Verity M.
The recent verification that the United States would be
stationing B1 bombers at Australia’s Tindal Airbase and is moving aircraft
carriers within 12 nautical miles of and overflying Chinese claimed territory
in the South China Sea is preparation for war with China. So too is the
remilitarisation of Japan and securing Japan as a tight ally of the United
States and Australia.
Australian Governments
have a long history of kow-towing to imperialist powers and foreign capital;
the collaboration with U.S. military is a case in point and raises questions
about Australian sovereignty and independence as does the subservience with which the Labour Government
approached the mining tax. The
government is subservient, the people are not.
There is rising concern being articulated around Australia about
military alliances and foreign investors doing pretty much as they like.
The U.S. renewed focus on Asia is to ensure that as many
Asian countries as possible are secured for the American camp and the influence
of, and alliances with, China are kept to a minimum. At the same time, it is preparation for a
trade war and armed conflict to challenge a competing power. This is of real
concern to Australians. We have American bases in Australia and intelligence
apparatus which could make us a first strike target in any U.S. initiated war.
Peacekeeper or
warmonger.
America which
presents itself as the world’s ‘peacekeeper’ has a long history of wars against
neighbours and friends-become-enemies. The U.S. history is a history of war.
America has been involved in eighty or more wars against its South American and
Asian neighbours between 1885 and 1990.
These can be loosely categorised as wars to extend national boundaries
as with Mexico and Haiti, wars against progressive governments as with the
Dominican Republic, or to prop up inept but U.S sponsored Governments, and
military interventions to protect American capital being threatened with nationalisation or
prolonged strikes. All of these are wars against the people where U.S. capital
has significant investments and interests; all are examples of the State taking
action against the people of invested-in nations on behalf of capital. Other
wars as in the Middle East are no different; they are similarly attempts to
capture resources and space for imperial capital.
Imperialist/capitalist
wars are not confined to a armed
conflict against other nations that are threatening trade or which need to be pulled into line for other
reasons. War is a central tenet of imperialism: imperialism
cannot exist without war. War paves the
way for capital penetration of defeated nations, it captures territory and
structures governments. The need for imperialist nations to be constantly at
war or preparing for war distorts the economy of the imperialist nation and utilises a vast amount of resources that
could be used for the benefit of the
people but which instead benefits
imperial capital at great cost to the peoples of the imperialist power, not to
mention the suffering of the invaded peoples and the aftermath of invasions as
we are now witnessing in the Middle East . The working classes of imperialist
countries have good reason to support and unite with the working classes of the
nations subjected to imperialist exploitation
Class War
Lenin
states “…history describes a struggle between nations and societies and also
within nations and societies and in addition, an alternation of peace and war
and rapid progress and decline.” Marx
brought order to this chaotic and seemingly unchangeable way of life with his
theory of class struggle.
Imperialist
wars are as much a struggle of class against class as is the internal
relationship between labour and capital. Imperialist wars are fought on behalf
of imperial capital: its purpose to capture resources and the creativity and
productivity, ( the labour power) of the indigenous working class. What else is foreign investment about,
whether it is achieved by military intervention or by stealth, aided and
abetted by compliant governments?
Capitalist
war continues at the domestic level and in another form and for the same reasons as external wars, to
ensure trade is not interrupted, and that capitalist accumulation and expansion
can continue at a rate determined by capital. So called ‘peace’ gives capital the
opportunity to focus on the internal class war. The restoration of the U.S as the world power and the only one to be
tolerated is essential for Western capitalism under threat particularly in the
U.S. and Europe. And as capitalism is
weakened, so are peoples’ rights. We are witnessing a global promotion of right
wing parties and a clamp down on peoples’ protests, as State power is more
openly utilised to protect a weakened and increasingly threatened capital.
What this means is that working people must look to each other to form
alliances and devise strategies to protect themselves and to resist any diminishing of the right to
withdraw their labour, rights to
organize, assemble etc.
Weakened
economically, capital must increasingly rely on force and the threat of force
to sustain its power to exploit and this remains true whether it is applied to
the U.S. utilising its military power to ward off perceived threats to its
economic power or whether it is a working class prepared to defend itself
against unfettered exploitation. State
power is called into play and the war goes on in another of its many forms.
The
pressure towards war only increases. We
are seeing preparation toward war in Asia whilst wars in the Middle East
intensify. The war against the people
also intensifies as unemployment encompasses entire continents bringing despair
and want to masses of people. Indebted countries punish their people to keep
faith with finance capital. The environment is sacrificed and young people
continue to die either from war or from want. The gap between rich and poor
widens as uneven development within and between countries (a characteristic of
capitalism) becomes more apparent.
What future?
We
face a future where capitalist and imperialist nations led by the United States
plan a redivision of the world, one that seeks to maintain United States
dominance whilst limiting the opportunities for Chinese trade and investment. Behind closed doors strategies and plans are
being developed for various invasions.
Internally capitalism in crisis prepares to repeal gains won through the
sacrifice and struggle of previous generations of workers. Social democracy attempts to temper worker
militancy by offering small concessions to workers whilst skewing industrial
relations legislation, taxation, and other legislation to benefit capital.
The
people can create a different future.
The struggle has begun and will intensify. The authentic, subjective individual and
collective experience of working people will increasingly bring workers
together to claim power in their various fields, whether it’s the factory, mine,
school, hospital or university. The cry of the many city ‘occupiers’ of “All
power to the people” is not just a slogan; it is an outcome that through
organisation and working class leadership can deliver social justice and
sustainable peace and it is achievable.
History is on the side of the people.
