Malibu Mafia

Activist "Ping" Ferry called Sheinbaum to help gather funds for the legal defense of Daniel Ellsberg who had released the Pentagon Papers which demonstrated that the US government had lied about the expansion of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg was being tried for conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property, and was facing a possible prison sentence of 115 years. Sheinbaum gave Ellsberg $900,000 over two years to help with his defense, which cost $50,000 to $70,000 per month.[2] One of the fundraising parties was a private concert by Barbra Streisand at which more than $50,000 was raised. Accompanied by Marvin Hamlisch leading a piano trio, Streisand took song requests for $1,000 to $3,000 each.[8][12][13]

George McGovern ran in 1972 as the anti-war candidate

Palevsky gave $319,000 to Senator George McGovern in early 1972 when his campaign had run out of cash. Rubin gave $150,000 — his first political contribution. Subsequent campaign finance reforms put a stop to such large donations.[1]

In 1973, the group backed Tom Bradley's second run for mayor of Los Angeles. Bradley had briefly led the 1969 contest against incumbent Sam Yorty, but Yorty regained momentum and won. During his term, Yorty was deeply distracted with his own ambitions to higher office, and Palevsky decided to back Bradley's second attempt.[1] Palevsky headed a finance committee that was the largest donor to Bradley. (A young Gray Davis assisted Palevsky on the committee, and would himself see funding from Palevsky during his political career.) Bradley won the race to become the first African-American mayor of a major US city.[4]

Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman spoke out against Big Oil

In 1975, five members of the Malibu Mafia (without Palevsky) met in Malibu to discuss the problems created by Big Oil. They determined to fight for more democratic control of United States energy policy. They formed the Energy Action Committee (EAC), initially funded with $500,000.[2] Early in 1976, Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward served as the voices of the EAC in Washington D.C.[14] According to The New York Times, the EAC was formed "to prevent deregulation of natural gas prices and to propel through Congress legislation to break up the big oil companies into separate producing, refining and marketing entities."[14]

In 1978, Sheinbaum and Lear led the Malibu Mafia in underwriting the struggling progressive magazine The Nation,[5] organized under publisher Hamilton Fish as silent partners. Each donor promised $5,000 annually to keep the perennially unprofitable publication in print.[15]

In 1979 leading up to the 1980 United States presidential election, most of the Malibu Mafia opposed the re-election of President Jimmy Carter, and they formed Democrats for Change.[2] The group initially preferred Ted Kennedy as the Democratic candidate.[16] In 1980 when Republican John B. Anderson announced his independent bid, the group backed him; he strongly supported the Equal Rights Amendment. Lear was a prominent supporter of Anderson.[17] Palevsky was not involved in this effort: he liked Carter.[2]

Lear headed the effort to found People for the American Way in 1980, for the purpose of opposing the Christian right.[2][4] One of the group's successes was the 1987 opposition to Robert Bork as Reagan's Supreme Court nominee.[18] Sheinbaum backed Lear in this effort.[5]

In 1981, Willens pushed his colleagues to fund the bilateral nuclear freeze movement, to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union.[4][19] In 1982, the Willens-created group Californians for a Bilateral Nuclear Weapons Freeze put a nuclear freeze ballot initiative in front of California voters. The proposal was not asking for nuclear reduction or disarmament; rather, it suggested a stop to further expansion, with California to ask the federal government to "immediately halt the testing, production and further deployment of all nuclear weapons, missiles and delivery systems in a way that can be checked and verified by both sides."[20] Paul Newman attracted publicity by announcing his support.[21] Willens spoke before Congress on the topic of nuclear freeze, and named Leopold Wyler as a supporter, among others.[22] By October, about $1.8 million had been spent on the campaign, with most of it from Willens.[23] Willens later said that $4 million was raised in total.[24] California voters passed Proposition 12 in November 1982, directing the state governor to request a nuclear freeze at the federal level. Governor Jerry Brown was unable to elicit a response from President Ronald Reagan, nor could Senator Alan Cranston. Willens eventually met personally with Reagan through his friendship with the president's rebellious daughter, Patti. At the White House, Reagan was dismissive, telling Willens that the Soviets were ahead in the nuclear arms race, that the United States should catch up before a freeze could be considered. Willens argued that the Soviets could be destroyed several times over by the current United States stockpile, but Reagan was not moved.[24]

Sheinbaum felt strongly that peace between Israel and Palestine could only be obtained by Israel yielding territory and autonomy to Palestine – a two-state solution.[2] In 1987, Swedish Foreign Minister Sten Andersson spoke to Israeli representatives about a possible peace solution; he thought that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) should discuss this same idea with American Jews before engaging in direct talks with Israel. Andersson contacted Sheinbaum, who assembled a small group of three other American Jews to meet in November 1988 in Sweden with four high-ranking PLO officials. After conferring with Colin Powell, Sheinbaum and five colleagues met directly with Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO, in December in Sweden to determine what positions he held with regard to peace, and especially to find out whether Arafat would promise to stop supporting terrorism. With a positive result, Arafat spoke to the United Nations later in December, convened in Switzerland to allow him to attend, as George Shultz refused to issue him a visa to visit New York.[25][26] This initiated a series of Israel–Palestine talks culminating in the Oslo Accords of 1993.[27]