Last week's announcement of an historic nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia came as the result of more than two decades of movement building and organizing - including the work in the 1980s by two community organizers: Barack Obama and Paul Wellstone.

Before Paul Wellstone's first groundbreaking grassroots campaign for the Senate in 1990, he ran another race for statewide office - one little remembered (or heard of) outside of Minnesota.  In 1982, Paul ran for State Auditor -- without much background in finance or budget management -- and made nuclear non-proliferation of all things a centerpiece of his campaign.

At the same time, in the midst of the Cold War, future-President Barack Obama was a senior at Columbia University, writing in a campus publication about his vision for "a nuclear-free world"

On the heels of last week's accord between President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announcing the foundation for a new nuclear arms control treaty that will cut both US and Russian nuclear arsenals, it's telling to look back at the movement that brought us here.

For Obama's part, it seems that the seeds for his vision of a nuclear-free world were planted as a student organizer and writer.  In an article in the campus publication The Sundial, Obama wrote about two campus organizations seeking to raise awareness and agitate students into action to counter "the growing threat of [nuclear] war."

He also castigated "first versus second strike capabilities" that suited "military-industrial" interests and criticized the Reagan administration for stalling during the Geneva talks, and denounced the "twisted logic" that said more nuclear weapons would create safety and stability.  Obama concluded declaring that the US should "work towards a peace that is genuine, lasting, and non-nuclear."

Around the same time, Wellstone was making a similar case as a participant in the Nuclear Freeze movement, and then from his campaign pulpit and on campus as a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, MN.

Running for State Auditor in 1982, a job many considered to be non-political, Paul felt that the auditor should be a voice for the people and a policymaker.  He made his campaign about a host of national issues, including his opposition to nuclear weapons and his devotion to ridding the world of the threat of nuclear war.

In a speech before to Minnesota COACT (Citizens Organized Acting Together), Wellstone had this to say about the possibility of nuclear war (read the entire transcript here):

"Under this Administration, we face the grim realities of the nuclear arms race - nuclear war being made thinkable, and possible and even portable... Only 200 of the 50,000 weapons in existence would be enough to destroy the world's major cities - the outcome of nuclear war would be the sudden death of hundreds of millions of people and the destruction of our civilization as we know it.  I can live with my own mortality, but not the mortality of our children and grandchildren. We must organize."

Suffice it to say, Wellstone lost that election. 

But his efforts at organizing, and that of Obama's, joined a national movement in the 80s for nuclear disarmament.  Victories then seemed small-bore compared to the threat of destruction posed by nuclear proliferation, but laid the groundwork for last week's game-changing deal with Russia.  This serves as a reminder to those fighting the big fights of today-for health care reform, climate change legislation, alternative energy, better worker's rights-that sometimes change takes a long time.  But if you have the vision to see things through,  a movement that takes the long view will amount to real change over time.


PS: This article from the New York Times talks about Obama's youth activism in the 1980s, it's an interesting read.