Hiroshima Day: No weapons in space!
For friendship with Asia!
The criminal action of dropping an Atomic bomb on the open city of Hiroshima at the end of WWII was the final atrocity of an atrocious conflict. It was also the first action in the preparation of WWIII. Even as WWII ended in 1945 the then President of the US, Truman declared, "Victory has placed upon the American people, the continuing burden of responsibility for world leadership." The aim of establishing world domination and subjugating all other countries, is the chief motive of the policies of successive American Presidents whether Republican or Democrat. At the final conference of WWII allied powers held at Potsdam near Berlin, President Truman laid the threat of the atomic bomb on the table in an attempt to browbeat and threaten the Soviet Union. The US at the time had a monopoly of nuclear weapons but its attempt to intimidate the Soviet Union failed. Shortly after the end of the war, Winston Churchill delivered a sabre- rattling speech at Fulton in the US in which he declared that an "iron curtain" had descended over Europe. He called upon the US to use its A-bomb monopoly to drop nuclear weapons on the cities of the Soviet Union. This was the start of the Cold War. The next step was the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) which had the avowed aim of waging the struggle to destroy communism and socialism, just as Hitler had attempted, but failed to do. NATO brought together the leading capitalist states of Europe plus the US and Canada. As the principal capitalist power, the US began to establish military bases around the world. Today, the US commands a network of bases in many countries together with satellites, listening posts and other facilities that it uses to pursue world domination. But the aims of the US were understood and resisted by the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. In 1952, the then leader of the Soviet Union said: "Today, American imperialism is acting not only as an aggressor, but also as the world gendarme, striving to strangle freedom wherever it can...". He also said, "The task now is to enhance the activity of the popular masses, to strengthen the organisations of the peace supporters, to expose the warmongers and prevent them from enmeshing the people in a web of lies..." Peace organisations grew in every country of the world demanding an end to nuclear weapon testing and the scrapping of all nuclear weapons. Five hundred million people signed the "Stockholm Appeal" in the 1950s demanding an end to A-bomb tests. The Soviet Union, China and many other countries also supported these calls and never missed an opportunity to call for disarmament and negotiations to settle international differences. Demonstrations were held around the world. As the nuclear clock moved closer and closer to midnight the demonstrations grew in size. America's aggressive wars in Korea and Vietnam also brought forward intense opposition. But the arms drive was not halted, even though some treaties were entered into limiting weapons and banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere and underground. It is these treaties that the Bush administration of the US is now systematically proposing to tear up. Then in the 1990s, came the catastrophic dismantling of the Soviet Union that had been the main barrier to NATO's war plans. The Warsaw Pact was dismantled too and the socialist peace governments of Eastern Europe were overthrown and replaced with governments that have become puppets of the US and NATO. Not only did this open the door to the present savage attacks on the working people and the trade union movement of all countries, it also freed the hands of the warmongers and the arms manufacturers. This was the background to the war against Iraq and, more recently, the savage war against Yugoslavia and the military occupation of the Balkans. NATO is steadily moving closer to the former borders of the Soviet Union drawing east European countries into its aggressive web. A de facto Pacific NATO is in the course of formation, drawing in Japan, South Korea and Australia as principal participants together with the US as the bandmaster. Its target is China although sweet words are being mouthed to "enmesh the people in a web of lies". By tearing up previously negotiated treaties and launching its plans for a national missile defence system, the US is continuing its relentless drive for world domination which was launched when it dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima. The US hopes that by using its technological advantage it will be able to threaten every nation with nuclear destruction while preserving its own territory intact. President Truman put the first nuclear weapon on the table in 1945 at Potsdam to force the Soviet Union to accept US world domination. Today, by proceeding with its National Missile Defence (NMD) the US again hopes to force China, Russia and all other countries to bend the knee to American dictatorship. When demonstrators today, commemorate the American bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945 and say: "Hiroshima, never again", they are continuing the long struggle to bring peace to the world. It is a call to end the senseless arms race and respect the right of all countries to independence and sovereignty and the right of all people to choose whatever social and economic system they prefer. The first A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima incinerated 140,000 men, women and children. Three days later another 74,000 were incinerated in Nagasaki by a second atomic bomb. If the plans of the madmen who at present rule some countries have their way the incineration of the whole of humanity is possible. The Howard Government is pulling Australia into the American plans, making Australian territory available for whatever use the US leaders require. Their plans guarantee that Australia would become a nuclear target in the event of a wider war. They also make Australia an enemy of all Asian countries — a course for which Australia will pay a heavy price in the future.