Useful ammunition for activists
Dollars for Death: Why the uranium mining and nuclear industry must be stopped
Resistance Books, 1999
64pp., $4.95
Review by Rjurik Davidson
Activists protesting against the Jabiluka uranium mine are under attack from the capitalist media. The Melbourne Herald-Sun's Andrew Bolt eloquently labelled anti-Jabiluka activists "rampaging greenies" who "use their brains only to keep their ears apart". According to Bolt, anti-Jabiluka activists' main activity is "vandalism" and "mindless sabotage".
The director of the Institute for Private Enterprise, Des Moore, in a recent column in the Australian, bemoaned the Victoria Police's "weak" stand against the Jabiluka Action Group's blockade of North Limited, the parent company of Energy Resources of Australia, which is responsible for the mine at Jabiluka.
The key issue, Moore argued, "is the protection of the rights of people affected by the actions of protesters". He advocated that "sufficient" force be used against demonstrators after a warning is given. This a familiar strategy: portray activists as terrorists or ignorant hippies making things harder for "normal" and "decent" people.
Dollars for Death counters the views of these friends of big business. It contains articles first published in 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly which provide logical arguments, backed up with information and statistics, against uranium mining and the nuclear industry. Such information is an essential antidote to "commentators" like Bolt and Moore.
The booklet deals with topics such as the opposition to Jabiluka by the traditional owners, the Mirrar; the federal government's plans for many more uranium mines; the Beverley uranium mine in South Australia; the agenda behind the second Lucas Heights reactor; and the fight against the Billa Kalina nuclear dump.
Jim Green's "Australia's anti-nuclear movement: a short history" chronicles some lessons from previous campaigns, especially the role of the ALP in the development of the nuclear cycle. "In the early 1980s, the ALP began to dilute its opposition to uranium mining. After being elected to government in 1983, it adopted the 'three mines' policy. Ranger and Nabarlek mines in the NT, and Roxby Downs mine in SA, were allowed to proceed", Green reminds readers.
Green assesses the ALP's successful cooption of the movement in the 1980s, even as it continued to take part in nuclear proliferation by allowing US bases to operate in Australia, permitting US nuclear-powered and -armed warships with to dock and letting uranium mines operate. A response to this betrayal was the mass support for the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
Dollars for Death locates the source of the world's environmental crisis in capitalism's drive for private profit. Mining companies and their representatives in government and the mass media will not give up wealth and power voluntarily. A strategy which mobilises large numbers of people opposed to the continued destruction of the environment is proposed in Zanny Begg's introduction, and Dollars for Death continues this theme throughout.
Dollars for Death is compelling reading for those involved in the anti-Jabiluka mine campaign and bolsters seasoned activists with useful (and environmentally friendly) ammunition. While the anti-Jabiluka movement is mobilising tens of thousands of people, its size and impact can still be expanded and must not stop until the Jabiluka mine is prevented or closed.