Oppose Talisman Sabre: Massive Military/Naval Exercise

July 22nd, 2023 - by Liz Remmerswaal / World BEYOND War/Pacific Peace Network, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Talisman Sabre AUKUS/NATO
Webinar and Peace Petition

Liz Remmerswaal / World BEYOND War/Pacific Peace Network, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Join us for this weekend’s webinar: ‘Opposing Talisman Sabre, AUKUS and NATO in the Pacific.’ Register here.

Webinar Schedule:
Friday July 21
4.00 PM Hawai’i
7.00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
9.00 PM Central Daylight Time
10.00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Saturday July 22
4.00 AM Central European Summer Time
10.00 AM Philippines
11.00 AM Korea/Japan
12.00 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time/Guam
2.00 PM New Zealand Time

Talisman Sabre, AUKUS and NATO in the Pacific

(July 20, 2023) — This weekend’s webinar — ‘Australia, Talisman Sabre, AUKUS and NATO in the Pacific’ — signals our concerns for the massive land exercises in Australia, involving 30,000 US and Australian personnel, plus others from 11 countries, during July and August, and calls for the cancellation of the recently signed Australia, United Kingdom and United States security partnership (AUKUS).

These are provocative war preparations against China and destroy the planetary environment, which is already threatened by climate change.

Talisman Sabre and AUKUS threaten to provoke war with China and destroy the environment, as well as furthering colonialism and systems of oppression.

To challenge Talisman Sabre and AUKUS, many Pacific region organisations including Pacific Peace Network and Independent and Peaceful Australia Network will host a “Call for Peace in the Pacific” conference on July 29 in Brisbane with speakers from across the Pacific, followed by educational events in Sydney, Canberra and Darwin.

The aim of these events is to raise awareness within Australia and the Pacific region of the full impacts of allowing the US to base their military personnel, weapons, hardware and software on Pacific Sovereign Lands, by sharing the experiences of Pacific People.

The mock battlefield will range from Western Australia, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, to Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island in New South Wales.

Webinar Speakers Bios:
Diana Rickard
Diana lives on a small rural farm 80 kilometres from Darwin and 10 kilometres from Kangaroo Flats Defence Training Facility. She prefers the Wet season for its beauty and quiet after the US Marines take their guns home in the hot and humid October-November Build-up. As an experienced environmental lawyer, author, educator, mediator and researcher, Diana has worked with indigenous and other non-English speaking peoples extensively on peace and justice issues. Diana coordinates the Top End Peace Alliance,is an IPAN CC member and a member of the Australian Services Union/Unions NT Community Justice and Climate Committee.

Hon. Matt Robson is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. He has challenged the New Zealand government’s pro-NATO policies and its integration into the war plans of NATO and has ended up on an enemies list created by the government of the Ukraine along with many eminent scholars, such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and military analysts such as the former Swiss and NATO military analyst Col. Jacques Baud.

Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also in the US diplomatic corps for 16 years and served in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq. Since then she has worked for peace with Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women For Peace and many other peace organisations around the world. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and is a board member of Hawaii Peace and Justice and frequently writes and speaks on US militarism in Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Michelle Maloney is the Co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA). Michelle began her career as an environmental lawyer, and then broadened her work to include multi-disciplinary approaches to creating Earth-centred governance and systems change. She now designs and manages social change initiatives that connect law, economics, education, cross-cultural knowledge systems, community development practice, ethics and the arts. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University.

She is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. Michelle is on the Steering Group for the International Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA) and the Advisory Group of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN).

Liz Remmerswaal (Moderator.)
Liz is vice president of World Beyond War (WBW) and national Coordinator of WBW for Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is co-convenor of the Pacific Peace Network and a recipient of the Sonja Davies Peace Award.
To Register, Click Here:

Petition for Peace in the South Pacific
Please share this petition and raise your voice against the dangerous militarization of the Pacific. To Sign, Click here.

To: Legislators in Australia, United States, United Kingdom
and Talisman Sabre participating countries

The ‘’CANCEL TALISMAN SABRE AND AUKUS’’ campaign calls for the termination of the massive land exercises involving 30,000 US & Australian personnel in Australia from July 22 through August 4, 2023; and the cancellation of the recently signed Australia, United Kingdom and United States security partnership (AUKUS).
These are provocative war preparations against China and destroy the planetary environment, which is already threatened by climate change.

Why Is This Important?
Talisman Sabre and AUKUS threaten to provoke war with China and destroy the environment, as well as furthering colonialism and systems of oppression.

Call for Peace: 
Please share this petition in your networks and raise your voice against the dangerous militarization of the Pacific.

To challenge Talisman Sabre and AUKUS, many Pacific region organizations including Pacific Peace Network and Independent and Peaceful Australia Network will host a “Call for Peace in the Pacific” conference on July 29 in Brisbane with speakers from across the Pacific, followed by educational events in Sydney, Canberra and Darwin.

The conference will be preceded by two webinars in July with speakers on the militarization of the Pacific and Talisman Sabre and AUKUS for those unable to come to Australia for the conference.
The aim of these events is to raise awareness within Australia and the Pacific region of the full impacts of allowing the US to base their military personnel, weapons, hardware and software on Pacific Sovereign Lands, by sharing the experiences of Pacific People including:
1. Complicity in wars of aggression
2. Becoming a target in the event of war
3. Loss of sovereignty
4. First People’s Lands disregarded damaged and disrespected
5. Environmental damage
6. Economic drain
7. Sidelining of national legal system
8. Impacts on women and girls

The mock battlefield will be from Western Australia, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, to Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island in New South Wales.

Publicly released information includes airborne troop drops near Charters Towers and amphibious lands at locations along the north and central Queensland coast, plus maritime mine-hunting near Gladstone.

The RAAF Base Scherger at Cape York will play a key role. In addition, long-range fire exercises will take place in Jervis Bay with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and air, ground and maritime exercises are set for Norfolk Island. The Darwin area will cover logistics duties while larger warships will practice naval gunnery and submarine hunting exercises offshore.

How It Will Be Delivered
Volunteers will deliver the petition to legislators in their respective countries.
The campaign will also publicize the petition via articles and social media.