International Fast For Life (IFFL) was a prolonged fast in favor of nuclear disarmament that spawned the Fast For Life movement. The context of this event took place during an era of escalation of the U.S./Russian Cold War. Its purpose was to promote a redirection of international government efforts away from nuclear arms and toward feeding the poor. A poster for the event urged supportive participation in two events: a one-day fast on August 6 or 27, 1983 and a week-long fast beginning September 10, 1983.Fast For Life advertisement in The Ecologist, magazine Vol. 13, No. 4, 1983 archived in the online The Ecologist issue archive The core peace action culminated in August 1983 when participants in five countries began a fast on August 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and refused to end their fast until "only when negotiations at Geneva indicate that a halt will be called to the spread of nuclear weapons."
While the participants abstained from food, the protest event garnered major media coverage, commentaries, and open letters of both support and criticism, as well as inspired thousands of people around the world to fast and hold supportive demonstrations.
In objectives, the International Fast For Live movement is related to the Plowshares Movement. Each would rather the powers-that-be feed the world's inhabitants rather than harm them and they each hope to bring about the better world in which that occurs by inspiring others to care and polarize on the contrasting issues of nuclear disarmament vs. world hunger. Given the response around the world and recognition by several world leaders, it's apparent the IFFL's 1983 efforts were effective, to a degree. Before they even began their fast, one commentator, Arthur Hoppe of the San Francisco Chronicle said after hearing about it, that he'd already been inspired by the IFFL to join the one-day fast on August 6. "Admittedly, this is a minuscule accomplishment for them (having won over another ally) -- a tiny drop of oil on the storm-tossed ocean of world affairs. But if it were to be multiplied by a hundred, a thousand, a... Who knows? Our leaders might renounce their deadly geo-political games, beat their missiles into plowshares and war no more. Anyway, isn't it pretty to think so?""The Fasters" by Arthur Hoppe, San Francisco Chronicle, July 19, 1983, p27
For eight of the core participants, the fast ended after 40 days. Their decision to end there was made two days after Californian faster, Dorothy Granada had lost forty pounds and partial eyesight.Spokane Chronicle, September 14, 1983, pA9"The Decision to End" by Dorothy Granada, The Date is Set – final issue, Number 4 – November 1983, p3 Didier Mainguy ended his fast early, on the 30th day, after experiencing blood pressure problems. In Canada, however, participant Karen Harrison ended her fast on October 5 after a full 61 days, only when Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau conceded to meet with her to discuss nuclear disarmament. Former chancellor Willy Brandt also visited with the fasters in Bonn, where he pledged to seek immediate support from his Social Democratic Party to postpone deployment of missiles in Germany. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl wrote the fasters, stating his appreciation of their goals. Kohl would later be prominently instrumental in the reunification of Germany and also, in cooperation with French President Mitterrand, with the later formation of the European Union. Given their shared peace agenda, it's no surprise that in France, two of President Mitterrand's ministers visited with the fasters in Paris on the 35th day of the fast with a letter from the President who agreed to meet with them after the fast ended.
Unfortunately, the IFFL open-ended fast failed to elicit a supportive public response from either U.S. President Reagan or Russian Secretary Yuri Andropov. However, within less than a decade the world would see the Malta Summit and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in 1991, the official end of the Cold War that had lasted for almost half a century, as well as the US and Soviet Union signing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I, which set a framework for the reduction of U.S./Russian nuclear stockpiles.
In recognition of the widespread attention the fast brought to the issue of nuclear weapons disarmament, International Fast For Life was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The direct result of the protests is not certain, but their legacy was a reinvigoration of the nuclear disarmament movement. Since then, unrelated protest actions have also referenced this event, such as Cesar Chavez' hunger strike that he called a "Fast For Life" in 1988, intended to draw attention to the harmful effects of pesticides on farm workers. The 1986 Veterans' Fast For Life protested U.S. President Ronald Reagan's pro-Contra policies in Central America. A more recent, similarly-titled event was the 2011 Darfur Fast For Life that called for a re-invigoration of international intervention against genocide in Darfur.On July 22, Darfur is Against Genocide's 24-hour global hunger strike to re-invigorate international engagement in Darfur.
Core participants Paris, France Solange Fernex Michel Nodet Francisco Alejo Jacky Guyon
San Francisco, California, US André Larivière Dorothy Granada Mitsuyoshi Kohjima Charles GrayBonn, West Germany Johanna Jordan Andrea Elukovich
Toronto, Canada Brian Burch Karen Harrison Didier Mainguy
Rome, Italy Tom Siemer
Roots of the 1983 International Fast For Life In December 1978, 180 people were on trial for twice entering and occupying the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington in May of that year. During the campaign, a fast moved many members of the British Columbia Parliament to support a resolution opposing Trident. Testimony to the power of fasting indicated to Charles Gray, one of the first three participants that would announce the 1983 fast, the power of fasting after he recognized the frustration that resulted following civil disobedience actions that were unproductive, since it allowed police to stop life-affirming action. The objective was to overcome the inability to put morality and sense above a death-promoting legal system, that being an escalating stockpile of nuclear weapons by governments around the world. Shortly afterwards, Gray, meditating in the Friends' Meeting House in Eugene, Oregon, imagined a fast that he thought might have a chance of stopping the nuclear arms race – an international open-ended fast. The idea was so fraught with risk to life that he did nothing publicly for almost a year.
Finally, Gray concluded that the nuclear crisis of that time was so grave that people of peace may have to offer up their lives in an effort to prevent the continuation of the silent holocaust of world hunger and the impending holocaust of nuclear fire. These are the origins of the Fast For Life. With the help of colleagues a letter was circulated to about a hundred people in the peace movement. After a favorable response, a small group was formed in Eugene - the Nonviolent Tactics Development Project (NTDP). A pamphlet titled "First Step" was published so that others could gain experience for a major fast in the event that the nuclear arms race was not stopped by Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1983.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p7 In the fall of 1980, Solange Fernex, President of Women for Peace in France, and a founding member of France's Green Party, adopted NTDP methods in Western Europe.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p8
A 24-page guide to political fasting was produced in 1980 giving a brief history of political fasting, how fasts should be conducted, and how to organize for a political fast. There followed in June 1982 a Fast for Disarmament originating in Washington, D.C., and aimed at the United Nations Special Session on Nuclear Disarmament in New York. At this time Gray and Granada met for the first time with Fernex.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p9 On June 19, 1982, the three announced that if the development, testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons had not been stopped by the symbolic date of August 6, 1983, then they would begin an open-ended fast. Throughout this fast, designed to appeal to conscience, fasters would be guided by Gandhi's principles of non-violence. In introducing the Fast, it was noted that the struggle for peace and justice requires that non-violent actions be commensurate with the evil faced, fasting being such an action. As with all non-violent methods, suffering is taken upon oneself and not imposed on the opponent. The Fast For Life is seen as an experiment in truth, seeking change through moral suasion.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p6
Developments through August 6, 1983 Preparations began in earnest following the June 1982 fast. The months through to the beginning of the Fast saw preparation among groups in many countries commencing one-day-a-week fasts or longer fasts while communicating as widely as possible to organizations, church leaders and individuals the approaching Fast's commencement.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p9, p10 For many, there was the important task of connecting the link between world hunger and the arms race. Besides support being established in the U.S., Solange Fernex traveled to Japan to attend the Conference Against A and H Bombs before visits to European countries and then to India for the Non-Aligned Nations Conference in March 1983 where disarmament, survival and co-existence in the age of nuclear weapons was a chief issue on the agenda. Endorsements came from many groups, including Clergy and Laity Concerned and the War Resisters League, but the American Friends Service Committee and Fellowship of Reconciliation would not endorse. In November 1982 Gray joined an international hunger strike in Comiso, Italy, the U.S. base for Pershing and Cruise missiles. Gray later traveled to Japan and New Zealand, countries that would become involved in the Fast For Life. In January 1983, Fast headquarters in the U.S. moved from Eugene, Oregon to San Francisco.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p10 From April 12–24 an international meeting was held at the Community of the Ark near Rodez, France. The tasks were to establish goals for the Fast and consider application from fasters. The international meeting adopted an "Appeal to people, institutions and governments to take action to stop the nuclear arms race".IFFL Announcement of a Fast To Begin August 6, 1983 By June 1983, Oakland and Paris had been chosen as the sites for the fasting centers. It was agreed that fasters, with advisers, would make their own decisions concerning continuation and termination to end the fast at any time, and would receive the full support of the Fast For Life.We Hunger for Disarmament: International Fast For Life, p11 (In France the fast was called Jeûne pour la Vie.)
August 6, 1983