<nettime> Kakadu Uranium Shipment

[McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>]

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