In this issue:

Successfull Protests Against Talisman Sabre War Games
Developing the New US training bases
International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases
Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
15th annual conference

Editor’s Note:

We apologise for the break in production of the Anti-Bases Bulletin and hope that you will enjoy this issue which includes three reports and pictures.

The first report is on the effective Peace Convergence organised to protest against the Talisman Sabre military exercises in June in the Yeppoon-Rockhampton area of central Queensland. The second and third reports cover two important overseas conferences attended by our national co-ordinator Denis Doherty and stop star wars campaigner Hannah Middleton.

We plan that the following issue will carry more information about the campaigns against US militarisation and for land rights, independence and sovereignty in Kapai ‘Aina (Hawai’i) and Gua’han (Guam).

The AABCC is currently rebuilding its Committee and we hope this will help us maintain production of the Bulletin on a more regular basis as well as assist to develop new and effective campaigns to close the US spy and military bases on our soil.

The Talisman Sabre (TS07)military exercise took place throughout June over parts of Australia’s coastline from Newcastle to Broome with 20,000 US and 12,000 Australian troops practising bombing, parachute drops and on-shore landings, combining land, sea, and air forces.

Much of the exercise was conducted offshore but it came ashore at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) near Yeppoon and Rockhampton in Central Queensland. This is where the peace movement of Australia decided to oppose it and bring the issues surrounding the exercise to the fore.

Talisman Sabre involved US nuclear-powered vessels and the US fleet may have been carrying nuclear weapons and depleted uranium munitions. Nuclear-powered vessels put our environment at risk. Nuclear weapons put our planet at risk.

Talisman Sabre affected world heritage areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and natural heritage listed sites which include habitat for threatened species such as dugongs and humpback whales.
Environmental impacts included air quality, fire potential, noise pollution, waste disposal and spills and erosion from amphibian craft landings and weapon.

Resistance growing

TS07 is a taste of things to come for central Queenslanders with regular US military personnel in their streets, and bombing and other live firing in pristine environments as well as cordoning off large sections of the sea from local fishers, recreational boaters and tourists.

There are three basic objections to the war games: they are part of the Howard Government’s plan to turn Australia into a training base for US military personnel, they train Australian soldiers to take US orders when next they take part in illegal actions like Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will have huge economic, social and environmental costs.

Some years back the Shoalwater Awareness Group (SWAG) was set up. This group facilitated the peace protests from June 16 to 24 which culminated in a large rally through the streets of Yeppoon on Sunday June 24. In a major step forward, almost half the 1,000 marchers were local people.

Military propaganda says the base will be economically good for the area but many locals are not buying these lies. In a significant breakthrough, local Mayor Bill Ludwig told an excited audience at a public meeting in a crammed Yeppoon Town Hall that he believes Shoalwater Bay should be a national park rather than a military training area.

Traditional owners

Elders of the Darumbal people who are the traditional owners of the Shoalwater area had not objected to the Peace Convergence.

We were formally welcomed onto their land and our respect for their rights and culture was appreciated. Some elders attended some Peace Convergence events and had discussions with our international visitors. Organisers believe that as a result progress was made in our relations with local indigenous community.

Saying no to the war games

Brisbane peace activists calling themselves the Peace Convergence were a major driving force in building support and getting the issue to other parts of the country.

Support came from the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign which has for years been fighting expressions of the US-Australian military alliance such as US bases and military exercises. NSW provided the largest part of Peace Convergence after Queensland and some of the credit for this has to go to the AABCC. Stop the War was also central in organising a busload of activists from Sydney.

Protest rallies and meetings were held in capital cities and regional centres around 15 and 16 June calling on the Federal Government to stop TS07. Protesters then travelled to Yeppoon. The major contingents arrived on Thursday or Friday with the weekend of June 23 and 24 being the period of most activity.

Highlights

For several days protesters occupied the training area to prevent live bombing – while the military claimed there was no one in the area. The military faced difficulties when gates to the training areas were blocked by protesters (and by flooding), the army depot and barracks in Rockhampton was harried, and protesters locked onto one US vehicle, throwing Rockhampton traffic into chaos.
Significant meetings were held, especially the welcome in Yeppoon Town Hall which was packed out. It was addressed by many luminaries from the peace movement including Helen Caldicott, Dr Zohl de Ishtar and Dr Hannah Middleton.

International visitors

In solidarity with the peace protests, visitors came from Kapai ‘Aina (Hawai’i) and Gua’han (Guam).
Terri Keko’olani and Leimaile Quitevis from Kapai ‘Aina and Fanai Castro, a Chamorro from Gua’han, contributed many speeches as well as chants and songs that really educated and moved Peace Convergence participants. Their presence raised the protests to a higher level and built enduring links between the anti-militarisation struggles in our different countries.

Conclusion
The campaign to rid Australia of US military control took some major steps forward over the weeks leading up to and including the Peace Convergence on Yeppoon.
In 1997 eight people contested the war games (then called “Tandem Thrust). In 2005 it was 80. This year the number reached about 500. We are confident that many more people will fight the Talisman Sabre war games in 2009. And we will put an end to them.

Developing the new US training bases

The Shoalwater Bay Training Area has been used by the ADF for many years. In 2004, however, the Howard Government took decisions which significantly increased the role of the area and increased the level of United States interference in Australia’s internal and international affairs.

At the annual Australian-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Washington in July 2004, Australia and the US agreed to develop a Joint Combined Training Centre which will include state-of-the-art technology that allows commanders to oversee the exercises in real time, then replay missions in debriefs to personnel.

Under the concept, facilities at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland and the Bradshaw Training Area and Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory will be developed at the cost of tens of millions of dollars.

The three facilities will be inter-linked through a node in the Pacific War Fighting Centre in Hawai’i. Military exercises using the three bases will be directed and monitored by the US military’s Pacific Command (PacCom) which is also in Hawai’i.

The Talisman Sabre war games in 2005 and 2007 are part of this development, sending out a clear message of antagonistic military might.

During a November 2005 visit by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld he revealed that the United States was sending long range B-52 and B-51 bomber aircraft as well as stealth bombers from Guam for training exercises — including bombing practice — at the Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory.

In another development, US and Australian military specialists built a 1.3 km airstrip in record time at the Bradshaw Field Training Area, 600 kms south-west of Darwin. The airstrip was built in June 2007 to provide a forward base for the Talisman Sabre 2007 military exercises. The strip can be used by the ADF’s largest cargo aircraft, the 120-tonne C-17.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported (18/6/07) that “new facilities built at Bradshaw catering for hundreds of troops are expected to be used regularly by US forces under an agreement with Australia. Hundreds of US soldiers, sailors and marines will undergo regular training in northern Australia.”

International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases

In a significant step forward for the world wide campaign against military bases, some 400 activists from 40 countries came together in Ecuador from March 5 to 9. The conference was held in then on March 8, International Women’s Day, participants travelled in an 8-bus caravan, led by Ecuadorean women’s groups, down from the mountains to the port city of Manta. On March 9 there was a large march of international and local activists, focussing on the US military base in Manta.

The US and Ecuadorian Governments signed a base agreement in 1999, renewable after ten years. The Manta base provides logistical support for the counter-insurgency war in Colombia, placing Ecuador in a dangerous position of interfering in the internal affairs of its neighbour. The base has affected the livelihoods of local fishermen and farmers and brought an increase in sex workers.

In a great boost to delegates, President Correa sent high-level representatives to the conference to express support, and he himself, together with the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Relations, met with delegates from the network to express their commitment to closing the Eloy Alfaro Air Force base in Manta when its lease comes up for renewal in 2009.

Delegates were welcomed to Quito by the city’s Mayor. Buses were provided for everyone to tour this World Heritage City, with guides taking activists around various museums, churches and other sights. The evening culminated with an open air reception with a marvellous program of traditional music and dances.
Over the past two years, an international network has been built that works for the abolition of foreign military bases around the world. The next step was the conference to look at the political, social, environmental and economic impacts of foreign military bases and the grassroots movements that oppose them.

FOREIGN MILITARY BASES

While a few other countries such as England, Russia, China, Italy and France have bases outside their territory, the United States is responsible for 95 per cent of foreign bases. According to US Government figures, the US military maintains 737 bases in 130 countries, although many estimate the true number to be over 1,000.

Foreign military bases are used to secure the interests of a few at the cost of democracy, justice, sovereignty and self determination. But these bases and their destructive impacts are meeting with strong grassroots opposition, in Vieques, South Korea, Okinawa, United Kingdom, Guam, the United States itself, Australia and many other countries. Their concerns range from the destruction of the environment, confiscation of farmlands, abuse of women, repression of local struggles, control of resources and broader concerns about military and economic domination.

"Our military has become private guards for transnational companies," said Blanco Chancoso, an indigenous Indian from Ecuador. "Indian territory is rich in biodiversity and oil"

Kenyan peace activist Otieno Ombok pointed out how the US and Britain are attempting to control key water resources by putting in military bases in Africa. "Water is being shipped out from Africa to Europe and the US … Bases are used to secure these resources for private companies."

DELEGATES

Perhaps the largest gathering against military bases in history, the conference drew over 400 grassroots and community-based activists who were environmentalists, feminists, pacifists, war resisters, farmers, workers, students, parliamentarians, and other activists from social movements, human rights groups, faith-based organisations, and various regional and global networks and coalitions.
However, this underestimates the real extent of participation: For example, anti-bases activists from Iceland wrote to say that their absence in Ecuador should not be taken to mean that they are absent from the movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in England apologised that campaigning meant they could not send a delegate.

CONFERENCE WORK

The conference was not a talk-fest where nothing gets done. In various plenary sessions, panels and self-organised seminars, film-showings, and forums, participants deepened their understanding of the role of military bases in global geo-politics and their impacts on local communities and the environment. They also exchanged lessons about strategies and approaches to more effectively campaign against military bases.
Topics at the conference included construction of foreign military bases in the Middle East, specifically Afghanistan and Iraq; torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Diego Garcia; new base construction in Okinawa; prostitution and sex crimes near bases; and the dramatic increase of joint military exercises as part of the so-called "global war against terror". The ways in which military bases and militarisation of whole societies are used to secure the interests of states corporations at the cost of democracy, justice, and sovereignty around the world were highlighted.

Indigenous representatives talked about the destruction of indigenous lands to make way for bases. On Diego Garcia, the indigenous Chagossian people have been driven off their lands, as have the Chamorros from Guam and the Inuit from Greenland. The US military occupies vast areas of Hawaiian territory, territory which was once public land used for indigenous reserves, agricultural production, schools and public parks.

The representative from Guam talked about the environmental devastation, the dumping of PCBs, Agent Orange, DDT, heavy metals and munitions, as well as fallout from the detonation of 168 nuclear bombs in the North western Pacific between 1946 and 1958, leading to high rates of radiation-linked cancers on his island.

Activists who have been successful in closing bases warned that it is critical to force the US to clean up before leaving. The Filipinos who won the closure of the Subic and Clark bases in 1992 after years of popular pressure are still fighting to force the US military to clean the site and compensate the affected population.

On Vieques, Puerto Rico, the US military used its base to build, store and test bombs and chemical substances, like cancer-causing Agent Orange. In 1999 people set up permanent protest camps, thousands performed acts of civil disobedience, and others went on hunger strikes. The US Navy finally agreed to close the base in May 1, 2003. Now the people are fighting to clean up the land and treat those who have been exposed to harmful chemicals.

"We're so proud of what we accomplished and want to tell our story to encourage others," said Nilda Medina. "We understand that this is part of a worldwide struggle against the militarisation of our planet."

A large delegation from Okinawa and other cities in Japan explained the negative impact of the many US bases in their country and detailed the long and courageous struggles by many communities to oust the military.

US delegates made it clear that their peace movement wants the US military used for defensive, not offensive purposes. They emphasised how the billions of dollars now being spent to maintain this empire of bases would be better invested in people's needs for health, education and housing.

Representatives from Cuba at the conference complained bitterly about the use of the Guantanamo base as a centre for illegal detention and abuse of prisoners.

Activists from Japan, Turkey, Italy and Germany said their countries had been used to facilitate the invasions and ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Delegates from Germany said they have 81 US bases, more than anywhere in the world, and that Germany had became a central rotation point for US soldiers on their way to and from Iraq. They complained that the use of US bases as a launching pad for hostile military operations makes their country vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The conference unanimously adopted a declaration which broadens the target of the network to include not just foreign military bases but “all other infrastructure used for wars of aggression.”

It appeals to those who insisted on a strong focus on foreign military bases – most of which are owned by the US and all of which are arguably used for aggression – while at the same time not contradicting those who wish to expand the focus of their own work. It treads the fine line between self-determination and chauvinism, and broadens the target of the network to include not just foreign military bases but “all other infrastructure used for wars of aggression.”

In contrast to the right-wing, chauvinist opposition to bases, the declaration makes it clear that the network’s objection to bases is not a NIMBY approach (i.e. foreign military bases are fine as long as someone else bears the noise, the waste, and the crimes) but is because foreign military bases “entrench militarisation, colonialism, imperial policy, patriarchy, and racism.”

The conference also came to grips with the need to strengthen the coordination within the network without centralising and bureaucratising it. Participants reached a consensus to remain as a loose grouping but with a higher level of coordination. A process was set up for putting in place an international coordination committee with a clear but circumscribed political mandate and a defined set of responsibilities for carrying out collective projects.

The new global network will help local groups share experiences, learn from one another, and provide support for the local efforts. It will conduct research, maintain a global website (no-bases.org), publish an e-newsletter, and convene regular international meetings.

CONCLUSION

The network still has much to do. It must reach out to so many more local anti-bases activists, especially from the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. The issue of bases is still not high on the agenda of the anti-war movements. The network lacks resources because the issue is seen as too radical even for sympathisers. Within the network, there is uneven access to resources and capacities, translation remains to be worked out more efficiently, and so on.

Despite all these obstacles, the network has come a long way. The conference was a milestone, consolidating the international network as both a space where the broadest grouping of organisations, coalitions, and movements can come together and as an organisational vehicle which can carry out globally coordinated campaigns while providing continuing and sustained support to local struggles everywhere.

The network’s development can also be seen as evidence of the consolidation of the anti-globalisation/anti-war movements that emerged in the last decade.

Corazon Fabros, a veteran anti-bases activist from the Philippines, said: “The strategy of empire is global. So must be our response.”

International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases
FINAL DECLARATION

We come together from 40 countries as grassroots activists from groups that promote women’s rights, indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, human rights, and social justice. We come from social movements, peace movements, faith-based organisations, youth organisations, trade unions, and indigenous communities. We come from local, national, and international formations.

United by our struggle for justice, peace, self-determination of peoples and ecological sustainability, we have founded a network animated by the principles of solidarity, equality, openness, and respect for diversity.

Foreign military bases and all other infrastructure used for wars of aggression violate human rights; oppress all people, particularly indigenous peoples, African descendants, women and children; and destroy communities and the environment. They exact immeasurable consequences on the spiritual and psychological wellbeing of humankind. They are instruments of war that entrench militarisation, colonialism, imperial policy, patriarchy, and racism. The United States-led illegal invasions and ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan were launched from and enabled by such bases. We call for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from these lands and reject any planned attack against Iran.

We denounce the primary responsibility of the U.S. in the proliferation of foreign military bases, as well as the role of NATO, the European Union and other countries that have or host foreign military bases.

We call for the total abolition of all foreign military bases and all other infrastructure used for wars of aggression, including military operations, maneuvers, trainings, exercises, agreements, weapons in space, military laboratories and other forms of military interventions.

We demand an end to both the construction of new bases and the reinforcement of existing bases; an end to and cleanup of environmental contamination; an end to legal immunity and other privileges of foreign military personnel. We demand integral restoration and full and just compensation for social and environmental damages caused by these bases.

Our first act as an international network is to strengthen Ecuador’s commitment to terminate the agreement that permits the U.S. military to use the base in Manta beyond 2009. We commit to remain vigilant to ensure this victory.

We support and stand in solidarity with those who struggle for the abolition of all foreign military bases worldwide.

Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
15th annual conference

The 15th annual space organising conference and membership meeting of the Global Network (GN) was held in Darmstadt (near Frankfurt), Germany on March 23 and 24.

The events in Darmstadt were co-ordinated by GN board member Regina Hagen who works for the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP). INESAP and Regina's local peace group, called the Darmstädter Friedensforum, co-sponsored the conference that drew activists from India, Australia, US, England, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Hungary, and Germany.

Darmstadt hosts the European Space Operation Centre (ESOC), which plans and conducts satellite operations for the European Space Agency, and on the outskirts of the town a US military spy station, which is part of the global Echelon surveillance system.

The conference was made up of two busy days of discussion, strategising, planning, and protest around the topic The Role of the European Union in the Militarisation of Space. Information was shared about the growing role of space in the new European Security and Defense Policy, about NATO and European missile defence plans, and how these are related to US plans to dominate space in order to control the Earth.

The first morning of the conference an early vigil was held at the gates of the European Space Agency Operations Centre. Many leaflets were handed out to people as they arrived to work. It was cold and raining but it was a colourful and effective protest that got covered the next day in the local newspaper.

The European Union is now developing a civilian reconnaissance satellite system called Galileo that is going to also have military applications. The European Space Agency (ESA), just like NASA, was created as a civilian space agency and was not to be dragged into military space. But also like NASA, the ESA is now going "dual use," meaning space technologies are being developed for both civilian and military purposes.

This is happening because aerospace industries are pushing their governments all over Europe to increase funding for space militarisation. At the conference activists heard that in Sweden, for example, their government is rapidly funding growing efforts to pull the country into military space technologies. And in each case they are cutting social spending to pay for the development of space warfare technology.

On the second day of the conference another vigil was held, this time at the US spy station, which is part of the global Echelon surveillance system.

These US space radar facilities are now scattered all over the planet and many of them are being upgraded for participation in the Star Wars program. The radar facilities would communicate directly with military war fighting satellites and direct US attack around the world. Much of the growth in membership of the Global Network is coming from communities where these installations are built.

During the conference participants learned more about how these military space networks, now called Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), are being set up to expand US ability to launch pre-emptive attack around the world.
There was also extensive discussion about how the US and NATO program of expanding Star Wars facilities into Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary is part of a strategy to surround Russia. One GN member spoke about a Rand Corporation plan now in circulation to break Russia into three separate countries so the oil corporations can better control their resources. (This is the same strategy that was used to bust up the former Yugoslavia and which is today underway in Iraq.)

But despite the bad news from Europe, opposition is growing as more people begin to understand the issue. A small town in the Czech Republic just voted overwhelmingly to declare their opposition to US plans to build a "missile defence" radar in their community.

NATO AND EU

Though much attention was focused on the United States because it is the country with the most foreign military bases, activists pointed out that NATO and the EU are partners with the United States in carrying out corporate/military policies.

We were reminded of two contributions made at the anti-bases network conference in Ecuador.
"The EU is now a major military power with a reaction corps of 180,000 soldiers and a elite corps of 1,500" said Tobias Pflüger, a member of the European Parliament from Germany, "The EU also have the same analysis as the United States when it comes to military intervention saying they can take action in response to weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism and to failed states."

Hans Lammerant of the Forum for Peace Action spoke of how EU and NATO troops are directly linked to US policy. "Afghanistan has become a NATO mission and there are planes leaving from Ramstein Air force base, which is used by both EU and NATO troops, to bomb Iraq."

Stating that countries are just as complicit in war crimes when they host foreign militaries that commit crimes against humanity, Lammerant added, "You are not considered neutral under international law if you allow foreign military planes to bomb countries when they are stationed in your country or use your air space."

STRATEGY SESSION

Workshops and then a plenary on strategies produced a large number of excellent ideas but time did not allow priorities to be set or the adoption of specific plans.

The ideas generated included:

Teach about the plans the US has for the Moon and Mars and create fact sheets on the Moon and Mars issues
Expand GN contacts with emerging peace movements in Eastern Europe that are opposing construction of US and NATO Star Wars facilities in their countries -- under the guise of "missile defence."

Analyse who is getting rich? Who stays poor? Where are the resources going?

What are civilian projects vs. military projects vs. dual use projects?

Use the mass media, make and nurture connections with the media, conduct workshops for them, send them information on a regular basis.

Correspond to trade unions -- all of us in our own regions.

Do more to expose the corporations pushing for weapons in space.

Conversion: use science for life-enhancement rather than death.

2008 CONFERENCE

We ended our conference in Darmstadt by deciding that next year our meeting will be held in Omaha, Nebraska in order to shine an international light on the Pentagon's Strategic Command (StratCom) that is now in charge of Star Wars, satellite surveillance and reconnaissance, nuclear weapons targeting, and planning for global pre-emptive war.

StratCom HQ in Omaha is now making efforts to get the University of Nebraska to become a major centre for the creation of "new" space law. At a recent conference at the university, sponsored by StratCom, Pentagon officials said that those who try to use international law to prevent an arms race in space were practicing a new form of warfare. The Pentagon spokesman termed it "law fare."