Anti-Nuclear Activism - Then and Now
There needs to be a sea change in approaches towards anti-nuclear activism rather than simply replicating the approaches which worked during the Cold-War.
On June 12, 1982, over a million people participated in the massive public protest against nuclear weapons carried out in New York (image above) intended at building-up enough pressure on the authorities and the government to undertake meaningful and concrete actions towards nuclear disarmament and abolishment of nuclear weapons. The mobilization of public towards anti-nuclear movement globally and for upholding of human rights in Soviet Union, began in earnest in the mid- 1970s following the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 which gave rise to the emergence of multiple civil society organizations across both West and the East which effectively spearheaded the cause over the following decade and a half and played a pivotal role in changing the course and the ultimate outcome of the Cold War (to some extent as a factor) as ordinary citizens took charge to disrupt the status-quo.
However, mobilizing people towards the anti-nuclear cause, under the bottom-up approach, worked impactfully through the 1980s decade as people were fed up of living under the dangling Nuclear sword of Damocles and after effects of Nuclear tests for decades. Further, pathbreaking movies like 'The Day After' craeted public awareness as they brought the unimaginable horrors of Nuclear war come alive on the silver screen which even jolted Ronald Reagan out of his war mongering mode and even made him make progress with initiatives directed towards arms reduction with the INF Treaty in 1987 and the START treaty later.
The current times, however, are way different as the pendulum has just started its shift in the last decade towards another arms race with Nuclear modernization underway. The people mobilization approach is still years or decade away from becoming salient and relevant for masses. However, the approaches towards Nuclear Disarmament and abolishment now also need to be linked to pursuit of the highly required and long overdue UNSC reforms rather than just people mobilization as limited powers assigned to the UNGA and the veto superpower of the P5 Nations have been the biggest impediments to making any kind of meaningful progress at the global body towards a range of meaningful objective, such as, provision of aid for civilian victims during ongoing armed conflicts, imposing cease fires, deployment of peacekeeping forces to ensure human security, responsibility2protect etc. leave aside a Gordian knot like nuclear weapons.
In retrospect, it can be said for sure that humanity simply proved to be lucky through the Cold War decades to have survived that kind of nuclear lunacy. However, Its actually unfortunate to see the world sliding back on that kind of dangerous, backward journey once again with the build-up having already begun towards the ultimate start of the countdown to midnight for humanity...just hope we don't run out of luck & god's grace this time around...
Image: Anti-Nuclear Protest in New York on July 12, 1982.
Image Credits: Wagingnonviolence.org