Speech given by Marcus at Morioka

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight.

It is great to see so many people here who supported us during the Pilgrimage and many of you who walked with us as we came through your area.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the Photo’s, and we would like to now show you the video, but before we do that I would just like to say that we made this video so as we could come back to all your communities, and show you what you were a part of.

All along the way people like yourselves took care of us, feed us, gave us shelter and the energy we needed to continue to Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

We could never have done this without you, so all of you that walked with us, for an hour, a day or longer were as much a part of this walk as us. 

Because you are the people who made it possible.

We wanted to make this video so you could see what you were a part of, and we hope that this Pilgrimage has inspired you as much as it has inspired us.

As we walked into Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we felt the spirits of the thousands of people who helped us along the way, and we know that you were there with us.

So for now please enjoy the video, and afterwards we will talk more about what is happening at the moment in Japan, Australia and around the world.

After the video

I hope you enjoyed the video, every time I watch it; I am amazed that we actually managed to walk for 8 months and hear so many stories from people who are being affected by the Nuclear Industry.

I hope that you learnt more about Australia as you listened to Uncle Speedy, Uncle Kev, the Kungka’s and the other Aboriginal people, as well as the many people from Japan.

The hardest part in making the video was to keep it down to 1 hour, as during these 8 months we meet with so many people who are continuing the struggle to stop the Nuclear Industry.

At the moment in Australia there are plans to double the size of the Olympic Dam uranium mine at Roxby Downs were we started the Pilgrimage from.

There is still no clean up happening at the closed Uranium mine at Rum Jungle, Uncle Speedy’s country, or any of the other mines in Australia that have just been abandoned.

Rokkasho has just been given approval for DU experiments and the opening of other Nuclear Facilities in the area has been given the go ahead, the people at Tokai are still struggling for recognition as are many communities in Japan and the world.

Fukushima looks like getting more reactors and other places through out Japan are facing the same situation.

All of these new reactors are increasing the need for more uranium, and the greed of the mining companies is putting more pressure on countries everywhere, to build MORE reactors. 

The Ukraine and India have just announced that they will build more, and Taiwan and other countries are well on the way, with Japan, America and Russia supplying most of the technology needed.
Australia and Canada are also more than willing to supply the Uranium needed in these facilities.

The Nuclear Industry around the world is facing massive expansion; this also includes the Nuclear weapons Industry.

America has announced it is pulling out of the ABM treaty and will develop its Star Wars program as well as a new Mini Nukes program. These new Mini Nukes will be around the same size that were used in Hiroshima & Nagasaki, as the ones they have built in the last few decades are thousands of times more powerful. Making them unusable!!!

Russia has just announced it has developed a new Nuclear Weapons system, India, Pakistan, Israel, China, France, England and other countries are ready to expand their Nuclear weapons systems, and many other counties are talking of developing their own.

On May 2nd 2004 the United Nations will gather in New York to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There is a fear that the Treaty will not survive this meeting, and the world could face a new Nuclear Arms Race.

Because of this, we will begin another Peace walk on March 12th 2004, from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee; this is where a lot of the research happened in the 1940’s to develop the Atomic bombs that were used in Hiroshima & Nagasaki. 

It is also the last full scale Nuclear Weapons production facility in the United States, and will be where the new Mini Nukes production line will happen.

We would like as many people as possible to join us on this walk; there are also many Anti-Nuclear organizations in America who are planning demonstrations with over 500,000 people to be at the UN building in New York on May 2nd.

We need people all around the world to organize demonstrations at the UN headquarters in every country.

The expansion of the Nuclear Industry is happening now, because they think that the people don’t care anymore. There was a large voice in the 70’s & 80’s that helped to slow down the expansion, but this has died down over the years.

We now need to come together with an even louder voice and show the governments that we do still care…

If our voice is strong enough, WE can stop the Nuclear Industry, but it will not happen until we all come together….

So Please lets keep working together, sharing our energy with each other, and taking it out into new communities.

There are millions of people out there who oppose the Nuclear Industry, but many of these people have been fighting the struggle for a long time and are now exhausted. 

We need to bring in more young people with fresh energy, to continue the struggle.

There is a feeling that the situation is hopeless, WE must find that hope again and ignite a new movement to end the Nuclear Industry forever.

THE POSSIBILITY IS THERE….

We can not expect the government to do it.

IT IS UP TO US….. 

Peace & Solidarity
Marcus Atkinson