November 1: Women Strike for Peace

Bella Abzug helped launch Women Strike for Peace on this date in 1961, when some fifty thousand women, mostly middle-class mothers of young children in over sixty communities, demonstrated to demand that President John F. Kennedy “End the Arms Race Not the Human Race.” This was prompted by the Soviet resumption of atmospheric nuclear testing — and the U.S. plan to do the same — after a three-year moratorium. WSP prefigured the anti-war movement and the feminist movement, and is credited with ending the career of the House Un-American Activities Committee and forcing the adoption of the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty.

“The HUAC, the HUAC,
It’s time they were bounced with a one, two, and three.
They’re due for the door,
When they can do no more
Than pester the women
Who work against war.” —Malvina Reynolds