By New Zealand for a World BEYOND War, July 22, 2023
SPEAKERS:
Diana Rickard, Darwin
Hon. Matt Robson, New Zealand
Dr Michelle Malony, Earth Laws
Anne Wright, Hawaii
Liz Remmerswaal, moderator
Monaeka Flores, Guam
This weekend’s ‘Australia, Talisman Sabre, AUKUS and NATO in the Pacific’ signals our concerns for the massive land exercises in Australia, involving 30,000 US & Australian personnel, plus others from 11 countries, during July and August, and calls for the cancellation of the recently signed Australia, United Kingdom and United States security partnership (AUKUS).
Talisman Sabre and AUKUS threaten to provoke war with China and destroy the environment, as well as furthering colonialism and systems of oppression.
To challenge Talisman Sabre and AUKUS, many Pacific region organisations including Pacific Peace Network and Independent and Peaceful Australia Network will host a “Call for Peace in the Pacific” conference on July 29 in Brisbane with speakers from across the Pacific, followed by educational events in Sydney, Canberra, and Darwin.
The aim of these events is to raise awareness within Australia and the Pacific region of the full impacts of allowing the US to base their military personnel, weapons, hardware and software on Pacific Sovereign Lands, by sharing the experiences of Pacific People.
The mock battlefield will be from Western Australia, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, to Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island in New South Wales.
Call for Peace Petition:
Please share this petition in your networks and raise your voice against the dangerous militarization of the Pacific. https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/cancel-talisman-sabre-aukus
BIOS:
Diana Rickard lives on a small rural farm 80 kilometres from Darwin and 10 kilometres from Kangaroo Flats Defence Training Facility. She prefers the Wet season for its beauty and quiet after the US Marines take their guns home in the hot and humid October-November Build-up. As an experienced environmental lawyer, author, educator, mediator and researcher, Diana has worked with indigenous and other non-English speaking peoples extensively on peace and justice issues. Diana coordinates the Top End Peace Alliance,is an IPAN CC member and a member of the Australian Services Union/Unions NT Community Justice and Climate Committee.
Hon. Matt Robson is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. He has challenged the New Zealand government’s pro-NATO policies and its integration into the war plans of NATO and has ended up on an enemies list created by the government of the Ukraine along with many eminent scholars, such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and military analysts such as the former Swiss and NATO military analyst Col. Jacques Baud.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also in the US diplomatic corps for 16 years and served in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq. Since then she has worked for peace with Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women For Peace and many other peace organisations around the world. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and is a board member of Hawaii Peace and Justice and frequently writes and speaks on US militarism in Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Michelle Maloney is the Co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA). Michelle began her career as an environmental lawyer, and then broadened her work to include multi-disciplinary approaches to creating Earth-centred governance and systems change. She now designs and manages social change initiatives that connect law, economics, education, cross-cultural knowledge systems, community development practice, ethics and the arts. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University. She is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. Michelle is on the Steering Group for the International Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA) and the Advisory Group of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN).
Liz Remmerswaal (Moderator) is vice president of World Beyond War (WBW) and national Coordinator of WBW for Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is co-convenor of the Pacific Peace Network and a recipient of the Sonja Davies Peace Award.
