Kevin Coffee Papers

Established in 1984, No Business As Usual (NBAU) was an anti-war initiative comprised of various activist groups. It was begun to organize public opposition and protest to the United States government's military spending, planning, and anticipated use of nuclear weapons against the USSR. Its initial focus was to coordinate a national day of protest on April 29, 1985. A range of progressive voices, including C. Clark Kissinger and Leonard Post, were involved in the creation of the NBAU project. They formed an ad-hoc coordinating committee to faciliate communication about organizing events. On April 29, 1985, small and large protests were staged in cities and towns and on college campuses across the United States. Volunteers maintained a national mailing list and communication network through a clearinghouse mail drop in San Francisco. Following the success of April 29, 1985, the No Business As Usual Action network formed in order for activists to maintain contact and attempt further joint activities. The NBAU network persisted in calling attention to war planning and preparation, which included promoting the pledge by more than 6,500 university research scientists to refuse to participate in weapons research. During this same time, some NBAU-affiliated groups continued to focus their attention on military interventions by the United States in Central America, especially Nicaragua, and the Iran-Iraq War. In 1989, the volunteers in San Francisco determined that they could no longer provide support for the clearinghouse, so volunteers in New York agreed to coordinate communications among activists. By mid-1991, the anti-world war focus of the network had been eclipsed by world and national events.

Source Cited:

Coffee, Kevin. "No Business as Usual Network/No Business as Usual Action Network Description." April 22, 2025

Kevin Coffee is an archaeologist and museologist whose research focuses on urbanization and industrialization. He taught at Columbia College Chicago from 1982-1988. He became the faculty sponsor for an anti-war student group in 1983, and many of the students formed a No Business as Usual group on campus. Coffee participated in NBAU events and collaborated with colleagues on other social justice public events. In 1987, Coffee moved to New York to work at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1989, the NBAU clearinghouse files were transferred to his care. From 2018-2023, Coffee worked as the chief interpretation and education officer at Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.