The Nuclear Freeze Generation: The Early 1980s Anti-nuclear Movement between ‘Carter’s Vietnam’ and ‘Euroshima’

Abstract

In the early 1980s, a wave of varied discontent emerged in the Western world. Western Europe and the United States witnessed massive demonstrations that took the shape of peaceful marches as well as alarming riots. The protesters alternately aimed to challenge capitalism, support different models of economic development, promote anti-militarism and non-violence or redefine urban and social spaces. Large portions of them, however, heralded safeguarding the environment as their primary goal and identified nuclear energy as their main object of concern. The quest for a cleaner and safer environment, which was the essential feature of a broad array of criticisms of nuclear power, mobilized large sections of society and provided people with new tools of civic expression.