From mosa@netcom.com  Mon Oct  9 19:54:09 1995
From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord)
To: dave@sgi

From: scott@rednet.org (People's Weekly World)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Protest mounts as France conducts second nuke test
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Date: 9 Oct 1995 17:07:28 GMT
Organization: PWW
Lines: 83
Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: pencil.math.missouri.edu
Resent-From: rich
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

**Protests mount as France conducts second nuke test**

(Reprinted from the October 7, 1995 issue of the People's 
Weekly World. Maybe reprinted or reposted with PWW credit. 
For subscription information see below)

By Jim Genova

On Oct. 1 France conducted the second of eight planned 
nuclear tests in Polynesia, despite continued and increasing 
international protests against the tests. The latest test 
was estimated at about 100 kilotons -- more than five times 
the size of the first test Sept. 5. Seismologists in New 
Zealand said the blast produced a shock wave equal to a 5.9 
magnitude earthquake.

Just prior to the blast, the French navy seized a Greenpeace 
sail boat in international waters to prevent any disruption 
of the test. It was the third Greenpeace boat seized by the 
French since the tests began.

The tests have provoked international protests, largely 
spearheaded by the labor movement and Greenpeace. In Norway, 
workers staged a five-minute general strike in protest 
against French and Chinese nuclear tests.

In Australia and New Zealand workers are refusing to provide 
services to or honor contracts with any companies that have 
business with the French government. Workers have refused to 
provide services or perform work for the French consulates 
and embassies in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian 
government has recalled its ambassador from France in 
protest and opposition forces have called for a full break 
in diplomatic relations with France.

In Tahiti, pro-independence forces announced that there 
would be no mass protests in the wake of the second test 
because of fears that violence would erupt similar to that 
which left the island devastated after the first test. 
Instead, the independence parties will concentrate on 
campaigning for the march elections and putting enough 
political pressure on French President Jacques Chirac to 
stop the tests and negotiate independence for French-
controlled Polynesia.

Chirac has said that the tests are necessary to "guarantee 
the safety" of France's nuclear arsenal. Despite the 
condemnation and increasing isolation of France in the 
world, Chirac said France will conduct all eight tests by 
May 1996 and then will sign a nuclear test ban treaty 
currently being negotiated among the world's nuclear powers.

Greenpeace charged that the real intention of the blasts was 
to test new nuclear weapons before time runs out with the 
signing of the test ban treaty. "France now has a brand-new 
warhead for a brand-new weapons system, sabotaging global 
moves toward a nuclear free world," Lynette Thorstensen, 
Greenpeace spokeswoman in Papeete, Tahiti, said in the wake 
of the second blast.

France may feel comfortable in its decision to persist with 
the tests because of U.S. soft-peddling of the issue. U.S. 
President Bill Clinton's spokesman Mike McCurry said the 
president had expressed "strong regret" about the testing, 
but stopped short of condemning it as other governments have 
done.
##30##



************************************************************
***       *  Read the Peoples Weekly World  *     *********
   ****   *  Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org      *  ****    *
       ****  235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011      ***      *   **
   ****   *  $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub    *  ****    *
***       *                                 *     *********
************************************************************
Tired of the same old system: Join the Communist Party, USA
Info: CPUSA@rednet.org; or (212) 989-4994; or
http://www.tiac.net/users/brownh/cp-usa/cp-usa-html
************************************************************