Perth Voice Interactive

FED up protesters gathered outside Wesley Uniting Church in the city last Thursday to recognise International Day of Peace, and to oppose the trilateral security pact AUKUS.

Around 30 peace activists from Stop AUKUS WA and the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network created and handed out paper “peace cranes” to passers-by whilst calling for “an independent foreign policy and our region’s comprehensive security and peace”.

Under the AUKUS deal, Australia will acquire eight nuclear-powered Virginia class submarines, some built locally but the majority most likely to be built in the United States.

They won’t be armed with nuclear weapons, but that hasn’t dimmed the protestors’ distrust.

The connection between paper cranes and peace has long been linked to Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died as a result of radiation from the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan in World War II. 

Origami cranes were said to bring luck in Japanese culture and Sadako kept folding them in the hopes of beating her leukaemia, making about 1450 before finally succumbing to her disease.

In 2013, the peace crane project was founded in order to promote world peace and every year around 6 million cranes are said to be laid at her monument.

Stop AUKUS WA said they were calling out “both the racism and arms race in our region fuelled by AUKUS”.

Anger has grown since the AUKUS agreement was formed on September 15, 2021, with groups across the country rallying to abolish the $368 billion deal.

Stop AUKUS WA spokesperson Leonie Lundy said the AUKUS deal sets a risky precedent surrounding the usage of nuclear energy.

“It is being perceived on one level, as a backdoor nuclearisation of Australia,” Ms Lundy said.

“We’re talking about nuclear subs here on the coast of WA.

“HMAS Stirling is only a kilometre off the mainland,” she said.

“If hostilities did ever break out, then we’re a sitting target. It’s frightening.”

Signs from the protest read “nobody wins a nuclear war” and “US subs make us a nuclear target”.

A joint leaders statement on AUKUS released on March 14, 2023 maintained that “Australia is fully committed to responsible stewardship of naval nuclear propulsion technology.”

by RACHEL JENNINGS