Palm Sunday marches oppose Jabiluka mine
Anti-uranium protesters used marches held around Australia on March 28 (Palm Sunday) to focus attention on stopping the Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. The construction and operation of the mine will destroy the social and cultural heritage of the Mirrar traditional owners, damage the local environment and, through its radioactive product, pose a global environmental and health risk.
The largest march was in Melbourne from where Ray Fulcher reports that cold, wind and rain didn't stop 8000 people from marching from the State Library to a festival at Tom's Lot on St Kilda Road. They chanted "Hey North, you're running out of time. You're never gonna get your Jabiluka mine." (North Ltd is the parent company of Energy Resources Australia (ERA), the mine's owner.)
The rally was organised by Jabiluka Action Group (JAG) and a coalition including the social justice divisions of the Uniting and Anglican churches, the National Union of Students and Trades Hall Council. It brought together a cross section of people and organisations, with banners from a number of trade unions, including the Maritime Union, prominently displayed.
Speakers at the rally included ACTU assistant secretary Greg Combet, Bishop Chellen of the Anglican Church and Monica Morgan of the Yorta Yorta people.
Afterwards, people were invited to proceed to North's headquarters for a four-day blockade. Twenty people stayed the night. The next morning, the blockade grew to 150 people. Two buses of North employees made it through the blockade, with massive police assistance.
Before the blockade, the Herald-Sun ran an "I protest" advertisement suggesting that North employees faced "intimidation" by protesters. In the same issue, an editorial called on police to get tough with protesters. The Herald-Sun published a full page on the blockade every day last week, each time calling for the police to act strongly against the blockade.
Despite increasing violence from the police, the blockaders' spirits rose. The blockade held from 6am to 9am almost every day, although two busloads of employees got through it on March 30 and one the next day. Workshops, videos, performances and leafleting, as well as camp maintenance, kept the protesters busy.
In Sydney, 1000 people took part in a march from Hyde Park past ERA's offices to First Fleet Park at Circular Quay, Keara Courtney reports. In a speech to the rally, anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott said there was a strong chance of meltdowns at nuclear power plants because the year 2000 computer bug would make monitoring and safety systems inoperable.
Democratic Socialist Party member and science lecturer Dr Jim Green explained that the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights is both unnecessary and dangerous, yet the Liberal government wants to build a new, larger one. The ALP too fully supports the reactor, he said, and wants to exempt it from state government environmental and health controls.
Newly elected Greens NSW MLC Lee Rhiannon promised to raise the demands of the anti-uranium campaign in parliament. Nick Bolkus, Labor's federal environment spokesperson, had a mixed reception, not surprising given his party's past endorsement of uranium mining under the "three mines" policy and its failure in the 1998 election campaign to promise to close Jabiluka mine.
Andy Gianniotis reports from Brisbane that 750 people rallied in King George Square and joined in a colourful and lively march around the city in support of the demands: Stop the Jabiluka mine!, Land rights not uranium!, Nuclear disarmament now! and No nuclear waste storage!
At the rally, Rebecca Duffy from Queensland JAG spoke about the Ranger uranium mine in the NT and how the promised benefits for Aboriginal people have not eventuated. Griffith University student representative council education officer Kate Carr told the demonstrators the federal government's proposed "voluntary student unionism" legislation would restrict students' capacity to support campaigns like that against the Jabiluka mine. A combined university student and high school walkout against the Jabiluka mine on April 29 was announced by Amy Coolwell from Resistance.
Other speakers included Aboriginal representative Bobby Anderson, Jack Sherrington from the Rally for Peace committee, primary school student Jason Seto, former ALP MP and anti-uranium campaigner Tom Uren, and a representative of Friends of the Earth.
Kim Bullimore reports from Canberra that 200 people turned out in rain and hail for a rally at Garema Place called by ACT JAG. Speakers included Jeremy Pyner, secretary of the ACT Trades and Labor Council, Tim Gooden, ACT section secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, Lucy Sargeson from ACT JAG and Isobel Coe from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
One hundred people, led by members of the Tent Embassy carrying a giant Aboriginal flag, then marched to the Tent Embassy in support of land rights and to protest against the nuclear fuel cycle. The march was joined by members of Greenpeace who had been taking part in a vigil at the Japanese embassy. Upon reaching the Tent Embassy, the marchers decided to continue the rally in solidarity with the embassy, which has been threatened with eviction by the Howard government.
In other actions on March 28, 700 people in Perth joined a march from the Stock Exchange to Forrest Chase, where street theatre was a highlight. Around 150 people from the NSW North Coast region formed a human representation of the anti-Jabiluka campaign symbol on the beach at Byron Bay. In Hobart, 17 people attended a film afternoon and in Darwin there was a successful information stall at the Nightcliff markets, where passers-by helped to paint a banner with peace and anti-nuclear symbols that read "give peace a chance".