Stop the War Protest
- Details
- Published on Monday, 06 October 2014 14:20
- Written by editor
Stop war preparations!
Halt the militarization of the Pacific Ocean!
Demonstration to oppose the Maritime Security Challenges conference in Victoria
Monday October 6, 5:15pm, Government at View Street
Victoria is the site of the 2014 Maritime Security Challenges, which brings together senior brass from the US, Canadian, British, Japanese and other navies to plan the further militarization of the Pacific Ocean.
The website of the conference (www.mscconference.com) sets out the agenda in clear terms: “a naval arms race is underway” in the Pacific. At the conference the commander of the US Pacific Fleet will set out strategic shifts involved in what he calls the "American rebalance towards the Pacific”. The question he’ll put to the delegates is “What role will... America’s allies be asked to play in this process, and how might this increased engagement impact future relations with non-partner states?”
People of the Canada and world are already alarmed at and standing against the militarization of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Dismissing Canadians’ demand for peace, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper is at this very moment stepping up this country’s military engagement in Syria and Iraq. And Canada is also militarily caught up in the NATO expansion into Eastern Europe.
The Victoria military conference’s focus on the “American rebalance towards the Pacific” is yet another push toward militarization. This one involves a dramatic increase in the US and associated powers’ naval intervention in the Pacific, with China as its target.
This dangerous growth in militarization threatens the people of the world and significantly boosts the danger of war in the Pacific. Already the US Naval Base Kitsap adjacent to Puget Sound is the centre of one of the most deadly war machines on the planet. Kitsap harbours six Trident nuclear submarines, two SSBN converted nuclear submarines, together carrying hundreds of hydrogen bombs, plus other submarines (Sea Wolf), and the nuclear powered super-aircraft carrier the USS John C. Stennis, which has served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as a floating war-plane base. Every time these US warships navigate between Kitsap and the Pacific they pass close to Canada in the Juan de Fuca Strait. In any world nuclear conflagration, Kitsap is certain to be a target. The peace and security of Victoria and Vancouver Lower Mainland are already jeopardized. Yet the militarists meeting today in Victoria want to ramp up the danger.
The Maritime Security Challenges conference opens at the Maritime Museum on October 6 at 6:30pm.
Join anti-war activists from Victoria and Vancouver to let the delegates know that we oppose the plans to raise the military confrontation in the Pacific.
Oppose the Maritime Security Challenges conference in Victoria
Monday October 6, 5:15pm, Government at View Street
--
CAIA Active Members Committee