Ray Acheson (they/them) is an organizer, activist, and writer. For more than twenty years, they led the work of Reaching Critical Will, providing analysis and advocacy for disarmament and demilitarization at the United Nations and beyond. Across their work, Ray promotes feminist, queer, and anti-imperialist approaches to abolishing nuclear weapons, autonomous weapons and the militarization of AI, the arms trade, military spending, and more. They also collaborate across movements to connect transnational and local efforts against militarism, the carceral system, borders, and other forms of state violence. 

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Ray served from 2008–2024 on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work to ban nuclear weapons. They are also part of the Stop Killer Robots campaign and other local and global organising groups and coalitions.

 

Ray is author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), which offers a first-hand account about the work of activists and diplomats to outlaw nuclear weapons. They are also author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages (Haymarket Books, 2022), which explores connections between police, prisons, surveillance, borders, war, nuclear weapons, and capitalism and highlights ongoing organizing efforts for their abolition. They write a column at CounterPunch called Abolition Everywhere.

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Ray has an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research. They are a Visiting Researcher at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security. As part of their work with the Program, Ray has published a working paper Notes on Nuclear Weapons and Intersectionality in Theory and Practice, helped develop a curriculum resources project to counter racism and other structural discrimination in teaching and research on nuclear issues, and participated in a social impact campaign for the VR experience On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World).​

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