PICKET - All Day
Starting at 8.00am LEFT UNITY and supporters will picket the Adelaide Convention Centre to protest the weapons trade expo taking place inside. There will be various actions happening throughout the day which people can get involved in.
MAJOR PROTEST 4pm
...
If you support a sustainable future for South Australian industry then join us outside the Convention Centre on North Terrace at 4pm to protest the State Government's continued promotion of weapons manufacturing.
There will be speakers and entertainment. Please bring placards, banners, instruments etc. Let's send a strong message to the Rann Government by saying NO! to the "Defence State"!
BACKGROUND
According to the Defence Industry Expo's own website: (www.defenceandindustry.gov.au) the Australian Government plans to replace 80 percent of its "war fighting" assets by 2020. This constitutes an "investment" of $150bn of taxpayers money.
While they brand this as "Defence" spending, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been fighting US wars that have nothing to do with the "defence" of Australia and its people.
In South Australia, tens of millions of dollars have been spent by the Rann Government to attract military industries to set up shop.
Weapons manufacturers will be concentrated in a walled precinct beside the Port River. Powerful US weapons manufacturers are even involved in "partnerships" with local public schools.
Is this how we imagined our future?
Left Unity has other ideas. We think taxpayers money should be spent on the creation of renewable industries and essential services like health, education, public transport and the like.
Why are thousands of public sector jobs being cut and services slashed while millions are being spent on the manufacture of weapons that are ultimately used to kill people in other parts of the world?
These weapons are being bought to help shore up the self-interested global military strategy of the United States. This course has caused people around the world, including Australians, needless suffering and loss in places like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's time we said No! to the "Defence State".
Comments
Re: Protest Against Defence Industry Expo (D.I.E)
Regarding your activity calendar,
June 28, 2011 is a Mayan Prophecy day.
There is a Grand Square.
Sun in Cancer 6 degrees
opposite
Pluto in Capricorn 6 degrees
square to
Uranus in Aries 4 degrees
opposite
Saturn in Libra 10 degrees.
See the picture on my blog,
this makes an Astrological
Grand Square which means it is
a Mayan Prophecy Day.
Be careful during your activities
on this day, June 28, 2011, a
Mayan Prophecy Day because of
the Astrological Grand Square.
Cris Ericson
http://ipotus.blogspot.com
Re: Protest Against Defence Industry Expo (D.I.E)
Guys, this is potentially very serious. Port Adelaide is only a few hundred miles from the biggest uranium mine in the world. The US makes DEPLETED-URANIUM tipped shells, which have polluted and killed slowly in Iraq, Bosnia, etc. The insidious expansion of arms making to Adelaide would surely see uranium brought to Adelaide... permanently.
South Australia is isolated, most of the people know little. They play sport. I know: but people under 25 seem more aware, probably because of the internet (Youtube etc).
Thus, the British used South Australia for nuclear bomb testing (ariel) in the '50s. After continued enclosed testing, It all apparently stopped in 1963. Then, the British left totally in the 70s when they joined the EU, and South Australia's only industry, the rural one, collapsed. Now the main industry is attracting foreign students!!
So the government looks at arms as an answer.
However, for many reasons, contaminatory and moral, it is necessary to stop the world arms makers using isolated South Australia for more experiments in destruction.