized bus, train, and car caravans to get
people to the march. Some 5,000 people donated their energies to help
ensure that the experience of the 1 million people who marched—and
those who barely moved, because every inch of midtown Manhattan was
packed with people—was powerful, and that our message would be
heard.

Over the years, I have organized and been at more demonstrations than
I can count. Many of these played important roles in the social
movements of their time. And yet June 12, 1982, stands out not only
for its size but also for the collective energy and strength of the
message, for the power we exerted that day—and the impetus it gave
to the work for years to come.

To be clear: We did not abolish nuclear weapons, and we did not move
the money out of militarism and into our communities. But we helped
move the needle on nuclear disarmament by nurturing this movement.
It would be three more years before Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met
and laid the groundwork for what would become the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty. This was the first time the United States and
the Soviet Union agreed to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, abolish a
whole category of nuclear weapons, and allow on-site inspections. Many
factors led to that agreement, but without a doubt the June 12
mobilization was one of them.

The longer-lasting value came from the organizing over the months
leading up to June 12. Not just selling bus tickets: Educational work,
local media work, helping people understand the threat and the urgent
need for action—all were central to the organizing. People need to
believe that what they do makes a difference, that their participation
is central to securing change.

Today, there are some 13,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the
United States, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, the United
Kingdom, North Korea, and Israel. The US and Russia have about 90
percent of them. These more modern weapons are exponentially deadlier
than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 77 years ago.

The dangers of nuclear war remain all too real. Russia’s war against
Ukraine has reawakened public awareness of how close we are to a
nuclear catastrophe. Just one bomb dropped—whether deliberately or
by accident—could lead to indescribable horror.

No one demonstration or series of actions can make the needed changes,
but when our communities are in motion together, we can alter the
public discourse and change policy. Equally important, we are
stronger, more effective, and more anchored in the realities of
people’s lives when we articulate and act on the connections between
struggles.

Abolishing nuclear weapons will require ending militarism in its many
forms: from global wars to militarized policing here at home; from
bloated military budgets to a culture of militarism to the easy access
to the guns that are killing people every day. All of this must be
anchored in the struggles for racial and economic justice and in
urgent action to stop the devastation of climate change. The good news
is that so many younger organizers are grounded in that comprehensive
perspective.

It is a big agenda, but abandoning any of it will weaken our work. Let
us use the memory of June 12, 1982, to strengthen the ongoing movement
for nuclear disarmament and to bring more energy to the other
movements of today. As we honor what we’ve achieved, let us look
back for insights into how we can more powerfully create the change so
desperately needed.

_[Leslie Cagan is an American activist, writer, and socialist
organizer involved with the peace and social justice movements. Leslie
Cagan served as the coordinator of the June 12, 1982, mobilization.
She is the former national coordinator of United for Peace and
Justice, the former cochair of Committees of Correspondence for
Democracy and Socialism, and the former chair of Pacifica Radio.]_

_Copyright c 2022 The Nation. Reprinted with permission. May not be
reprinted without permission
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Distributed by PARS International Corp
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* June 12 anti-nuclear march
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