Written by Diane Swords (Chair of the Nuclear Free World Committee of Syracuse Peace Council, Steering Committee Member of Back from the Brink)
The anti-nuclear movement is reviving and growing, and Back from the Brink is playing a huge role in this. On the principle that we can do more together, people interested in nuclear disarmament are joining in what we are calling “Hubs” to support each other in our local work and increase our presence and power with legislative bodies at the state and federal level.
Syracuse, NY has maintained a small “Nuclear Free World” committee within our local Syracuse Peace Council for many years. In 2018, we learned about Back from the Brink, through a talk by Dr. Ira Helfand, and we were inspired to work on the platform’s five policy solutions as a Hub. As of now, we have 20 endorsing organizations and six endorsing legislators, as well as the Syracuse Common Council. Our work is mostly local but our endorsers go beyond the immediate Syracuse boundaries.
The Ithaca Nuclear Disarmament Group has been another Hub of BftB. In 2018, they achieved passage of a “Resolution Calling for the United States to ‘Pull Back from the Brink’ and Prevent Nuclear War.” They were also instrumental in an effort of the CNY Episcopal Diocese to endorse the campaign. Their resolution passed their General Convention in the summer of 2022.
Recently, the idea came up that it might increase the strength of BftB in upstate New York if Syracuse and Ithaca merged as one Hub. Subsequently, we began to consider that reaching more areas in New York would have particular advantage for approaching our common U.S. Senators, and also our different representatives in Congress.
For this goal, Frank Baldwin from Ithaca, myself from Syracuse, and Jeremy Love from Back from the Brink HQ put out a call for a regional Hub meeting of upstate New York anti-nuclear organizers. Our effort is at its beginning, but there are very positive signs. Four people initially responded to our invitation, which we were pleased with. However, on the evening of our meeting, 13 people joined the call! Albany, Syracuse, Ithaca, Rochester, Buffalo, and several smaller areas were represented; members of several organizations, including Peace Action, Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi, Amnesty International, and Sierra Club were present. The attendees did not want to wait long to set a next meeting, and will meet May 28th to discuss a common action to influence our Senators and Representatives to support BftB.
