Student Independent
High school student magazine against nukes
Published by Brisbane Resistance
Reviewed by Zanny Begg
One of the most noticeable features of the campaign which erupted in the wake of Chirac's announcement that testing will resume at Moruroa in September has been the active participation of high school students. Hundreds have been organising against nuclear testing in their schools: getting petitions signed, building demonstrations and speaking at assemblies.
High school students have boosted the numbers at rallies, sometimes making up over half the crowd. The generation which entered high school after the end of the Cold War are determined to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. They are angry that world peace seems no closer today than it did at the end of World War II.
In Brisbane, a group of high school students have formed a network which aims to organise students in the campaign against nuclear testing. A new anti-nuclear magazine, Student Independent, is its first project.
While it was initiated by high school members of Resistance, Student Independent welcomes all contributions. It follows in the tradition of an earlier Resistance high school magazine, Student Underground, which was first published in 1968. Student Underground played an important role in organising secondary student opposition to the war and achieved notoriety by being denounced in parliament as anti-authoritarian. Student Underground was relaunched in 1991 during the Gulf War but stopped in 1992.
Student Independent was first distributed at the Hiroshima Day rally on August 6. It will be officially launched on September 12 at an all-ages concert featuring the Fabulous Nobodies, Bubadadubada, Zarathustra and Randal and Tylea.
Around 30 students from 13 high schools are involved in Student Independent's production and distribution. The first issue features an article on the struggle for independence in Tahiti, the ALP's sell-out on uranium mining, the role of the media, the struggle for freedom in East Timor and the environmental effects of the tests at Moruroa.
Student Independent is illustrated by drawings, collages and cartoons produced by the students involved.
Kylie Perkins, a year 10 student, told Green Left Weekly, "Students care about what's happening, but they feel like their hands are tied because they don't know what to do about it".
According to Perkins, "The people in power now, the ones responsible for the tests, will be six feet under by the time we really feel the environmental consequences of these tests. Young people will be the ones to pay the price. This is despite the fact that 95% of the Australian population and around 65% of the French population oppose the tests. We have to change this."
For copies of Student Independent write to PO Box 1247, Fortitude Valley 4006.