Activists challenge war games

Peace campaigners protesting against the Talisman Sabre Australian-US military exercises sent a strong message to the Rudd government that they will not tolerate the waste of resources on rehearsals for war. A range of peace and environmental groups came together for the Peace Convergence for three days from July 10 to 13 to resist and disrupt Talisman Sabre.



Peace campaigners blockaded, danced, staged vigils, sang, climbed fences, hung banners, defied police and much more over a weekend of intense activities.

They entered Darumbal land with permission from and a welcome by Indigenous elder and land owner Janette Yow Yeh.

Peace Convergence events included a public meeting in Rockhampton addressed by CPA guest Judith LeBlanc, organising co-ordinator of United for Peace and Justice, the largest anti-war coalition in the USA; Hamish Chitts, co-founder of the military veterans group Stand Fast; and Professor Jake Lynch, director of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

“Your military and mine are trampling on the will of the people. They are out of control,” Ms LeBlanc said.

“These exercises are rehearsing for the next invasion. This is something the American and Australian people clearly do not want.

“Your country and mine went into that massive war crime in Iraq. We in the peace movement say it is time to call a halt,” she said.

Professor Lynch said: “The purpose of Talisman Sabre is to enhance interoperability between American and Australian forces. That means we are preparing to take US orders in fighting another illegal war.

“My research shows the US has now, as of mid-2009, spent more of the modern era at war than at peace. Training with the Americans means we are rehearsing for the invasion of another country.

“The Australian public never wanted to take part in the invasion of Iraq and two out of three recent polls show we want Australian troops to pull out of Afghanistan. There is no mandate for Defence to collaborate in preparing for more wars alongside the United States”.

“Coming hard on the heels of a Defence White Paper that parroted neo-conservative claims about the ‘threat’ of China, and heralded a major military build-up, these live-fire exercises will raise tensions in our own region, against Australia’s interests,” he said.

“A recent Australian National University poll shows that 70 percent of the Australian people do not support more money being spent on the military,” said Denis Doherty from the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition.

“Despite this, the Rudd government is wasting $50 million on training the ADF to take US orders in the next US-led war.

“The live-fire exercises practice invasions, they make Australia a greater target, they train our forces to take US orders, and they bomb unique and fragile locations on the edge of the irreplaceable Great Barrier Reef.

“We are practicing for the next war, but the government’s 2009 Defence White Paper stated that there is no major military threat to Australia. Talisman Sabre is addressing threats that do not exist, while aggravating those that are rapidly advancing, including climate change, hunger, and crippling poverty.

“War and its preparation make these problems worse. Talisman Sabre should be cancelled,” Denis Doherty concluded.



The main body of campaigners left Rockhampton on July 13, promising to return every second year until the Talisman Sabre war games are cancelled and Australia’s growing militarism is reversed.

A small number of activists will remain until the exercises finish on July 26. Some have been arrested and more will enter the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area to try to further disrupt the live fire component of the war games.