Charges Dropped For Peace Activists Charges against thirty-one peace activists involved in a nonviolent blockade of the Commonwealth Defence Centre, have been dropped by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. The blockade took place on February 25 this year. It was organised by the Gulf Peace Team Support Group in an attempt to intervene in Australia's role in the Gulf War. Approximately fifty activists successfully blockaded the Defence Centre Tower Building for thirty minutes by linking arms across doors and carpark entrances. The thirty-one people were arrested after refusing to move from the blockade and were charged with obstruction of Commonwealth property. Two of those arrested, Steve Blair and Robert Burrowes, were part of the International Gulf Peace Team, who were camped on the Iraq-Saudi Arabian border for approximately twenty days during the Gulf War. The nonviolent blockade was an example of the growing resistance within Australia to this country's involvement in the devastating Gulf War, the effects of which are still being suffered by people in the Middle East and the 'Third World'. Activists have recently been informed by mail that the charges against them will be struck out. No reasons were given. We feel that although the fighting in the Gulf has stopped, the root causes of war are yet to be addressed. Australia continues to participate in a regional Asia-Pacific arms race, similar to the one that precipitated the war in the Middle East. An example is the arms bazaar, AIDEX 91, to be held in Canberra in November. Anthony Kelly