Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for Social Responsibility, based in Watertwon, Massachusetts began operating as early as 1961, and was incorporated in 1978 by 10 Boston-area anti-nuclear health activists. It is a "non-profit organization committed to public and professional education on the medical hazards of nuclear weaponry."

About

Physicians for Social Responsibility works with a variety of groups backing U.S. and Western unilateral disarmament including IPPNW, the Union of Concerned Scientists, FAS, CDI and Institute for Policy Studies in promulgating the most extreme "end of the world" propaganda as the inevitable result unless the United States heeds its appeal to reduce tensions with the USSR and ban "all use of nuclear weapons."

Claiming a membership of 10,000 and 101 chapters, PSR president is Helen Caldicott, an Australian pediatrician and disarmament zealot who has frequently been heard at MFS antinuclear rallies. She claims to have been instrumental in persuading Australian trade unions to oppose mining of uranium ore, and reportedly has attempted to persuade top AFL-CIO officials to adopt anti-nuclear policies. In 1981 Caldicott and other "peace activists" visited the USSR. She has given up her position at Harvard Medical School to devote full time to disarmament organizing.

PSR's presentations on the horrors of nuclear war are heavily salted with radical supporters of Soviet-backed Third World terrorist groups, veteran unilateral disarmament proponents and health care professionals associated in the past with such groups as the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Medical Aid to Indochina, and the U.S.-Cuba Health Exchange.

A presentation on February 13, 1982, by the New York City PSR, and coordinated by Joanne Pomerantz, featured Richard Barnet, IPS; Jerome Frank, board member of SANE and CLW and a past president of FAS; Robert J. Lifton, IPPNW activist and US-CHE; Studs Terkel and Victor W. Sidel, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Social Medicine, Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and US-CHE sponsor.

According to the Zill report, PSR had raised nearly $1 million as at March, 1982.

As at March, 1982, PSR and the Union of Concerned Scientists intended to duplicate their 1981 campus seminar successes on Veterans Day (November 11, 1982). PSR has targeted some 15 cities for its grisly presentations.

Resolution calling for a final settlement of the Korean War

February 26, 2019 Press Release

Washington, DC – As President Trump arrives to Hanoi, Vietnam, Rep. Ro Khanna, along with eighteen Democratic Members of Congress, have introduced a resolution calling for a final settlement of the Korean War, now officially in its 68th year.

The resolution -- which is backed by former President and Nobel Peace Laureate Jimmy Carter and a range of Korean-American and pro-diplomacy organizations -- urges the Trump Administration to provide a clear roadmap to achieve a final peace settlement while highlighting the importance of reciprocal actions and confidence-building measures between the parties.

“Historic engagement between South and North Korea has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to formally end this war,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “President Trump must not squander this rare chance for peace. He should work hand in hand with our ally, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, to bring the war to a close and advance toward the denuclearization of the peninsula.”

“I commend this important resolution that will help bring this nearly 70 year conflict to a close,” said President Jimmy Carter. “I have visited North Korea several times to talk with their leadership and study the best path forward for peace. Ending the threat of war is the only way to ensure true security for both the Korean and American people and will create the conditions to alleviate the suffering of the ordinary North Koreans who are most harmed by ongoing tensions.”

Co-led by prominent progressive Reps. Andy Kim, Barbara Lee, Pramila Jayapal, Deb Haaland, and Jan Schakowsky, the resolution calls on the Trump Administration to make greater efforts to include women in the peace process, citing the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 which Trump signed into law. Women’s rights icon Gloria Steinem, founder of the peace group Women Cross DMZ, published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Sunday in support of the resolution.

The resolution clarifies that ending the war does not necessitate a withdrawal of US troops from Korea or an acceptance of North Korea as a legitimate nuclear power. The resolution calls on the Administration to continue the repatriation of servicemember remains, and expand cooperation to achieve reunions of divided Korean and Korean-American families and facilitate people-to-people exchanges and humanitarian cooperation.

Rep. Khanna has been a consistent voice for diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula. Shortly after Trump threatened “fire and fury” against North Korea, Khanna was joined by over 70 Congressmembers on his bipartisan “No Unconstitutional Strike on North Korea Act”, which would reinforce existing law prohibiting an unauthorized and unprovoked strike on North Korea. He has also been critical of those in both parties who have sought to restrict flexibility in negotiations, instead urging support for the diplomatic approach of our South Korean ally and its President, Moon Jae-in.

Rep. Khanna will travel to Atlanta next week to sit down with Pres. Carter to discuss developments on the Korean Peninsula and solicit guidance from the Nobel Laureate about how the next generation of policymakers can best pursue a pro-diplomacy agenda for America.

Current original cosponsors (18): Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, Deb Haaland, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Jan Schakowsky, Raul Grijalva, Bobby Rush, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Tulsi Gabbard, Adriano Espaillat, Andy Kim, Rashida Tlaib, Judy Chu, Jose Serrano, Gwen Moore.

The resolution is endorsed by organizations including the National Association of Korean Americans, Ploughshares Fund, Women Cross DMZ, Korean Americans in Action, United Methodist Church – Global Ministries, Win Without War, Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Just Foreign Policy, Beyond the Bomb, and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Speakers

Speakers at other New York City PSR meetings from August 1981 to January 1982 included Michio Kaku, physics department, City College of New York, a frequent MFS rally speaker who links his antinuclear sentiments to the Hiroshima atomic bombing in which members of his family died; H. Jack Geiger, a founding PSR member and president of IPPNW; Barry Commoner, Citizens Party; and Joe Fahey of Pax Christi and the Manhattan College Peace Studies section on the European Nuclear Disarmament movement. Among the featured speakers in national PSR presentations have been Kosta Tsipis; Gene LaRocque, CDI; John Constable; H. Jack Geiger; Howard H. Hiatt.

Washington, D.C. Symposium, April 26, 1985

As part of the April Actions in DC series of protests, lobbying, and meetings, a symposium entitled "Psychological Aspects of the Nuclear Arms Race" was scheduled for April 26, 1985. Among its participants were such veteran leftists as:

• Robert J. Lifton M.D
• Benjamin Spock M.D.
• John Mack M.D.
• Jerome Frank M.D.
• Justin Frank M.D.
• Studs Terkel

It was sponsored by the leftist Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

Of these individuals, Terkel was an identified member of the Communist Party USA; Spock ran for President of the US on the marxist People's Party ticket; Jerome Frank had amassed a multi-decades long record of supporting CPUSA fronts; and Lifton and Mack were associated with other leftist groups.

Achievements

The organization states that in 1961, they "acted as a united medical voice in warning of the hazards of atmospheric nuclear testing, significantly contributing to the momentum that led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963."