Remembering the 1982 rally against nuclear arms
Today marks the 27th anniversary of the largest protest in NYC history. Upwards of one million people gathered on the Great Lawn in Central Park to rally against nuclear weapons while the UN held a Special Session on Disarmament. Two days later 1,600 demonstrators were involved in acts of civil disobedience at the consulates of five countries.
The Nation ran an editorial two weeks later heaping significant praise on the days’ events:
It was a good refresher course in the power of civil disobedience–deliberate, nonviolent violations of valid laws through which protesters invite punishment or injury to themselves in order to call attention to matters of overriding moral urgency. As carried out by the antinuclear protesters last week, the action was lawbreaking in the spirit of fidelity to law.
The following video does a good job of recapping the protest and the events that led up to it.
In Cardiff, Wales there actually is a monument for women who protested nuclear weapons at the RAF Greenham Common in the UK. Here are a couple of photos — with additional information -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobanblack/tags/greenhamcommonwomenspeacecamp/
The monument actually is in a fairly prominent location. I find it remarkable.
I’m planning to write more about it… at some point.
Apparently there was some amount of international attention towards that Greenham Common protest in 1981. Perhaps those protestors inspired some who were part of the 1982 protest that you have posted about here….. ?
The 1980 Women’s Pentagon Action also seems very relevant -
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/background/wpastatem.html
I don’t know what that 1980 gathering might have had to do with the 1981 and 1982 protests, but I’d certainly be interested in finding out.
As reported in the issue #12 of the Newsletter of the National No Nukes Prison Support Collective (later named and still publishing as the Nuclear Resister), in addition to 1,665 people arrested June 14, 1982, at the UN missions of the five prominent nuclear nations, (1,036 at the U.S. Mission, 278 at the Soviet’s, 127 at the French, 124 at the British, and 100 at the Chinese missions, yippies and others also organized blockades at the missions of the ’secret’ nuclear nations: 14 more were arrested at the South African mission, and 12 at the Israeli mission.
Thanks for digging that information up Jack. It’s very helpful. If you’d ever like to contribute something to our blog it would be wonderful to have you be a part of this project. Or if you know someone that would, please let us know. The more folks we have writing, the more vibrant and useful of a resource this will hopefully become.
My non-violent affinity group from Atlanta was there. The arrest reports may be just a small bit over-counting as our group was arrested twice that day. The first was at the Russian mission, as I recall. We were quickly processed in a police van and then regrouped and proceeded to go sit in at the Chinese (or South African) mission. Can’t remember all this with detail. There we were arrested again and taken to a holding cell in Manhatten ( again I think,) Guess the number of arrests may be accurate, but they probably represent more folks like us – multiple arrests of the same people. Anyway it is counted,however, it was a memorable and powerful day…
[...] June was the 27th anniversary of one of the largest protests in history, when upwards of one million people gathered on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park to rally against nuclear weapons while the UN held a Special Session on Disarmament. Two days later [...]
[...] June was the 27th anniversary of one of the largest protests in history, when upwards of one million people gathered on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park to rally against nuclear weapons while the UN held a Special Session on Disarmament. Two days later [...]
[...] Last June was the 27th anniversary of one of the largest protests in history, when upwards of one million people gathered on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park to rally against nuclear weapons while the UN held a Special Session on Disarmament. Two days later [...]