Pacific unions salute nuclear-warship ban

Press, 6 October 1984, Page 12

Pacific unions salute nuclear-warship ban

NZPA-AAP Nandi, Fiji Pacific region trade unions have congratulated the New Zealand Government for banning nuclear warships, saying the decision would have a significant impact towards the declaration of a nuclearfree Pacific.

The motion of support proposed by the president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, Mr Jim Knox, was carried unanimously by the Pacific Trade Union Forum at the final session of its three-day conference at Nandi.

Australian delegates said the resolution would give heart to the anti-nuclear movement, although the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Mr Cliff Dolan, said that Australian Labour Party conference decisions on United States bases would preclude the Australian Government from following the New Zealand example. The resolution hailed the New Zealand’stance, adding: “(The) conference advises all Pacific Governments that where possible the trade unions of the Pacific will resist economic and

other sanctions being applied to try to overturn those decisions.”

Earlier, Mr Knox called for the scrapping of A.N.Z.U.S. — moving further than the Lange Government’s desire for a “modified” alliance.

He warned delegates yesterday, “If you don’t vote for this motion, then you are not showing your true beliefs 'against nuclear warfare that could destroy your children, your children’s children, and mankind.” A New Zealand delegate, Mr Jackson Smith, of the Wellington Drivers’ Union, said the nuclear ban had brought great pressure on the New Zealand Government, which had already encountered problems raising loans from traditional sources.

“The decision is in our opinion probably the most momentous decision by any Government in New Zealand’s history in recent times, probably even more

important than the decision of the first Labour Government to involve New Zealand in World War II,” he said.

Delegates from the small island nations praised the courage and determination of the Lange Government in standing up to the United States, while Mr Louis Kotra Uregei, of the indigenous Kanak union movement in New Caledonia, said that the welcome decision had shocked and surprised him. The other key resolution adopted on Thursday condemned the “neo-colonialist policies of the French Government” in New Caledonia. The Pacific Trade Union Forum declared that independence under the auspices of the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front was the only way to guarantee peace and stability in the Pacific region.

The P.T.U.F. was formed in 1981 with the aim of achieving a nuclear-free and independent Pacific.