World-wide campaigns for peace
ON Thursday January 3rd, public hearing started in London Australian Royal Commission set up to investigate the effects of British nuclear tests in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. Over 20,000 service personnel and civilians were involved and at risk in these tests.
Allegations already made include the following:
1. Safety procedures were nonexistent or deliberately ignored by those in charge of the tests.
2. Personnel worked in taminated areas (within 2.4km of an explosion) without being given protective clothing.
3. Servicemen were exposed to much greater radiation have been admitted by the British government.
4. Aborigines were not evacuated from contaminated test sites.
5. Information about the nature of tests was withheld from Australian governments of the time.
The Australian Royal Commission was set up on July 2, 1984 because of public pressure to investigate reports of serious illnesses among its own service personnel and among Aborignes who lived near the test sites. In the U.K. over 100 claims for compensation from ex-servicemen already been filed with the Ministry of Defence.
At first the Thatcher government supporters attend.
By Dave Spencer
Australian fall-out of the safety precautions at the tests had been always paired. Now the lustralian judge, Mr.
cluding Lord Penney director of the tests.
con-
June 1985.
extremely course doses than knowledae.
mission's investigations, the dent of the
Defence
British have without area
LABOUR
MOVEMENT
CAMPAIGN for
PALESTINE
Annual General Meeting
Saturday 23 February
County Hall, London
In the light of the rift in the Palestinian Movement and the revived activities of the Zionists in the Labour Movement, it is essential that all
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…••…•••••••••• refused to recognize the Royal Commission and issued a statement in the name of Adam Butler claiming that adequate and that nobody's health should have been im-
Commission has come to London, however, with ar
Justice McClelland, in charge, they have decided to participate and have put forward a number of expert witnesses in-
- the former The Commission's final report will be presented in
The allegations made above are of serious in themselves, but could perhaps be explained by incompetence or lack of
Far more serious and sinister explanations have been surfacing during the course of the Comhowever.
These have led the National Presiinfluential Australian Returned Services League to state: "It does seem from the evidence that the British used men as guinea pigs in these tests." For example, there was apparently a memo sent from the
Research Policy Committee to British Service Chiefs during the Maralinga nuclear tests of also 1961 and 1963 asking for servicemen deliberately to be deliberately sent into the test Maralinga proper protective so, Socialist Viewpoint, No. 3, February 1985. Page 18 clothing - to see the effects.
Aborignes in the danger zone were apparently left there quite during and after the guidence quoted in The Times of June tests. Worse still is the
1984 that mentally retarded civilians had been taken from the UK and used in radiation tests in Maralinga. Former soldiers reported hear-
1g their screams irom the depths c unkers close to ground zero as th bombs exploded.
One of the groups responsible for pressurising the Australian government into establishing a Royal Com mission is the Pitjantjutara Aborigine People's Council. Their land in South Australia was used by the Britis! overnment for nuclear tests. The made a film, which was widely showi in Australia last year, demonstratin the effects on their communities of radiation and also of evacuation. They were promised their land back 30 years ago but it is only recently that parts of the land have become safe enough for them to return. Even
300 square miles is still uninhabitable because of possible radiation pollution. Meanwhile, the loss of their land and destruction of le Aboriginal communities has l chronic alcohol abuse and peti sniffing among the young.
Australia
A WOMAN'S peace camp has been established at Cockburn Fremantle, Western Cockburn Sound is a major port of call for US Navy vessels, many carrying nuclear weapons. Soon these vessels will be equipped with Tomahawk Cruise missiles, thus drawing Australia further into the nuclear escalation in the Pacific area. Fremantle and nearby Perth are also to become rest and recreation centres for the US Navy. The Women's camp will campaign on the social consequences for women when 40,000 US sailors visit their towns every year.
Contact:
W.A.N.D., 40. Praxis, Packenham St., Freemantle 6160, West Australia.
Pacific Cruise
US imperialism plans to deploy Cruise missiles in the Pacific area in the same numbers as in Europe. The main difference is that the missiles in the Pacific will be sea-launched not land-based. For this reason, Reagan needs friendly countries, so that US warships and submarines can call in to their harbours carrying the deadly weapons.
Naturally enough, many people in the countries and island paradises of the Pacific are not happy becoming sitting targets retaliatory blasts — and vigorous campaigns have been started opposing US nuclear policy.
Fiji
IN a search for friends, Reagan has recently been wining and dining the Fijian Prime Minister Sir Kamisese Mara in Washington. As a result of the visit, Fiji has been promised substantial economic aid in return for the US Navy being allowed to dock its nuclear armed or powered ships in the harbour of Suva, capital. One Fijian diplomat commented: "All the big powers seem to want to be in the South Pacific now. It is getting very complicated and very crowded.
One "complication" is the national struggle taking place in neighbour New Caledonia. 140,000 population of New Caledonia is split roughly half and half between the native Kanak people and "Caldoches" the Franch The Mitterand government have sent in troops, police and negotiators - - with little effect.
The Kanak people, demanding an end to French colonial rule, have the support of the Kanak government of the neighbouring in. dependent island of Vanuatu/New Hebrides. Vanuatu Sound, diplomatic links with Cuba, the USSR Australia. and Libya.
N. Zealand
AS reported in SV Aotearoa/New
government Zealand plemented a policy of refusing port visits by nuclear-armed or powered ships. (Australia/New Zealand/US) "security" treaty, the equivalent
35.
election of Reagan, the US has stepped up its pressure on the Lange government. Large American spokespeople have beer turning up in Aotearoa making thinly veiled threats retaliation. So far, holding firm to Labour's policy. He has also made promises of vigorous opposition to French nuclear tests in the Pacific Atoll threatening to take a campaign protest into metropolitan itself.
Anti-test
about campaign for
AN international campaign has been set up by 30 Peace groups entitled -6th August 1985: The Day to End all Nuclear Explosions. 40th Anniversary bombing. The first target date for na tional campaigning is March 1, 1985, the 31st anniversary of the notorious American Bravo out an island at Bikini in the Marshall Islands and world with fall-out. reputed to have written his famous novel "On the Beach" as a result of Bravo. There have been known nuclear the Fijian Hiroshima in 1945 one a week. Despite attempts negotiate a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the USA and USSR have continued testing at a territying rate. They have now been joined by other aspiring nuclear states like China, InFiji's dia, S. The doubtedly more countries to follow suit This nuclear the capitalism in its starkest form settlers. likely destruction of the humanity, special scare resources, the vandalising of settled communities and ecosystems. Socialist Viewpoint, No. 3, February 1985. Page 19 who are aput
Yew Guinet close
AUSTRALIA the Labour elected last July has im-
Miles 800
ANZUS
Southern
Pacific of NATO. With the re more numbers of
303, of economic prime minister Lange is camparrot
France recently
Warplanes
This day is the of the Hiroshima tests which wiped showered the whole
Nevil Shute is about 1,500 explosions since
- an average of follows:
to
Africa and Israel with un.
madness shows vent
- the caribou whole of the desperate waste of
Innu
AOP IMO.
*? Solomon Is Vanuatu Fiji Is. Now Celodonia Pacific Ocean. Now Zealand
Socialist Viewpoint will provide information nuclear testing in the next edition. For details of the 6th August 1985 Campaign, contact:
Centre for Defence Information, capitol Gallery West, 600 Maryland Ave. S.W., Washington D.C., 20024, U.S.A.
Labrador
NUCLEAR testing is only one way in which the military destroys the environment. In Socialist View. point 1 we reported on the building of the largest NATO firing range in Europe (20.000 hectares) right in the middle of the Nebrodi Mountains National Park in Sicily. More the Innu people of Labrador, Canada, have complained about the NATO war games constantly played over their air space.
cosy which out loud simulated battes terrify children and disturb animals in the area, particularly the caribou on which the Innu people depend.
Various kinds of chemicals are also released by these planes which have polluted the lakes and rivers of the area causing sickness among the people and affecting fish and vegetation. The Canadian government's reply to the Innu request that the war games be stopped or be played elsewhere is that Europe and America are too densely populated for such activities.
The Innu people have a petitior they are asking people to sign, as
"We the undersigned ask that the violation of the rights of the Innu people be halted immediately to
Prau ta sures the interior of
to cease the ecologically irresponsible disruption of one of the world's last great natural areas, and to preyet more damage to the and other species upon which the Innu people depend.
Kanantuapatshet Sheshashit, Labrador, Canada