Their decision to end there was made two days after Californian faster, Dorothy Granada had lost forty pounds and partial eyesight.
In Canada, however, participant Karen Harrison ended her fast on October 5 after a full 61 days, only when Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau conceded to meet with her to discuss nuclear disarmament.
Former chancellor Willy Brandt also visited with the fasters in Bonn, where he pledged to seek immediate support from his Social Democratic Party to postpone deployment of missiles in Germany.
Unfortunately, the IFFL open-ended fast failed to elicit a supportive public response from either U.S. President Reagan or Russian Secretary Yuri Andropov.
Since then, unrelated protest actions have also referenced this event, such as Cesar Chavez' hunger strike that he called a "Fast For Life" in 1988, intended to draw attention to the harmful effects of pesticides on farm workers.
[5] San Francisco, California, US Toronto, Canada Rome, Italy In December 1978, 180 people were on trial for twice entering and occupying the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington in May of that year.
The objective was to overcome the inability to put morality and sense above a death-promoting legal system, that being an escalating stockpile of nuclear weapons by governments around the world.
A pamphlet titled "First Step" was published so that others could gain experience for a major fast in the event that the nuclear arms race was not stopped by Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1983.
[8] On June 19, 1982, the three announced that if the development, testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons had not been stopped by the symbolic date of August 6, 1983, then they would begin an open-ended fast.
[14] Former chancellor Willy Brandt visited with the fasters in Bonn and pledged to seek immediate support from his Social Democratic Party to postpone deployment of missiles in Germany.
In Scotland, an Open Letter was published urging a policy of international aid and bringing an end to the escalating arms race.
The letter was signed by leaders of all the major churches in Scotland and handed in to the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, and Prime Minister Thatcher in London, as well as being sent to all members of parliament.
The message called on the fasters to end their fast, having "encouraged the representatives of the member churches of the World Council to commit themselves further in this way".
[16] In early October, the French fasters were granted a two-hour audience with President Mitterrand where they affirmed their opposition to nuclear buildup and testing in Polynesia.
[6] The final edition of "The Date Is Set" (November 1983) chronicled that French priest Joseph Pyronnet fasted for 15 days until October 18 when he held a press conference as bishops assembled for the Synod of Reconciliation.
[19] On October 30, Tom Siemer reported a letter he presented to the World Catholic Bishops' Synod was read aloud by Cardinal Loerschreider of Brazil.
The Synod adopted the terms of Tom's letter by issuing a summary which condemned nuclear weapons, and signed by 15 Catholic communities around Rome.
[19] On October 24 in Stockholm, Sweden, significant blockades were held at the British, West German and Italian embassies following a day on non-violence training.
[25] According to Alan Burns, this was continued through the summer of 1984, when an international gathering took place in Oxford, England on June 1–3 with about 20 people participating to assess the Fast's effect.