purge
Pacific Ocran STERN SAMOA Equator COOK ISLANDS Pacific Ocean
SOUTH PACIFIC NUCLEAR-FREE ZONE
MILES OUTH 188.I
Greenpeace have kept up the
pressure for an independent enquiry.
n 1981 and in 1982 the Greenpeace yacht sailed within 12 miles of Mururoa and was seized.
In 1983 an "independent" enquiry reported. However they were not allowed near certain areas of the atoll or to take samples of the lagoon sediment. The "best case" scenarios of perhaps 500 to 1,000 years without leakage of radioactivity from the site was publicised. The worst scenario that "if fracturing of volcanoes accompanied a test and followed a vertical release of radioactivity to the limestone, specific contaminants would enter the biosphere within five years" was not publicised! The French government have since announced that they are to continue their tests in the South Pacific for another 15 years.
It is in this context that the attack on the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" and the killing of one of its crew must be seen. To complicate the issue, however, it is entirely possible that the US and British governments are worried about French nuclear testing independently in the South Pacific — creating political instabilty. As reported in SV3 the people of the Pacific are becoming more aware of the nuclear threat and the way in which they are being used as pawns by American imperialism. In particular there is growing support for the national liberation movements in the Philippines and in New Caledonia.
As Barak Sope, leader of the Republic of Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) told the latest Nuclear Free Pacific Conference: "It has always been my stern belief that nuclearism cannot be separated from colonialism, especially in the Pacific. As long as Tahiti, New Caledonia Wallis et Futuma,: East Timor and West Papua are still colonised, the Pacific cannot become a nuclear free and independent zone.
CP Executive THE Communist Party Executive are continuing to tighten their grip on the CP by expelling Morning Star supporters.
More than 40 people have so far been expelled, including the editor and deputy editor of the Morning Star and such trade union figures as Ken Gill and Derek Robinson.
Added to those expelled are those who have been more subtly removed from membership through the device of "re-registering" a branch or borough. In Hackney, for example, 90 members were removed in this manner.
This latter manoeuvre has been used mainly in London, while the main people expelled have been those on the Morning Star editorial board or key to
Action against these people is now taking place all over the country. Last week. are Too Poster and Gordon Massie - were expelled in Scotland, with another, Frank Watters. suspended in Yorkshire.
The "Eurocommunist" CP Executive is in the process of breaking altogether from the Morning Star, and is to launch a weekly party paper in the autumn. whose name is yet to be decided.
The response from Morning Star sup. porters has been to form munist Campaign Group" of expelled members, which will hold a series of public meetings in the autumn. are telling their supporters to stay in the CP. but not to adopt a "heads down policy or compliance with the rules as interpreted by the Eurocommunist Executive Committee".
In other words it is better to force your expulsion than simply to leave. In addition, a number of London borough committees such as Westminster and Tower Hamlets have relused to accept reJapan and Nuclear Waste Dumping THIS month sees the meeting in London of an International Convention on Dumping. In February 1980 at the last Convention, 50 nations agreed to ban dumping radioactive waste at sea after
representations by Island nations: Kiribatu and Nauru. This agreement will now be reviewed already stated his intention to go
unilaterally and
Japan's 24 nuclear power plants have so far Socialist Viewpoint, No. 7, September Page 27
registration.
Clearlv events are coming to the
oint where piecemeal actions of the
xecutive must culminate in an all-out
expulsion or split.
Meanwhile. the politics of each side
remains equally as rotten as before.
The Euro majority continue with their
pro-ballot "public opinion" campaigns
such as over Gartcosh Steelworks in
Scotland. In the NUM they continue to
pressurise miners towards impotent
cross-class talking shops such as the
"Welsh Congress" as an alternative to
iny class struggle perspective
On the other hand the Star continues
its uncritical articles on Eastern Europe.
while slavishly endorsing
union bureaucrats in this country.
strategy, and did not even
challenge the Scottish TUC's Gartcosh
- with support from Star sup-
porters — mounts a growing witch-hunt the Barking Hospital strike and any kind of industrial action. the chooses to highlight an article from Bickerstaffe to kick off its TUC-week
The politics of the Star are also illustrated by its refusal to report the
Kent NUM call for a lobby of the TUC in support of the victimised miners. Yet it
carries a regular
which union leaders are backing the Liaison Committee for Defence of Trade
Unions* lobby of the Tory Conference
ver unemployment! The LCDTU lobb
s plainly designed to take the focus of
Labour Conferences in terms of pressing for particular policies 53-gallon drums of nuclear waste and this is predicted to rise to 1.8 million barrels by the year 2.000. They plan to dump between 5.000 and 10.000 of these barrels in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Japan but only 650 miles north east of the Commonwealth Marianas Islands (CNMI). A CNMI protest delegation to Tokyo last February came away very disappointed. Their spokesperson Vincent Sablan said:
"I'm afraid the USA will decide this all for us, since they control our foreign affairs. Japan is only the front runner. Once they start dumping nuclear waste in our Ocean, it will be open to other countries.
Non-Zionist