September 20, 2021 A Nuke Free World, Reduce Military Spending, Reject the US-AUS Military Alliance, US Bases out of Australia

The Campaign Outline on Nuclear Submarines

NO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES

Campaign proposals

  1. a) Campaign plan – for all

Work to develop specific actions to involve the ALP left in the campaign; send letters to and/or ring all ALP Federal and State parliamentarians

Work to develop specific actions to involve environmental groups in the campaign

Work to develop specific actions to involve anti-nuclear groups in the campaign

Work towards a zoom rally in mid to late October

Work towards a National Day of Action in mid-December

PLUS as many of the actions listed below as possible.

  1. b) Campaign plan – in lockdown
  • Poster – needs to be designed quickly. Can be pasted up during exercise; can be done individually and/or by different centres as preferred
  • Leaflets – develop ones with local link (funding for hospital covid services, local school etc etc); maybe IPAN can produce a national one some people might prefer.
  • Letters to MPS and Senators – provide a full list of addresses; links to politicians; possibly draft a form letter
  • Letters to Morrison and Dutton — provide addresses; possibly draft a form letter
  • Letters to local newspapers — possibly draft a form letter but better to send short personal ones, with local link if possible
  • Social media campaign and use of the hashtags #HealthcareNotWarfare
    #MilitarySpendingCostsTheEarth
    #WelfareNotWarfare
    #FundPeaceNotWar
    We have to be aware that nuclear powered submarines have a component of upskilling boat building worker skills. It is very seductive for unions to swallow this bait and see it as jobs – we need to develop a sense that jobs should encourage positive growth for Australians, not in increasing killing ability.  So a hashtag like #jobsfortheworld.
  • Develop a briefing sheet to use to ring talkback radio.
  1. C) Campaign plan – no lockdown

All the above

PLUS

Weekly pickets (1-2 hours) at a suitable location

Media releases about the pickets (maybe feature quotes from different speakers)

September 19, 2021 A Nuke Free World, Reduce Military Spending

AUKUS and Nuclear Submarines

PUBLIC STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 20 Sep. 2021

 

Australians speak out against nuclear submarines and AUKUS

 

Australia cannot become a staging point for the U.S. military, we cannot abrogate our sovereignty to the U.S., we cannot encourage nuclear proliferation and risk environmental catastrophe.

 

Australian peace, environmental and other activists and organisations are opposed to the Morrison Government decision to join the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS) and the development of nuclear submarines.

 

This authoritarian decision, taken without consultation or engagement of the Australian public, undermines Australian sovereignty, wastes taxpayers’ money, damages the environment and poses a threat to peace in the region and to global peace.

 

With this agreement, the Australian Government can no longer claim it is remaining neutral between Beijing and Washington. Now Australia is ‘all in’ with America, regardless of the public.

 

This agreement also cements military dependence on the U.S. as Australia becomes unable to operate without Washington’s approval. Furthermore, the Morrison Government has also committed to allowing further U.S. military forces into Australia.

 

This will not only deny Australia the ability to act independently but will also make it complicit in dangerous regional tensions and conflict, undermining global cooperation to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

AUKUS is a step backwards for diplomacy, deepening a Cold War mentality, which has alienated Australia not only from France but our neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

Building nuclear submarines will impose an extraordinary economic burden on the Australian people. Funding for welfare, education, the environment and healthcare will be raided. These resources should be directed to the health, social and economic needs of workers and the Australian people.

 

There will also be a significant environmental cost as the presence of these vessels in our cities and harbours is a clear and present danger. There are already nine nuclear reactors on the seafloor from sunken nuclear submarines.

 

For these reasons and many more, we are calling on the Australian Government to fully withdraw from AUKUS and the development of nuclear submarines.

 

This statement was issued following an emergency meeting of over one hundred activists from around Australia.

 

 

—–ENDS—–

 

 

July 3, 2021 Reduce Military Spending, Reject the US-AUS Military Alliance

Actions to counter postponement of the ‘The No War with China’

We remember what the USA is on their so called day of independence July 4

Lockdown forces postponement of ‘No War with China Rally.

“There are plenty of other ways to demonstrate!”

NSW Police when they shut down the ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations last year. 

Introduction:

We are calling on all our supporters to take advantage of the approach of July 4 Independence Day for the US as an opportunity to remind politicians here that we need an ‘Independence from the USA day!’.  What better time than July 4? 

We ask that you send the letter below to the politicians listed below or to any federal politician perhaps your local member and/or if you are a social media aficionados use our memes on your social media platforms.

LETTER

We ask that you send the letter via email or online to all or at least one of those listed below:

The text

As a citizen and voter of Australia, I state emphatically that any war with China would be disastrous for this country. 

Faced with the problems such as climate change and Covid-19, why are senior bureaucrats and government ministers beating the drums of war with China? 

Experiences in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have proved that wars against countries that pose no threat are counterproductive and futile. Australia should simply stop joining wars at the instigation of the USA.

Being close to American Independence Day, this is an appropriate time for Australians to contemplate independence from the USA.

The only reason that Australia might incur the enmity of China is because of its close alliance with the USA and the presence of US military assets on its territory.

I ask:- 

Why is Australia currently participating in military exercise Talisman Sabre 21, which is so clearly aimed at China? 

Why is it joining a flotilla of British and US warships to sail the South China Sea? 

Why is it spending so 2.09% of GDP on the military, when it has no enemies? 

These provocations help no one. The diversion of resources they represent leaves the nation vulnerable to Bushfire, Covid-19 and the multiple impacts of the climate crisis.

I trust that I will receive answers to my questions.

Government

Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Connect https://www.scottmorrisonmp.com.au/as-prime-minister/

Marise Payne – Foreign Minister
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contact_Senator_or_Member?MPID=M56

Minister for Defence the hon. Peter Dutton

Peter.Dutton.MP@aph.gov.au

Opposition

Anthony Albanese (Opposition Leader) A.Albanese.MP@aph.gov.au;

Senator Penny Wong (Shadow Foreign Affairs)

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contact_Senator_or_Member?MPID=00AOU

Brendan O’Connor (Shadow Defence Minister) Brendan.OConnor.MP@aph.gov.au;

Greens

Adam Bandt (Leader of the Greens) Adam.Bandt.MP@aph.gov.au

Senator Jordon Steele John  senator.steele-john@aph.gov.au

Social Media

Check this link and feel free to use an of the images and use the hashtag #nowarwithchina or any of those listed below.

#MoveTheMoney;#Demilitarize;#HealthcareNotWarfare;#PeaceNotWar; #WelfareNotWarfare; #FundPeaceNotWar;

Let’s flood the internet with messages of peace and demilitarization!!

Let’s flood the internet with messages of peace and demilitarization from July 2or 3 to July 5 or 6.  – Message no war with china!

Click on this link for images:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Segf9V9tnEdra3ZhSJurXWWtbgrM518qTXvmQv6t8q0/edit?usp=sharing

October 6, 2020 media release, Reduce Military Spending

2020 Federal Budget: Tonight’s budget a setback for Australia and the region

Frydenberg’s 2020-21 budget confirms a profligate spend on Australia’s military capabilities that is unjustifiable from every view point: strategic, economic, environmental and social.

The addition of a further $3 billion to the already allocated $42.2billion for 2020-21 will see Australia acquire a military capability grossly disproportionate to its defence needs. The planned capability will work less as a deterrent to adversaries and more as provocation and destabiliser, undermining national security. It also undermines security by diverting money from priority areas such as health and the environment.

“The military budget is one place where we can afford to cut our expenditure as we face no enemies and are not under any threat of direct or indirect attack by any state.  Instead the Government has caved in to the pressure from US and European arms corporations and decided to spend on weaponry like there is no tomorrow” said Denis Doherty from the Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition.

“The Treasurer promised us a budget ‘all about jobs’”, said Mr Doherty. “What in fact his budget does is propose very inefficient, uncertain and expensive means to generate jobs, and the military component of the budget exemplifies this.”

In 2017, US researches compared the number of jobs created by the investment of $1 million in various sectors: for every $1 million spent on defence, 6.9 jobs were created. The same amount invested in health care produced 14.3 jobs and in clean energy 9.8 jobs.

The Australian Government plans to spend $45 billion on defence. If ten per cent of that amount were transferred to healthcare, something like 64,000 jobs could be created in our struggling health care system and, in addition, we could be better equipped to combat the pandemic. If another ten per cent went to clean energy, we’d have about 45,000 jobs and could help address the nation’s major security problem, the environmental crisis.

“Australia’s limited resources would clearly be better spent on shoring up our health system than it would on upgrading military hardware.

“Australian taxpayers may ask if spending more than A$80 billion on 12 new submarines, which security specialists say will be out of date before they are delivered, is a sensible use of scarce resources when there are more immediate and compelling threats to our community,” Mr Doherty said.

“Where is the massive public housing spend? Where is the major health initiative? Where are the environmental protection measures?

“The Morrison Government’s budget has delivered a massive setback to the people of Australia which will make us poorer but not safer or healthier,” Denis Doherty concluded.

For more information contact:

 Denis Doherty, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition,

August 26, 2020 Reduce Military Spending

Morrison Government condemned over stimulus to the Military

media release 26/08/2020

PM Morrison condemned over so-called stimulus to military spending.

PM Morrison has opted for the easy way out of dealing with economic problems brought on by the Covid crisis.  Instead of an Australia better equipped after the virus we will be only be better armed even though we have no enemies.

“The Morrison’s approach is lazy and backward which feeds into a fear factor about war and strife in the region which Morrison has picked up our supposed allies the US.” Said Denis Doherty.

A Brown University Study (USA) 2017 May 25 declared “$1 million in federal spending creates fewer jobs than the same spending in nine other areas. Spending on elementary and secondary education creates the most jobs, at 19.2 per $1 million.”  The same money on the military created 7 jobs!

These nine areas include infrastructure, education, clean energy, health care and so on.  The Morrison Government is just too lazy to devise plans to improve Australia rather than to waste resources on the military which is already over supplied with exorbitantly expensive weapons.

Australia’s arms companies are already heavily subsidised to create weapons for use in the Yemen and Palestine conflicts so instead creating tools for human rights abuses we could be doing good for less fortunate countries.

“We call on the Morrison Government to realign its priorities to providing for social needs for all Australians not just for the military.

July 8, 2020 $270 billion campaign, Reduce Military Spending

$270 Billion Campaign

No security and few jobs
in Morrison’s $270 billion war preparations

Australia is embarking on the 21st-century version of a Cold War weapons build-up, emphasising submarines and other naval assets, intelligence, satellites and, for the first time, long-range missiles for use away from Australian shores.

There are compelling reasons why diplomacy, rather than sparking an arms race, is the best way to achieve security for the Australian people. While defence of a state is necessary, the cost can be too high (economically, socially, democratically, environmentally, etc.). An impoverished nation has little or nothing left worth defending.

Security is often interpreted to mean military security — the capacity to identify and meet perceived threats to a nation by military means, by the use or the threat of the use of force. However, Australia’s true security would be enhanced by attention to economic recovery, social cohesion and humanitarian issues. Resources committed to developing the military mean less money for employment programs and the health, education and housing needs of Australians and our neighbours.

If the Morrison Government is planning on a weapons-led economic recovery, they are wilfully blind to the realities. The avoidance of deep recession will require massive stimulus spending on people and projects, not weapons

A McKinsey report in 2010 found Australia’s military spending was among the least efficient in the world. In a list of 33 major countries, we tied with the United States for worst at getting value for our Defence dollar. A 2010 Defence audit report on explosives procurement, for example, documented poor budgeting practices, poor lines of responsibility, poor contract management, and poor project administration.

According to Ray Morgan in the second half of March unemployment jumped a staggering 1.4 million to 2.4 million (16.8%) and under-employment increased 374,000 to 1.52 million (10.6%). But spending on the military rather than civilian areas of the economy results in a net loss of jobs.  This is because military spending is less effective at creating jobs than virtually any other form of government activity.

US research documents that, for example, a billion dollars spent for military purposes creates one and one-half times fewer jobs than spending on clean energy production and two and one-half times fewer jobs than spending on education.

In addition, more of the military dollar goes to capital than to labour than in other job categories.  For example, only 1.5% of the price of each F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pays for the labour costs involved in “manufacturing, fabrication, and assembly” work at the plane’s main production facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

It is time the Morrison Government got its priorities right.

We must ask the question what is best for
the people of Australia and the region
in a time of pandemic?
July 1, 2020 Reduce Military Spending

Prime Minister opts for a military led recovery from the Covid recession

Media release 30/6/20

Prime Minister opts for a military led recovery from the Covid recession

The prospect of the Australian Government spending $270 billion on military spending is backward thinking and ultimately a disadvantage for all Australians.

“We now know why the Australian Government has been conducting a scare campaign about China and Chinese cyber warfare to build up a fear of China which allow Australians to coalesce in the exorbitant spending proposed.”  Said Denis Doherty of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign.

“There is no tension in the Indo Pacific areas just those manufactured by the Morrison Government in a partnership with US arms manufacturers so as to rush Australians to buy exorbitant and unnecessary weaponry.” 

“Scott Morrison has deliberately ignored the role of China in the Covid crisis where this socialist country has aided many millions with medical personnel and medical equipment, it has even helped the State of New York in the US, Italy who was ignored by the EU in their darkest hour, and many more developing countries including those on sanctions by the US (eg Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran).”

“The US maintained all its sanctions on many millions across many countries causing their governments to be less able to assist their citizens suffering from the virus.  As well it withdrew $400 million from the WHO which affected medical aid to many parts of Africa.”

“The Government continued to spend recklessly on the military amid the virus and is planning to get ADF forces to go exercises such as RIMPAC at the costs of many millions.  All this money would be better spent on constructing more social housing and more socially useful projects such as job keeper.

“The Government is ideologically constructed to assist arms companies rather than the people of Australia or the region.  As an illustration of the hypocrisy of the Government is evident in their approach to the Yemen war.  Australia has donated $40 million to the UN fund for Yemen but just one Australian arms company has been given $36 million to supply weapons to the Saudis who are prosecuting the war in Yemen.

“We say the Morrison Government is on a path to causing more misery in Australia and the region at once again at the behest of the US Trump Administration.

For more information: Denis Doherty 0418 290 663

May 27, 2020 gcoms action sheet

Action Sheet on EOS

Yemen in the news SMH May 26

Grave Diggers sound the alarm!

At a cemetery in the Southern city of Yemen (Aden) there has been a spike in deaths amid the covid-19 epidemic.

Amman, Jordan — Chaos in war-torn Yemen is obscuring the “horrific” extent of the coronavirus epidemic in the country, leaving scientists to make educated guesses at the number of deaths caused by the disease based on burials. The estimates are grim: the crippled city of Aden alone has likely seen a five-fold increase in deaths since COVID-19 arrived.

“The number of deaths occurring in the COVID-19 treatment center that MSF runs in Aden, Yemen, speaks to a wider catastrophe unfolding in the city,” the group said in a statement, calling on the United Nations and donor countries “to do more urgently to help the response.” MSF

ed comments and Australia????

Australia is sending weapons to Saudi Arabia to continue the misery in Yemen!

Action Sheet on Military Spending

Healthcare not warfare!

No War on Yemen

Date: Sunday, 24 May 2020

Background for our members and supporters

“We condemn the Morrison Government’s continued support of the arms industry. See Minister for Defence Industries Melissa Price’s 24 April media release: The Morrison Government is continuing to invest in Australian defence industries to ensure they are in a strong place to deliver new innovations in the post COVID-19 era.
This media release exhibits the abject failure of the Government to resist the arms trade lobby.” (https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/melissa-price/media-releases/multi-million-dollar-innovation-boost-australias-defence)

Jose Ramos Horta in an article entitled The Pandemic World – A chance to be better,  27 April 2020, said:

Freeze ALL weapons exports to ALL developing countries, for the next 10 years… Remember the slaughter of human beings that you enable with your weapons sales. You argue that you attach strict human rights conditions to your weapons exports. Oh pls, spare me this which you know is a lie.

Our position

EOS, an Australian company, is selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and Israel, states involved in human rights abuses, and unjust wars and the deaths of thousands of men, women and children. We are calling for EOS’ export licences to be cancelled. This is one way we continue to call on the Government to withdraw its support of the arms trade and to lessen its military spending.

We ask you that you:

Please send messages to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defence Minister and also Opposition leader Anthony Albanese, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong, Shadow Defence Minister Richard Marles, and Greens Spokesperson on Arms Control Sen Jordan Steele-John. Their emails are listed below.

Please paste in the letter in blue writing below and address to appropriate person. Please amend in any way you prefer and add anything that adds to the case.

Dear …………….,

In view of the many requests from world leaders to refrain from conflict during the virus pandemic, the Australian Government should refrain from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Israel.  In this time of Covid-19 it is important that our country makes every effort to facilitate a ceasefire in the troubled Middle East rather than earning approbation for ruthlessly pursuing profits at the risk of many thousands of peoples’ health.

I therefore call on you to specifically withdraw the license of the company known as EOS to trade weapons into the Middle East.

Yours sincerely

Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Connect https://www.scottmorrisonmp.com.au/as-prime-minister/

 

Marise Payne – Foreign Minister
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contact_Senator_or_Member?MPID=M56

Senator Linda Reynolds – Defence Minister
senator.reynolds@aph.gov.au

Hon Melissa Price MP – Minister for Defence Industry
Melissa.Price.MP@aph.gov.au

 

For emails addressed to the Opposition and the Greens, we suggest that the last sentence be changed to read:

I call on you to make public statements that there must a reduction in military spending by Australia and that the money saved be diverted to our economy and healthcare. In particular I ask that you pressure the Government to withdraw the license of the company known as EOS to trade weapons into the Middle East.

Opposition Leader
The Hon. Anthony Albanese – email: A.Albanese.MP@aph.gov.au

Shadow Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong –contact form
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contact_Senator_or_Member?MPID=00AOU

Shadow Minister for Defence
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contact_Senator_or_Member?MPID=HWQ

Greens spokesperson on military matters
senator.steele-john@aph.gov.au

April 27, 2020 media release, Reduce Military Spending

3.6% surge in global military spending

3.6% surge in global military spending

The announcement by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that the world’s military expenditure for 2019 has gone up by 3.6% — the largest annual increase in a decade — is an indictment on the world’s priorities.  When the Covid-19 pandemic hit there were not enough medical supplies to deal with the crisis yet there were plenty of submarines, warships, missiles and guns.

Australia too has been slow to get itself equipped to deal with the virus. Across the country, there are still shortages of personal protection gear, intensive care equipment and testing kits. We were poorly prepared for a pandemic, despite many warnings from epidemiologists of the inevitability of a pandemic in the near future. The last rehearsal for the nation’s response to a pandemic was 2008.

In contrast, Australia is preparing energetically for war, primarily for fighting alongside the US Armed Forces. SIPRI’s estimate of Australia’s military spending for 2019 is US$25.9 billion, 2.1% higher than in 2018 and 23% higher than 2010.

Recent comments of Australian Defence Force spokesperson Brigadier Kahlil Fegan are refreshing: “We just have to rethink how we certify ourselves for the most prevalent threat, and at the moment the most prevalent threat is coronavirus.” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-08/australias-largest-military-exercise-cancelled-coronavirus/12134068. However, it took Defence to 1 April to announce Operation COVID-19 Assist and according to the latest report (21 Apr), only about 2000 ADF personnel have been deployed.

“It’s worrying,” said Denis Doherty of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign, “Brigadier Fegan’s wake-up call has not spread to the ‘establishment’. Key figures in Australia urge the Government to embark on a weapons-led recovery for after the virus.  The arms producers’ think-tank ASPI is pushing the Government into increasing its annual military spending from 2% to 3.2% of GDP.This is a bad idea. Big military spending is wrong on all grounds: security, economic, environmental and justice.”

“Already Australia has contributed to extending the misery of war in the Middle East by supplying Saudi Arabia with the weapons that can be used in the war in Yemen.  But on top of that the Government is supporting weapons producers with a subsidy fund of $3.8 billion (the Government’s Defence Export Strategy).”

“We condemn the Morrison Government’s continued support of the arms industry. See Minister for Defence Industries Melissa Price’s 24 April media release: The Morrison Government is continuing to invest in Australian defence industries to ensure they are in a strong place to deliver new innovations in the post COVID-19 era.
This media release exhibits the abject failure of the Government to resist the arms trade lobby.” (https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/melissa-price/media-releases/multi-million-dollar-innovation-boost-australias-defence)

We call on both State and Federal Governments to reject any suggestions of a weapons-led recovery after Covid-19.

For more information

Contact: Denis Doherty

March 17, 2020 media release

Health more important than security

Health more important than security

 

The Australia Anti-Bases Campaign (AABC) totally rejects Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s recent statement that the US should maintain its concerns about security in the Pacific at this time of crisis over the coronavirus pandemic.

AABC spokesman Denis Doherty said: “Instead we call on the Australian Government to immediately take the following steps to ensure the health security of the Australian people.

  1. All US personnel travelling to Pine Gap and other US military facilities be refused entry to Australia if they arrive after Monday 16th
  2. Immediately order US Marines out of Darwin.
  3. Cancel all military exercises to be held in Australia especially those which invite foreign military personnel into the country.
  4. Cancel all participation of Australian military forces in exercises in other countries with other militaries.
  5. Withdraw all Australian Defence Personnel from conflict areas and bring those people home safely.
  6. Cancel all contracts that can be cancelled until after the pandemic.

“The time is ripe for Australia to reduce immediately its military spending and to divert the savings to funding the Australian people in their hour of need.

“Divert the savings into health services, doubling the Newstart allowance and to increasing the aid budget for poor countries who need extra assistance in dealing with covid-19,” Mr Doherty said.

“For the Government and Opposition to persist with the present military budget of $34 billion in a time of a pandemic shows a warped sense of values.  Giving priority to killing people in other lands rather than looking after the health of Australians is unacceptable.

“The very essence of the Government role is to protect all our people, not to spend up big to please the US Trump administration.

“Divert military spending to protect our people and the lives of poor people in our region,” Mr Doherty concluded.

As Tim Costello, formerly of World Vision, said: ‘There is always money for guns never for aid.” How about the Government proving him wrong?

For more information:

Denis Doherty

0418 290 663