PP EAT, OM

 

 

 

 

 

PAGE 10 J OTHER FEA TURE ) THE OTHER PRESS

 

  

MARCH 30, 1983

 

 

Gay Longmuir’s home for the past
ear has been a 60 foot Australian
etch with hand painted sails. The
acific Peacemaker’s sails are unusual
: people from many lands, sea creatur-
s and animals all merge together,
rowned by a large peace symbol.

The boat has carried eight adults and
four children halfway around the world
yacross 11,000 miles of the Pacific
Ocean. The crew are protesting nuc-
lear weapons and the Trident weapons
system, and speak of people who have
been affected by nuclear testing in the
Pacific Ocean. They have been attack-
ed by French legionnaires in French
Polynesia, and threatened with Ameri-
can machine guns in the waters of
Puget Sound.

“One of the really strong things for
e is that we’re just ordinary working
eople,’’ ‘says Longmuir.

“‘The skipper was a trade unionist in
Australia. We've had two independent
film makers, a carpenter and children
on board. The idea was to try to cha-
nge the crew and have as much rota-
tion as possible, particularly for indig-
enous people. There have been 21
ac on board all together, at differ-
lent times.”’

Longmuir smiles for a moment and
leans back. She is calm and cheerful

spent the last year on a boat.

d does not look as though she has.

Pacific Peacemaker Mak

Trade unions, churches, peace
groups and individuals from Australia
and New Zealand funded the Pacific
Peacemaker. ‘‘The original intention
was to address the issue of how Aust-
ralia was related to the Trident weap-
ons system, to address the abuse of
the waters of the Pacific, and to be
directly involved in the Trident pro-
tests,’’ says Longmuir.

The Trident weapons system is one of
the latest American contributions to
the escalating arms race. At $1.8 bill-
ion each, two Trident submarines
equal the annual U.S. federal govern-
ment spending for education. The Pen-
tagon is building 30 of these submar-
ines.

Trident has been widely critized be-
cause of its first strike capability-its
firepower and accuracy are great
enough to hit Soviet silos before they
launch missles. In effect, Trident pro-
vokes, rather than prevents nuclear
attack.

Each Trident is 560 feet long, twice
the size of the present nuclear missile
firing submarine Poseidon, and can
carry enough nuglear weapons to des-
troy more than 200 cities. :

‘‘Tridents are just going to be wand-
ering through the Pacific,’’ says Long-
muir. She and the other Peacemakers

think people have already suffered
enough from nuclear weapons testing

in the Pacific Ocean.

“‘People of the Pacific have been the
prime guinea-pigs for nuclear weapons
testing. There is an assumption that
people’s bodies can be abused for the
self-interest of government,’’ says
Longmuir.

She is critical of France’s testing in
Polynesia. ‘‘They began testing clearly
in defiance of the will of the people at
the time. Later, studies showed that
radiation levels in the milk supply in
New Zealand were attributed to radio-
active fallout from the tests.’’

Polynesians were evacuated from
their homes during the testings, says
Longmuir. ‘‘Later, people returned to
their homes and then found it wasn’t
safe. There were certain concerns in
Polynesia about the genetic effects of
the tests. Babies were deformed.
Some women gave birth to sacs of
jelly,’’ says Longmuir.

‘‘Kissinger’s response to concern of
the Pacific people’s safety was
‘There’s only 90,000 people out there.
Who gives a damn?*’’

The waters of the Pacific are still
being used for hazardous atomic tests.
Bombs are detonated in coral reefs,
says Longmuir. The Pacific peace-
makers were concerned about the lack
of information on massive environ-

‘mental damage caused by these tests

 

 

———

by Dave Christian

According to former US
Secretary of State Henry Kiss-
inger, Daniel Ellsburg is the
most dangerous man in
America. But this is balanced
against his earlier assertion
that Ellsburg was a genius.

Dr. Daniel Ellsburg, former
Rand Corporation strategic
weapons analyst, Pentagon
advisor, the man who released
the Pentagon Papers, peace

Montreal(CUP)-Media critic
Barry Zwicker sharply critici-
zed press and broadcast cover-
age of the arms race during a
speech at McGill University
Feb. 17.

‘Through omission and min-

 

    
 
 

imalization the media have
idden the military arms race
rom us. Very few of us have
actually read, heard of or seen
the facts,’’ Zwicker said.

He said the facts are that
billions of dollars are invested
in the military to provide rela-
tively few jobs and weapons
that quickly become obsolete.
American Burear of Labor sta-

tistics show that $1 bilfion in-

movement activist, spoke at
the UBC War Memeorial Gym

last Saturday night. His 1 1/2
hour speech ran the gamut
from genocidal nuclear war
contingincy plans to civil dis-
obedience schemes that could
stop the testing of the Cruise
Missile.

“The risk (of nuclear war) is
growing, because of first-
strike weapons’’, Ellsburg
said. He classifies the three

vested in the military would
create 76,000 jobs, compared
to 100,000 jobs if invested in
construction or 187,000 jobs in
education, according to Zwick-
er.

The media, particularly the
American press, reinforce the
arms build-up, he said, by
portraying the Soviets as evil
and belligerent.

‘There is almost a fanatical
hatred of communism in Am-
erica and a basic, almost relig-
ious belief that communists
are bent on world domination
,’ said Zwicker. Only occas-
ionally are both superpowers
equally blamed for the arms
race, he added.

‘The Most Dangerous Man in America”

most dangerous of these wea-
pons as the Cruise missile:
“its completed testing and
deployment would mean the
end of verifiable arms con-
trol’’; the Pershing II: “‘Per-
shings are lightning rods for
attack’; and the MX: ‘“‘it in-
creases the possibility of nuc-
lear war in a crisis.’’ Ellsburg
also discussed the newly pro-
posed Anti Ballistic Missile
Defense System (ABS) ‘‘it
could be seen as...a colossal

Arms Race Coverage Blasted

He attributes the current
press coverage of the Cruise
Missile to the increasing pub-
lic pressure. The media can no
longer maintain that the pub-
lic is apathetic about these iss-
ues, he said. P

Zwicker also criticized the
supposedly reputable news-
papers.

‘‘They are obviously better in
information density, but even
the New York Times has been
effectively involved in ‘cover-
ups,’’ he said.

Zwicker said the media is a
conservative force whose in-
terests lie in maintaing the
status quo: ‘‘What is, is good,
because it is,’’ he said. —

waste of money...there is no
technological solution to the
threat posed by these wea-
pons.”’

But, despite the danger of
the situation, all is not gloom
and doom. Dr. Ellsburg says:
‘I’m positive thatReaganis no
more committed to the Arms
Race than (former US vice-
president Richard) Nixon was
to the bombing of North Viet-
nam’’, pointing out that public
pressure eventually stopped
the war.

“T am in favor of letter writ-
ing and lobbying’’ to stop the
funds allocated for defense,
Ellsburg added. Public deter-
mination alone will stop the /
buildup, he said, and every-
One is needed to stop it.

Ellsburg closed his speech
with an analogy of the Jews
in World War Two Germany.
““We are all Jews now...we
are also Germans.

A fuller story on Dr. Ells-
burg's speech will be featured
in the next issue of the Other
Press, along with a leadup on
activities coinciding with the
April 23 Walk For Peace,
Sponsored by the End The
Arms Race Committee.

 

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