Fremantle
Anti Nuclear Group (FANG), People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) and
Lorax have been organising protests, over the past few weeks, with
respect to the visit to our waters of the French nuclear submarine,
FNS Perle. We thought you might be interested in the finale which
occurred this morning.
Throughout
the protests, there has been a letter to the French government (via
the local consul), in the form of a cotton banner, to which many people
have added their own messages. This morning, as representatives of
the above groups, we delivered the letter to the French Consulate.
With some difficulty. We went to the address of the French Consulate
as per the telephone directory. There, at 46 Stanley St Nedlands,
we found a Telstra Exchange - clearly not a consulate. Enquiries to
local residents revealed the correct address to be 10 Stirling Highway
Nedlands.
When
we arrived at that address, we paused on the doorstep for a photo
to be taken of the banner - our only record of it - during which time
someone inside locked the front door to prevent us entering. (The
building appeared to contain a number of commercial operations of
different sorts - there was no outward sign that the Consulate was
housed there. And, by the way, our party consisted of four middle
aged people, of quiet and respectable appearance and demeanour.)
We asked
to be let in, and when we were ignored we followed another visitor
to the building around the side where we found a lift which took us
to the ground floor foyer. We were immediately confronted by a woman
claiming to be the manager of the building. Without giving us a chance
to say who we were or what our business was, she demanded, stridently,
that we leave immediately. (Her name was Ruth, which means pity and
compassion, and that became more and more incongruous over the next
short period.)
We explained
our mission and guaranteed that it was a peaceful and honourable one.
While Ruth continued her increasingly hysterical demands that we leave,
other building management staff informed us that the police would
be in attendance very soon - as far as we saw they never arrived.
We spoke, totally calmly, with the occupant of a nearby office, until
Ruth demanded that he leave, and closed his door on him. We were also
able to communicate with other building management staff (one of whom
resembled a night club bouncer) and established that the French Consulate
was indeed located there. They recommended that we phone the Consulate
to make an appointment - but would not assist us with the number.
(One of them also accused one of our number of spending too much time
in the trees - a comment we had difficulty fathoming.)
We stepped
outside the front door, obtained the number from Directory Assistance,
and phoned the Consulate. Our first call was unsuccessful - we were
put on hold and then cut off. But we tried again, and ultimately spoke
to Helene who informed us that the Consul was not in the office. We
told her of our mission and assured her of our total lack of animosity
towards her, her government and everyone else (including the building
staff). We also assured her that we have protested strongly to our
own government about the presence of nuclear navies in our waters
- as they are the ones who invited the French navy to come. Soon after,
Helene arrived at the front door and, after a little difficulty unlocking
it, came out to speak to us.
She assured
us that there was no animosity on her part towards us. As we introduced
ourselves, she found that one of our party was Jo Vallentine whom
she welcomed particularly warmly, as someone she knew of and respected
highly. After a few minutes of very cordial conversation, she accepted
the letter-banner from us and promised it would be sent to the government
in France. We were happy that our mission was completed successfully.
For our
part, the very aggressive attempts by the building management to obstruct
us, were both unnecessary and inappropriate. For the sake of Ruth's
effectiveness in her job (and her blood pressure) we recommend Anger
Management training - or perhaps a Joanna Macey Non Violent Direct
Action workshop.
