Cold War Activism Heating Up Again

Tim Carpenter gave up a huge chunk of his life in the 1980s to the antinuclear movement. He quit college. He moved into a garage with three other activists. He shelved any desire to get married and start a family. For most of the decade, he lived on a couple hundred dollars a month plus donated food.

He was standing up to the threat of nuclear war and, in his mind, making a difference. Each year, the Orange County group he helped found, the Alliance for Survival, would gather hundreds, then thousands, of demonstrators at the corner of Anton Boulevard and Bristol Street in front of the Westin South Coast Plaza, where participants of an annual weapons convention stayed.

“Today, when you say, let’s meet at Anton and Bristol, it means something to people,” Carpenter said. “It evokes a lot of memories.”

But then the end of the Cold War came. Like many other antinuclear activists, Carpenter switched his causes, campaigning for the homeless and against California’s three-strikes law. He felt ready to move on with his life: He got married, had two children and became a teacher.

But now, a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he and his antinuclear group are back.

“Like most of us in the peace movement, we celebrated the Berlin Wall coming down and began looking forward to the peace dividend,” said Carpenter, 42. “But it never came.”

It’s not a coincidence that the long-quiet movement is stirring just as the White House has changed hands. President Bush’s recent call for the United States to abandon the nearly 30-year-old Antiballistic Missile Treaty and develop a space shield will further revive interest in the peace movement, activists hope.

After last summer’s political conventions, Carpenter got in touch with the group of stalwarts who had been at the core of Orange County’s antinuclear movement and suggested they start a new campaign. He expected a dozen or so people to show up at a September gathering at a local church to form the Alliance for Global Nuclear Disarmament. Instead, 80 did.

“You still do this the old-fashioned way. You try to educate people. You hold house parties. You do it through protests, speaking to groups,” Carpenter said. “You still have to move people one person at a time.”

A November candlelight vigil at the familiar Anton and Bristol corner drew about 100 people. Since then, they’ve demonstrated outside the offices of U.S. Reps. Edward Royce (R-Fullerton) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove). A few weeks ago, Carpenter spoke to a group of aging peaceniks at Leisure World; a couple of hundred people showed up.

The group’s efforts mirror similar moves nationwide, with new, grass-roots antinuclear groups forming and organizations ramping up fund-raising and political action efforts.

“It’s not a tidal wave by any means, but there is a significant re-energizing going on,” said Ira Shorr, director of Back from the Brink, a Washington-based group that formed last year to campaign against missiles that remain on “hair-trigger alert.”

The group has garnered more than 16,000 registered members to its Web site and raised more than $300,000--money being used to organize in 45 states, Shorr said. Carpenter’s Orange County group is among those that received financial support.

“We’re trying to get the message out that nuclear weapons are still with us,” Shorr said.

In addition, the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility helped pay for a large ad attacking the Bush plan that ran recently in The Times.

The groups still get the predictable brushoff from many conservative lawmakers.

“They’re filled with sincerity, but guided by stupidity,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Huntington Beach Republican and a strong backer of Bush’s missile defense plan. “They’re idealistic, but they’re using their hearts instead of their heads. . . . A protective missile shield would allow us to have fewer nuclear weapons. It will make for a safer world.”

Carpenter, a true believer, couldn’t disagree more. He dusted off a list of supporters he has been collecting for more than 20 years and sent pleas for money. So far, he has raised about $7,000.

His group, he says, is also getting new recruits for the cause.

Jeff Tidwell was in high school in the 1980s, and while the fear of nuclear war “was always in the back of my mind,” he didn’t get involved in the protests of the ‘80s.

Now, at 35, he finds himself standing on street corners holding signs that say “Peace Not Bombs” and “Schools Not Nukes” as a member of Carpenter’s group.

“I’m married, I’m a homeowner, but I was looking for an issue to stand behind, looking to make a contribution,” said Tidwell, who lives in Orange and teaches history at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga.

“It’s sort of odd. I came to this late. Maybe I’m trying to make up for lost time.”

In the old days, Carpenter was routinely arrested for civil disobedience. Twelve times, he believes. Or maybe it was 14.

Tidwell said the group has talked about picketing local defense contractors that would benefit from Bush’s missile shield. The prospect makes him wonder how deep his newfound convictions run.

“My wife, she supports me in what I’m doing,” he said. “But she wouldn’t support me getting arrested. No way. I’m telling you that right now.”