Activists dissect war machine

BY ADAM BAKER

BRISBANE — The US military machines, the oil companies which are central to the US's war aims in Central Asia and the Israeli government which brutalises the Palestinians all came under sustained fire from activists at an anti-war "teach-in", held at the Albion Peace Centre on December 1.

The teach-in, organised by NOWAR, the Network Opposing War and Racism, drew 30 participants from various socialist and environmentalist groups.

In the first plenary, longtime Brisbane anti-war campaigner Karl-Erik Paasonnen examined the role of the huge oil companies, while Mohommed Abdullah from the Palestinian community outlined the injustices faced by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

In a workshop on the lessons of the movement against the Vietnam War, University of Queensland academic and veteran of the anti-Vietnam War movement Dan O'Neil stressed the ideological war being waged by the US and other Western governments. Unlike the Cold War, where the enemy was "outside" in other countries like Vietnam and China, now the enemy is supposedly "inside" in the form of terrorism, he noted.

Another workshop featured Imam Yusuf Per of the Kuraby Mosque which was burnt to the ground in mysterious circumstances five days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He sought to dispel misconceptions about Islam and upheld its nature as a peaceful religion.

In an another workshop, long-time Rally for Peace organiser Joan Shears gave a run-down on the corporations profiting from the war in Afghanistan.

The final plenary featured Norma Nord from the Grassroots Centre, who spoke optimistically about the peace movement's prospects, and Hamish Alcorn from Friends of the Earth, who made a plea to "institutionalise communities" in response to a highly institutionalised enemy.

Brisbane NOWAR meets every Monday at 6.30pm, Level 2, Trades and Labor Council Building, 16 Peel Street, South Brisbane.

From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.

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From GLW issue 475