Nagasaki Day, Friday August 9th 2002
Dear Friends, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe in World War II and 34th President of the United States of America Nuclear Free Australia, Jubilee Australia, and Friends Of the Earth are organising a rally to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Friday 9th August 2002 5:30pm City Square Swanston Street In recent times the threat of nuclear war has returned. Increased military spending, global instability and continued production of nuclear weapons contribute to a renewed concern. We call for recognition that our spending on weapons of war negates the impact of money spent working towards global peace, development, justice and environmental sustainability. The US Missile Defence (MD) scheme and withdrawal from the Anti-Balistic Missile (ABM) Treaty act as a catalyst for increased weapons build up, a move away from peace. Australia continues to have a significant role by continued support for US policy and the Pine Gap Military Base near Alice Springs. In addition Australia has renewed involvement in uranium mining, plans for a new reactor in Sydney and waste dumping in regional Australia. We are creating new environmental hazards and sources of conflict faster than we can remove the old ones. Nagasaki Day is a significant day to reflect on the global situation and our role Australia plays. At the same time as there is increased military spending, impoverished countries suffer under unpayable debt burdens. It is estimated that the lives of 19,000 children in poor nations per day could be saved if their countries were able to spend the money used for debt repayments on health and education. The World Bank's own analysis shows that of 21 countries that the World Bank and IMF have granted limited debt relief to, 8 to 10 will be back in situations of unsustainable debt because of the inadequacy of the debt relief granted. There is an urgent need for the international community and Australia to review our spending priorities and use money to cancel the unpayable component of poor nations. Through justice, not war, will come peace and security. Themes : DROP THE DEBT NOT THE BOMB HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI NEVER AGAIN A NUCLEAR FREE AUSTRALIA JUSTICE NOT MILITARY SPENDING A draft leaflet is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nukefreeaus-internal/files/nobomb(1).pdf Any help your organisation can provide to help build this day would be of great assistance. You can do this by endorsing the rally and helping to publicise it. You can endorse it by phoning us or by signing the endorsement slip at the bottom of this letter. You can help publicise the event by including leaflets in your organisation's mailouts, putting a notice on your website or even writing your own article to be included in your newsletter. Yours Sincerely Hillel Freedman Nuclear Free Australia 0417506150 Bruce Thompson Friends Of the Earth (Melbourne) Mark Zirnsak Jubilee Australia Jacob Grech Oz Peace _________________________________________________________________________ Please add our organisation to the list of endorsees YES / NO Please send us ....leaflets and .....posters for the rally Organisation Name............................. Contact....................Phone........... We also need about $1000 to put on the rally. Contact us if you can help -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
