9b. Phases of the Anti-Nuclear Movement

140,000 killed at Hiroshima, Japan.

80,000 killed at Nagasaki, Japan.

Fear of total human obliteration emerges as the world understands the implications of nuclear weaponry.

Increase in nuclear weapons testing by United States (U.S.) and Soviet Union (USSR)

In 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock, a warning system that would measure how close the world was to extinction – how close to midnight – of its own making. It is not a real clock or a real indicator. As the Bulletin says, “It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet.”¹ At its moment of creation, the threat of nuclear weapons was so severe that the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight. In 1953 it moved to 2 minutes to midnight, after both the U.S. and USSR tested hydrogen bombs. In January 2020, the clock moved to 100 seconds ahead of midnight, the closest in history. The ongoing dangers of nuclear war and climate change were compounded by cyber information warfare.

You can see the movement of the clock in response to technological and world events by going to this interactive timeline: The Doomsday Clock Timeline

Ryanicus Girraficus, 2018

• Ongoing testing of nuclear weapons underwater (mainly south Pacific Ocean) and in the atmosphere.
• 500 tests are conducted by the U.S. and USSR between 1945 and 1963. Nuclear weapons testing by the super-powers in the south Pacific Ocean causes the displacement of people from small islands, the obliteration of atolls, and radiation-related health problems.
• Fear grows of global contamination from radioactive nuclear fallout.

Dr. Ursula Franklin (1921-2016) was a physicist at the University of Toronto. She was also a pacifist and an active member of an organization called Voice of Women for Peace that formed in 1960. In response to concerns about the long-term impact of nuclear testing, she launched a project that invited women to send in the baby teeth of their children. Franklin found high levels of Strontium 99 – a radioactive isotope that was in the fallout of nuclear testing – in the teeth. This study provided evidence of the dangers to human health of atmospheric testing and bolstered the campaign to reduce or ban testing.

There was widespread belief that a nuclear attack was survivable. Some of this was government-directed misinformation. Much like schools today have ‘lock-down’ drills that prepare for a violent intruder, schools of the 1950s and 60s had civil defense drills that prepared students for an imminent nuclear attack. I remember the ‘duck and cover’ films that were shown in movie theatres and on television.

The film minimizes the effects of the atomic bomb, at one point comparing it to a traffic accident. It now seems ludicrous to think one could survive a nuclear bomb or missile attack by ducking under a desk and covering one’s head!

While emergency preparedness systems were in high gear in the United States, Canada was also affected. For example, Prime Minister John Diefenbacher built a secret underground bunker outside of Ottawa in 1959-61, where the nation’s leaders would go when warning of a nuclear attack was issued. The catastrophic potential for nuclear war also made this venture seem like a bad joke. What came to be called the ‘Diefenbunker’ is now a museum: Diefenbunker Museum.

Nuclear Vault. (2009, July 11). Duck and Cover (1951) Bert the Turtle. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60

One of the earliest anti-nuclear organizations was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), launched in England in 1957; Britain had become the third nation with nuclear weapons.  CND sponsored large-scale demonstrations and marches to military bases that held nuclear weapons. In the late 1950s and early 1960s these marches attracted up to 150,000 people. They advocated for a global abolition of nuclear weapons. A comparable U.S. organization was the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, popularly known as SANE; Martin Luther King, Jr. became a supporter of SANE in the early 1960s.

In 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed by 135 countries, which bans atmospheric and underwater testing, but underground testing was still allowed.

The development of inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) created a heightened threat and fear of the possibility of nuclear war.

These missiles were developed by both the U.S. and USSR during the early Cold War period. They were designed to carry nuclear warheads a long distance – more than 5,500 kilometres.  During this era both nations established sites, especially in Europe, where missiles were deployed and ready to launch.

In 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was signed by 189 countries.

The NPT is one of the most significant multilateral disarmament agreements that exists. Multilateral means it is between multiple countries, as opposed to unilateral (one country’s commitment), or bilateral (between two countries). In 2016, 191 countries were signatories to the treaty, however certain nuclear-possessing nations such as India, Pakistan, and Israel have not signed on.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talk (SALT) agreements were signed in the 1970s.

There were two Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the U.S. and USSR in 1972 and 1979 that were aimed at limiting the arms race in long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons.

Activism against nuclear weapons development grows.

In 1971, a group of anti-nuclear activists in Vancouver hired a fishing boat and sailed to Alaska where the Americans were about to test a nuclear weapon under Amchitka Island. Despite the protests by the group, which came to be called Greenpeace, the bomb was detonated. Nevertheless, the United States ended its testing in the region a year later. Greenpeace is known today mostly as an environmental organization, but had its beginnings as a group that used radical tactics to challenge nuclear testing.

Widespread protests against NATO installation of missiles in Europe and Canada.

In cities around the world there were mass protests against the installation and deployment of missiles that were armed with nuclear warheads and ready to launch in minutes. In Canada there was a popular “Refuse the Cruise” movement which protested U.S. plans to test missiles in northern Canada beginning in 1983. Here is a glimpse into the protests that occurred when Canada announced its decision to cooperate with the U.S.: 1983: Cruise Missile testing coming to Canada.

• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 heightens Cold War tension.
• U.S. President Ronald Reagan introduces plan for "Star Wars" that would allow nuclear weapons in space.
• A sense of a world on the brink of extinction.

Campaigns for a Nuclear Freeze occur around the world.

In 1982, 9 million signatures were sent to the United Nations, calling for a Freeze on weapons development and proliferation.

On June 12, 1982, 1 million people rally in New York City’s Central Park, considered the largest anti-war demonstration in history.

Here are some of the slogans on placards at the event: ''Choose Life''; ''Bread Not Bombs''; ''No Nukes''; ''Reagan Is A Bomb - Both Should Be Banned''; ''U.S. Out of El Salvador''; ''Freeze or Burn''; ''Build Houses Not Bomb Shelters''; ''A Feminist World Is a Nuclear-Free Zone,'' and ''Arms Are for Embracing.''³

Acts of civil disobedience occur as protest against the arms race.

In 1980 an American group of activists called the Plowshares Eight illegally entered a missile facility in Pennsylvania where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood on documents. They followed this with 75 more disarmament actions. Your reading by Frida Berrigan offers the perspective of a child of anti-nuclear activists who participated in numerous acts of civil disobedience and were jailed for this on many occasions.

What do you think about such radical forms of peace activism?

In Canada, the Innu Indigenous peoples of Labrador held protests against low-level test flying of NATO-country bomber jets over their traditional lands. During the late 1980s they held sit-ins and set up tents at the end of runways.

Emergence of peace camps at sites of missile deployment.

Activists around the world established ‘peace camps,’ often at military sites where missiles were stored and/or deployed. Some of these camps were short-lived, while others lasted for months or years. The most famous was Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in England, which lasted for 20 years. We will explore this in module 10.

• End of the Cold War with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
• Significant decline in stockpiles of nuclear weapons worldwide.
• Fear of nuclear weapons development by other countries (India, Israel, Iran, for example).
• Ongoing protests by sectors of anti-nuclear activists.
• Thousands of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads are on high alert, quick-launch status today; they can be readied for launch in minutes and reach their targets anywhere on earth in 30 minutes or less.

Overall success of multilateral treaties to limit or end the proliferation of nuclear weapons

In 2017, United Nations adopts the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In the same year, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICANW) wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Watch this short video to get a sense of the anti-nuclear movement coming full circle.

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. (2019, February 15). The End of Nuclear Weapons. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlgtkhDA2UI