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By James Vassilopoulos
CANBERRA — Since mid-June, when French President Chirac announced plans to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific, there has been an outpouring of anger by working people across Australia. Here, there have been at least seven well-attended protests, including an ACT Trades and Labour Council week-long picket at the French Embassy and a 3000 strong rally on Hiroshima Day jointly organised by the TLC and Campaign Against Nuclear Testing (CANT).
Significant cracks have began to appear in the French government's facade as a result of worldwide protest actions. With Chirac's popularity having plummeted to 39% in France, he was forced to announce, on the eve of the first test on September 6, that the number of tests may be reduced.
The doomsday message being pushed by the establishment media since the first test — "it's too late to do anything now, the anti-nuclear movement has failed" — is wrong. We, the majority, can have a major impact. However, this will happen only if the anti-nuclear movement becomes much larger.
The anger being expressed, both through individual boycotts of French goods, and in a more united way by some trade unions and the anti-nuclear movement, is a reflection of deeply felt anti-nuclear consciousness of the majority of Australians.
To some extent the peace movement of the 1980s was demobilised by the end of the Cold War and the belief that we were entering a new era of peace. Since then it has become obvious that the "new" world order is just a version of the old. This means that the movement for rationality and peace has to continue. It has to build itself over the long term, and not imagine that everything will be decided by one or two actions.
In demanding that the French government stop the tests, we should not let the Australian government off the hook. It too is implicated in the French government's decision, by refusing to cancel the uranium contracts and not supporting the Pacific independence struggles.
The demands developed by CANT include: an end to uranium mining; banning nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships and aircraft from Australian ports and airports; and the closure of US bases.

These demands, a logical extension and deepening of the "stop the tests" demand, have been very well received at rallies across Australia.
The ALP left has limited itself to a minimalist position — no doubt to avoid embarrassing the government in a pre-election period — of stopping the tests and a half-hearted protest against uranium sales to France. The ALP left-dominated ACT TLC did not even call for an end to uranium mining on its Hiroshima Day rally poster! Clearly it is not going to lead the anti-nuclear movement from within the ALP.
Very few ALP left members have been seen at campaign meetings or actions since the large rallies on Hiroshima Day. Virtually no ALP left branch has put resources into or mobilised its membership to help build the campaign.
ACTU president Martin Ferguson has mouthed a lot of rhetoric about the need for mass action against the tests, but in most states, the leaders of most affiliated unions have done nothing to help build the campaign committees or rallies from the grassroots. The ACTU certainly hasn't donated any of its vast resources to build the campaign.
Whilst one aspect of the campaign should demand that the union peak union body organise a boycott of uranium shipments and French goods, direct pressure on the ALP government must also be organised.
Only by levelling demands at the federal government can the movement weigh up the government's response — or lack of it.
The Keating government has refused to cancel uranium contracts with France, has explicitly ruled out a boycott of French goods and has supported the Chirac government's "right" to maintain its colonial presence in the Pacific. This makes it clear that the ALP is not serious about its "opposition" to the nuclear tests. Diplomatic protests, on their own, are useless.
Unless the Polynesian peoples have their independence, the French government can always use the colonies to carry out more tests, or to dump radioactive waste. The independence movement, in particular in Tahiti, has grown in the recent period and needs our support.
Neither Labor nor the Liberals are in favour of phasing out the nuclear industry, and therefore neither represents the movement. Gareth Evans is reportedly keen to develop the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in NSW rather than close it down. A broader political solution is required. This has to include the building of a democratic, green, left party which helps to mobilise, and campaigns for, the movements' demands.
The campaign's strength has been its diversity and dynamism. The more prams, children, colour and creativity, the more drums and sweat, the better. Where particular campaign tactics increase awareness, education and activity, they should be supported.
The movement's demands will be achieved only if it continues, in a sustained way, to inspire others to join in and help build public activities that will inform, inspire and build confidence that ordinary people, when united, are a powerful political force for change.
This approach needs to be coupled with a medium-term political strategy. We do need a political alternative to the "Laborals", and nuclear testing must be put high on the agenda in the next federal elections. Parties which oppose uranium mining, support the Pacific peoples' struggle and have been active in the anti-nuclear campaign should get our votes.
A movement which intends to build itself much bigger will have to involve people from many different political backgrounds. It must be inclusive, democratic and united on the main demands.
It is a serious mistake for individuals or groups to try to foist their own "militancy" on the movement as a whole. For example, totally unnecessary scuffles with the police at a demonstration at the National Press Club resulted in 60% of the protesters leaving, as the action became focused on police violence rather than the anti-nuclear issue.
Only a broad, inclusive and democratic movement will attract new activists and have the power to significantly influence governments.
The movement's size and diversity are its strength, and the organised left must work within the movement so as to increase these strengths, not limit them. This means, among other things, respecting the movement's democratic decisions. It was a damaging move, for example, when two people tried to change the time of a walkout of more than 1000 high school students organised by Students Against Nuclear Testing (SANT) — without even having argued for their views at a SANT meeting.
We can stop uranium mining and support the Pacific peoples to achieve independence. What it takes is the determination to build a movement and the patience to build it properly.
[James Vassilopoulos is a founding member of the Campaign Against Nuclear Testing and a member of the Democratic Socialist Party.]