Charlene Tschirhart: 'April protest was moment of hope'

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Charlene Tschirhart is the director of the San Francisco Nuclear Freeze. She is also one of the four co-chairs of the San Francisco Spring Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice. In this capacity, she coordinated the Mobilization's finance committee. The following interview was conducted in San Francisco on May 9 by Alan Benjamin:

Socialist Action: I understand that the San Francisco Freeze generally follows the strategy of the National Freeze. Can you tell us what that is?

Ischirhart: This year the national strategy is to push a piece of legislation through that will stop deployment, testing, and production at the time of the talks between the United States and the Soviet Union. We don't want to end up seven years hence with the talks concluded and right into Star Wars.

We are circulating a national petition that will be finally delivered in the fall to Reagan and Gorbachev. In late July, in several cities, we will go both to the Soviet consulate and to appropriate elected officials to present a first set of names asking that we freeze while the talks are going on. In August, on HiroStephen Jay Gould is one of an increasing number of scientists who have stepped forward to warn about the dangers of nuclear war.

Gould is a professor of paleontology and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including "Ever Since Darwin, "Reflections in Natural History,' "The Panda's Thumb," and "The Mismeasure of Man."

Gould is also nationally known for his commentaries on a broad range of scientific issues relating to important social questions. These range from his work refuting racist theories of intelligence to his criticisms of the nuclear arms race.

In a recent telephone interview, Gould told Socialist Action that more scientists are speaking out against nuclear weapons because they perceive that the danger is steadily increasing. "Scientists can't escape the fact that we as a community built all these things,' he added. 'There is a sense of shared responsibility."

Gould said that many scientists have felt compelled to confront the concept of nuclear winter. He pointed out that the National Academy of Science has just published a report on the theory titled, "The Effects on the Atmosphere of a Major Nuclear Exchange."

"You can claim that the original shima-Nagasaki Day, we will return to their offices and demand a response to our petition.

We're also working for a comprehensive test ban—no flight testing, no underground testing. Economic conversion, pushing for jobs and not bombs, is another one of our national strategies.

We will also be seeing what we can do about putting a comprehensive freeze bill through the Congress this year. We know it will be difficult. What the Freeze really wants is to stop and then reverse the arms race. The half measures are not enough and do not pacify us.

S.A.: How has the antinuclear responded to the Star Wars program?

Tschirhart: In Northern California, at least, over 80 percent of the people say they're for a freeze. But we're dealing with a broad base of people, and many people call in asking why the Freeze is against Star Wars. They've bought the notion that Star Wars would be the deterrent that would end nuclear We have to remind them that every new development has always been the Stephen Jay Gould: NO MORE