In South Korea, activists march against Tokyo’s waste plan
Hundreds of people in South Korean took to the streets of Seoul on Saturday
to protest against Japan’s contentious plan to release treated nuclear
wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is set to release the water from
the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant later this month. It has been
approved by the UN nuclear watchdog, and a South Korean assessment found it
meets international standards. But protesters fear marine life will be
destroyed and seafood contaminated. Marching in central Seoul, they held
signs reading “Protect the Pacific Ocean” and “Nuclear Power? No Thanks!”.
BBC 12th Aug 2023
Proposed radioactive waste dump in Deep River met with opposition at final hearing.
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission heard final arguments Thursday
Guy Quenneville · CBC News · Aug 10, 2023
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) held its final hearings in Ottawa on Thursday into a proposed radioactive waste disposal site further north in the Ottawa Valley that is fiercely opposed by Algonquin First Nation groups.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) wants to build an engineered mound near the ground’s surface on the Chalk River Laboratories site, located in Deep River, Ont., and on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinābe people. It’s about 190 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. ……………………….
Should be asking our permission’
The disposal site was proposed years ago, with the commission launching an environmental assessment back in 2016.
Opposition to the project, from Indigenous groups and municipalities, has intensified in the years since.
In 2017, the Assembly of First Nations accused the commission and the federal government of failing to meet their constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations.
“They should be asking for our permission … and right now we have the Algonquin people saying no,” Chief Casey Ratt of Algonquins of Barriere Lake said during a pause in Thursday’s hearing.
The project is also of concern because of its proximity to Kichi Zibi (the Algonquin name for the Ottawa River) and because the site is near Algonquin sacred sites at Oiseau Rock and Pointe au Baptême, according to Kebaowek First Nation, another Algonquin group calling on the commission to reject the project.
CNL’s plan includes releasing effluent from a wastewater treatment plant into Perch Lake, a point of concern for the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation.
“There is no public access to the Perch Creek and Perch Lake watershed where … effluent discharges will occur,” the company has argued in a written submission to the commission.
Justin Roy of Kebaowek First Nation told the commission there are risks that can’t be ignored.
“When building a camp and you need potable drinking water and you build a well, you don’t go and build your outhouse beside that well,” Roy said.
What happens next
The commission describes itself as an independent administrative tribunal set up at arm’s length from government, without ties to the nuclear industry.
The group’s hearings into the proposed facility began in person in February and May of 2022, were supposed to pick up in June 2023, but were adjourned to Thursday, taking place over Zoom.
“[That’s] not our ways,” Chief Dylan Whiteduck of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation said of the online format.
“We were only provided an hour to give our final statement, which to us is obviously disrespectful,” he added.
The commission has yet to issue its final report on whether CNL’s site licence can be amended, which would allow the company to build the disposal facility. ……………………………………………..
The commission said it may be “several months” for a decision to be made and published.
Anti-nuclear protesters at Faslane charged after blocking entrance
Anti-nuclear protesters blocked the entrance of a naval base in Helensburgh
on Wednesday for several hours. Three activists were arrested and charged
with breach of the peace on August 9 at HMNB Clyde, commonly known as
Faslane. A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “We can confirm that three
individuals were arrested yesterday outside of HMNB Clyde and charged with
breach of the peace. “At no time did the individuals gain entry to the
site and the safety and security of the Naval Base and our vessels were not
compromised.
STV 10th Aug 2023
Background to Proposed radioactive waste dump in Deep River -opposition from indigenous and non-indigenous groups
| Gordon Edwards 11 Aug 23 |
A consortium of multinational corporations, headed by SNC-Lavalin, was hired by the government of Canada in 2015 to “reduce the liability” associated with federally owned radioactive wastes. The dollar value of that liability has been estimated to exceed $7 billion.
For the last 5 1/2 years, the consortium has been proposing to store the most voluminous waste in a “megadump” intended to hold about one million cubic metres of radioactive and nonradioactive toxic wastes in perpetuity. The proposed dump is essentially a landfill operation one kilometre from the Ottawa River, a heritage river that courses through the nation’s capital and feeds into the St Lawrence River at Montreal.
The project is opposed by all but one of the 11 Algonquin communities on whose unsurrendered territory the megadump is to be sited. It is part of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories site – land that was stolen from the Algonquin Nation in 1944. The federal government expropriated the site on national security grounds, required for the World War II Atomic Bomb Project, without asking or notifying or compensating the Algonquins for whom the site had cultural and religious significance for thousands of years.
On Thursday August 10, 2023, three Algonquin communities gave their final arguments to two members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Both of these Commissioners had previously worked for many years for the nuclear industry. The Algonquins were not allowed to present in person before the Commissioners, so they rented a hall for $8000 and had their own live audience to witness the proceedings as they made their presentations to the Commissioners by zoom.
In addition to Chiefs, elders, councillors, researchers and lawyers from three Algonquin communities – Kebaowek First Nation, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, and Barriere Lake First Nation – there were in attendance members of several Algoquin communities, as well as many non-Indigenous people. The latter included representatives from federal parliamentarians, mayors of local communities, Ottawa city councillors, and representatives of the following Non-Governmental Organizations:
Ottawa Riverkeeper, Grennspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital, Ecology Ottawa, Ottawa River Institute, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Canadian Environmental Law Association, The Atomic Photographers’ Guild, First United Church Water Care Allies, Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association, Ottawa Charter of the Council of Canadians, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, Pontiac Environmental Protection, Friends of the Earth, Ottawa Raging Grannies, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Ottawa Valley), Biodiversity Conservancy International, Bonnechere River Watershed Project, Council of Canadians Regional, Coalition Against Nuclear Dumps on the Ottawa River, National Capital Peace Council.
Mony of the non-Indigenous representatives who came to hear the Algonquin Nations final arguments before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) signed their names to the following statement:
“NO CONSENT, NO DUMP. August 10, 2023″Today, CNSC conducts its final hearings on the planned ‘megadump’ at Chalk River – a gigantic mound of radioactive and non-radioactive toxic wastes, seven stories high, one kilometre from the Ottawa River. Most of the radionuclides to be dumped have half-lives of more than 5000 years. 99 percent of the initial radioactivity is from profit-making companies – waste that is imported for permanent disposal at public expense.
“Chalk River is sited on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation. The Kebaowek and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Algonquin communities do not consent to this radioactive and toxic dump, which is euphemistically called a Near Surface Disposal
Facility (NSDF).“We are non-Indigenous citizens. We do not presume to speak on behalf of Indigenous peoples, but as proud Canadians we wish to state clearly that if CNSC grants permission for the NSDF despite the lack of free, prior and informed consent from the Kebaowek and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, it will be an act that dishonours all Canadians.
“We – and many others across Canada – regard such a decision as a blow to the process of reconciliation. It will set a dire precedent by suggesting that Indigenous consent is not a priority. Such a development could set back the cause of reconciliation for generations.”[56 signatures by attendees]
Oppenheimer, Japan bombings put nuclear energy in a harsh light
Utah Public Radio | By Eric Tegethoff, August 11, 2023 , https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2023-08-11/oppenheimer-japan-bombings-put-nuclear-energy-in-a-harsh-light
The power and destructiveness of nuclear energy has been in the spotlight since the film “Oppenheimer” was released in July. It is in focus again this week with the anniversaries of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during World War II.
Mary Miller, a member of Idaho nuclear energy watchdog Snake River Alliance, explained the movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the first experiment with the atomic bomb stops short of the bombs dropped on Japan. But Miller noted Oppenheimer’s ideas changed after that.
“His message was that humanity must learn humility in the face of nature and use its experience with atomic energy to prosper international peace,” she said. “The nuclear power that was unleashed on Japan was just unimaginably too big and too lethal for humankind.”
The 78th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was Sunday, and the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing is on Wednesday. It is estimated the two bombs may have killed as many as 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.
Advocates for nuclear energy are increasingly promoting its ability to help move the country from dirty sources of fuel in the fight against climate change, but Miller said it should not be considered a clean source of energy because its negatives outweigh the good it might be able to achieve.
“Just like that power that was unleashed in the bomb, the use of nuclear energy for electricity, which is called nuclear power, cannot be safely anticipated, predicted or controlled,” she explained.
Miller pointed to a number of issues with nuclear energy, such as safe transportation and storage of its waste, which sometimes has a radioactive half life that extends thousands of years. Experiments on new types of nuclear reactors are eing conducted at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Melissa Parke to spearhead International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, as Oppenheimer thrusts issue into spotlight
ABC News, By David Weber, 11 Aug 23
As the film Oppenheimer and war in Ukraine both draw the world’s attention to the threat of nuclear weapons, Melissa Parke says there is no better time for change.
Key points:
- Melissa Parke says a nuclear weapons ban is urgently needed
- Ms Parke says the film Oppenheimer had raised public awareness around the issue
- She says the war in Ukraine had also made people more aware of the risks
The former West Australian federal politician and UN Human Rights lawyer has been announced as the new executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
With the majority of the world’s nations supporting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Ms Parke said there was no better time for Australia to sign up.
“There’s never been a more urgent time with the heightened tensions and conflict around the world to take action to eliminate nuclear weapons,” she said.
The former Labor MP for Fremantle called for “honest negotiations” around disarmament.
“Nuclear weapons do not make the planet safer, they make it an infinitely more dangerous place to be,” she said.
“Australia’s had a proud history of championing nuclear disarmament.
“The Australian Labor Party has made a commitment in its national policy platform … [and] when they were in opposition in 2018, they made a commitment that when Labor was in government it, would sign the treaty.”…………………………………………… more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-11/melissa-parke-to-spearhead-campaign-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons/102715862
Welsh groups call on the National Eisteddfod to reject funding from USA nuclear and arms company Westinghouse
The National Eisteddfod receives sponsorship money for the Science Pavilion
from nuclear power and arms company Westinghouse from the United States.
Westinghouse recently announced that they are setting up an office at
M-Sparc, Gaerwen, Ynys Môn to develop nuclear decomissioning skills.
In 2017, Toshiba Westinghouse went bankrupt after having to abandon building
new nuclear reactors at the V.C.Summer site in South Carolina 40% into
construction.
Six directors were charged with financial fraud in the U.S.
Federal Court. The Westinghouse Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility on a
secretive corner of their site produce radioactive tritium gas. This
tritium is then sent to the Savannah River site in South Carolina where it
is prepared to be inserted in all U.S. nuclear weapons.
CADNO, CND Cymru, Cymdeithas y Cymod, Cymdeithas yr Iaith and PAWB calls on the National Eisteddfod to reject any sponsorship from Westinghouse in future
Eisteddfodau from Westinghouse due to their connection to terrifying arms
of mass destruction.
PAWB 10th Aug 2023
Bringing the Pacific people together in solidarity to address nuclear legacy issues in the Pacific – Lesuma
By Ema Ganivatu, Thursday 10/08/2023 https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Bringing-the-Pacific-people-together-in-solidarity-to-address-nuclear-legacy-issues-in-the-Pacific–Lesuma-r84xf5/
We try bringing together Pacific people and groups, in unity and solidarity so that we have one united way against nuclear waste dumping, nuclear testing and addressing nuclear legacy issues in the Pacific.
This was highlighted by Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) in Fiji Nuclear Justice campaigner Epeli Lesuma in an interview with fijivillage News about the environmental issues surrounding the Pacific.
Lesuma says they are trying to clean the nuclear waste that colonial powers have left behind.
He says this issue refers to the testing that was undertaken by the UK, USA, France, Christmas Island, and the Marshall Islands and the Nuclear Justice in the Pacific campaign for PANG and similarly for other regional NGOs is largely based around addressing this issue in the Pacific.
He adds this campaign is also around addressing justice for indigenous communities, and affected communities in those countries.
Lesuma says it is important for us to prioritize the Pacific Island Forums panel of experts because they were a panel appointed by Pacific leaders and provided by small Pacific countries with Pacific people and concerns at heart.
He says Fiji was the chair of the forum when this panel of experts was appointed so Fijians need to continue to support the PIFs panel of experts over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) because PIFs are not swayed by their interests or the interest of more developed countries like Japan or America or France.
Lesuma says there is power in numbers and the old saying ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ comes into place at this time, so part of PANG’s work is ensuring that the campaign has one voice and one message in advocating for Nuclear Free Pacific.
Ten arrested at protest against nuclear weapons at Volkel airbase
The Koninklijke Marechaussee arrested ten people at Volkel Airbase on Tuesday morning. They had climbed over the fence and sat down on the runway in protest against nuclear weapons and CO2 emissions.
This is the second protest at the airbase in two days. On Monday, about 60 activists from het Vredeskamp demonstrated in front of the airbase’s entrance, Omroep Brabant reports. The protest lasted a symbolic 78 minutes – Sunday was the 78th anniversary of an atomic bomb hitting the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The presence of nuclear weapons at the Volkel base was an open secret for many years. But it has now been leaked and confirmed multiple times, according to the broadcaster.
The demonstrators detained on Tuesday are six Americans, three Dutchmen, and one German, Het Vredeskamp told Omroep Brabant. The protest group is planning a “multi-day peace camp” with more demonstrations to come.
As Japan set to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater in late August, Japanese nuclear expert vows to ‘fight it to the end’
Global Times, By Xu Keyue, Aug 07, 2023
As mainstream Japanese media revealed that Tokyo could start to dump the nuclear-contaminated wastewater as early as the end this month after the trilateral US-Japan-South Korea summit, observers and the wider public in China, Japan and South Korea reiterated their opposition to the irresponsible move with a Japanese nuclear expert stating that they would continue to protest against the plan.
“We plan to fight it to the end. We are planning to hold a big gathering in front of the prime minister’s office on August 18 and we plan to make a petition and submit signatures,” Hideyuki Ban, a Japanese nuclear expert and co-director of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), told the Global Times on Monday.
According to Japanese media outlet Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese government has entered into coordination to determine the wastewater release timing after the summit with the US and South Korea scheduled for August 18. After Prime Minister Fumio Kishida returns from the US, he will hold a ministerial meeting and make a decision over the dumping of contaminated wastewater.
Asahi cited several officials as saying that the dumping is estimated to begin as early as the end of August. The report claimed that Kishida is expected to explain “the safety of the treated water, its scientific basis, and measures to be taken after the release” to the two leaders of the US and South Korea to gain their understanding.
But Ban believes if the contaminated wastewater is dumped in late August, it is the Japanese government that would force the plan without caring for the concerns and opposition from fisheries and the relevant personnel………………………………….
As many parties in Japan and other countries including China oppose the wastewater dumping plan, the Japanese government must be thinking that it will at least get the consent of Seoul and Washington and if the three reach a consensus over the issue during the summit, it is expected to help Tokyo press ahead with its arbitrary plan, Ban pointed out.
Anonymous Japanese officials in the prime minister’s office were quoted by Asahi as saying that they believe since some offshore trawling will commence off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture in September, the government hopes to avoid starting the release after the fishing season has begun. For this reason, it is assumed that the dumping will start around the end of August, Asahi reported. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1295820.shtml
Demonstrators protest development of nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge
by: Ella Wales, Aug 6, 2023
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) — Demonstrators held a march in Oak Ridge Saturday against the development and use of nuclear weapons.
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) held the demonstration ahead of the 78th Anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The group marched from Alvin K. Bissell Park to the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Tanvi Kardile, coordinator of OREPA, said they are an anti-violence grassroots organization.
“We work against development of nuclear weapons, we fight against Y-12 which is still producing weapons to this day and we want to spread public awareness about what they’re doing out there,” she said.
The group’s demonstration aimed to support nuclear abolition in the United States.
“We came here to talk about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is the only viable treaty that’s currently on the path to end nuclear weapons. The U.S. has not signed onto this treaty yet, so we’re here to spread public awareness about that,” Kardile said.
Together Against Sizewell environmental group angry at the coming destruction of marine life, as acoustic fish deterrent will not be installed at Hinkley Point C nuclear
A notification from the Environment Agency distributed on the first of
August, starts with an encouraging statement reminding us that it is
responsible for regulating environmental protection at nuclear sites,
ensuring that people and the environment are properly protected.
But behind the corporate speak of ‘permit variation’, the addition of ‘new
limits and conditions’ and ‘discharge activity’ within the Water
Activity Discharge permit for Sizewell C’s so-called sister plant at
Hinkley Point C in Somerset, lies the cold, stark fact that the Environment
Agency, which claims to ‘protect and improve the environment’, has
removed the requirement to install an acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) at the
head of its seawater intake in the Bristol Channel.
In doing so the EA has condemned millions of fish and other marine creatures to their fate of
impingement, injury and death adding to the many millions of fish fry, fish
eggs, small fish and other marine biota that will be killed when entrained
in the cooling system of the plant.
Moreover, this situation is due to be repeated at Sizewell, meaning that Sizewell Bay fish stocks and marine creatures will likewise face decimation should the plant ever be built. A
spokesperson for Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), said today, ‘Our
spineless environmental regulator has simply rolled over to do the nuclear
industry’s dirty work, directly contradicting its promise to protect and
improve the environment and making itself complicit with the ceaseless
attack on this country’s biodiversity.
It is shocking that our young
people have to witness such shameless sacrifice of millions of creatures on
the altar of wildly misplaced government policy which is recognised by its
own Science and Technology Committee as fantasy. When will we have a
regulatory system in the UK which is capable of demonstrating enough spine
to put the environment above corporate greed and the arm lock of government
policy? The Environment Agency should be ashamed of itself.’
Together Against Sizewell C 2nd Aug 2023
Opposition to Aukus – especially from New Zealand, but also from Australia and the Pacific, and across the political spectrum
Military Initiative by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) is Another Major Step in Prospective War on China
Covert Action Magazine, By Murray Horton, June 29, 2023
“………………………………………………“We Are Not at War, But Neither Are We at Peace”
New Zealanders may not have appreciated the degree of militarization in Australia, much more so than here. AUKUS should jolt us out of any complacency about what is going on with our nearest neighbor—it is preparing for war. Australian media commentary at the time of the AUKUS launch made that clear. “The monumental price tag of the AUKUS pact has made it clear. We are not at war, but neither are we at peace…”
“Almost $A400b, even over three decades, is not peacetime spending in anyone’s book—a fact Government ministers concede privately. Rather, we are navigating a dangerous and unpredictable new grey zone of superpower rivalry between China and the United States. It’s a contest in which we are poised to be a central player despite our geographical isolation and relatively small population.”
“Accepting such a role will require tough spending decisions the nation as a whole is not yet ready to confront. Already, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is flagging his willingness to support reduced spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to pay for the submarine programme. Other unsettling trade-offs will need to be discussed. Even in the short term, before the big bills start arriving, difficult calls will have to be made….This is because…it will cut $A3b from existing defence programmes…This is likely to anger other branches of the military, such as the Army, while the Navy is lavished with money.”[2]
Albanese tried to put a positive spin on it,……………………………………..
Criticism from Inside the Political Elite
Pleasingly, AUKUS was not unopposed among Australia’s political elite (or, at least, former leading members of it). Paul Keating, who was Labor Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996, really put the boot into the good submarine AUKUS and all who sail in her. He did so in a March 2023 speech, the day after the AUKUS announcement. “Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched an extraordinary attack on the Albanese government over its adoption of the AUKUS pact, accusing it of making the worst foreign policy decision by a Labor government since the attempted introduction of conscription in World War I.”
“He said signing up to AUKUS had broken Labor’s long ‘winning streak’ on foreign policy over the past century and was a ‘deeply pathetic’ moment in the Party’s history. ‘Falling into a major mistake, Anthony Albanese, befuddled by his own small-target election strategy, emerges as prime minister with an American sword to rattle at the neighbourhood to impress upon it the United States’ esteemed view of its untrammelled destiny…’”
“‘Naturally, I should prefer to be singing the praises of the government in all matters, but these issues carry deadly consequences for Australia and I believe it is incumbent on any former prime minister, particularly now, a Labor one, to alert the country to the dangerous and unnecessary journey on which the Government is now embarking.’”
“‘This week, Anthony Albanese screwed into place the last shackle in the long chain the United States has laid out to contain China…I don’t think I suffer from relevance deprivation, but I do suffer concern for Australia as it most unwisely proceeds down this singular and dangerous path,’ he said.”
“Keating presented a largely benign view of China’s rise, saying it was ‘not the old Soviet Union’ and was ‘not seeking to propagate some competing international ideology’ to the United States. The fact is China is not an outrider,’ he said. ‘China is a world trading state—it is not about upending the international system,’”
“Keating said: ‘Every Labor Party branch member will wince when they realise that the party we all fight for is returning to our former colonial master, Britain, to find our security in Asia—236 years after Europeans first grabbed the continent from its Indigenous people. That of all things, a contemporary Labor government is shunning security in Asia for security in and within the Anglosphere’”[3]
Nor was Keating alone in his criticism from within the elite. “The Australian National University’s Hugh White, an emeritus professor of strategic studies, unleashed a quite extraordinary criticism of Australia’s nuclear submarine plan…Professor White, a former deputy secretary of the Defence Department, said Australia was not only going to ‘hand over some serious dollars’ to the US but also pay with ‘a promise’ to enter any future conflict with China.’”
“‘This is a very serious transformation of the nature of our alliance with the United States,’ White said in an interview recorded for the ANU’s politics podcast Democracy Sausage. ‘The US don’t really care about our submarine capability—they care deeply about tying Australia into their containment strategy against China.’”
“White said he couldn’t see why the US would sell its own submarines—of which they have fewer than they need—unless it was absolutely sure Australia’s submarines would be available to it in the event of a major conflict in Asia. He said a war between America and China over Taiwan would be ‘World War III’ and have a ‘very good chance’ of being a nuclear conflict.”
“‘Australia’s experience of war [is] shaped by the fact that we’ve tended to be on the winning side, but there is no reason to expect America to win in a war with China over Taiwan,’ he warned. He suggested there was also a high chance the AUKUS deal could fall over under [sic] a future American administration and a worsening strategic environment.”
“White said there were cheaper, quicker, less risky and less demanding ways for Australia to get the submarines it needed, labelling the AUKUS plan a waste of money that ‘doesn’t make sense. There’s going to be no actual net increase in the number of submarines available until well into the 2040s, even if it goes to plan—which it probably won’t,’ he said.”[4]……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Former New Zealand Prime Ministers from Rival Parties Dissent
When AUKUS was first announced in 2021, New Zealand, which was not invited to join, simply confined itself to saying that nuclear-powered submarines would not be allowed into New Zealand territorial waters, or ports, because of our nuclear-free law dating back to the 1980s. So, the issue flew below the radar (or sailed under the water, to put it more appropriately). However, once AUKUS really kicked off in March 2023, debate and disquiet started in New Zealand.
Helen Clark was the Labour Prime Minister (1999-2008) who has dined out for 20 years on having refused to let New Zealand join the U.S., UK and Australia in the illegal and disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq (in all other aspects Clark was a very loyal servant of the U.S.). She came out quickly and said that New Zealand is better off outside AUKUS (the word she used was “entanglement”).
She was not alone as the only former New Zealand Prime Minister to criticize it. “…[F]ormer National prime minister Jim Bolger [1990-97] participated in a forum about New Zealand’s foreign policy in Wellington, in which he is reported by the Herald’s Audrey Young to have criticised the Australian submarine buy up as ‘beyond comprehension’ because of the cost and the damage to peace in the Pacific region.”
“Bolger said that New Zealand certainly doesn’t want any such submarines, and challenged proponents of the AUKUS deal to defend it: ‘If you can find any Australian official who can explain why they need nuclear-powered submarines, come and tell me. I’d like to know.’ And Young reported Bolger asking rhetorically, ‘How mad are we getting?’ She says ‘he spoke with despair about the near-daily threats of nuclear war, which had the potential to destroy the planet.’”[7]
Opposition Across the Political Spectrum
“As part of the AUKUS deal Western Australia will play host to US and UK nuclear submarines from 2027. With nuclear-capable American B52 bombers and thousands of American marines rotating through the Northern Territory, Australia is lining up as a loyal lieutenant to the United States in the Pacific and would be expected to fight should war break out.”
“Would New Zealanders fight in a war between the nuclear superpowers? While we aren’t required by treaty obligations to act if America or Taiwan are attacked we are if Australia is. It is not an exaggeration to say Australia could be a target in a future war and already the country has been threatened with missile attacks in that scenario.”
“The risks of New Zealand being dragged in are real. Unlike in Australia, the conversation in New Zealand has been much more muted with limited discussion on the likelihood of war. Why aren’t we talking about it? New Zealand is in a difficult situation contemplating conflict between our largest trading partner and traditional security partner.”
“We weren’t invited to join AUKUS and Australian nuclear submarines won’t be allowed to berth here under our nuclear-free legislation. That same legislation sees New Zealand as only a friend and not an ally of the United States, but we are increasingly acting like we are an ally. In the years since New Zealand’s principled decision not to join the invasion of Iraq we have become more enmeshed with the United States defence apparatus.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………….. “New Zealanders need to talk more about the risks, our decision-makers need to explain why New Zealand is aligning more closely with the United States military and as a sovereign country we have to ask are we acting independently or as a cog in a machine? Our role could be focused on reducing tensions, finding solutions and building trust. War is never inevitable.”[8]
Former politicians across the spectrum have come out against AUKUS. For example, Richard Prebble, one-time Labour Cabinet Minister and later ACT Party founder and Leader.
He is currently a relentless right-wing critic of the current Labour government. His take on AUKUS is the classic mercantilist one. “China is New Zealand’s biggest trading partner. This country has joined China’s Belt and Road initiative. China has signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand, something the U.S. Senate refuses to consider.”
“Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned that New Zealand’s exports to China could be caught up in a ‘storm,…………….. New Zealand’s exporters are only too aware of their dependency. There is no other obvious alternative to the New Zealand-China trade.”
“New Zealand has no territorial disputes with China. When we recognised the Government of China 50 years ago, we acknowledged Taiwan is part of China. Paul Keating and Helen Clark are correct. New Zealand’s strategic interest is in the peaceful resolution of conflicts with China rather than sleepwalking into anti-Chinese alliances.”[9]
Academic Skepticism
Leading academic Robert Patman spelled it out in an article entitled “Why New Zealand Should Remain Sceptical About AUKUS.” He wrote that “the basic problem facing AUKUS is that it is based on a binary assumption that the fate of the Indo-Pacific will be largely shaped by the outcome of U.S.-China rivalry and, in particular, by the capacity of America and its closest allies to counterbalance Chinese ambitions in the region.”[10]
“Such a perspective is problematic on a number of counts. First, it exaggerates the influence of great powers in the 21st century in a large, diverse region like the Indo-Pacific. The region contains 60% of the world’s population including significant economic players like Japan, South Korea and fast-growing economies such as Vietnam and India.”
“Second, AUKUS does not factor in the Indo-Pacific and European nations’ quite distinctive security and economic interests in countering China. While countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam and EU states like Germany and France are deeply worried about China’s forceful diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific, they remain sceptical that a security arrangement involving three English-speaking states, two of whom have baggage in the region, is an adequate response.”
“Third, China’s global ambitions are very real, but they should not be over-hyped. AUKUS states depict China as a ‘systemic threat’ and, according to US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, the ‘only competitor out there with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, a power to do so.’ Really?…”
“Fourth, the provision of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia has raised very real fears in the Indo-Pacific about nuclear proliferation. In 1995, ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member states signed the Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ). Furthermore, Singapore is now the only ASEAN state yet to sign or ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), a diplomatic initiative heavily promoted by New Zealand.”
………………………………………………………………………. New Zealand remains sceptical that China is a systemic threat to US dominance, sees a good fit between its non-nuclear security policy and the Indo-Pacific region, and views detachment from AUKUS as both consistent with the goal of diversifying New Zealand’s trade ties and building a diplomatic network of like-minded states to strengthen the international rules-based order through measures like UN Security Council reform.”
Madness to Support U.S. War Against China
Mike Treen, veteran union leader and left-wing activist, put it all very succinctly in an article in the Daily Blog on April 21, 2023. He wrote: “The US is going to war against China because it is losing the international economic competition that previously enabled its military and economic bullying to dominate the globe. The empire is in slow decline.”[11]
“China’s extraordinary rise as an economic powerhouse over the past few decades means that it is now the top international trading partner for 120 countries. This has given the world the freedom to act in ways they have never before—politically and economically.
………………………………………………………………………………. “New Zealand was wrong to join the war against Afghanistan. We were wrong to join the occupation of Iraq. We were wrong to become an ‘observer’ at NATO. And it would be foolish and dangerous to become a participant in any way with the AUKUS military provocation against China. New Zealand should be a neutral power that offers medical aid to the world not a tiny jumped-up militarised puppet of the US empire like Australia has become.”
Defence Minister Tempted by AUKUS
The AUKUS carrot that is being dangled in front of New Zealand and Defence Minister Andrew Little is keen to take a bite……………………………………………………..
But Not PM or Minister of Foreign Affairs
However, both the Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, have since “dismissed suggestions the Government has shown interest in joining aspects of the pact.”
Mahuta made a May 2023 speech stressing that New Zealand’s nuclear-free position is a “cornerstone of our independent stance” ………………………
AUKUS Causing Alarm in the Pacific.
“[T]he Pacific Islands Forum warns ‘AUKUS will bring war much closer to home and goes against the Blue Pacific narrative on nuclear proliferation and the cost to climate change.’ Forum secretary-general Mark Brown said AUKUS would heighten geopolitical tensions and disturb the peace and security of the region.”…………………………………………………………………….
New Zealand Needs to Be Aware of War Drums Next Door
…………………………. New Zealand is actively supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. There is an irony in our government being so invested in a war, and its attendant geopolitics, on the other side of the world while, right next door to home, our Aussie Big Brother is making a major push toward war via AUKUS and accompanying militarization.
………Make no mistake—AUKUS is a major lurch toward war with China and it is unfolding before our eyes.
The Australian peace movement is waging a vigorous and very active campaign against AUKUS. Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) https://ipan.org.au/
References:………………………………………………………..
Campaigners against Sizewell C nuclear plan welcome call for financial clarity from Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Campaigners against the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in Suffolk
welcomed the committee’s call for Government clarity on the financing of
gigawatt-scale nuclear projects. A spokesperson for the Stop Sizewell C
campaign said:
“We’re appalled that the committee has ignored
legitimate concerns about whether nuclear can deliver reliable, affordable
electricity.” The group said it supported “the committee calling for
the Government to publish Sizewell C’s cost and value for money, as doing
so will expose just how unjustifiable this slow, risky, expensive project
is”.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said:
“We have already made clear we will publish a nuclear roadmap and consult
on alternative routes to market by the end of the year.
Nation Cymru 31st July 2023
Protests held in Tokyo against nuclear water discharge
By Jiang Xueqing in Tokyo | chinadaily.com.cn 2023-07 https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202307/31/WS64c7b5d8a31035260b819829.html
—
Japanese and South Korean civic groups gathered in front of the Japanese Prime Minister’s official residence on Monday in opposition to the administration’s plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean.
People attending the rally said the Japanese government’s insistence on discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the sea is an irresponsible move.
They raised doubts about the Japanese government’s claim the nuclear-contaminated water will be diluted before being released. Whether diluted or not, the protesters said, the overall radioactive substance level in the water remain unchanged.
They stressed discharging the water into the ocean will have a significant impact on the global marine environment.
Last week, a similar protest was held by Japanese people in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo.
Protesters said on Friday the ocean discharge plan is unacceptable because it poses a significant danger of radioactive contamination and will adversely affect the marine ecosystem and human health.
Some expressed concerns about Japan’s economy, which they believe will be affected by a boycott movement in neighboring countries and regions.
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