On 6th August 1945 the US airforce dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The densely populated city was decimated by the force of the blast and to this very day the residents of Hiroshima are still suffering from the bomb. Throughout the world protesters will gather to remember the civilians killed in Hiroshima and to protest the continued development and stockpiling of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. We can forget that the people of Australia have also borne the illnesses, environmental destruction and monetary costs of the nuclear industry. Between 1952 and 1963 Aboriginal people living around Maralinga and Emu Fields in South Australia were exposed to huge amounts of plutonium, beryllium and uranium dispersed through radiation from over twenty major nuclear trials.

When the tests came to an end the contaminated soils and wastes were ploughed back into the earth that, apart from the environmental damage, have cost taxpayers over $100 million in programmes for cleaning up the hazardous remains.

Yet the lessons seem to go unheeded as only in the last month has the government announced that a second reactor is to be built in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights-despite widespread opposition from the community. The new reactor is, supposedly, to be used for scientific research purposes only, nevertheless it's well known that every nuclear reactor can be used for arms production. However Australian capitalism has another agenda for now. The reactor will boost longer term, and highly profitable, uranium sales internationally as Australia will be represented at the international "nuclear club". The mining of uranium is possibly one of the most exploitive acts of capitalism. Not only is it used for weapons that can today cause far and away more damage than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the waste generated through the mining and processing of uranium is astounding.

During 1988-89 the Ranger mine in NT produced 3596 tons of usable uranium. Yet it required 4822t of pyrolusite, 41,217t of sulphur acid, 625,050t of kerosene and 17,622t of tertiry amine to name a few of the waste products that were dumped in Kakadu. And if that isn't enough environmental damage Ranger has also released about 2 million cubic metres of contaminated water in every year of production. And yet the capitalist leaders in power continue to support ERA and Jabiluka Mine. The Socialist Party supports and will join mass mobilisation on rallies around the country. We say no more Hiroshima's. End the nuclear and other arms of mass destruction race. Close all nuclear reactors in favour of cleaner methods of research and power. The immediate halt to uranium mining. Workers, students and youth, united, can fight for a safer, cleaner and peaceful future.

As we get closer to September 11th, tensions are rising on both sides. The recent closure of the Heinz factory in Dandenong with over 200 jobs lost is directly due to globalisation and has reinforced support for our campaign. The ruling class and its media have stepped up their attack on protest organisers and organisations behind the first big Australian rally against capitalism and globalisation rather than just against the effects of globalisation. Schools where students have been threatening to strike have been visited by police. Talk back radio is hyterical in its red baiting. In the wake of my fiery interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell, some talk back callers screamed for my deportation.

This is despite the fact that media statement after media statement from S11 Alliance has stated its commitment to non-violent protest action. All police leave has been cancelled and the Army Reserve are on full standby. In another sign of the privatisation of law and order, hundreds of private security will patrol the Crown Towers during the protests. The police may block the bridges over the Yarra to stop people attending the rallies. Those getting through could be subjected to batons and gas. The policehave put their hand on their hearts and denied they could ever think of such a thing, but we are preparing for the worst. The 'Labor' Government of Steve Bracks and the police are putting immense pressure on Trades Hall to keep its Tuesday rally north of the river. Bracks' strategy to undermine the protest is guaranteed to backfire. If the 9am gathering of thousands of school students is blocked at Flinders St Station, if other protestors earlier in the day are also blocked from crossing the Yarra, does the State Government and police really think we will just throw our hands in the air and go home? Trades Hall must resist the pressure to buckle to Bracks. A rally north of the Yarra will be a token effort. It will leave isolated the students and community protestors outside Crown Towers, as well as the many workers who will participate at the main rally no matter what Trades Hall says. Members of the Socialist Party will encourage unionists to cross the river during their Tuesday rally. The presence of thousands of workers will encourage the police to pull their head in. What this hand-wringing by the ruling class shows is just how out of touch they are with young people. They are held captive by an analysis of protest movements that is all about "infiltrators, agitators, and reds under the bed". They always underestimate working class people, especially young people.

The great enthusiasm seen in the preparation for this rally and the brilliant response the Socialist Party is getting in schools signifies a reaction to 25 years of economic rationalism. Young people are repelled by the major parties and 'politics'. But this is not the same as apathy as the bosses would hope and some impressionistic commentators have claimed. This was shown last year in Seattle, and at Corroboree 2000, and it will be shown in Melbourne in September. The campaign itself is diverse and no doubt police agents will try to churn this up. But the vast majority are clear in wanting to have a non-violent mass protest and as much disruption as possible at the Crown Towers. The whole event will politicise wide layers of people. Socialists argue for democratic organisation of the rally and democratic nightly meetings to decide on tactics during the three days. Others argue for decentralised structures and affinity groups. These debates will be won and lost on the ground, through experience. For now, it is clear that full agreement will not be reached before September 11th and therefore we need a realistic understanding of what is possible, ie not marshalls but communicators between the various constituent parts of the rally and co-operation over first aid and food and legal support. The S11 Alliance will have nightly meetings, but we must accept that other layers of the campaign will not participate in this and our decisions will not be holy writ for all. The main unresolved issue is once communicators let protestors know what's going on, who decides what to do? Will it be spontaneous? Or decided by self-appointed 'leaders'? Or, as we believe, should there be some democratic control over tactics by all protestors. For example we are encouraging each school to elect a spokesperson for the Flinders St rally, and 4 or 5 marshalls each for the march down to Crown Towers. From these elected students, decisions can be made in a crisis.

We predict the vast majority of regular protestors will want to participate in the S11 nightly democratic forum. If we are wrong, S11 will be irrelevent. In that sense the debates over organisation in the campaign will be decided on S11 itself when we can see the real balance of forces. The main organisational tasks for now are to:

* Build support for the blockade and rally at Crown Towers, including the school students rally at 9am at Flinders St Station. This 'second wave' of school students coming to the Crown Towers a little later than the rest, will add flexibility to the protest

* Campaigning within union's rank and file to come south of the river on Tuesday 12th

* Attempt to build unity in action around first aid, legal support etc between S11-Alliance and S11-AWOL, the left unions etc.

For the three days of September 11th-13th (Monday to Wednesday) the World Economic Forum will hold the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit in Melbourne. The summit is takes place at the Crown Towers hotel, part of the massive Crown Casino complex just south of the Yarra in the Melbourne's CBD. The CEO's of the top 1,000 world's companies will attend along with politicians and right wing advisors to think up new and better ways to expand globalisation, undermine labour and environmental standards and generally rip us off. The capitalist talkshop comes in the wake of the fantastic protests outside similar events in Seattle, Davos and Washington DC over the past months.

In Melbourne the S11 Alliance (which mainly consists of younger people organised in left parties and individual activists) and S11 Awol (mainly anarchists), are preparing to organise protests at the event. Other groups like Public First, Jubilee 2000 and other NGOs are hosting conferences and festivals before and after the Forum itself. The Socialist Party is calling a school student strike for the first day, Monday September 11th and is building support for the rally in the trade union movement. Unfortunately there is a building industry rostered day off on the day, but workers will attend a rally on the Tuesday at 10.30am meeting at Trades Hall to march to just north of the River (see main article about this).

The Community Campaign for Heroin Reform (CCHR) in the news last month, putting the case for Safe Injecting Facilities. The following week we were on page one. CCHR held a meeting last on July 26th to form an Alliance with other groups to push for safe injecting facilities. The night was very interesting and gave us a great opportunity to speak with others who have been working just as hard as us. Joy from CCHR facilitated the evening and Deb Homberg (Bouyancy Foundation) gave us a great inspirational speech. The groups who have so far commited to the Alliance are the Buoyancy Foundation, the Socialist Party, Surviving Time Out of Prison campaign (stop), United in Compassion and of course cchr. Many others have shown interest also. Our next Alliance meeting is schduled for Monday 7th August at 7.30pm at Rmit meeting rooms. Anyone interested is welcome. Phone Denise on 9489 8103 for more information. The next CCHR street activity will be on Friday 1st September at 5pm-6pm outside Melbourne Town Hall, cnr Swanston and Collins Sts. Don't forget the Footscray Cares rally on Sunday August 13th at 2pm,

Footscray Mall. Call Louise on 9689 0091 or email

glanville.whelan@aone.net.au for more information

After months of turmoil the Fijian crisis is far from resolved despite the arrests of Speight and his active supporters. The underlying divisions both amongst ethnic Fijians themselves and the minority Indo- Fijian population if anything have been brought into sharper focus. The Fijian economy has contracted by an unprecedented 15% over the past two months. With a variety of sanctions from major trading partners such as Australia and New Zealand together with the drop in tourist numbers this could dramatically worsen over the next period. Although the Indo-Fijians make up 44% of the population their economic weight is much higher accounting for example for 60% of sugar farmers one of Fiji's key cash crops. They are also prominent in the textile industry, which is one of the targets of Australian sanctions. The Western part of Fiji is generally the most developed in terms of industry and agriculture. Indigenous Fijians in this region, particularly the tribal chiefs, are more closely integrated with the Indo-Fijian business community.

Speight's support generally comes from the Eastern region tribal chiefs although he has obviously was able to tap into the anger of a large layer of the indigenous community. In many ways the nationalist movements push for a return to tribal rather than democratic forms of organisation is an attempt to gain a larger share of the economic wealth. Paradoxically the interests of the chiefs who are backed Speight do not coincide with the interests of the majority of Fijians. The illusion that the chiefs will somehow share out the spoils of war with their loyal subjects will quickly be shattered. Traditional hierarchical societies to a certain extent were less open to nepotism and corruption when the economic wealth was relatively small. Under present conditions the "spoils of war" for example contract rights for logging and mining will tend to lead to greater divisions.

Interestingly Speight was given support by the Maori sovereignty movement Tino Rangatiratanga who argue that the western democratic system has merely been a convenient way to institutionalise stealing. Within Australia, Aboriginal leaders such as Charlie Perkins has correctly attacked the hypocrisy of the likes of Downer chastising Speight and his supporters for their methods when Aboriginal land was taken at the point of a gun and Aboriginal people today continue to suffer the consequences of dispossession.

There was a real possibility that a new western region government would be set up under the deposed Prime Minister Chaudry directly challenging the authority of any new interim Speight-inspired government. This motivated the army hierarchy to act and crush the Speight forces. The threat of further ethnic conflict can not be averted by merely calling for a return to parliamentary democracy in which the majority of decisions are made in the boardrooms of the capitalists. Nor can the interests if the poorer sections of the indigenous community be safeguarded by reliance on traditional power structures. Socialists need to be clear that only uniting the oppressed majority on class lines has any hope of improving the lot of both indigenous and Indo-Fijians. There are no capitalist solutions to the national question. Only a united movement of workers from both camps will overcome the differences and have the power and inclination to solve the problems.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. (JohnMaynard Keynes)

$3.5 billion of taxpayers money is being spent on the Sydney Olympics. UN Aid estimate $3.5 billion is required to fight HIV/Aids for 5 years in Africa.

As thousands of people line the route of the Olympic flame,it is worth remembering that it was Hitler who introduced this practise of a torch relay for the 1936 Berlin Games. It was never a feature of the ancient Greek games.

The operative you send to the S11-Alliance meetings in Melbourne stands out like a pork pie. Get your man some jeans (maybe flared?) or some clubbing gear, a decent haircut and tell him not to sit alone