FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Activists Across U.S. Will Launch a Week of Protests Demanding Steps to Reduce Dangers of Nuclear War

Activists from around the country, supported by the Defuse Nuclear War coalition, will be participating in a week of action, from Sept. 24 to 30, to demand that the U.S. government take steps now to address the looming threat of nuclear war.

For Immediate Release: Friday, Sept. 22, 2023
For further information:
Ryan Black, ryan [at] rootsaction.org

Activists from around the country, supported by the Defuse Nuclear War coalition, will be participating in a week of action, from Sept. 24 to 30, to demand that the U.S. government take steps now to address the looming threat of nuclear war. The activists will be calling for reinstatement of nuclear arms-control treaties that the U.S. has withdrawn from in this century, and a shutdown of hair-trigger land-based ICBMs, as well as genuine diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

About 40 events have been organized nationwide, and the number continues to grow. These grassroots events encompass a range of activities, including demonstrations in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Tucson, Fresno, Salt Lake City, pickets across Washington state, vigils in Hawaii and California, banner displays at a Lockheed Martin facility in Pennsylvania, an interfaith gathering at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York City and a march in Rhode Island.

“The need for action to curtail the possibility of nuclear conflict could not be more urgent,” said Ryan Black, national organizer of the Defuse Nuclear War campaign. “The U.S. has allowed far too many weapons treaties to lapse in recent years, and the Ukraine War threatens daily to plunge the world into nuclear war. Our coalition of activists is demanding that the Biden administration seriously consider the consequences of their inaction in addressing this threat.”

The week of action comes as the Doomsday Clock, a measure maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that tracks the world’s proximity to a possible nuclear war, was recently set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been since it was created in 1947. 

Interviews are available with local organizers of events in many communities, including:

Sean Arent, sean [at] wpsr.org

Arent is with Washington state’s chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, part of the Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition that is holding 12 events around the state later this month. He said: “Washington state is at the center of the atomic world, with more deployed nuclear weapons than anywhere else in the United States based out of the Kitsap-Bangor Trident Nuclear submarine base. The plutonium for some of the very first bombs were made at the ongoing disaster site known as Hanford, still radioactive to this day. Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and our Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition believe it is past time that our members of Congress recognize this legacy and lead our country away from nuclear weapons. We’re asking our members of Congress to support justice for communities impacted by these weapons like the Marshallese, support diplomatic negotiations towards arm reductions and to fight tooth and nail to phase out, not enhance our nuclear weapons arsenal in the impending National Defense Authorization Act. The world is at stake.”

Chris Nelson, chris4pax [at] gmail.com

Nelson is with the Chico Peace Alliance, which has scheduled a march in Chico, Calif., on Monday, onto the Chico State University campus and then through downtown with information to urge students and community members to get involved in efforts to Defuse Nuclear War. Nelson said: “The annual obscene ‘Defense’ Authorization Act maintains and grows constant war infrastructure that can only be curtailed by the action of civilians. The revolving door in Congress for the arms contractors now makes representative government ineffective for arms control. Nuclear weapons are illegal under the International Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is up to us to make that normative and create effective pressure to get interim treaties reestablished.”

Pamela Richard, pamrichard35 [at] gmail.com

Richard is with Peace Action Wisconsin, which has scheduled a protest in Milwaukee on Sept. 30.