The Australian Anti-Bases Campaign (AABC), Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition (SAAC) and other peace groups organised a protest against the Talisman Sabre war games outside Sydney Town Hall on July 19.
The biennial Talisman Sabre war games are due to start on July 22 at the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area, Queensland and other locations across Northern and Central Australia on land and sea.
These military training exercises started in 2005: this year’s is the biggest, now involving around 30,000 military from 10 countries, with three observer nations.
Speakers said the public will pay out millions of dollars for war games which threaten peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region, and will again cause widespread environmental damage, especially to the Shoalwater Bay natural heritage region.
The prime aim of Talisman Sabre is “interoperability”, which means the seamless co-option of Australian and other military forces into the US war machine: this plan is intended primarily for the war drive against China.
The rally, chaired by Denis Doherty from AABC and SAAC, heard from Nick Deane from the Marrickville Peace Group, Lil Barto from Wage Peace, Peter Murphy from SAAC, Adam Adelpour from SAAC and Solidarity, myself from SAAC and Socialist Alliance, and Joe Collins from Australia West Papua Association.
[SAAC is organising a public forum “Fighting the drive to war: How we can stop AUKUS” on July 23 at 4pm at Redfern Town Hall, Pitt Street, Redfern.]