Protests against second nuclear test

All around Australia, there were protests during the week of the second French nuclear test in the Pacific. While the largest demonstration was in Brisbane (see page 3), actions also took place in other cities. Dave Wright reports from Sydney that about 500 people marched to the French consulate on October 6. (A smaller emergency picket was also held on October 2, the day after the test.) The march was called by Campaign Against Nuclear Testing. Speakers included Damian Meagher (a peace activist who recently returned from Tahiti), Denis Doherty from the Anti-Bases Coalition, Ray Richmond from the Wayside Chapel and Aboriginal activists Kevin Tory and Ken Canning. A central theme was the call for independence for people living in the Pacific, and in particular in Tahiti and the rest of French Polynesia. Kim Linden reports that there were two demonstrations organised by the No More Hiroshimas Coalition in Melbourne. About 300 people attended the first, on October 1. After hearing speakers at Treasury Gardens — including Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard, Ryan Batchelor (Anti-Nuclear Secondary Students), Brandon Barber (Greenpeace), Jean McLean (ALP), Ben Whippy from the Pacific Island Council and a representative of the Uniting Church — the demonstrators marched to Parliament House. There they placed fake yellowcake in the shape of a mushroom cloud to protest against the Australian government's lacklustre response to nuclear testing and support for uranium mining. They then marched to Bourke Street Mall. A second demonstration, on October 2, also attracted around 300 people who marched to the offices of Western Mining to protest against the mining and export of uranium. On October 1, 200 people attended a march and rally in Perth organised by a coalition of groups around the slogan, "No more tests! Leave uranium in the ground!". Speakers from the Democratic Socialists, Young Labor and the trade union movement addressed the action. The next day, 20 people gathered outside the Bank Nationale de Paris in a vigil to mark the exploding of the second bomb at Fangataufa. Thirty people attended a WA Greens-organised "peace picnic" at Kings Park on September 30. Senators Christabel Chamarette and Dee Margetts read solidarity messages from a Paris rally on the same day. School students are clearly the backbone of the current round of anti-nuclear protests. Jenny Power reports from Canberra that, despite pouring rain, about 50 secondary students attended a "die-in" on October 6. The protesters, dressed in black, made a dramatic visual impact. They outlined the shape of their "dead" bodies in chalk on the ground, imitating the grisly "shadows" that were left on the ground and buildings of Hiroshima when the first nuclear bomb was dropped. The rally was organised by Students Against Nuclear Testing and the socialist youth organisation Resistance.