- Page 398 →These Amazons Against Nukes were among the more than 3,500 participants in the Manhattan Project who formed a human chain around several blocks of the New York Stock Exchange on October 28, 1979, to protest the financial and corporate community’s investments in the nuclear industry. The Manhattan Project was a broad coalition of feminist, labor, American Indian, anti-apartheid, and church organizations, as well as anti-nuclear groups. It called for abandonment of the nuclear industry; full employment; better healthcare and housing; public ownership of the energy industries; development of safe, renewable energy; and an end to the exploitation of American Indians, Black South Africans, and other oppressed groups. A rally at the World Trade Center featured American Indian activist Ladonna Thunderhawk, writer Grace Paley, and a representative of Dykes Opposed to Nuclear Technology, among others. Police arrested 1,045 people, including several children and infants with their parents, making this the largest arrest at an anti-nuclear demonstration as well as the largest mass arrest in New York City history.
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