Peace Action, of which Massachusetts Peace Action is a statewide affiliate, began in 1957 as the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE).  The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign began in 1980 in Massachusetts and soon went national.   SANE and Freeze merged in 1987 to form SANE/Freeze, and changed its name to Peace Action in 1993.

Peace Action: Past, Present, and Future, was published on the organization’s 50th anniversary. A timeline and more information on Peace Action’s history are available at its website.

Massachusetts Peace Action began in the 1980s as Massachusetts Freeze, an affiliate of the nationwide Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. In the late 1980s, Mass Freeze joined the national Freeze Campaign in its merger with national SANE: The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.  In 1993, we became Massachusetts Peace Action.

Since then, we have continued our disarmament work while broadening our focus to include an end to the new cold war; an end to US wars, interventions, occupations, and sanctions; and building a just society at home with a smaller Pentagon budget.

In 2023 we established three priority campaigns: Ukraine: A Time for Peace; warning of the Twin Existential Threats of nuclear war and climate change; and Fund the People, Not the Pentagon.  We added the Gaza Israel Peace Campaign in October 2023.

We focus on grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, and community education.