Editing Peace Action (section)

=== Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign ===
{{main|Nuclear Freeze campaign}}
During the 1980s, SANE continued to monitor the political and military actions of the U.S. government and beyond. In 1981, The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign began with the purpose of pressuring the government to stop the nuclear arms build-up. The campaign was initiated by [[Randall Forsberg]]'s call to "freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/the-new-abolitionists |title=The new abolitionists |author=Hugh Gusterson |date=30 March 2012 |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606022845/http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/the-new-abolitionists |archive-date=6 June 2013 }}</ref> Many SANE leaders participated in the creation of 'the Freeze', as it was sometimes called, which was a grassroots-based confederation of groups spanning the country. Freeze leaders included [[Randall Forsberg]], [[Helen Caldicott]], [[Pam Solo]], and [[Randy Kehler]]. Elected officials such as Rep. [[Patricia Schroeder]] and Sen. [[Ted Kennedy]] helped to lead the movement in Congress. The Freeze's grassroots network pushed for nuclear reductions through ballot initiatives in towns and cities across the nation.

Specifically, the Freeze's goal was to get the U.S. and the Soviet Union to simultaneously adopt a mutual freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons and of missiles, as well as new aircraft designed primarily to deliver nuclear weapons. Much emphasis was put on the [[LGM-118A Peacekeeper#Development and deployment|MX]] and [[Pershing II]] missiles. Randall Forsberg was the organizer who initiated this idea of the "mutual, verifiable" Freeze.

During 1982, the SANE [[political action committee]] was formed for the political election year. Aside from working to get selected candidates elected, it became a driving force behind many proposed nuclear freeze referendums. 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 [[Soviet Union|USSR]] that would reduce overall warhead counts on any missile type.

In roughly the 1983–84 period, when the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign was planning expansively around mass-movement fund raising, lobbying, and Political Action Committees (PACs), SANE was merged into that entity, though local SANE chapters would continue to hold meetings for some time to come. 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.  From 1984 on, the movement had three actual legal entities, the 'Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign', with both public education and lobbying arms (501.C-3 and 501.C-4 corporations), and the Freeze Voter PAC (501.C-5).

During the 1980s, SANE/FREEZE expanded its work to oppose U.S. military intervention in [[El Salvador]] and to end U.S. military aid to the [[Contra (guerrillas)|Contras]] in [[Nicaragua]]. The organization promoted its agenda in different ways. An ad was placed in [[Variety (magazine)|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. A weekly radio program by SANE/FREEZE, "Consider the Alternatives", reaches 140 radio stations. Their door canvassing campaign reached 250,000 households.