International Peace Pilgrimage

BY TIM COLLINS

It has been nearly 60 years since the world was horrified by the destructive force of the nuclear bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And it is 50 years since Indigenous communities in South Australia were decimated by nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga and Emu Junction.

Today, the nuclear industry is expanding at a more rapid rate than ever before. The forms it now takes are as diverse as they are insidious. Uranium mining continues, more nuclear reactors are being built, food is being irradiated, depleted-uranium weapons are used indiscriminately and there are more nuclear weapons being produced than ever before.

The inevitable product of the nuclear cycle — radioactive waste — is mounting and the federal government now has plans to inflict this problem upon those who bore the brunt of British weapons tests in the 1950s — the Indigenous people of South Australia. The nuclear cycle, like so many parts of our society, benefits a few at the expense of the many.

The International Peace Pilgrimage aims to bring together people from around the world to facilitate cooperation in the global grass-roots movement for peace and a nuclear-free future.

The pilgrimage's main component is a walk from Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Over four months in Australia, participants will make their way from Roxby Downs to Woomera, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra.

Along the way, the walkers will be holding actions, public meetings and school appearances to raise awareness, disseminate information and form networks in rural and regional areas.

Organisers are inviting people to join the walk, for days, months or just hours.

As a preamble to the walk, the IPP is holding a conference at Melbourne University on November 15-16. The speakers will include Jeffery McKenzie from American Military Families Speak Out and representatives of the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta campaign against the proposed South Australian waste dump. For more information, visit <http://www.peacepilgrimage.net>.

From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.

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From GLW issue 560