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Self-determination for the Pacific Islands

By Jesse Lokahi Heiwa

Published Mar 2, 2005 3:07 PM

March 1 is commemorated annually as Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Day, calling for the end to nuclear testing by the imperialist powers that control the region such as Britain, France, Australia and the United States.

The United States controls Amer ican Samoa, Aleutian Islands, Belau (Palau), Guam, Hawai'i, Kalama (Johnston Atoll), Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the North ern Marianas and has bases in Okinawa and troops in the Philippines.

The Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific--NFIP--movement gathers every three years. Some of its demands include support for the Maori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) for sovereignty, supporting Aboriginal peoples in Australia, organizing against hazardous waste disposal from the outside imperialist powers that control the region, demanding full disclosure of the health effects of nuclear testing by France and the United States, opposing the United States' and France's call to terminate the United Nations Decoloni zation Committee and to reinscribe Te Ao Maohi (French Poly nesia) and Hawai'i to the list of non-self-governing territories.

Another particular concern is rising sea levels caused by capitalist production methods, which threaten the very existence of some Pacific Island nations and peoples.

The people of the Pacific Islands, like all oppressed nations and peoples, call on those living within the imperialist countries to stand in solidarity with their struggles for justice and self-determination. For more information about the struggle in Hawai'i (with links to other Pacific Islands concerns), go to www.Hawaii-Nation.org. You can also join the listserve/network, Hawaii Soli darity Committeesubscribe@ yahoo groups.com based on the U.S. mainland.

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