No weapons for Outer Space

Written by: Nick G. on 15 April 2025

 

When the revisionists and capitalist roaders in the USSR formally ended the socialist era and reverted to capitalism, the US imperialists rejoiced. They entered nearly two decades in which they were undoubtedly the world hegemon, a sole superpower, and were able to declare that their aim was to achieve “full spectrum domination”.

Together with the traditional areas of domination – land, sea and air – special attention was devoted to outer space and in particular to cislunar space, the vast area between the earth’s atmosphere and the orbit of the moon.

 

It was not the first time that imperialism had looked to this area.

 

In February 1957, US Major General Bernard Schriever declared: “In the long haul, our safety as a nation may depend upon achieving ‘space superiority’. Several decades from now, the important battles may not be sea battles or air battles, but space battles, and we should be spending a certain fraction of our national resources to ensure that we do not lag in obtaining space supremacy.”

 

Beginning in the mid-to late 1950s, the US conducted five high-altitude nuclear weapons test explosions in outer space. They increased in size with the last one, on July 9, 1962, being the largest.

 

Opposition to the tests was widespread and led to the signing of the UN Declaration on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space in 1963, subsequently ratified as the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

 

The Treaty included the following principles:

 

• the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;

• outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;

• outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;

• States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;

• the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes;

• astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;

• States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;

• States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and

• States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

 

At the time, the emphasis was on blocking the use of Space for nuclear weapons. It implied that Space should be used for peaceful purposes but did not explicitly ban all weapons.

 

US military space forces satellites first participated in combat operations during the Vietnam War, providing communications and targeting. They were also used extensively by US imperialism in the 1991 Persian Gulf War of aggression against Iraq which has been referred to as the "first space war." The use of Space for military use had been revived by Reagan in March 1983, but his Strategic Defense Initiative (aka Star Wars) was controversial and scrapped in 1993.

 

In 2019, during Trump’s first Presidency, US domination of Space was revived with the formation of the Space Force which has equal standing alongside the five other branches of the US armed forces. Its vaguely worded responsibilities are:

 

1. Provide freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space;

2. Conduct space operations; and

3. Protect the interests of the United States in space.

 

Lunar colonization protected by “space  fires”

 

Its current head is Gen. Stephen Whiting. Last August, he upped the ante, declaring that the US Space Command’s top priorities for fiscal 2027 include “space fires” to enable “space superiority” and “enhanced battlespace awareness” capabilities. 

 

The US Breaking Defense website observed that “For many years, Pentagon officials have been wary of discussing even the possibility of utilizing “offensive” space weapons due to political sensitivities and classification issues.”

 

It added that “Capabilities to operate in cislunar space, the vast swath of the heavens lying between the Earth and the Moon, further will become a SPACECOM mission as NASA and commercial firms pursue lunar “colonization” and other related activities.”

 

In March, Whiting was even more explicit about the meaning of the euphemistic “space fires”.

 

“It’s time that we can clearly say that we need ‘space fires’, and we need weapon systems. We need orbital interceptors. And what do we call these? We call these weapons, and we need them to deter a space conflict and to be successful if we end up in such a fight,” Whiting told the annual Space Foundation Space Symposium in Colorado.

 

“Weapons in space used to be considered inconceivable, but now space-based interceptors are a key component of how we win,” he elaborated. “We are a combatant command, and like all other combatant commands, we must be dominant at war, fighting and war winning. And dominant warfighting in space requires credible, acknowledged, kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities, fires and weapons.” 

 

“We can no longer assume that a war that starts in or extends into space will be short. We must prepare for a protracted conflict to be successful,” he said. “To win in a protracted conflict, we must maintain space capabilities beyond the initial stages of when the war starts. This longevity depends on our ability to deploy, regenerate and reconstitute space forces.”

 

Australian involvement

 

Whiting singled out collaboration between the Space Command and private US firm Leo Labs deploying a next-generation Seeker-class ultra-high frequency radar site in the IndoPacific region.

 

Leo Labs sees Australia as a forward post for the US military’s domination of Space.  It has a space radar site near Bunbury, WA and is involved in the Aussie Space Radar Project (ASRP), a A$240M international collaboration between Australia and the United States, with A$160M of direct investment by LeoLabs Incorporated. 

 

Under the ASRP, LeoLabs Australia will manufacture and license LeoLabs’ next-generation modular space radar system in Australia. LeoLabs Australia, should it be successful under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, will build LeoLabs’ first next-generation Low Earth Orbit (LEO) modular space radar in the Northern Territory; and then build the world’s first commercial Deep Space Radar in northern Western Australia.

 

There is no doubt that even in the absence of rivals for “colonization” activities in cislunar space, US imperialism would make militarisation of Space one of its aims in pursuit of “full spectrum domination”.

 

But they do have rivals, and both the Russian imperialists and Chinese social-imperialists are just as active in vying for control of Space.

 

The fear among US military circles is that the Chinese are currently winning the race for Space. Afraid of falling behind, US imperialist armed forces heads like Whiting are increasingly jettisoning the euphemisms and trying to marshal public opinion behind the need to station weapons in Space.

 

The Outer Space Treaty allows this and needs to be tightened to include a prohibition on the deployment of all weapons in Space.

 

An independent and peaceful Australia would initiate such a move through the United Nations.

 

An Australia led by an Albanese or a Dutton will never do this, but only further place Australia at the disposal of US imperialism.

 

We must demand that all weapons are banned from Space and that any developments there are done for purposes other than “colonization” by any state or nation on earth.

 

 

Will US blackmail us over AUKUS?

Written by: Nick G. on 14 April 2025

 

Kites are being flown in the US about tying the sale of second-hand Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia’s stand on a conflict between China and its off-shore province of Taiwan.

Scott Morrison’s original AUKUS arrangement was for the sharing of technology that would enable Australia to build its own nuclear-powered submarines.

After sleeping on the matter overnight, and not consulting his Cabinet colleagues, new Labor PM Anthony Albanese was persuaded to incorporate into the AUKUS agreement a plan to purchase three and possibly five Virginia-class submarines. 

This, however, was conditional on the US President of the day certifying that the sale of these submarines, half-way through their operational life, would not compromise US submarine strength.

This was confirmed on March 6 by Elbridge Colby, who has been tapped to serve as under-secretary of Defense for policy, said that the US commitment to the AUKUS arrangements was “conditional on U.S. industry building enough attack boats to meet domestic needs first”.

The issue at stake is Taiwan.  The whole point of moving to the long-range nuclear-powered boats is to have them sitting alongside US subs off the coast of China. This was in preference to having much cheaper, conventionally-powered submarines deployed for Australian coastal defence.

However, US shipyards cannot produce enough new Virginia class subs to replace those earmarked for sale to Australia.  They don’t have the skilled labour and can’t hold on to those they do have. Trump’s tariffs on overseas steel and aluminium will only complicate the timeline for the replacements.
Which is why policy makers for the US military are threatening to block the sales unless Australia formally commits to placing its AUKUS subs at the disposal of the US (under the guise of “interoperability” and “interchangeability”) in the event of war with China over Taiwan.

Former U.S. Navy strategist Bryan Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute recently ran a previously unreported multilateral war game simulating a response by U.S. allies to a Chinese blockade of Taiwan. Australian Defence Force commanders did not use nuclear-powered submarines in the South China Sea to attack Chinese targets, instead focusing on protecting Australia’s northern approaches with airpower, drones and missiles.

According to US reports, “consternation is growing in Washington that Australia’s reluctance to even discuss using the attack submarines against China means that transferring them out of the U.S. fleet to Australia would hurt deterrence efforts in the Indo Pacific.”

These concerns were echoed in a U.S. Congressional Budget Office report in February and testimony on Navy shipbuilding delays in March, in which officials said selling Virginia-class subs out of the fleet to Australia without replacements was risky because Canberra had not made it clear whether its military would join the U.S. in a conflict over Taiwan.

Obviously, this is all heading in the direction of using the threat of blocking the submarine sales to Australia to force Albanese, Wong and Marles to agree to a commitment to join the US in a war with China. There is already such a commitment from super-sellout Dutton who has said that it is “inconceivable” that Australia would not be there with the US.

And then there is the financial blackmail. We have already handed over many millions of non-refundable dollars to help pump-prime the struggling Us shipyards.

On October 10 last year, the US online InsideDefense.com reported: “Australia plans to transfer US $2 billion to the United States before the end of 2025 to bolster the U.S. submarine industrial base as part of the AUKUS partnership and fund long-lead items for the Virginia-class submarine program, a senior Navy official said today. This initial transfer will be followed by $100 million every year for the next 10 years, AUKUS Integration and Acquisition Program Manager Rear Adm. Lincoln Reifsteck told reporters.”

But even this is not enough. Reporter Kirsty Needham wrote in a Reuters despatch on April 10, “The Trump administration has asked for more funding, Marles said in March.”

How much more was not revealed.

Strategic Analysis Australia’s Michael Shoebridge, writing in the Australian Financial Review in February described AUKUS as having changed from a strategic partnership to a “deal kept on the road by Aussie cash”.  

He was commenting on Marles’s meeting with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in Washington with “a suitcase chock-full of $800 million to “invest” in US submarine production. It came with a promise of $4 billion more in future suitcases even before Australia starts to get the bills for its first US submarine.”

In a nutshell, we can expect US imperialism to blackmail its servants in Australia to deepen their compliancy and further undermine any pretence at sovereignty by agreeing to go to war with China over Taiwan, and keep paying through the nose for the privilege.

USA's tariff war a sign of imperialist power in decline

Written by: Ned K. on 12 April 2025

 

(Source:shenglufashion.com)

As the tariff trade war intensifies between the USA and China, sections of big business in Australia are backing China to come out the winner, at least on the economic front.

In the Australian Financial Review on Friday 11 April, it is reported that Geoff Raby, former Australian Ambassador in China between 2007 and 2011, says that while high tariffs imposed on China by the US government will have some negative impact, "battle- hardened China can survive".

Raby is quoted as saying, "But China has laid the groundwork for a diversified trade base. They do business with every other country in the world.'

Raby goes on to say, "The world still believes that China makes t-shirts and socks, but the real growth areas of their economy are in advanced technology like electric vehicles and complex hardware."

Other spokespersons for Australian-based capitalists are warning that whichever Party wins the coming federal election, they should be aware of China's diversified trade base and its ability to dump Australia as its main source of iron ore if the Australian Government of the day decides to side with USA as the trade war between the USA and China escalates further and even in to military conflict.

Andrew Forrest, the iron ore billionaire is one who warns that China is in a favorable position to switch to African countries as its primary source of iron ore and that China has $32 trillion in cash reserves in US dollars.

The Business Council of Australia top CEOs also are urging major political parties to "ignore push for unity with US against China." (AFR 11/4/2025).

So, sections of big business in Australia can see the writing on the wall regarding the economic decline of the USA, but their solution is to attach themselves to the rising number one imperialist power China, for fear that China will abandon Australia as its primary source of minerals, particularly iron ore.

Their solution leaves workers and other sections of the Australian people in continued dependence on an imperialist power.

The way forward is for an Australia standing on its own two feet in the world. This will only occur when the working class leads the people to an independent socialist country where a balanced economy operates for the people, not profits.

 

Fleurieu Peninsula marine deaths a sign of global warming’s existential dangers

Written by: Nick G. on 12 April 2025

 

South Australians are in the grip of a “canary in the coal mines” moment, although it is not a canary and it is not a coal mine.

In early March, suffers at the popular South Coast beaches of Waitpinga and Parsons reported suffering headaches, coughing, skin rashes and blurred vision, whilst the beaches themselves began to be littered with masses of dead marine life. A sludgy thick brown foam began to accumulate along the shoreline.

The two beaches were closed by the Environmental Protection Authority which, after some time, declared that a species of microalgae, Karenia mikimotoi, was responsible.

The marine life washing up on the beaches, which soon included some on Kangaroo Island, and around the corner of the Fleurieu Peninsula at Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor and Bashams Beach, included the less attractive toad fish (aka the puffer fish) and the incredibly attractive tourist icon, the leafy sea dragon. They included a variety of reef fish, octopi and sea slugs. 

The devastation has spread across Gulf St. Vincent to places like Edithburgh on Yorke Peninsula. Underwater photographer Paul Macdonald, who has been diving at Edithburgh for "almost 30 years", said he went diving on the weekend but was heartbroken by what he saw.

"Pretty much everything was dead, it was really heartbreaking," he said.

"We could see the water wasn't quite right, it was a brown-y colour with no visibility.

"It was just devastating to see very few fish around, pretty much everything that we did see was dead or in the process of dying."

Just six days ago, as the EPA was preparing to reopen Waitpinga and Parsons, the marine deaths extended further along the coast in the direction of the Coorong, with tens of thousands of cockles (aka pipis) and other shellfish washing up on beaches around Goolwa. 

Goolwa has an annual seven-month cockle season from 31 October to 1 June when anyone can harvest cockles (bag limits apply) either for personal consumption or for fish bait. SA Health has advised people not to eat dead cockles.

But with reports that the toxic bloom appears to be spreading south of the Coorong to Kingston in the South-East, the recreational fishers' peak-body Recfish SA, says that close to 200km of coastline will be impacted by the latest die-off, and the deaths will be in the millions, “unfathomable amounts”.  A spokesperson said marine deaths along the coastline were now at an unprecedented scale.

Global warming and increased frequency of toxic blooms

In the current lead-up to the federal election, there is necessarily a concentration on the soaring cost of living. However, there is also the cost of living on an increasingly warming globe due to profit-hungry corporations continuing to use fossil fuels. 

Toxic algal blooms are increasing in scope and intensity around the globe. So are extreme weather events. Warmer oceans produce more evaporation leading to unprecedented rainfall events. Droughts are longer and temperatures are rising. 

South Australians watch in awe as parts of Queensland and New South Wales are flooded with daily downpours of hundreds of millimetres. Suburban Adelaide meanwhile has only had 29mm over 4 and half months: 14mm over 4 days in December, 3.5mm over 2 days on January, 0.5mm on one February day, 9.5mm on one March day, and 1.5mm so far on two days of April. 

Summer temperatures and the minimal disturbance of the sea by winds pushed ahead of large rain-bearing clouds create the perfect conditions for the growth of algae. The EPA described it as “an ongoing marine heatwave, with marine water temperatures currently 2.5C warmer than usual, as well as relatively calm marine conditions with little wind and small swell.” 

They are not infrequent, but they are getting worse, a factor that many scientists attribute to climate change. They have happened along 200 miles of Florida coastline in 2018, and in 2020 along Russia’s eastern coast. 

Many algal species flourish when water circulation is low and water temperatures are high.

The blooms can last from a few days to many months. After a bloom dies, the microbes which decompose the dead algae use up more oxygen, which can lead to die-offs of fish and other marine organisms. When these zones of depleted oxygen cover a large area for an extended period of time, they are referred to as dead zones, where neither fish nor plants are able to survive.

So long as capitalism incentivises large corporations to put profits from fossil fuels ahead of people and the environment, the cost of living on a planet that is dangerously warming will rise in tandem with the temperatures.

Capitalism’s destructive war on nature must be ended. 

Socialism is urgently required to enable harmony between people and nature.

Summing up the US April 5 Hands Off rallies

 Written by: (Contributed from the US) on 11 April 2025

 

The wave of Hands Off rallies on April 5 confirmed that where there is oppression, there will be fightback. Across the country several hundred thousand people came out to shout No! to attacks on our trade union rights, our Social Security, our health care, on our fellow federal workers who make these programs work, and on the science that creates vaccines.

Demonstrators packed twenty blocks of Manhattan. They filled the plaza in front of Oakland, California city hall. They rallied in cities big and small.

The anger no longer respects the usual political dividing lines. It has erupted in districts where voters tried Trump after suffering the Democrats’ inflation. Republican congresspersons have been shouted down at their town halls. In an Oregon county that went 68 percent for Trump, the crowd shouted, “Tax Elon,” “Tax the wealthy,” “Tax the rich,” and “Tax the billionaires.” When a representative in Indiana mentioned Social Security “adjustments,” a roar of protest silenced her.

Rallies in some smaller cities and around particular schools and workplaces were militant about fighting ICE raids. When people know each other in daily work, they see their common humanity and respond.

(Above; US citizens rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire   Source: seacoastonline.com )

The April 5 events were called by Indivisible, a fake mass organization run by Democratic Party operatives. The executive director was previously a policy man for a Democratic congressperson. Indivisible did all it could to make “democracy” the theme of the rallies, the liberal capitalist alternative to open fascism. Its plan is to repeat rallies like April 5 until the 2026 elections.

But the capitalist republic of the last 250 years is broken for good. There is no going back. Whatever happens to Trump, the ruling capitalist class can no longer work out their problems with constitutional politeness. Their solution for working people is more suffering, more insecurity, and war against other imperialists.

The only way out is forward to communism, a state of the working class, by the working class, and for the working class. Together we will replace capitalist oppression with communist liberation.

 

Greenland: Trump talks tough but Vance comes a cropper

 Written by: (Contributed) on 9 April 2025

 

(Above: US Pituffik Space Base)

Information about Australia providing Canada with a sophisticated long-range radar facility for Arctic defence and security provision has coincided with members of the Trump presidential administration making spectacles of themselves with outrageous territorial claims to Greenland.

It has not proved coincidental; nor has the official visit of US vice-president Vance and other high-level associates to US military facilities in Greenland.

In fact, a major anti-imperialist struggle is already taking place in Greenland; its people appear determined to defend their sovereignty and raw materials and resources.

Studies of the previous Cold War appear highly relevant for our understanding of the present one!

In late March the Canadian government announced they were buying a Jindalee-Over-the-Horizon Radar (JORN) facility from Australia. (1) The JORN facility has a 3,000 kms range and functions by bouncing radar signals off the electricity charged layer in the upper atmosphere known as the ionospehre; it is used to detect aircraft and ships entering sensitive areas. (2)

The move followed US concerns about the defence and security of the Arctic region. The US, for example, has a long history of using Canadian facilities for 'US interests' due to their lower profile overseas, together with other members of the elite intelligence-sharing Five Eyes facilities, including Australia. (3) Canadian military facilities also conduct extensive monitoring bases in numerous countries. (4)

Global warming and climate change has created the conditions whereby the uppermost region is warming at almost four times the rate experienced by the rest of the world; alternative shipping lanes are being created through what were once frozen wastelands and access to rare earth minerals is becoming likely, sooner rather than later. (5)

With China having global control of rare earths, the US has entered panic mode and seek to gain control of Greenland to access their raw materials and resources; it is little other than old-style neo-colonialism, reminiscent of the previous Cold War, being played-out in the present age.

The Trump administration have taken the matter so seriously that vice-president J.D. Vance’s wife Usha, a US-born Indian Hindu, was despatched to Greenland on a charm offensive. (5a) She announced that she was there for three days by invitation, which was promptly denied by Greenland authorities.  It turned out that the invitation was from American Daybreak, a virtually unknown U.S. organization founded by Trump-aligned investor and former government official Thomas Emanuel Dans. (5b) Knowing of the US penchant for running dogs, the Greenland resident had invited the Second Lady to the Avannaata Qimussersua dogsled race beginning March 29. However, public opposition to her presence saw her three-day visit cut back to one day, (6) when husband Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright flew in, also at the invitation of Dans, to visit the US Pituffik Space Base 1500 kms north of the capital. (7) The northernmost US military facility is used for missile warnings, missile defence and space surveillance.

Studies of US military facilities from the previous Cold War have revealed official and non-official uses, including intelligence-gathering and covert operations. (8) There is no reason to believe the Trump administration has behaved any differently toward Greenland than previous Washington administrations, which has explained the high-profile composition of the US diplomatic delegation.

Over a decade ago the Pentagon expanded their Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) 'into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA'. (9) The US preoccupation with defence and security provision would, nevertheless, appear more focussed upon neo-colonial acquisition of Greenland's raw materials and resources, and preventing other countries from developing diplomatic links with Nuuk to become competitors with the US.

Further evidence to support the view was contained in an official media release following the US diplomatic debacle with Greenland. It noted the Trump administration were considering using their military bases for processing 'critical minerals for national security … and … Danish officials have told US counterparts they would be open to more American military facilities on the islands and mining contracts for US companies'. (10)

Interestingly, the official position of the Australian government and Canberra was released in a formal media statement. It noted that the Trump administration was 'irrational … and … that the Trump administration have embarked upon a course to abuse and anger the people of Greenland'. (11) Further commentary also noted 'Australia is happy to haggle on minerals'. (12)

The brazen interference by US imperialism in Greenland has seen the new government state that it will strengthen ties with China.  On March 28, 2025, four Greenlandic parties signed a new coalition agreement to establish a new autonomous government. Vivian Motzfeldt, the incoming foreign minister of Greenland's new autonomous government, told Xinhua that strengthening ties with China will be one of her priorities. She expressed interest in deepening cooperation with China in areas such as trade, fisheries, and sustainable development while highlighting the potential for a free trade agreement between the two sides. (13)

Just where Canada’s purchase of the JORN system fits into all of this will become clearer in time. Trump’s tariff war on Canada may well frustrate any immediate access to the facility.

Canada, Greenland, Australia – all need an independent foreign policy.

 
1.     Canada trumps US in buying our $6.5 bn radar system, Australian, 20 March 2025.
2.     Ibid.
3.     Spyworld, How C.S.E. spies on Canadians and the World, Mike Frost as told to Michael Gratton, (Toronto, 1995), page 14, page 35, page 40; and, Playboy Interview, Philip Agee – candid conversation, Playboy Magazine, (United States), August 1975, pp. 49-166.
4.     Canada, The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Espionage Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2002), pp. 45-46.
5.     US 'going to have to have' Greenland, Australian, 28 March 2025; and, Greens and present land: Diplomatic battle is hotting up for control of the Arctic, Australian, 27 March 2025.
5a.  Usha Vance suffers fresh humiliation in Greenland
5b. Obscure U.S. group 'American Daybreak' central to controversial Greenland visit - ArcticToday
6.     See: Greenland fury and confusion at 'aggressive' US, Australian, 27 March 2025.
7.     Australian, op.cit., 28 March 2025.
8.     See: The Role of the Bases, A.   Counter-insurgency and the US Bases, B.   Springboards for Intervention in other countries, The Bases of our Insecurity, Roland G. Simbulan, (Manila, 1983), pp. 169-216.
9.     See: Pentagon plays the spy game, The Guardian Weekly (U.K.), 7 December 2012.
10.   Minerals the ultimate bargaining chip, Australian, 7 April 2025.
11.   Vance blunders in Greenland, Editorial, Australian, 31 March 2025.
12.   Australian, op.cit., 7 April 2025.
13. Greenlandic political leaders looks to enhance cooperation with China-Xinhua

 

Preparing to Face a Fascist Regime From the Power of President Prabowo Subianto As the Successor of New Order

Written by: Indorev on 8 April 2025

 

(Above: "Dark Indonesia" protest February 2025    Source: https://alkhaleejtoday.co/ )

 

This document from ICOR affiliate Indorev was written as thousands of students and activists took to the streets in February to protest budget cuts of up to $19 billion announced by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. the protests were lainched on Februart 17 by the All-Indonesian Students Union. Australian Communists have a long history of standing with the Indonesian people and will always support their just struggles – eds.

Indorev, 2/16/2025

Fascism is an open terror against the revolutionary movement and the working class movement. In many ways, fascism came to power through democratic means, using the legality of the bourgeoisie. The experience of Indonesian revolutionaries has been that for more than three decades they have been subjected to the open terror of the power that calls itself Suharto's New Order. Mass killings, torture, pursuit, arrests, exile and ostracism, all without recourse to the rule of law, even if only the laws of the bourgeoisie of their own making.

Now that Suharto has stepped down, there is a fierce battle within the bourgeoisie itself, a conflict among the political elite. It is essentially a battle between the old, but still relatively intact forces backed by fascist elements within religious fundamentalist organizations and the emerging bourgeoisie that still retains bourgeois democratic values. And, like every political battle, it is actually a reflection of the economic interests of the struggling parties.

GOLKAR (Golongan Karya), which represents the interests of the big bourgeoisie, which since its birth has practiced fanatically anti-communist politics, and has been one of the pillars of the New Order's power alongside the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia and the fascist bureaucrats, and now pretends to be a “democratic” and “anti KKN” (Corruption, Collusion, Nepotism) party, cleverly uses the legality of bourgeois democracy to regain power for itself. It is as

if people are being forced to forget their past as the main supporters of the fascist New Order, which practiced corruption from head to toe.

Although there have been five presidential changes since Suharto's death, President Prabowo Subianto, who was elected as the eighth president to replace Joko Widodo who came from the military, has been a faithful successor to Suharto's New Order rule supported by Gerindra, the main party he founded, GOLKAR, and other bourgeoisie parties.

Prabowo, who was once Suharto's son-in-law, has a checkered human rights record as commander of a unit that abducted and tortured several democracy campaigners towards the end of the Suharto regime in the late 1990s. Of the 23, some survived, one died, and 13 activists are still missing. He was later removed from the military and exiled to Jordan in the 2000s. Surprisingly, when Joko Widodo was president, he gave a 4-star honorary general title to Prabowo Subianto when he was defense minister.

President Prabowo owns a number of companies in the coal mining sector in Kalimantan, such as PT Nusantara Energy, PT Nusantara Kaltim Coal, PT Erabara Persada, and PT Nusantara Energindo Coal with a total area of 45,703 hectares. Meanwhile, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka has a mining network through his father's company, PT Rakabu Sejahtera, affiliated with PT Toba Sejahtera owned by Luhut Binsar Panjaitan. The company is also affiliated with Gibran's family, ranging from younger siblings, older cousins, to uncles.

In addition, Prabowo also emphasized that he was not only the successor of the New Order but also continued the program to maintain the Omnibus Law policy which was very pro-capitalist while harming the working class. This is done to smoothen the interests of foreign and domestic investment. One of the business sectors that received a red carpet from this omnibus law was the mining sector, with the imposition of 0% royalty for business actors. It is no wonder that this omnibus law is considered a recipe book for the structured and systematic looting of natural resources.

The impact of the implementation of this Omnibus Law is environmental damage. More than that is the escalation of agrarian conflicts. The highest cases of agrarian conflict come from the plantation, infrastructure, property, mining, forestry, military facilities, agriculture/agribusiness, and coastal and small islands sectors. The end of this conflict is of course acts of violence by corporations and state violence apparatus.

From the 100 days of Prabowo Subianto's administration, militarism has strengthened, civilian supremacy has weakened, and democracy is on the brink. The Prabowo administration has rolled out the red carpet to the military, but it has also inherited a democracy that has been weakened by the Joko Widodo administration.

During the first three months of his administration, prabowo redeployed the army into many State affairs. The deployment of the military to work on food barns is one of them. Other examples: the control of forest areas, free nutritious meals, and the organization of the Hajj. These tasks are not included in military operations other than war as stated in the Indonesian national army law.

In the next five years, the military will gain even more grip. The defense ministry plans to increase military regional commands from 15 to 37 by 2029. Every year for five years, the government will also add 100 territorial infantry battalions to accelerate development. Each battalion will have a company that takes care of livestock, fisheries, agriculture and health. As if that wasn't enough, the battalions, which will be under the command of military districts, will receive reinforcements from two battalions of reserve components recruited from civil society.

The formation of these battalions will be overseen by each major command commander. This battalion will be different from the existing battalion. The current battalion only consists of one battalion headquarters, one headquarters company, one support company, and three rifle companies. Meanwhile, the 100 battalion will be supported by an agricultural company, a livestock company, a health company and a construction company. Each unit will be equipped with modern equipment and materials. One battalion usually has 500-1000 soldiers. In addition, the formation of 100 battalions will encourage TNI to return to business. The most likely business is the security business and the security business as a guard dog for the capitalist class. This TNI territorial network will become Prabowo's political stronghold both to reduce the opposition and suppress the revolutionary movement.

The strengthening of militarism will be even more unstoppable if the government and the House of Representatives amend the TNI (Indonesian National Army) law, the revised draft of which is already on the list of the national legislation program. With active soldiers free to enter civilian positions, the military is increasingly exerting its influence in various fields and, conversely, civil society is standing on the sidelines. In 2023, there were 2,569 active TNI soldiers in civilian positions. This is in addition to 29 active officers occupying civilian positions outside the institutions stipulated in the TNI law. This military dominance risks reopening the militaristic approach to solving state problems and will pave the way for the creation of authoritarianism in a new form. In addition, mass organizations originating from thug groups began to be given legality and financed to hit the people's movement and pro-democracy activists.

(Above: "Dark Indonesia" rally February 20, 2025)

With a battered democracy, which is much weaker than the first time Jokowi became president, Prabowo immediately consolidated his power to gather parties and political elites to support his government when he was sworn in as president. Without the power of the opposition, authoritarianism can no longer be curbed.

The centralization of economic, technological and financial power in Indonesia can be explained by the fact that decisions, regulations, legislation, are essentially not in the interests of the people, but in the interests of the rulers and businessmen: the capitalist bureaucrats.

The pillars supporting the socio-economic costs for the growth of these capitalist groups, such as in the fields of education, health, environment, transmigration, and urban development, as well as the areas needed for the geographical concentration of industry, must be borne by the sweat, tears, and blood of the people, on behalf of the State so that the corporate machine continues to move for more value, for profits robbed from the working people: workers, peasants and fishermen.

And, in Indonesia, it's even worse. Representative institutions, like all other institutions, have become hotbeds of corruption! It is a waste of time trying to get into representative institutions, including curing the diseases of the bourgeoisie in them. Why, because the decision-making process is bound to be in the interests of the capitalists, and these decisions, especially in the field of industrial production, will not prioritize the needs of the masses of people.
Looking at the facts, the current “democracy” and “reform” in representative institutions and government is poison. Because democracy is like a piece of money, it has two sides, one is democracy, the other side is dictatorship. Learning from the ancient Greek era with the slavery system, democracy is a slave owner, for slave masters. Democracy only applies to slave masters, while for slaves, they are the dictators: slaves are the same as cattle, work, give birth, can be sold, and can be killed. In the days of the feudal system, democracy only applied to kings and nobles. As for the people, the kings and nobles of the dictatorship could seize the property rights of the people, even though they were no longer sold or killed. In the current capitalist system, democracy only applies to the owners of capital, they the capitalists are the dictators of the working people in the fields of production and distribution. The capitalist system is a system of trade. The dictators are the capitalists who control trade. Thus, the working people become merchandise.

Therefore, talking about representative democracy, electoral politics, general elections, regional head elections are of no use. Unless, we talk about People's Democracy, true democracy for all the people, and dictatorship in the hands of the people, the working people who determine, end and finish the system of capitalism in Indonesia today.