Vic; Hiroshima Day memorial in Melbourne

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2001
Vic; Hiroshima Day memorial in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Aug 5 AAP - Anti-nuclear activists marking Hiroshima Day in Melbourne today
said a missile defence plan proposed by the United States would reignite the arms race
and threat of atomic annihilation.

About 300 people gathered outside the State Library in Melbourne's CBD for this year's
annual memorial for the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6,
1945.

Each year the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Australia holds a memorial and march in
remembrance of the 140,000 residents of Hiroshima who died in the 8.15am blast from the
device dropped on the city by a US B-29 bomber.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard told the gathering the union
movement opposed weapons of mass destruction because they wreaked destruction on ordinary
working families.

He said the missile defence shield sought by US President George W Bush was a weapon
of mass destruction which would threaten the whole process of nuclear disarmament.

"What we're likely to see ... is an escalation of the development of nuclear warheads
around the world and with that, consequently the risk to people all over the world," he
said.

Mr Hubbard said he hoped the renewed threat to world peace would also revive the anti-nuclear
movement.

"I hope we can get back to the 30 to 40,000 people who took to the streets in Melbourne
years ago," he said.

Friends of the Earth and Greens Party representatives endorsed Mr Hubbard's sentiments
in addressing the crowd.

Activists later formed up for a peaceful march along Swanston Street to the Victoria Barracks.

AAP ra/md h

KEYWORD: HIROSHIMA

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