UConn's Dodd Center Adding Cold War Anti-Nuke Movement Documents

STORRS, CT — The records and materials of the Connecticut Freeze Campaign, one of the nation’s largest and most effective grassroots campaigns opposing nuclear weapons during the Cold War period, are being added to the Archives and Special Collections at UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Center for Research.

The announcement was made Wednesday by UConn Library officials.

The Connecticut Freeze Campaign Records are a compilation of materials donated by more than 100 peace activists across a 15-year period (1980-1995) and include organizing tools, educational outreach models and the lively memorabilia of this prolific movement here in Connecticut.

“The records of the Connecticut Freeze are powerful because they show how people united together can change the course of history,” says Martha Bedard, vice provost for the UConn Library.

The Alternative Press Collection at Archives Special Collections is one of the oldest and largest such collections in the nation, containing thousands of newspapers, magazines, books pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations from the 1800s to the present. The collection includes material on Peace and Solidarity movements during the Vietnam War era, Liberation and Civil Rights, Gender and Sexual Orientation, Student Activism, Conservative Politics and the Radical Right and the Environmental Movement, among others.

In addition to the records of all local Connecticut chapters of the organization, the Freeze Campaign materials going into the Library’s archives include newsletters, photographs, t-shirts, buttons, banners, posters, videos, quilts and a range of ephemera posted on walls and street posts around the state.

“This collection helps buttress the activism collections held in the Archives & Special Collections related to community organizing and the Anti-Nuclear movement in Connecticut and across the country,” said Graham Stinnett, archivist for the Alternative Press Collection. “The Connecticut Freeze Campaign archives are a rich history of how local chapters of active citizens across the state lobbied, demonstrated and advocated for a nuclear free future during the height of the Cold War. Collections like the Connecticut Freeze demonstrate the rich history around public discourse, the peace movement, political economy of labor and weapons manufacturing in the state.”

In the early 1980s the Nuclear Freeze movement organized millions of citizens across the country, changing the landscape of political activism in a way that has not been seen since. In Connecticut, the Freeze Campaign ran one of the most effective grassroots campaigns in the country and the papers of this prolific movement now will be preserved for generations of researchers.

Marta Daniels, co-founder and first director of the Freeze Campaign in Connecticut, sees it as a beacon for what a grassroots campaign can be.

“We stepped into history and we grew to take on the daunting tasks of creating a less dangerous world for our children,” Daniels says. “While we didn’t stop the arms race, we did change public opinion about it and made it politically impossible for governments to choose the nuclear option. We showed what an informed and empowered citizenry can do.”

Daniels believes that their model “can be applied to address any other difficult, but vital global issue, such as climate change. “We are honored to be included in UConn’s family of distinguished historic collections, and hope our records will provide inspiration to present and future citizen activists.”

Today the work of grassroots groups like the Connecticut Freeze Campaign continues through Peace Action, the organization that brought to together the national Freeze effort and The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy. The 100,000 members of Peace Action are focused on building a broad political base for a new U.S. foreign policy based on a commitment to disarmament and resolving international conflict peacefully while upholding international cooperation and human rights. In addition, Peace Action has led successful issue advocacy efforts in congressional districts throughout the nation as part of its Peace Voter Campaign.

The initial delivery of the Connecticut Freeze Campaign materials will take place during an invitation-only event on Friday, Sept. 30 from 5 to 9 p.m. that will include a keynote address by Lawrence S. Wittner, professor emeritus of history at the State University of New York/Albany and a prominent scholar, writer and activist; and folksingers performing songs from the peace movement.

Photo Credit: UConn