Peace Action believes that every person has the right to live without the threat of nuclear weapons, that war is not a suitable response to conflict, and that the United States has the resources to both protect and provide for its citizens.
[5] On the nuclear front, Peace Action took part in a coalition lobby effort with organizations like the Arms Control Association and the Council for a Livable World to zero out funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead and Complex 2030.
Efforts of the coalition helped stir the Senate Arms Services Committee to zero out the Administration’s $15 million RRW request for Navy research and development.
Their motto is "Peace Demands Action" and work on issues like Iraq, missile bases in Europe, or cutting the funding of new nuclear warheads .
Youth actively engaged in peace issues lacked a systematic tool to unite and organize with other young people.
SPAN addresses this problem by providing advocacy tools, a nationwide network of like-minded youth, information about the issues, and support for affiliate chapters.
Through coordinated direct actions, demonstrations, teach-ins, letter-writing campaigns, dissemination of materials, and other tactics, SPAN activists all over the country challenge unjust policies and work for non-violent, constructive alternatives.
William Sloane Coffin, former chaplain of Yale University and political activist, retired from Riverside Church to become President of SANE/FREEZE in 1987.
Members included Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Harry Belafonte, and Ossie Davis.
International sponsors of SANE (including Martin Buber, Pablo Casals, Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer) petitioned President John F. Kennedy to maintain a moratorium on testing in the atmosphere.
Graphic Artists for SANE was also organized, with members that included Jules Feiffer, Ben Shahn, and Edward Sorel.
In 1961, SANE hosted an eight-day, 109-mile march from McGuire Air Force Base to the United Nations Plaza that was attended by more than 25,000 people.
SANE's Norman Cousins acted as an unofficial liaison between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on the Partial Test Ban Treaty negotiations.
Three days after the march, Vice-president Hubert Humphrey met with SANE leaders Dr. Spock, Sanford Gottlieb, and Homer Jack "to openly, responsibly, and frankly discuss their proposals" to end the war.
In a victory for both the Freeze campaign and SANE, Ronald Reagan proposed START I, part of a two-phase treaty between the U.S. and the USSR that would reduce overall warhead counts on any missile type.
Specific congressional races were targeted, and some of the pro-Freeze candidates credited the movement, and the grass-roots funds it raised, with their success in getting elected, or re-elected, to Congress.
An ad was placed in Variety magazine signed by over 250 celebrities including Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, and Ed Asner supporting its causes.
Also that year, Peace Action joined human-rights groups to stop major weapons sales to Indonesia and Turkey.
Also that year, Peace Action commemorated the bombing of Nagasaki by staging a demonstration at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.