By Kim Bullimore
CANBERRA — ACT Jabiluka Action Group and members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy held a colourful and vocal picket outside the National Press Club luncheon on September 30. Kim Beazley was addressing the luncheon.
About 20 picketers demanded that Beazley and the Labor Party make an unequivocal commitment to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine. When Beazley arrived, a representative of JAG approached him to give him a petition.
The petition, which was signed by 1500 people, demanded that the Jabiluka mine be stopped. It also called for Labor to abandon its "three mine policy" and close all uranium mines. Beazley refused to take the petition.
Activists were left to wonder if Labor's ambiguous promise to stop the Jabiluka mine under certain circumstances was just empty election rhetoric.
ACT JAG also picketed the National Press Club on October 1, when John Howard appeared.
ACT JAG meets every Monday, 6pm, at the Bridge above the ANU refectory. Phone Kim or Stan on (02) 6247 2424.
Nick Fredman reports from Lismore that, following a successful film night on September 18, attended by 120 people, the Byron Bay Jabiluka Action Group organised a benefit on September 30, featuring Tiddas and members of Pangaea, which packed in more than 700 people.
Activists in the Lismore-based Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future are organising a film night on October 9, 7pm, at the Conservatorium. A rally to demand that the federal government close the Jabiluka uranium immediately has been scheduled for October 10, 10am, in Magellan Street, Lismore.
In Hobart, William Thomas told Green Left Weekly, a "Politics in the Pub" organised by Everyone for a Nuclear Free Future (ENuFF) on October 1 heard representatives from the Democrats, Greens and Democratic Socialists outline their parties' positions on Jabiluka and other nuclear issues. The ALP declined to attend.
All three speakers expressed scepticism about Labor's claim that, if elected, it would stop the mine at Jabiluka. They pointed to the "escape clauses" in Labor's statements regarding the mine, such as the need to afford "natural justice" to the mining company.
Democrat Don Maitsch spoke about his experience working in the US nuclear industry before becoming an anti-nuclear campaigner. He also drew attention to a report, suppressed for 14 years, that showed that thyroid cancer in US children had dramatically increased due to atmospheric nuclear testing.
Greens Senate candidate Louise Crossley spoke of the importance of getting international support in the campaign. She told the meeting that the Australian Greens had talked to their German counterparts about making it a condition of Greens' entry into an Social Democrat-led coalition that the German nuclear industry boycott uranium from Jabiluka.
The Democratic Socialists' Kamala Emanuel questioned why, when an overwhelming majority of Australians are opposed to Jabiluka and uranium mining in general, the government after October 3 will be pro-uranium regardless of which party wins the election.
Emanuel said that working people must take the power to make such vital decisions away from the corporate boardrooms and have democratic control over the economy. Only mass movements such as the anti-uranium, anti-racist movement, which broaden out and build links with other social movements, can help that come about.