By Melani Iona
MELBOURNE — "The first political demonstration I went in was when Japan invaded China in the early '30s. I would have been five or six years old" — Wendy Lowenstein, author, journalist, teacher, protester. The epitome of a leftie, Wendy has fought through the years for peace and democracy, following in the footsteps of a strong left-wing family of political activists.
On the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Lowenstein, who was 18 years old at the time, recalled the huge campaigns and rallies in opposition to the bomb. During 1948 and 1949, she organised the Communist Party's Eureka Youth League for the May Day marches, marching for world peace.
1950 brought the Cold War and the arrival of Reverend Dean and Dr Hewlett Johnson from Britain for an Australian peace congress. "There was an enormous march on Canberra. People came from around Australia and most hitchhiked, including me", said Lowenstein. Having grown up in the 1930s depression, Lowenstein later became inspired to write a book on those turbulent years, Weevils In The Flour, which detailed her own and hundreds of others' experiences.
During the Vietnam moratoriums, all generations joined together and participated in mass demonstrations. According to Lowenstein, rallies before the Vietnam War usually consisted of orderly columns of people, marching in rhythm. "When Vietnam occurred, people marched everywhere; they carried their own banners and arrived in masses."
Although she left the Communist Party in the late 60s, Lowenstein and her husband remained left-wing activists. They did not join another protest group until 1980, when they became members of People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND). This led her to organise nuclear disarmament rallies, including Palm Sunday demonstrations, until the 1991 Gulf War.
What does Lowenstein think of the recently proposed nuclear testing at Moruroa atoll? "Too terrible for words. It's a mistake to blame just France, though. Australia is hypocritical; we sell uranium to them. It makes me sick to see these hypocritical establishments when I don't think they're against it at all."
During forthcoming protest rallies, Lowenstein feels that new ways of fighting the problem will emerge. "You have to build, or work out tactics as the struggle develops." Currently writing a book on unemployment and working life, Lowenstein has not had time to participate in organising the current rallies, although her past achievements are an example for future generations.
Pauline Mitchell, a member and secretary of the Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD), also remembers the large demonstrations of past years. Pauline first became involved in politics and decided to join the peace movement when she realised that taxes funded armaments.
She remembers international campaigns against French nuclear tests in '62, involving huge movements overseas. Leaflets were distributed to educate the population, although there was never any publicity about atomic weapons. "Countries linked together across Europe and people marched over borders for three years ... until the press could not ignore it any longer."
Mitchell has organised Palm Sunday demonstrations in the past, which she says were a "tremendous undertaking". "For a start, health rules call for toilets, which is approximately $3000. It cost a lot of money ... people on call for 24 hours had 'burnout'".
Mitchell believes that a combined people's movement is necessary to pressure the government into taking action, as separate movements are decentralised. "I think unless we build a big movement again, we are not going to be able to stop proliferation." She believes economics are important; hence the necessity of halting all business with France.
In agreement with Mitchell is Harry van Moorst, Sociology and Social Research lecturer at the Victorian University of Technology. Van Moorst, who was involved in the Vietnam moratorium and '80s anti-nuclear rallies, feels that a campaign of civil disobedience is very important. "People who marched in the '80s need to come out again now and bring the strength into the '90s". Although the Cold War is over, countries are still vying for global power.
Ray Fulcher, long-time peace activist, believes nuclear weapons are "unacceptable" and "insane". "First World nations, powerful nations, use them to maintain control ... they are anti-human and anti-environment; they should be stopped."
Fulcher became vigorously involved in organising rallies after leaving the army in the early '80s to join the Nuclear Disarmament Party and the Anti-Bases Coalition, which campaigned for the closure of US bases in Australia. After moving from Adelaide to Sydney and then to Melbourne in '87, he joined the Campaign against Militarism. The Kangaroo military exercises were a major issue, maintaining Australian armed forces and their joint work with other, mainly US, forces. The Kangaroo '95 exercises also involve Indonesian troops, "which makes the Australian government even more responsible for the genocide in East Timor".
"Those exercises and the US bases tie Australia into US repression, the US war machine and in particular into nuclear warfare" says Fulcher.
Fulcher is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. He helped to organise regular Palm Sunday and Hiroshima Day rallies in the '80s. "What got me actively involved in organising was the realisation that if ordinary people don't do it, it's not going to get done. If you're concerned about peace and nuclear testing and you want it to stop, you actually have to get in there, do it yourself, broaden the ability of the campaign to involve more and more people."
Fulcher believes, as do the others interviewed, that campaigns and rally meetings should be controlled and run by activists and participants — openly democratic, as opposed to closed campaigns with only delegates of parties or organisations in attendance.
The conclusion reached by all those interviewed seems inevitable: an international protest demonstration is needed to stop the tests. As Fulcher comments, "If there are many populations protesting vigorously, uniting together, it will give the French people a final push to rebuff the testing themselves."