CHC Home | History & Links | Finding Aids
Cambridge Sane / Freeze / Cambridge Peace Action Collection (pdf version available)
Donated
to the Cambridge Historical Commission
By Eva Steiner Moseley
On March 18, 2008
.5 linear feet
Processed by
H. Alice Dodds
April 2008
Cambridge Historical Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Description
The Cambridge Sane / Freeze / Cambridge Peace Action Collection, an organization dedicated to the promotion of peace and justice, was donated to the Cambridge Historical Commission on March 18, 2008 by Eva Steiner Moseley. These papers were collected by Ms. Moseley during her years of membership in and service to the Cambridge branch of this state and national organization.
At the outset of this collection, the group was known as the Cambridge Committee for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze. The merger of two national organizations in 1989, led to a change of name to the Cambridge Sane / Freeze, and in 1993, following the lead of its larger constituencies, to Cambridge Peace Action. The membership of this Cambridge affiliate fluctuated between approximately twenty-five and fifty members, and was under the umbrella of the Massachusetts State and U.S. national organizations. In 1999, the national organization in Washington, D.C. spoke with the voice of 55,000 members and 100 affiliates.
The original purpose of the organization was to halt the nuclear arms race. As the years passed, this purpose was broadened to include international security through nuclear disarmament and a shift in national spending from military to domestic needs. The wide array of activities undertaken by the Cambridge branch in support of this purpose was carried out by dedicated, hard working members, led throughout the years covered by this collection by the remarkable energy, courage, and vision of Olivia Israel Abelson, Co-Chair of the group. Brief biographical information on Ms. Abelson can be found in Series IV.
The activities of the Cambridge Sane / Freeze / Cambridge Peace Action called for the use of every form of media, including TV, community organization and activism, political action, and group efforts ranging in size from small teach-ins to massive public rallies. Further details on the work of this group can be found in the subsequent sections of this descriptive piece.
Scope and Content
Series I – Cambridge
Lobby for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze 1988
The single item in this series fittingly opens the collection by introducing
the collector, Eva Moseley, newly arrived in Cambridge to serve as curator
of manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library, and by welcoming her as a member
of the group.
Series II – Cambridge
Sane / Freeze 1989-1992
This name change, Cambridge Sane/Freeze, was in effect for four years, a period
during which the activities of the organization were beginning to broaden
in scope. A collection of minutes for 1989 and 1990 gives a picture of the
day to day activities of Cambridge Sane/Freeze, which ranged from selling
raffle tickets, to peace vigils, to distribution of leaflets, to questionnaires
for Cambridge City Council candidates, to an event on economic diversification,
to pressure on politicians, from Mayor Vellucci to Senators Kerry and Kennedy.
In addition, these years saw the Moseley correspondence with world leaders,
organized protests against the Gulf (Iraq) War, and the beginning of the
group’s use of channel TV to disseminate its message.
Series III – Cambridge
Peace Action 1993-2003
The ten years covered by this series, the duration of the name change to Cambridge
Peace Action, saw the most wide ranging period of the group’s work.
While continuing the community activism and political pressures described
in Series II, Cambridge Peace Action succeeded in two major undertakings:
the passage in 1997 of a Cambridge City Council resolution to ban nuclear
weapons, and in 1999, through similar efforts, the success in the Cambridge
municipal elections of a resolution in support of Abolition 2000. Also during
this period, demonstrations were mounted to stop the Balkans War and to discontinue
the Army School of the Americas. A letter from John Kenneth Galbraith to
Eva Moseley, supportive of the work of Cambridge Peace Action, is also of
interest.
Series IV – Moseley
Background Statement 2008
This brief background statement gives useful biographical information about
Eva Steiner Moseley and Olivia Israel Abelson, and about the work of this
community peace and justice organization.
Folder List
Series I – Cambridge
Lobby for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze
1. 1988 Folder
Series II -- Cambridge
Sane / Freeze
2. 1989 Folder
3. 1990 Folder
3.1. Brilliant Pebbles 1990
3.2. Coffin Dinner 1990
3.3. Gulf War 1990
3.4. Miller Questionnaire 1990
3.5 Moseley Correspondence 1990
3.6. Organizations 1990
4. 1991 Folder
4.1. Cable TV 1991
4.2. Iraq War 1991
5. 1992 Folder
Series III – Cambridge Peace Action
6. 1993 Folder
6.1. Army School of the Americas 1993
6.2. Balkans War 1993
7. 1994 Folder
8. 1995 Folder
9. 1996 Folder
10. 1997 Folder
10.1.Cambridge Council Resolution 1997
10.2.Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty 1997
11. 1998 Folder
11.1 Petition Signers (Sealed Folder) 1998
12. 1999 Folder
12.1 Galbraith, John K. Correspondence 1999
12.2.Galbraith, John K. Original Letter (Sealed Folder) 1999
12.3. Test Ban Referendum Question (Abolition 2000) 1999
12.4. Petition Signers (Sealed Folder) 1999
13. 2000 Folder
14. 2002 Folder
15. 2003 Folder
Series IV – Moseley
Background Statement
16. 2008 Folder