SYDNEY, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Some local residents rallied in a town on Australia's eastern coast on Saturday to protest against possible plans to establish a local base for nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS agreement.
Members and supporters of the local activist group Wollongong Against War and Nukes (WAWAN) joined the annual May Day March in Wollongong, some 85 km south of Sydney, to voice their concerns.
"We absolutely oppose the AUKUS plan full stop," Alexander Brown, a founding member of WAWAN, told Xinhua as he held a triangle sign that read "No place for a nuclear base."
"We certainly oppose any nuclear submarine base here in Port Kembla, anywhere on the east coast of Australia, or anywhere else in Australia for that matter," he said.
Port Kembla, some 10 km south of Wollongong, along with Newcastle and Brisbane, were named by former prime minister Scott Morrison's government as potential sites for a nuclear submarine base on Australia's east coast.
After the plans met fierce resistance from Australian unions and environmental groups, the current Labor government has said it had not decided on the location and a decision would be made "late in this decade."
Arthur Rorris, head of the South Coast Labor Council, which represents 50,000 workers through its affiliated trade unions and organizes the annual May Day March, said a nuclear submarine base "is a very strong moral issue for this region and a very strong community concern."
"Our port has a long history of being a civil port," Rorris said. "The population has a long history of fighting for peace, fighting against fascism, and fighting for the best interests of global harmony."
"We don't think that having a nuclear base is consistent with that. We think it poses a threat. We think that it is something that the community does not support," he said.
This year's May Day March in Wollongong, which attracted about 500 people on a rainy Saturday, was more of a general focus and dealt with issues such as local health and education services and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The May Day March last year was held especially in Port Kembla and about 4,000 people marched down the streets to say there is no place for a nuclear base, Rorris said.
"Australia has had a long position against not just nuclear proliferation and nuclear weapons, but also the nuclear industry," Rorris said. "We do not want to be part of a military machine and basing nuclear assets in our port."
Plans for a base are part of the tripartite AUKUS pact that centers around Australia's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and Britain, costing up to 368 billion Australian dollars (243 billion U.S. dollars).
Brown said AUKUS is "some kind of war-mongering agreement" that threatens regional stability and it will also mean Australia increasingly comes under U.S. military control.
The AUKUS pact is diverting resources away from addressing the causes of the climate crisis as well as education and health services, the local activist said.
"I have young children and they're going to grow up in a world of increasing climate chaos. But instead of that, we're wasting 368 billion dollars on obsolete military technology for no obvious reason," Brown said.
"Australia is also facing a big crisis in education (and) health. Our education system is underfunded. Today, the teachers are speaking about New South Wales public schools don't have the resources that the kids need," he said.
"They're fighting to try and get those resources while we're spending money on American armed manufacturers," Brown said. "So it doesn't make sense." ■
