The AABCC has continued the campaign against Talisman Sabre even after it has been concluded. 

During the exercise the media took the attitude that the TS09 was a Central Queensland issue.  This meant not many in the capital cities of Australia heard about the exercise or the protest.  This comes in the context of poor media coverage of military matters in general.  We are asking the ABC and other media outlet to account for their lack of treatment of military and peace issues.  We ask our supporters to use the letter here to send to the media and ask why they ignore 70% of Australians who want less spent on the military.

In the second series of letters we have asked the Queensland Government and Police to explain the use of a tactic which is design to undermine our protest.  By putting up roadblaocks many kilometres from the Shoalwater Training Base, Queensland Police made certain that the media would not travel to place of our protest. 

We sent a letter to the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties about this police practice. 

In a reply to the Queensland Civil Libertarians describe it this way in a letter to the AABCC: The issue you raise is, in my view, most important and it reflects, on the face of it, police tactics that have been the subject of of considrable criticism over the last six to nine months in the UK about similar protests in that country.

In the UK, Police have been using tactics that can generally  be described as minimising demonstration effectiveness by putting up what are effectively large exclusin zones so that a protest in respect of a particular facility attracts minimal media publicitiy because there is no media friendly photographic backdrop to cover a particular activity.

Download .doc files: Letter Anna Bligh Aug 09 ed3 ; letter complaint to ABC Aug09 ed3 ;

letter to QCCL Aug09 ed3

A huge US-Australian military exercise which saw 15,000 US troops and 8,000 ADF personnel converged on the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in central Queensland during July. We oppose these war games because:

Australia 's military spending is due to rise to $71 million a day following the recent Defence White Paper. This is an obscene amount in a financial crisis and when one million Australians are expected to lose their jobs. 70 per cent of Australians oppose more spending on the military.

Download printable .pdf leaflet: Analysis of Talisman Sabre

Event Sponsored by Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition,
Communist Party of Australia, People for Nuclear Disarmament,
Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition.

A video report from the Peace Convergence at Operation Talisman Sabre, the joint military exercise involving thousands of US and Australian troops, in central Queensland. Action depicted all took place on July 11 and 12, around the towns of Yeppoon and Rockhampton. Film by Professor Jake Lynch. Editing and additional camerawork by Annabel McGoldrick:

Friends of the Earth, the UK-based environmental advocacy group, greeted the British government's plan, announced this week, for deep cuts in the emission of greenhouse gases, with something approaching jubilation. A press release quoted Executive Director Andy Atkins: “Today's announcements are a significant step towards the creation of a safe, clean and low-carbon future”. Continued

It seems an unlikely place from which to try to dominate the world…

A remote Air Force base in rural Nebraska, twelve miles south of Omaha. There's even a cornfield across the road.

But it's where George Bush was rushed for safekeeping on 9/11. And today, it's where the White House continues to wage its international ‘War on Terror' and to pursue its goal of dominating space.

Continued...

News that the Polish concert pianist, Krystian Zimerman, halted a recital in Los Angeles to make an impromptu speech berating US foreign policy should come as no surprise. Classical musicians may not be everyone's idea of radicals, but we should not forget that among the first into Wenceslaus Square , in Prague , during the people power demonstrations that brought down the Communist regime in 1989, was the entire company of the Czech Philharmonic. And here in Australia , principal players from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra are often ready to turn out, as the Sydney Soloists, for a good cause, most recently in partnership with the Sydney Peace Foundation to raise money to send medical relief to Zimbabwe. Continued

Military exercises are an unacceptable use of Australia’s unique environment and ancient cultural heritage. Australia is the oldest continent on the planet. We should be protecting it for future generations, not bombing it to pieces.

Two Chamoru representatives from Guam visiting Australia for a month-long international awareness campaign today accused the United States of glaring human rights violations of the indigenous Chamoru people.

“The new wave of U.S. militarization of Guam means to be decisive,” said Chamoru writer Julian Aguon in Sydney today. “It is not simply more of the same. Part of the U.S. military realignment in the Asia-Pacific region includes the controversial relocation of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa, Japan to Guam. The move will have devastating consequences for the indigenous Chamoru people, who have been struggling for decolonization of their island home.

“The situation of Guam serves as one of the greatest indictments of U.S. democratic legitimacy, as Guam remains one of only 16 non-self-governing territories in the modern world. The military build-up now underway in Guam, which will include an influx of a military personnel population comparable in size to the entire indigenous population (55,000), is being done entirely without the input or consultation of the indigenous people and over their deepening dissent.”

Dr. Lisa Natividad, a professor at the University of Guam, stated that the new wave of military buildup will only worsen the well being of the Chamoru people, who already suffer from the classic symptoms of a colonial condition such as dramatic health disparities. “For example, rates of nasopharyngeal cancer among my people are 2,000% higher than in the United States, and the rate of diabetes is five times the national U.S. average,” Dr Natividad said.

“Although Guam is only 30 miles long, it contains 19 sites designated by the US Environmental Protection Agency as the most highly contaminated and toxic sites in the entire United States.” Dr. Natividad said. These toxins include radioactive and carcinogenic materials, dioxins, etc.

“We come to Australia in the hope of raising awareness about the human rights deprivations of the Chamoru people by the U.S, to build solidarity among the peace and justice groups here and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, who are all endangered by current U.S. militarization of the region,” she said.

What you can do:

Sign the on-line petition.

Send a protest letter to Duncan Kerr, Minister for Pacific Territories.

More about the militarisation of the Pacific in the
Summer 2007 edition of the AABCC Bulletin.