McKenzie Wark on Thu, 6 Aug 1998 16:35:40 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> Kakadu Uranium Shipment |
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 16:40:10 +1000 From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au> John Hallam Friends of the Earth Sydney, nonukes@foesyd.org.au http://www.peg.apc.org/~foesydney/ The Traditional Owners of the Jabiluka site, the Mirrar Gundjehmi people, now have a web- site whose address is http://www.green.net.au/gundjehmi NOTE E-MAIL ADDRESS, nonukes@foesyd.org.au KAKADU URANIUM NOT WELCOME IN EUROPE European Antinuclear activists in Antwerp late on Monday, mounted a protest against the ship 'Arunbank', containing 15 containers of yellowcake from ERA's Ranger uranium mine. When the Arunbank loaded uranium in Darwin a month ago, one person locked himself onto a crane, four people swam in front of the ship in an attempt to prevent it from docking, and people tried to lie in front of the trucks carrying the yellowcake but were violently removed by police. One person locked onto the truck, but police insisted that it keep moving in spite of the danger to life and limb this posed. The protest was commenced by a 'welcome committee' of 3 people, who offered the captain of the Arunbank a 'yellow cake'. As the yellow- cake was opened, people fell down as if dead. Solidarity messages from the Jabiluka Blockade were read, and the name of Tyrone Gibb, the protester from the Darwin ship action who is still in jail was read out. The action included people from Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and three Australians. It attracted TV and newspaper coverage in Belgium and Holland. The fact of international support and solidarity for the jabiluka campaign and for the Blockade shows that Jabiluka has become an international embarrassment for the Howard government, with widespread support shown on international Jabiluka Action Day (may 19th) and the resolution in the European Parliament last December calling on the Australian Government not to allow the project to proceed. We call on the Government to acknowledge that gthe jabiluka project is rejected not only by 67% of all Australians, but also by the international community, and act to repair the damage it is doing to our international reputation by not allowing it to proceed further. Contact: John Hallam 9283-2006 m0412-296-165. WISE - AMSTERDAM 0011-31-20-612-6368 JABILUKA ACTION GROUP 5/8/98 WESTPAC CLOSES DOORS AS JABILUKA PROTESTERS PICKET Anti-Jabiluka protesters today picketed the Martin Place/George St branch of the Westpac Bank, commencing at 12.30pm today to 2.15pm. The branch closed its doors, making it impossible for its own customers to enter. About 30 protesters handed out literature pointing out that Westpac Custodian Nominees, a wholly - owned subsidiary of Westpac, and part of the Westpac Group, owns 12.5% of North Limited, the company that owns 60% of ERA, and owns 414,494 shares in ERA directly. In addition, Westpac is ERA's and North Limited's banker, and ERA has a $1.5million overdraft facility with Westpac. In addition, protesters pointed out that the environmental policy adopted by the Westpac group, committs Westpac to adhere to environmental standards consistent with or better than, ones accepted by the community as a whole. (The full text of the Westpac group environmental policy remains confidential.) Protesters claimed that Westpac Custodian Nominees involvements in ERA and North limited breach those very standards - Westpac's own standards. They pointed out that, while Westpac will say that the investments made by Westpac Custodian Nominees are not made with Westpac money, but are made on behalf of anonymous investors, Westpac Custodian Nominee's role in facilitating such investments still breaches Westpac's own environmental standards. Protesters demanded that Westpac Group withdraw its banking services from North Limited and ERA, and that Westpac Custodian Nominees no longer facilitate investment in ERA and thus in the Jabiluka uranium project, a project that is rejected by 67% of Australians, 73% of Australian women, and a clear majority of people in all demographic categories. There were angry scenes as some customers tried to enter the doors of the Martin Place branch, which had been locked by Westpac. The protesters were careful to state repeatedly that they were not there to make the lives of customers and staff difficult, but to place pressure on Westpac Group to cease its investment in the Jabiluka project and ERA. Contact: John Hallam, 9283-2006 m0412-296-165 --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl