Antinuclear Coalition Holds Symposium

A newly formed coalition of ten Harvard student groups last night held a symposium in the Science Center and urged an audience of about 100 people to join the growing movement for a bilateral nuclear arms freeze.

The coalition--made up of such diverse groups as the Catholic Social Justice Committee, the Harvard-Radcliffe Peace Alliance and the Environmental Action Committee--was formed three weeks ago to heighten student awareness of the potential effects of nuclear war.

Last night's symposium was the first public event sponsored-by the coalition, which hopes to recruit students to demonstrate at a United Nations special session on disarmament to be held in New York in June.

At the U.N. session, delegates from 130 countries will discuss the possibilities of world-wide disarmament for only the second time in the U.N.'s history.

Last night, two anti-nuclear activists told their audience that freeze in the production of nuclear weapons is a crucial first step toward global disarmament.

"We use nuclear arms as a way of posturing," said Kosta Tsipsis, a professor of Physics at MIT. "The arms race is a contest of who can build the fastest, most destructive, most efficient weapons, and we are saturating every parameter of the contest," Tsipsis added.

"Eventually because of the nature of the weapon we either have to negotiate or enter a war in which both sides would die," he told the receptive crowd.

Louise Bruyn, a member of the American Friends Service Committee, echoed Tsipsis, saying. "I call on you to actively pour out your anger into the streets and demonstrate at the U.N. June Conference.