Forty Years Ago, a Million People Descended on New York’s Central Park to Demand Peace
Forty years ago this week, Michael Myerson was one of the organizers for the largest rally in American history against nuclear weapons. The real highlight for him, though, was getting to tell Mayor Ed Koch to go f — himself.
Crowds gather for a No Nukes Rally protesting the development of nuclear weapons in New York City on June 12, 1982. (David Herman / Hulton Archive via Getty Images)
Beats me how I came to head up the US Peace Council (USPC). I was asked to do so by the Communist Party but have no idea why, of all people, I was the chosen one.
I was hardly an obedient Communist golden boy, readily submissive to discipline, willing to carry out instructions unthinkingly, eager to repeat any nonsensical wisdom received from the party leadership. In the thirteen years I’d been a member, I had already been “brought up on charges” several times — each time by a Central Committee or Political Bureau member, including three times around unauthorized international travel.
Moreover, much as I was distrusted and perhaps feared in some small way for my independent international travel, the party leaders must have known I had no interest in undermining them. Truth be told, I rarely considered them at all.
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