Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, Inc. (also referred to as The Great Peace March, GPM, and the March) was a cross-country event in 1986 aimed at raising awareness to the growing danger of nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...

and to advocate for complete, verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth. The GPM consisted of hundreds of people, mostly but not exclusively Americans, who convened in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA, in February 1986 to walk from L.A. to Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. The group left Los Angeles on March 1, 1986 and arrived in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 1986, a journey of about 3,700 miles, nine months, and many campsites.

Organization

The March was conceived by Los Angeles businessman David Mixner

David Mixner

David Mixner is a civil rights activist and best-selling author. He is best known for his work in anti-war and gay rights advocacy.- Childhood:...

, who formed People Reaching Out for Peace (PRO-Peace), a non-profit organization. Due to bankruptcy, PRO-Peace folded while the March was in Barstow

Barstow

-Places:In the United States:*Barstow, California, a city in San Bernadino County*Barstow, Fresno County, California, an unincorporated community*Barstow, Illinois*Barstow, Maryland*Barstow, Texas-People:...

, California. A few weeks of round-the-clock meetings followed to assess resources, reorganize, and to form a grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

, self-governed organization. Once reorganized, the March continued its eastward trek.

Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose preamble as approved:

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament is an abolitionist movement. We believe that great social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...

comes about when the will of the people becomes focused on a moral imperative
Moral imperative
A moral imperative is a principle originating inside a person's mind that compels that person to act. It is a kind of categorical imperative, as defined by Immanuel Kant. Kant took the imperative to be a dictate of pure reason, in its practical aspect. Not following the moral law was seen to be...

. 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. 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
Nuclear arms race
The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...

.

Life on the march

Along the way marchers created a vibrant visual impact as they walked through small towns and big cities alike. They interacted with local populations and conducted educational workshops for each other and for the communities through which they passed. Workshops usually centered on options for non-violent conflict resolution

Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...

and peace

Peace

Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...

-and-justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

topics related to the mission of the demonstration. Marchers self-selected the facets of GPM life where they wanted to focus their energies. The speakers' bureau spoke in schools and community centers from coast to coast. Other outreach activities included a "Marcher In The Home" program to match up GPM marchers with "townies" for overnight stays, sleeping indoors, and special events like concerts and community potlucks. For many, the walk-a-day life of a peace marcher also brought opportunities for "marcher in the cafe," "marcher in the diner," and the popular "marcher in the laundromat." Through all of these activities and events, conversations were sparked, friendships were forged, and the seeds were sown for communities to explore their own notions of peace, justice, and non-violence long after the March had passed by.

An average day's walk on The Great Peace March was about 15 miles. The group camped outside most nights, an advance team having scouted locations and secured permits in advance. Most people on the March walked at least some part of each day. There were gear trucks specially outfitted to transport clothing, tents, and other personal supplies. There was a mobile kitchen, dry-storage trucks, a library, school, and other specialty vehicles. For an expedition of this size and scope, it took many people working in camp to keep systems and processes humming, and each marcher was expected to volunteer for two regular in-camp "job" shifts each week. On any given day, dozens of marchers did not walk with the GPM on the highways and byways of that day's route; but were instead washing breakfast dishes, packing up the tractor-trailers, advancing to the next camp site, preparing lunch, gathering supplies for dinner, teaching the schoolchildren, cleaning and dumping the porta-potties, participating on councils or committees, making presentations to community organizations, leading a classroom discussion in a local school, doing educational outreach to church congregations and Universities, maintaining daily contact with local, national, and international media to provide Peace City and GPM updates, re-shelving items on the library bus, fund-raising, formulating logistics

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

, negotiating land use permits, restoring damaged areas of the last camp site caused by the heavy trucks and heavy foot traffic, and any of a number of other jobs necessary to keep this traveling community on the road and on schedule.

Synopsis of GPM history from the Swarthmore College Archives

Historical Introduction by Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament evolved from another peace effort, PRO-Peace (see below). Formally organized on April 2, 1985, by David Mixner of Los Angeles, California, PRO-Peace envisioned raising $20 million to send 5000 marchers 3000 miles eastward to Washington D.C. The march departed from Los Angeles on March 1, 1986, with only 1200 participants and a fraction of the needed monies in hand. The marchers soon began to realize that the collapse of PRO-Peace was imminent and some began to organize a new structure to take its place. On March 14, while camped near Barstow, California, they received word from David Mixner that PRO-Peace no longer existed. Many marchers departed but those who remained incorporated on March 19 into the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. A home office was established in Santa Monica, California, and financial aid was received from individuals and organizations, including the Peace Development Fund

Peace Development Fund

The Peace Development Fund is a non-profit public foundation, based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Its mission statement describes it as working "to build the capacity of community-based organizations through grants, training, and other resources as partners in the human rights and social justice...

and Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for Social Responsibility is the largest physician-led organization in the USA working to protect the public from the what they consider threats of nuclear proliferation, climate change, and environmental toxins...

.

The GPM, also known as Peace City and now numbering approximately 600, resumed its eastward walk on March 28. Its governance and organizational structure adapted to meet its evolving needs. Marchers assumed volunteer jobs, replacing the highly structured and paid PRO- Peace network, and a Policy Board began the task of governing. A City Council soon replaced the Policy Board with decisions made preferably by consensus. The Board of Directors was enlarged from three to seven members and a Judicial Board oversaw resolution of disputes and disciplinary problems among marchers. Three City Managers, one for each of the tent cities, plus department heads, formed an Operations Council. Mayor Diane Clark represented Peace City at ceremonial occasions as the GPM made its way across the United States.

Many departments and task forces were created to carry on the work of the March. These included the Community Interaction Agency which planned outreach events with communities the March passed through, the Field Department which later merged with the C.I.A., Education (Peace Academy) which worried about school for the children on the March as well as issue-oriented speeches for marchers, and Entrance/Exit which handled marcher applications.

The marchers crossed the United States through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, and arrived in Washington, D.C. on November 14. Concluding ceremonies were held the following day in Meridian Park, followed by speeches in front of the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, and closing ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...

Jobs and duties on the March

And, of course, march potatoes — those who frequently enjoyed a more, shall we say, leisurely pace.

Porta-Pottie Poem

This poem was posted inside the numerous, and very well maintained, porta potties to recruit help.

"Porta-pottie Poets come here not to sit and think.

(I bet you're sure I'm going to end this line with stink.)

No. We sit for inspiration, for our goal, you see,

Is to attain salvation, to emulate Gandhi.

Mahatma was a lawyer, a statesman and a seer.

Yet the mean, lowest toilet-bowl cleaner was his peer.

So be a great soul like Gandhi — hey, Tom, Sue, and Gus!

Join Porta-pottie Poets: come clean this john with us."

Peace marches before and after

"Pleading for Peace, Archaeologists Studying Camp Where Anti-nuclear Activists Staged Protests." Article about the Nevada Test Site. *http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Mar-24-Sun-2002/news/18354606.html

Like the towers and craters from 41 years of nuclear weapons testing that dot the landscape of the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...

, a patch of ground on the other side of the highway has attracted archaeologists charting the last years of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. It's known as Peace Camp, the location where anti-nuclear activists from around the world staged some of the largest civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

actions in America. - excerpt

"Analysis of Mother's Day

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...

Action 1987" (Once there, click on magnifier image to bring up text. Scroll up a bit to get to the beginning of the subject.) *http://books.google.com/books?id=_hgYfQP5aRMC&pg=PA317&lpg=PA317&dq=mother's+day+action+test+site&source=web&ots=PVgDVk9fZi&sig=hGYpdqWn45h03IIIhY0iMJ7Bg1o#PPA319,M1

"American Soviet Walk: Taking Steps to End the Nuclear Arms Race," by Fred Segal and Fred E. Basten. *http://books.google.com/books?id=VWdMluZuOOMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

"OurMove.org" http://www.ourmove.org offers a detailed, annotated photographic account of the American Soviet Peace Walk, which took place on the 450 kilometer stretch between St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and Moscow, Russia, in the summer of 1987. Ourmove.org is based on a 1988 book by Fred Segal & Fred E. Basten, "American Soviet Walk: Taking Steps to End the Nuclear Arms Race," published by the United World of the Universe Foundation.

Article with quite a bit about the Soviet-American walk, "Saying No To Power Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker," by William Mandel. *http://www.billmandel.net/h/26.shtml

In 1987 I was back in the USSR again, taking part in the American-Soviet Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...

-Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

Peace Walk. I saw my purpose as helping the two hundred American walkers to see the realities of rural and small-city life along our camping route from the perspective of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n and Soviet history rather than that of Americans. They certainly knew equivalent American realities. Consider some of the places from which they came: Black Mt., North Carolina; Coralville, Iowa; Lincolnville, Maine; El Prado, New Mexico, as well as every major city. - excerpt

"Ten articles from 1987 about the International Peace Walk" (Soviet-American Walk) *http://news.google.com/archivesearch?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-44,GGLJ:en&q=international+peace+walk&as_ldate=1987&as_hdate=1987&um=1&scoring=t&sa=X&oi=archive&ct=title from these following newspapers; New York Times, Miami Herald, Orange County Register, Boston Globe, Fresno Bee, Chronicle Telegram

At least one part-time participant of the Great Peace March, Kevin J. Shay, participated in a previous two-year march called Walk of the People - A Pilgrimage for Life

Walk of the People - A Pilgrimage for Life

A Walk of the People - A Pilgrimage for Life was a walking personal and political action organized by peace activists Dale James Outhouse and Pamela Blockey O'Brien to bring attention to the perils of impending nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union...

that went across the U.S. and Europe in 1984-85. Shay walked with the Great Peace March for its first week in California.

Synopsis of PRO-Peace from the Swarthmore College Archives

PRO-Peace (People Reaching Out for Peace) was a non-profit, non-partisan organization begun in April 1985 by David Mixner, a partner in a Los Angeles public relations firm who was a key organizer for the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

Moratorium

Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam

The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was a large demonstration against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War that took place across the United States on October 15, 1969. The Moratorium developed from Jerome Grossman's April 20, 1969, call for a general strike if the war had not...

and a national co-chairman of Senator Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign. He served as Executive Director of PRO Peace until its collapse in March 1986. In its statement of purpose, PRO Peace members called themselves "abolitionists" who supported efforts toward complete global nuclear disarmament. Rather than working through political means, they sought to "capture the imagination of the world.., inspire and revitalize the American people.., and send a message to the Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

people." PRO-Peace did not wish to form any coalitions with other peace organizations but did ask for their endorsement

Endorsement

Endorsement may refer to:*Testimonial in advertising, written or spoken statement endorsing a product*Political endorsement*a form added to an insurance policy, modifying the terms...

of its Great Peace March effort.

Headquartered at 8150 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, its staff of approximately 80 paid "professionals" undertook to plan a march across the United States from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. The hope was that 5000 marchers would walk 15 miles a day for 255 days, departing on March 1, 1986. PRO-Peace staff recruited marchers, organized fund-raising events, procured permits, organized six field regions, prepared routes and sites across the country, and attempted to anticipate and solve the logistics of a mobile "Peace City."

As the departure date drew near, PRO-Peace announced that it had raised only 3.4 of the 18 million dollars it needed. Confirmed marchers numbered around 1200 including 75 children. Lacking proper liability insurance

Liability insurance

Liability insurance is a part of the general insurance system of risk financing to protect the purchaser from the risks of liabilities imposed by lawsuits and similar claims. It protects the insured in the event he or she is sued for claims that come within the coverage of the insurance policy...

and some equipment, they nevertheless departed from Los Angeles on March 1, 1986. On March 14, as the marchers camped outside Barstow, California, David Mixner made an appearance and informed them that PRO-Peace no longer existed. Allan Affeldt, the first president of the Great Peace March, later wrote that PRO-Peace staff had not been paid since January 1, and that numerous proposals to reorganize, including the declaration of bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, had been made to and refused by Mixner. With mostly new leadership and greatly reduced numbers, the marchers reorganized as the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, a grassroots, marcher-run, volunteer organization. The transcontinental

Transcontinental

The fourth largest print media group in Canada, with more than 3,000 employees and annual revenues of $608 million in 2010, TC. Transcontinental reaches, through its multiplatform offering, over 18 million consumers across Canada...

trek to Washington D.C. was completed in November 1986.

Excerpt of interview with David Mixner, founder of PRO-Peace (from Metro Weekly)

MW: In 1986, you conceived of the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, in which thousands marched across the country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. It was one of your biggest non-gay ventures.

MIXNER: Yeah. And the biggest political failure of my life. It was, in some ways, a success, but not because of me.

MW: Why?

MIXNER: Ego. Pure and simple. You start believing what people tell you at a young age. So instead of defining yourself and your own journey and the path that God has chosen for you, I started living the expectations of how people said they saw me. And my ego got out of control.

Fortunately, I directed my ego to a good cause—nuclear disarmament. The concept of the March was good and the cause was good. But the decision-making apparatus within the organization was flawed because of my ego. And it failed in the way I had planned it. Now the wonderful, magnificent part about this story is that the marchers reorganized on their own and continued to walk across country, despite the burden I had placed on them.

It is without a doubt my biggest political failure and my biggest regret. Years later, I still get shaky every time I talk about it. But I have some pride in how I handled it. I didn't blame others. I didn't hold fundraisers afterwards to ask people to raise money—I paid off four hundred and some thousand dollars worth of small debt on my own over the next five years. It got an enormous amount of attention at the time.

It could have succeeded if I hadn't wanted to be liked by everybody and had exerted strong leadership. And I realize now that all those people who were carrying me on their shoulders and calling me Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

, when the slightest hint of trouble arose, dropped me to the floor and called me Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

. It was a valuable lesson. Very humbling.

Film

Just One Step was a documentary film of the Great Peace March by Cathy Zheutlin, edited by James Knight

Description: Twenty years ago, a group of 500 people walked across America for nine months in a mobile community known as "Peace City." With her Betacam, Cathy Zheutlin, producer and director, videotaped this journey and created an hour-long documentary called "Just One Step."

Books

Walking For Our Lives by marcher Donna Rankin Love

Walking For Our Lives is set to be released in late 2011 and gives an autobiographical perspective of the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament and other peace marches in the US and Soviet Union. The memoir follows the journey of Donna, a divorced San Francisco Peninsula housewife, from her life of comfortable conformity to becoming comfortable with herself. It is a hero’s journey, complete with companions, obstacles, guides, miracles, and opportunities. Through her tales, we discover how Donna's experiences walking in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament transformed her opinions of what is important and what is worth fighting for from the easy choices to the meaningful ones. The book is about a walk, but the stories within it are of her transformation.

The Great Peace March: An American Odyssey (Peacewatch Edition) by Franklin Folsom, Connie Fledderjohann, Gerda Lawrence

A noble dream: To walk across America to demand the end of the nuclear arms race. It began in Los Angeles on March 1, 1986 with 1,200 people-old and young, from nearly every state and nine other countries-and nearly ended just two weeks later in the bitter cold and rain of the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...

with the financial collapse of the sponsor....Here is their fascinating story-how they did it, whom they encountered along the way, and what this accomplishment means for the future of the American peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...

. This book has 208 pages and is illustrated.

Feet Across America by New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

marcher Anne Macfarlane

Two New Zealand women, neither of them young, trekked across America on foot in 1986, covering more ground than most people do in a lifetime. Their purpose? To promote the idea of nuclear disarmament, as members of 'The Great Peace March'. Visiting communities large and small, protesting at the Nevada Test Site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...

and learning about what happened to those who lived 'down wind' from it, scaling the 12,000 foot Loveland Pass
Loveland Pass
Loveland Pass, elevation 11,990 ft. above sea level, is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado, U.S.A.....

in the Rockies
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, observing the rural decline in the midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

, addressing local groups, coping with the group dynamics of the march, seeing America from the unusual perspective of the pedestrian Anne Macfarlane has a story to tell, and it's compulsive reading.

Peace Like a River: A Personal Journey Across America by Sue Guist

What is it like to walk across America? To clock an average of 20 miles per day for nine months, in good weather and bad, with companions as diverse as Buddhist Monks and teenage Anarchists? Motivated by a desire to free the world from the ultimate holocaust, Sue Guist took her first steps in March 1986 heading out from Los Angeles across the Mojave Desert. And she began at an age when most folks have put their adventuring years behind them. Learn what the "Road of Life" taught her on those 3700 miles about her fellow Americans, about peace making with strangers, about patience and endurance, trusting in the road's next bend, and the human magic of lives simplest pleasures." This book has 197 pages and is sprinkled with photographs by Jeff Share and camp illustrations by Guy Colwell.

Lost Journals from the Great Peace March by Gene Gordon

Way in the back of my closet one day I found piles of old papers and books. Beneath musty volumes some journals lied buried. Dog-eared, weathered and torn, stained with liquid and food - what could these be? I sat right there on the floor turning page after... But no! Some pages were missing entirely. Others were near unreadable, smeared with rain, bleached by sun. Still, I could make out enough to appreciate that recorded here was a tremendous adventure. It tells of a nine-month march across the United States, of hundreds tramping 3,700 miles from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. In these pages I found people calling for peace, for an end to atomic
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

threats and nuclear tests. TAKE DOWN THE BOMBS! These journals told of love in tents, of poetry and song. Food, sex, danger in the wild - there was much pleasure in these pages.

A Strange Place Called Home: My Walk Across America on the Great Peace March by Laura Monagan

Written in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Great Peace March, Monagan brings together a narrative based on the journal she kept at the time, dozens of photographs, and the original folk songs she wrote while walking across America. Her account affirms that the Great Peace March was one of the most important chapters in the history of the nuclear disarmament movement. To allow universal free access, the author offers her memoir online at:
http://astrangeplacecalledhome.blogspot.com

The Great Peace March, song into children's book by Holly Near

Holly Near

Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...

, Paintings by Lisa Desimini

The words to Holly Near's stirring song and Lisa Desimini's dramatic paintings combine to create a powerful picture book. The Great Peace March is both a lyrical evocation of and a powerful call to action for a peaceful planet - a book that celebrates the courage and determination to make it real. Peace activists, teachers, parents, musicians, children, and anyone who hopes for a harmonious world will welcome this book to their homes, classrooms, repertoires, libraries.

Central Body: The Art of Guy Colwell
Guy Colwell
Guy Colwell is an American political artist and underground cartoonist. Although not African-American himself, Colwell's comics often portray blacks in strong roles in stories of life on the streets....

, including work from the years 1964 to 1991. Includes a section of his sketches of the G.P.M.

There is a particularly fascinating section where he shares memories and art from his participation in the Great Peace March (1986). His sketches of life in "Peace City" are both humorous and charming. Although this section slightly suffers from the you-had-to-be-there dilemma, Colwell's GPM art has a significant place in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Colwell's GPM art remains to this day as a reminder of a near-forgotten part of late-20th Century American history related to the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

.

Research

Peace March: Process = Success, Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution

Consortium, Working Paper 90-3, May, 1990. By Lynne Ihlstrom, Department of Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, University of Colorado at Boulder.

One example of an action with minimal visibility and relatively low membership, yet powerful effect on those it touched, was the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. The participants believed their walk across the United States needed to uphold a certain peaceful image if there was to be any credibility
Credibility
Credibility refers to the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message.Traditionally, modern, credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise, which both have objective and subjective components. Trustworthiness is based more on subjective...

given to the group as they marched for their specific goal of an anti-nuclear statement. What grew from this experience was an unexpected daily process of conflict management, sharing, and cooperation
Cooperation
Cooperation or co-operation is the process of working or acting together. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a...

that not only empowered those on the March, but also impressed all those thousands that came into personal contact with the group. Instead of solely being an anti-nuclear action, the Peace March gave credit to its name by learning to be peaceful. — article review

Music

"The Great Peace March" theme song by Holly Near

“Ancient eyes are watching in the night

The stars come out to guide the way

The sun still shines despite the clouds

And the dawn is dusk is dawn is dusk is day

Farmers rise and dream to feed the world

The world awakes to feed the heart

Hearts beat while a thousand flags are waving

And the farmer sees a dream has played a part

Chorus:

We will have peace, we will because we must.

We must because we cherish life.

And believe it or not, as daring as it may seem, it is not an empty dream:

To walk in a powerful path

Neither the first nor the last Great Peace March.

Life is a great and mighty march!

Forever for love and for life on the Great Peace March.”

Wild Wimmin For Peace CD http://www.ladyslipper.org/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=53&upc=gmp1cd00000&pt=1&affnr=-1

Lyrics for song from Wild Wimmin CD-Bridgett Evans by Judy Small

Judy Small

Judy Small is an Australian entertainer, folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Known for her feminist, often patriotic, and political songs, usually following a traditional theme, she has produced twelve albums, hundreds of songs and has been described as being among the most popular political...

http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiBRIDEVAN.html

"No More Silence" YouTube video. Song written by marcher Darryl Purpose

Darryl Purpose

Darryl Purpose is an American singer-songwriter folk musician, known for his narrative lyrics and fingerstyle guitar. Before becoming a professional musician, Purpose was a professional blackjack player and was known as one of the best in the world...

, This updated version sung by Clan Dyken with new rap added http://youtube.com/watch?v=H14bQuQ-2a8

No More Silence lyrics http://www.clandyken.com/Music_Lyrics/nomoresilence.txt

Beautiful Planet by Michael Krieger. Scroll down to "Look Inside" CD http://www.michaelkrieger.com/mk/music.html

Websites

Anne Feeney page about the March and Wild Wimmin for Peace

During the Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

years it was pretty easy to drift into cynicism and helplessness. Enter Wild Wimmin for Peace. It was late September 1986, and they were nearing the end of a journey that had begun almost six months before. I didn't have much in the way of expectations when I was asked to present this 20 women ensemble of peace marchers. I figured they were activists, not artists, and that the show would be boring and preachy. NOT! I was so wrong! Their energy and optimism and tribalism
Tribalism
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple role structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....

and spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...

and humor and talent just blew me away. I couldn't get their music out of my head.

News articles and radio interviews

Nineteen major news articles dating from November 14 through 16, 1986. http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=international+peace+walk&cid=8531162259521576&scoring=t&um=1&sa=N&start=10 from these following newspapers; Boston Globe, New York Times, Atlanta Journal, San Jose Mercury News, Philadelphia Enquirerer, Los Angeles Daily News, Chicago Sun Times, Dallas Morning News, Lexinton Herald Leader, Beacon Journal, Miami Herald

Articles written by marchers

"A Laboratory in Democracy: Revisiting the Great Peace March" by Steve Brigham *http://www.co-intelligence.org/S-GPM.html

Within a week of being on the road again, the legitimacy of the board of directors was called into question. Because marchers so distrusted any connections to PRO-Peace, it was agreed that four marchers would be added to the board, through city-wide elections. From this point on, the Board of Directors would be in charge of general March policy relations with the "outside world" -- but internal matters and daily March decisions were the City Council's responsibility. But as with everything on the march, even this new board's status was not permanent. In early June, just two months later, all board members were asked to resign, and there was yet another city-wide vote and seven new members were instated. Ironically, two anarchists—running with a slate of candidates on a platform to abolish the board altogether—were elected, joining a body they didn't believe in to help it set policy and direction for the entire community. This new board served the March the rest of the way. - excerpt from article

"How to Make a Decision Without Making a Decision" (written for Communities magazine, Winter 2000) by Tom Atlee *http://www.co-intelligence.org/I-decisionmakingwithout.html

At any rate, here it was June already and we were being eaten away from the inside by a conflict that just wouldn't stop -- the familiar war between "maintaining an acceptable appearance for the rest of the world," and "expressing our authentic selves." Nearly every community has its own version of this. Ours had been festering for almost two months before we landed in the fertilizer factory (we'd been decamping on its lawn when the storm rolled in). Our two polarized camps were: "We should march along in orderly rows to impress the media and maintain order in the face of traffic!" and "We should move at our own pace in a strung-out line so we can appreciate the natural world and chat with people in homes and schools we pass!" You can pretty much imagine who was on each side. And each side was ready to leave the march ... "if you people are going to wreck the march like that!" But today we were momentarily drawn together by our common enemy, the rain. Taking advantage of our temporary communion, a few wise marchers set up a portable speaker system right there amidst the piles of odiferous chemicals, suggesting that anyone who wished to should take a 2-minute turn speaking into the microphone about our conflict. So we did that, with great passion and messiness. - excerpt from article

"The Tao

Tao

Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...

of Democracy" by Tom Atlee *http://www.taoofdemocracy.com/prologue.html

Our leadership could not have been more tenuous, conflicted and diffuse. Our governing councils had virtually no power to enforce their decisions. By all traditional logic, the whole operation should have just fallen apart and blown away. There was no way it should have been able to work or survive. But it did. And in the process, it became an extraordinary crucible
Crucible
A crucible is a container used for metal, glass, and pigment production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes, which can withstand temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents...

for personal and collective learning and transformation. - excerpt from article

Audio interviews

"The Wisdom of the Whole", audio of Tom Atlee *http://www.wie.org/unbound/media.asp?id=7

Beginning with his first experience of collective mind on the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament in 1986, this passionate activist tells one astonishing story after another about the power of collectives. And he discusses how co-intelligence can revitalize democracy through “wisdom councils”—groups of ordinary citizens who access a higher wisdom to determine what's best for the whole.

"Audio interview with New Zealand