Early years and career Randall Forsberg, born in
Huntsville, Alabama, often referred to as "Randy", was the daughter of
Douglass Watson. She graduated from
Columbia University in 1965 and later moved to
Pennsylvania where she taught English and married her husband Gunnar Forsberg, and moved to
Stockholm in 1967. The couple later divorced. As director of the IDDS, Forsberg was responsible for publishing the
Arms Control Reporter monthly and
IDDS Almanac: World Arms Holdings, Production, and Trade once a year. IDDS became an important resource for the
peace movement and
anti-nuclear weapons movement.
Nuclear Freeze movement In December 1979, Forsberg gave a speech in
Louisville at the annual meeting of Mobilization for Survival, an anti-nuclear organization. It is this speech that gained Forsberg momentum for her anti-nuclear campaign and led her to publish
Call to Halt the Arms Race in 1979. This publication was the manifesto of the
Nuclear Freeze Campaign. The four-paged document advocated a bilateral halt to the testing, production, deployment and delivery of
nuclear weapons. By 1982, Forsberg's nuclear freeze campaign had gained support from various state and county governments, over 100 national organizations, numerous large labor unions, and many other organizations. Support for Forsberg's
grassroots movement was very evident in 1982 when the freeze resolutions appeared on ballots in nine states. The polls showed that 10.8 million out of 18 million US citizens voted in favor of the freeze. After receiving the
MacArthur Foundation grant, Randall became president of a group known as Freeze Voter. This group organized and collected large amounts of money in an effort to endorse candidates in the 1984 election who were for nuclear disarmament. To add to her long list of achievements, Forsberg also served as a board member for the
Arms Control Association.
Death Forsberg died of
endometrial cancer on October 19, 2007 at the age of 64. ==Campaigns==