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By Denis Doherty A national peace protest and camp planned for December 1 to 3 is to be held on the lawns of Parliament House. Organisers are determined to remind the major players in the nuclear club that the majority of people want nuclear weapons scrapped. The theme of the demonstration — "Notice to Quit" — is designed to remind law makers that it is time to quit nuclear tests and weapons, and time for US military bases in Australia to go. It is also time for the Australian government to stop supporting regimes such as the Indonesian dictatorship and the PNG government which are waging wars in East Timor and Bougainville respectively. The Australian government has a nuclear military alliance with the US. There are over 30 US bases or military-related facilities in this country. The two major bases are Pine Gap (near Alice Springs) and Nurrungar (near Woomera). Most of the facilities are used for communications related to electronic warfare devices and do not appear threatening. However, war can only proceed if intelligence is available. "Over the past 40 years, at a cost of more than US$150 billion, the United States Department of Defense has assembled the world's most extensive and powerful military space armada", New Scientist reported in July 1991. The US uses this space armada to conduct or threaten wars, to achieve its foreign policy objectives — protection and extension of US corporations' strategic interests — in any part of the globe. These objectives are usually antagonistic to democracy, human rights and environmental concerns. To organise a war a belligerent country must have lines of communication, intelligence and logistics to the site of the war operations. The bases and various US facilities in Australia assist the US to run a war anywhere in our region. During the 1990-91 Gulf War, the bases were used extensively by the US military to conduct its massacre of the Iraquis. In 1988, Prime Minister Bob Hawke signed a new bases agreement with the US government for 10 more years, with a three year notice-to-quit period. This makes November 1995 the earliest time the Australian government can give the US notice to quit Nurrungar and Pine Gap. The French government's resumption of nuclear tests in the Pacific has made people realise that we still have a long way to go before nuclear weapons are scrapped. A counter-measure from the nuclear weapons lobby is to use computer simulation for nuclear weapons testing. Simulations are still weapons testing however, and do not represent a step in the elimination of nuclear weapons. Similarly, the Australian government, since 1983, has engaged in the "biggest peacetime rearmament" of the Australian Defence Force. The Cold War is over, yet there has been no peace dividend despite the many real public spending needs of Australians. The bill will run to around $25 billion over 15 years. Frigates, FA/18s, AWACS and Collins Class Submarines are some of the major items on the rearmament list. It is about time that this "new Australian militarism" was stopped and the US bases and other connections to the nuclear powers club evicted. Australian militarism has assisted the many wars in the Asia-Pacific region. Politically and materially, the Australian government supports the Indonesian government's continuing occupation of East Timor and West Papua, as well as several other of its "provinces". Likewise, Papua New Guinea's government has been aided in its war against the people of Bougainville for more than six years. Australian aid dollars have equipped the PNG Defence Force and helped maintain their blockade of the island, keeping the war going. The people of the region who have borne the brunt of Australian militarism will be remembered in solidarity actions in Canberra and at the appropriate embassies during the peace camp. Activists are urged to make the trip to Canberra. If you cannot, send a cloth flag with a message for peace. For more information, contact the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Committee on (02) 267 2772 or fax (02) 267 4746.
[Denis Doherty is the National Coordinator of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition.]