Publication Laka-library:
Ending Nuclear testing in the Pacific: Bishop Bryce and the Pacific Conference of Churches

AuthorChristine Weir
4-26-8-00-17.pdf
DateDecember 2012
Classification 4.26.8.00/17 (PACIFIC - FRENCH TESTING AREA)
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From the publication:

Christine Weir- The Ending of Nuclear Testing 13/08/2013 1
Ending Nuclear testing in the Pacific: Bishop Bryce and the Pacific
Conference of Churches
Christine Weir
School of Social Studies, University of the South Pacific
Conference paper delivered at the 20th Pacific History Association
Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 8 December 2012

One of the dominant issues of South Pacific regional meetings and international
negotiations in the 1970s and 1980s was the use of the South Pacific as a testing ground for
nuclear weapons by outside powers and, at least potentially, as a dumping ground for
nuclear waste. While the establishment of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone in 1985
reduced the immediate concerns, arguments about compensation and acknowledgment of
damage rumble on. The negotiations which led to the establishment of the Nuclear Free
Zone have been investigated by a number of political scientists,1 and studies of the Pacific
Nuclear Free Movement, often by activists, have described and deplored the devastation of
US Trusts Territories and their successor polities and French Polynesia by nuclear testing.2
But neither the political scientists nor the activists have paid much, if any, attention to the
role of church, trades union and civil society activists in preparing the ground for political
action, or the links between government actors and civil society campaigners.

Previous studies, especially in Australia, have recognised the role of Trades Unions in
pressuring Australian and New Zealand governments to adopt an anti-nuclear stance.
However in the Pacific the churches and other NGOs seem to have been more influential
than trades unions. This paper foregrounds the activities of the NGOs and Pacific
churches in the struggle against nuclear testing and dumping, and investigates the
linkages between these civil society organisations and pressure put on governments,
particularly during the period 1965 to 1986. One of the main supporters and facilitators of
the movement – from the 1970s up to the late 1990s - was Bishop Jabez Bryce, Anglican
Bishop of Polynesia from 1975, Moderator of the Pacific Conference of Churches 1976-
1986, and member of various committees of the World Council of Churches.