As Federation recognises Hiroshima Day today (6 August), Federation is hosting its first day of Trade Union Training for elected Association Peace Contacts.
Participants are exploring the role of an Association Peace Contact and the supports Federation offers for their role, learning about the history of peace activism within Federation and identifying and planning activities for their workplaces and/or associations, including promotion of the annual Sam Lewis Peace Prize.
Hiroshima Never Again
At 8.15 am on 6 August 1945 in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, 140,000 men, women and children were incinerated by an atomic bomb dropped by the United States. Three days later at 11.02 am on 9 August in Nagasaki, at least 74,000 men, women and children were killed by a second atomic blast.
Every year on Hiroshima Day, August 6, these events are commemorated around the world. Federation members have been participating in (and organising) Hiroshima Day rallies and other commemorative activities since at least the 1980s.
In classrooms, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes has been read and re-read, stimulating important discussions on peace, war and nuclear disarmament.
The central theme of the annual commemoration of these events has always remained that the only answer to the nuclear threat and ensuring “Hiroshima never again” is to abolish all nuclear weapons.
However, despite promising to do so in opposition, the Albanese Government has so far failed to sign onto and commence the ratification process of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Call for Albanese Government to sign treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons
Federation supports Nobel Peace Prize winner (2017), the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), call on the Albanese Government to sign the treaty urgently, because the proposed acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and the construction of sites and bases will make us targets for conventional or nuclear attack.
ICAN states: “The use of these submarines in the support of US aggression in northeast Asia further poses an alarming risk of escalation to the use of nuclear weapons.”
“It is unprecedented for a non-nuclear-armed country to gain highly-enriched uranium and the technology for nuclear propulsion under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” ICAN also states. Australia has been a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1970.
Upcoming peace events
Tonight (Tuesday 6 August) at 6.30 pm: “Peace and AUKUS Don’t Mix!” | Facebook, hosted by Federation
Thursday 8 August, 5 pm: Sydney Remembers – Hiroshima and Nagasaki -1963 -2023 | Facebook, hosted by Sydney Trades Hall. Speakers include Federation President Henry Rajendra