The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) was founded by students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969[1] and still exists today. The group has primarily focused on environmental and nuclear energy issues. In its founding document the UCS states that it intends:[2]

1. To initiate a critical and continuing examination of governmental policy in areas where science and technology are of actual or potential significance.
2. To devise means for turning research applications away from the present emphasis on military technology toward the solution of pressing environmental and social problems.
3. To convey to our students the hope that they will devote themselves to bringing the benefits of science and technology to mankind and to ask them to scrutinize the issues raised here before participating in the construction of destructive weapons systems.
4. To express our determined opposition to ill-advised and hazardous projects such as the ABM system, the enlargement of our nuclear arsenal, and the development of chemical and biological weapons.
5. To explore the feasibility of organizing scientists and engineers so that their desire for a more humane and civilized world can be translated into effective political action.

In the pamphlet shared in this post outlines the environmental and health risks that plutonium (used in power plants and atomic bombs) can cause if it is left unmonitored. It is hard to determine when this was published but they mention plutonium being a “recent” element (it was discovered in 1940). My guess is that this was printed in the 1950s or 1960s.

Union of Concerned Scientists

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Concerned_Scientists

[2] http://www.ucsusa.org/about/founding-document-1968.html

MERIP Reports or The Middle East Research and Information Project was founded as a non-profit in 1971 to cover various conflicts in the Middle East.  The paper was started by student activists in the U.S. including Joe Stork, a member of The Human Rights Watch who has been criticized by some for anti-Israel rhetoric.[1]

MERIP reports still exists today: http://www.merip.org/?ip_login_no_cache=1692ed761b2f6107ab27af4aa2016d3c

MERIP Report Cover (1982)

MERIP Report Back Cover (1982)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Stork

We have begun our summer processing work again! There will be 14 students working this summer to organize the Hall Hoag collection. We have been coming across some really interesting items.

I wanted to share one in particular this week. We found a letter from Howard Zinn written to Grace Hoag. Zinn became well known for writing The People’s History of The United States. He was also a professor at Boston University, where he was working when he wrote this letter. This is a response, dated June 3, 1968 to a letter written by Grace Hoag to Zinn asking about the “communist manipulation of demonstrations.”

The Hall Hoag collection is named in honor of Grace Hoag who was a collaborator of Gordon Hall. Hoag attended meetings and rallies of various groups and brought back their literature and was instrumental in the sorting and organizing the materials.

Howard Zinn Letter 1968