From Vietnam to Diablo Canyon, Mothers for Peace have fought ‘war’ for 50 years
Mothers for Peace celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2019, but world events continue to be relevant to the group.
They first formed in response to the Vietnam War in 1969 and have advocated for peace and environmental cause since then.
When U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, the group did not dissolve. Instead, it moved to oppose Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, wars in the Middle East and the School of the Americas, where South American paramilitary forces were trained.
In the era before social media, Mothers for Peace organized an anti-war march in 1990 that attracted almost 1,000 participants.
Ann Fairbanks wrote about the group in a story that ran in the Telegram-Tribune on Jan. 11, 1991, as tensions rose before the first Gulf War. The story is excerpted for length.
Mothers for Peace at war
Jane Swanson’s son was 1 year old when she joined a new group called Mothers for Peace.
The year was 1969.
A woman named Joan Stembridge had written a letter to the editor for the Telegram-Tribune. She was concerned about the war in Vietnam. She felt helpless. She asked other women who felt the same to call her, to help her form a group to oppose the war.
Swanson missed the first meeting. But she was at the second one. And it wasn’t long before she and other group members were leafleting young draftees at the Greyhound bus station, planning peace marches, writing letters and participating in peace vigils.
The Vietnam War finally ended. Mothers for Peace, educated to the horrors of nuclear weapons, took on Diablo Canyon.
The possibility of a new war has now taken center stage. Swanson is again walking and writing and calling for peace — this time in the Persian Gulf.
And this time, her fervor is intensified by the fact that her son, Chris, is now 21.
He’s studying music at Indiana university, hoping to become a professional violinist.
“I would rather have him make music,” Swanson said, “not war.”
From anti-Vietnam to anti-nuke to anti-war. Some people might say Mothers for Peace has come full circle.
Not really, says June von Ruden of Pismo Beach, an active member.
Yes, the group’s David-and-Goliath war with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has earned them the most publicity. But their concern, she said, has always been the “total environment.”
“And the worst environmental disaster,” she said, “is war.”
The group has always been concerned about threats to planet Earth, agreed Nancy Culver of San Luis Obispo.
“We got into Diablo because we learned so much about nuclear weapons,” she said. “Diablo is a symptom of how we live with our environment. This war is also a symptom.
“We’re about to wage war to maintain a lifestyle that damages the Earth.”
From the beginning of its opposition to Diablo Canyon, said Jacquelyn Wheeler, of San Luis Obispo, Mothers for Peace “has called out to the government to come up with a comprehensive energy plan.”
While some headway was achieved under President Carter, she said, “nothing has been done, and no money has been invested in alternative energies or conservation programs” since Ronald Reagan’s administration.
“Now Bush is saying we have to fight a war to protect our way of life — which translates to unlimited access to their oil.”
And while the government can mobilize 450,000 men and women and spend more than $30 billion on that effort, Wheeler said, it won’t even offer incentives to get people into fuel efficient cars.
“One way the group has come full circle,” Culver said, “Is that many people who had young children (in the group’s early years) now have draft age children.
Concern over nuclear waste is what got Wheeler involved with Mothers for Peace soon after she moved o San Luis Obispo in 1979.
“I had not been an activist before,” she recalled.
But when she was invited to a Mothers for Peace meeting, Wheeler was “really impressed by the fact that they had educated themselves on a pretty complex issue, they were strong-minded and they weren’t afraid of going up against a big agency.”
At their regular meetings, some 20 members might show up.
“But if we put out a call for action we can get several hundred people,” Culver said. “And we have thousands of people on our mailing list.”
A public outcry could prevent war, the women believe.
“If Bush felt that his political future was in jeopardy,” Culver said, “he would see other alternatives much more quickly than he is now.”
Swanson’s view: “No family has a child to make sure we have enough manpower to fight some war.”
