This march for peace was a cross-country event that lasted from March 1, 1986 to November 15, 1986. It was a movement that was meant to bring awareness to the growing danger of nuclear proliferation and to promote that elimination of all nuclear weapons from earth all together. It started in Los Angeles, California and ended in Washington, D.C. and was a journey of over 3,700 miles. It had actually evolved from another peace event called PRO-Peace in Los Angeles and it raised $20,000,000 to send 5,000 marchers to the capital in April of 1985. In actuality there were only 1,200 marchers and only a fraction of the money was raised. The PRO-Peace corporation collapsed but there were some marchers that wanted to continue on and created the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. It became known as the GPM or Peace City and had a large volunteer based infrastructure considering how fast it came together and consisted of a Policy Board, a City Council, a Board of Directors, a Judicial Board, Three City managers, and many different department heads.
This new group was finally able to get the movement up and moving and in March of 1986 the marchers took off towards Washington D.C. This movement did not get a lot of press and of the many areas that they were planning to pass through and they would stop and talk at certain key areas but to not much effect. The lack of money and resources hindered their abilities thoroughly. Those who stuck around and continued to march on were seen as the true believers in the movement. In a web page created by one of the people that marched the entire way, he said that he does not even know how they did it but that they were empowered by the people they talked to.
 |
Laura Johnson (CO), DMAC, leads the last mile to Washington DC, 11/15/86, Image via Flickr.
To connect this movement to Gaudium Et Spes in the best and most effective manner possible it is important to show the Statement of Purpose for the Great Peace March. The first line said "The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament is an abolitionist movement”. There is one specific period of time where we see the first use of the word abolition and that is in the Civil War and it regards the elimination of slavery. I do not know if they were comparing the use of nuclear weapons to slavery but in any manner that word is powerful and makes us consider the value of human life. This really brings in the idea of community and the thought of protecting each other and caring for each other but mean while we are ok with nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war.
The most powerful line is “We believe that great social change comes about when the will of the people becomes focused on a moral imperative. By marching for nine months across the United States, we will create a non-violent focus for positive change; the imperative being that nuclear weapons are politically, socially, economically and morally unjustifiable, and that, in any number, they are unacceptable”.The word moral comes in mind when considering the way Gaudium uses the word dignity because they can be used in similar manners in speaking about the elimination of nuclear weapons. The people of the GPM would say that there is no dignity in nuclear weapons because of the morality of the possibility of killing thousands of innocent people. The last line in the statement is, “It is the responsibility of a democratic government to implement the will of its people, and it is the will of the people of the United States and many other nations to end the nuclear arms race". The word responsibility is used in Gaudium to explain all the responsibilities of humans and with the possibility of nuclear war none of those responsibilities even matter.
Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament (Organization) gives deeper details into why the first attempt at the march failed and the man that was originally behind the movement, David Mixner.
Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament (Organization) gives deeper details into why the first attempt at the march failed and the man that was originally behind the movement, David Mixner.
I think it is interesting that this protest is not a more well known protest from the 20th century. Protesting violence and war seemed very typically during the later part of the 20th century and this march towards Washington D.C. seems extremely impressive. The protesters marched the length of the U.S. in approximately 7 months to make a point about non-violence without resorting to violence themselves. Many protesters during the Cold War period of U.S. history were fighting against needless violence and destruction. The protesters of my topic protest, the Kent State riots, were fighting against the needless bloodshed and involvement in a war the students did not think the U.S. should be involved in, just as the protesters in your topic fought against needless violence and use of nuclear weapons.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of this movement before reading your article but I think it is very interesting and it's definitely a cause that I agree with. It's kind of funny looking at the protest I made my post about, which started because someone was kicked off of a college football team for having facial hair, and comparing it to the stakes of this protest, but in reality they were both motivated for the same reasons. The protesters saw an injustice that encroached on the rights of certain people, in my case Oregon State and their football team and in this case the entire world, and used peaceful means to address their concerns. I think that this is the core message of Gaudium et Spes.
ReplyDelete