Beyond the Bomb is focused on grassroots organizing efforts and creative campaigning to influence nuclear weapons policy and policymakers.
Beyond the Bomb is a cornerstone of our plan to reinforce grassroots efforts to resist the dangerous nuclear policies coming out of the Trump administration and build a base of popular support to confront nuclear issues in upcoming election cycles. Last year, we made a grant to Beyond the Bomb to build a coalition platform to support the elimination of nuclear weapons within the current progressive mass movement happening around the country. Beyond the Bomb trained more than 350 volunteers in major cities around the country and held 53 events and rallies engaging over 6,000 new activists last year. They developed new connections with 31 state and federal legislators and piloted 12 local resolutions and 7 state resolutions against nuclear weapons.
With the first year of this multi-year campaign having achieved significant success in building grassroots political capital and exploring new constituencies for nuclear arms control within the current mass movement, their campaign will now turn to building pressure on Members of Congress through the 2018 and 2020 elections to pass legislation that reduces the risk of nuclear war.
Their strategy involves engaging congressmen and women in key districts during the election cycle by attending town halls, getting their positions on nuclear weapons on the record, briefing campaign staff, organizing media events, and applying pressure through call-ins and rallies. They will continue to urge state legislators, mayors, and city councilmembers to call on their congressional delegation to support relevant nuclear weapons legislation and work to insert nuclear weapons issues and the threat of nuclear war into the election discourse. And they will continue to provide local pathways for action to voters by organizing state and city resolutions, activist trainings, local events and meetings with local legislators and elected officials.
Beyond the Bomb has the knowledgebase, skills, and critical understanding of millennial activism to cement our issue as a pillar of the resistance movement, catalyzing mass mobilizations and civil disobedience while cultivating the next generation of disarmament activists.
We are proud of their work and are looking forward to seeing its success in upcoming elections.
Read about @BeyondtheBomb's efforts to change nuclear weapons policy.
Photo: #NoRedButton Action at Trump Hotel, Washington, DC. Photo credit: Maria Merkulova. Flickr / No Red Button (cc)
