Sunday, October 13, 2024

Meat…the worker!

 Written by: (Contributed) on 14 October 2024

 

Above: Meatworkers' union at Brisbane Labor Day rally

The following statement from a meat worker was posted to the reddit internet platform. We are reposting it because it is a powerful statement about the class structure of capitalist Australia. The general resides in the particular: this one workers’ awakening is true of many workers whose next step is to find and join the revolutionary party of the working class – eds.

When I started to read about socialism a lot of things started making sense. 

I work in a meat factory, and I've experienced first hand how the capitalist system is unbalanced. We do 12-14 hour days, and our bodies are wrecked. 
I work primarily in small goods production, and my back is already at a point where I can feel it deteriorating as is my right shoulder, from all the heavy lifting of 20 - 30kg tubs of meat, and I'm only 31. 

The older, experienced butchers though… man, their hands are completely mangled. All have carpel tunnel syndrome. All need to have buckets of hot water on standby to dunk their hands in just to numb the pain of their repetitive work. We are, quite literally, wrecking our bodies to earn a pittance to just live in society and get by. 

Meanwhile, the bosses are millionaires with giant houses, expensive cars and $700 pairs of RM Williams'. 

Then I factor in that I am one of the luckier ones with a stable and full-time job, and that many are struggling in worse financial situations than myself. 

Working here these last few years is what has slowly built my interest in socialism. I was completely apolitical before, but now I have experienced first hand how flawed capitalism is, and how unsustainable it is, and socialism seems to be the answer to me. 

Exactly what kind of socialism, I am not sure yet. 

 

 

On the death of Dr G.N. Saibaba, fighter for freedom.

Written by: CPA (M-L) on 14 October 2024

 

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) joins comrades around the word in mourning the death of Comrade Dr. G. N. Saibaba, an outstanding fighter for the liberation of the Indian people.

The wheelchair-bound Saibaba, who was 90% disabled due to a childhood bout with polio, was undergoing treatment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Telangana’s Hyderabad district, where he was admitted 10 days ago due to ill health. His aides said he suffered a heart attack around 8 pm and was declared dead by doctors at the hospital at 8:30 pm.

Dr. Saibaba, who had been employed at Delhi University and had long campaigned for the rights of the poor and working masses of India, was arrested on May 9, 2014 for alleged ties to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and involvement in activities deemed as waging war against the nation. His arrest came under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

At that time, Dr. Saibaba was convenor of the ‘Forum Against War On People’ against Operation Green Hunt, the military campaign against the armed fighters of the Maoist Party.

Dr Saibaba was acquitted by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on March 5 of this year, nearly 10 years after he was first arrested. The Bombay High Court found that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. Of course, the real cause for his acquittal was the campaign, Indian and international, that had been waged for his release.

Speaking of his ten years in gaol, Dr. Saibaba said: “Prison is a microcosm of the external world, where all the societal evils are even more pronounced than outside.” 

“Caste-based discrimination is rampant in prison, and works are assigned based on the caste of inmates. In fact, assignment of jobs based on caste is mentioned in the jail manual too,” Dr Saibaba said.

The amended Prisons Act 1894 allows ‘mild bodily torture’ as a means to control and discipline prisoners. While there is no way one can protest against such a system except through a hunger strike, even that would yield no result unless amplified by voices outside the prison.

Under the pretext of mild torture, all prisoners are beaten up upon arrival without reason. The only exceptions are gangsters, politicians of repute and ‘Naxal cases’, Dr Saibaba said.

We express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and comrades of the outstanding fighter for freedom, Dr Saibaba.

A voice from the women of Gaza

Written by: Dr. Maryam Abu Daqqa on 14 October 2024

 

Children slaughtered by the Zionists, Deir al-Baleh, August 20, 2024

The following statement was presented at a webinar of the International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist United Front last night. There were 88 participants from 23 countries. Ours was one of the participating organisations. First speaker was Comrade Fouad Baker from the Foreign Office of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The author of the following statement, from Gaza, could not, of course, attend in person – eds.

 

Contribution to the United Front webinar on October 13, 2024

Webinarbeitrag 13.10.24 Dr. Maryam Abu Daqqa from Palestine, Gaza Strip

Dear brothers, Dear sisters, Dear comrade Monica 

Greetings of steadfastness and struggle. I would like to update you on the situation in our region and our activities to meet the challenge.After a year of war of extermination in Palestine in general and Ezzat in particular, now it is continuing in our brotherly Lebanon. 

The Zionist occupation and the actual participation of global imperialism led by the United States of America means the Lebanese people are threatened with completing the genocide of all Arab countries and the axis of resistance that supports our people.

Amidst the suspicious silence of the international community, the fascist occupation aims to kill women and children and justifies this by saying that children are the future and therefore they must be killed. Women are killed because they give birth to heroes, so their lineage must be cut off. There have been 42 thousand martyrs, 72% of whom were women and children. 18 thousand children lost their mothers or fathers, or both. 15 thousand cancer patients, most of them women, have no treatment and are banned from traveling from the country. 97 thousand have been wounded, 73 percent of them women and children More than 29 thousand missing people are under rescue. They destroyed the hospitals, the bodies of the victims were devoured by dogs. They did not leave a wall or a road without bulldozing it. They killed everything, trees, people, and pilgrims.Their goals are clear: to eliminate our people, displace them, and seize our land. 

They want the reoccupation of Gaza and the West Bank and the displacement of our people in the West Bank They do not recognize that there is a Palestinian people and they aspire to achieve their dream of Greater Israel and oppose the implementation of the peace process. The oppressive Zionist leadership is expanding its expansionist ambitions and committing border crimes.There is no deterrent to it. Neither the UN Security Council, nor the General Assembly, nor the International Court of Justice, nor the International Criminal Court can stop them.The American veto is ready to support the entity and continue the massacres in Palestine and Lebanon. 

Now in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, the Asna fronts, despite the siege and destruction, despite the ongoing massacres Palestinians, and at the forefront, the Palestinian woman has endured and continues to endure what mountains cannot bear. It's unfair. It takes volumes to talk about the suffering of our people, especially women and girls, whose dreams we have lost.They are now in dire need of support in all areas.They are fully aware that freedom is theirs against the presence of occupation, so the struggle for women’s freedom requires freedom for men.Therefore, we find Palestinian women taking initiatives to care for children and trying to support them psychologically and teach them. And helping the wounded and their families in addition to seminars and broadcasts about female prisoners and women's special needs. And the suffering of our people, children, wounded and the siege. Not for the first time, Palestinian women are raped, and there is systematic torture of male and female prisoners. More than fifty male and female prisoners were killed under torture in the prisons during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. We continue to participate in various Arab and international conferences to expose the Zionist entity and its agents. We continue to help bereaved families and orphans.We can do nothing but this. 

Dear sisters, let us build a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital!

End the occupation to the corners. 
Freedom for our families and our brave prisoners. 
Glory to the martyrs and a speedy recovery to the wounded. 
Victory to our people and all struggling peoples! 
Shame on the Zionists and global imperialism, led by America, the head of the snake. 

US imperialism strengthens grip on class and state power in the Philippines

Written by: (Contributed) on 11 October 2024

 

Above; Filipinos protest the visit of Austin and Blinken on Juy 30, 2024.  Source  KMU website

Controversy surrounding members of the Duterte family in the Philippines has raised serious considerations about their longer-term viability as a political dynasty. The former president, Rodrigo Duterte, would appear to have lost much of his support and faces an uncertain future. The resurgent Marcos oligarchy, backed by the US, has returned the Philippines to its past Cold War diplomatic status as a compliant participant for 'US interests'. What the outcome of these developments means for the Philippine working-class and their progressive organisations remains unclear; their struggles, nevertheless, continue!

An official statement from Philippine academic and social commentator, Antonio J. Montalvan II, that, 'we are seeing the end of the Duterte dynasty … it … will emasculate the once-untouchable power of the Duterte's', has captured both the timing and the gravity of problems facing Duterte family members and some of their closest associates. (1) Duterte's daughter, Sara, who is currently vice-president of the country, is facing the prospect of criminal charges, together with former president Rodrigo, facing charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Rodrigo Duterte was elected to presidential office with a huge majority in 2016, successfully pushing oligarchies away from the centre of the political power they had dominated for decades. Within a short time of taking office Duterte announced the Philippines would be pursuing an independent foreign policy. (2) The country had been previously a central regional part of US-led foreign policy, with both Washington and the Pentagon dominating decision-making. (3)

The US, historically, regarded the Philippines as the centre of an arc as the most reliably vantage point, with one wing swinging toward the more developed countries of North-east Asia and the other swinging toward the lesser developed but natural resource rich countries of South-east Asia. (4)

While the US and other allies had troops stationed in the Philippines, control was more often than not exerted through oligarchies and Triads at almost every strategic point inside the ramshackle governing administration in Manila and elsewhere in the provinces. The presidential election of Duterte, at a superficial level, was a rejection by the mass of the Philippine population to end political chicanery and rampant corruption and begin afresh.

The ensuing period was marked by optimism and an upsurge in worker's militancy and the struggle for raising the basic minimum wage; a large part of the Philippine working class, for example, works in the informal sector of the economy, where important industrial struggles for trade-union organisation and recognition for basic wages remain of central importance for the whole movement.

Those retaining traditional class and state power were initially thrust back onto defensive tactics. The strongly anti-Communist state apparatus, including the armed forces and their associates, continued, nevertheless, to follow US hegemonic positions, wherever possible. On 7 May 2018, for example, the Philippines engaged in the Balikatan joint military exercises with the US which included: participation with Australia and Japan; the start of building construction inside existing military bases for five US facilities 'wherein the super-power can preposition military equipment and supplies for its exclusive use in operations in the Asia-Pacific region'. (5)

The military facilities accessed by the US included:

a military warehouse in the Basa Air Base, Pampanga;
Antonio Bautista Air Base, Palawan;
Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija;
Lumbia Air Base, Cagayan de Oro City;                        
Mactan-Benito Air Base, Cebu City. (6)

While Duterte's moves to negotiate a peace settlement with the Communist-led New People's Army (NPA) was initially greeted, it eventually led to very little being achieved. In fact, the NPA used the period to expand their guerilla operations and recruit large numbers of younger people. The diplomatic position of the US toward the NPA has been, historically, conducted along lines of 'low-intensity' methods; US military intervention, however, has always been an agenda item if the NPA were able to 'achieve enough momentum to create significant destabilisation or even victory'. (7)  

Throughout the whole period the Marcos oligarchy surreptitiously recouped their famous 'Marcos millions', huge financial assets amassed by Marcos senior during the previous Cold War. The Philippines, during that time and the present, remains a 'kleptocracy', with widespread corruption. Having repossessed their ill-gotten gains the Marcos oligarchy then set about regaining political power which they had lost with the tumultuous upheavals of 1986. Their objectives were achieved following the Duterte presidential period.

After winning the 2022 national elections Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. established his presidential office to quickly swing the country back into its more traditional US-led role with a compliant administration in Manila. To date, the administration has slavishly followed US-led diplomatic hostilities with China, largely in the South China Seas.

The US and their Philippine associates, however, appear to have now set their sights on removing any lasting support linked to the Duterte family, which continues to be seen as an obstacle to US-led supremacy. It had shown just how high the stakes have become for Washington and the Pentagon when dealing with countries inside their sphere of influence.

By using a convicted drug trafficker and former customs intelligence officer, Jimmy Guban, allegations have been levelled at some of Duterte's associates, including his son, Paolo, who is a congressman, and Manases Carpio, husband of Sara, that a total of 355 kgs of crystal methamphetamine was smuggled into the Philippines. (8) Whether he has been a credible witness remains, as yet, to be established by usual legal procedures, which in the Philippines can best be viewed as highly questionable.

Elsewhere, further allegations levelled at Apollo Quiboloy, head of a spurious quasi-religious cult, the Owners of the Universe, for involvement in fraud, currency smuggling, human trafficking and a child sex ring, have ensnared Sara Duterte who has been one of his most conspicuous supporters. (9)

Rodrigo Duterte, furthermore, is also being considered for possible legal proceedings with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his sanctioning of extra-judicial killings of about 13,000 alleged drug traffickers; the ICC has been actively involved in extensive investigations of the killings since 2017 as crimes against humanity. (10)

With the Philippines safely back inside the US fold, its linkage into the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) has also taken place; it is now fully incorporated as a lower-level partner alongside South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and others, with the US-Japan alliance having been upgraded to a global partnership. (11)

The IPS is one of the main regional mechanisms through which the US pushes the present Cold War, which has serious implications for all levels of subject societies. A particularly relevant additional factor has been the recent high-level military-diplomatic talks between the US and the Marcos administration whereby the Pentagon have provided US$500 million of 'foreign military financing'. (12)

Declassified military-diplomatic documents from the previous Cold War reveal a great deal about US positions toward their compliant allies. US-led intelligence agents were trained and instructed to infiltrate every organisation open to penetration, with intelligence-gathering aimed at profiling whole populations for identification. (13) The main target for special attention, however, were those identified responsible for opposition to the US Defence Department 'during peacetime and all levels of conflict'. (14) With the US preoccupied with provoking hostilities and a confrontation with China in the South China Seas, the Philippines has been placed in a front-line position of US-led military planning, with all which that position entails; criticism of the US-China hostilities is very difficult.

It is important to note that while the military documentation was declassified, it was also subsequently updated to serve more recent developments which obviously include interception of on-line telecommunications. The basic parts of the military directives remain fully operational.

Subsequent Pentagon intelligence material which was also leaked during the early years of the so-called New World Order of the 1990s, for example, revealed just how high the US had placed the Philippines onto their agendas for the retention of traditional hegemonic diplomatic positions. The period was marked by the triumphalism of capitalism and imperialism, and the closure of prominent US military facilities in the country. In February 1992 the leakage of highly classified intelligence material, nevertheless, revealed US-led preparations for a regional war 'to defend the lives of US citizens threatened by instability in the Philippines', if, and when, required. (15)

One notable feature of Cold War politics is the difficulty, therefore, for progressive organisations to operate openly without outside external interference; the eyes and the ears of class and state power intrude from every possible vantage point, with almost unlimited amounts of finance for bribery and corruption which stifle all levels of Philippine society.

In the Philippines recent studies of the US-led interference and its effect upon the working-class have included waves of eliminations and disappearances of local trade-union activists and other repression.

At the level of employment, the Philippine working-class operate within an economy which has retained many features of neo-colonialism and semi-feudalism, dependent upon foreign investment through international financial institutions controlled largely by the US.

Recent studies have found that while official unemployment statistics record it affecting only 3.1 per cent of the workforce or 1.62 million workers, in reality it is not particularly accurate; the informal nature of much employment is hidden through bureaucratic manipulation. (16) The problem is compounded by massive under-employment of a relatively well-educated workforce which has risen to 12.1 per cent of the workforce and 6.08 million workers. (17) Many workers require more than one job to survive.

While the main Philippine trade union organisation, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), has demanded the government implement the P1,200 basic minimum wage, many employers openly flout the regulations and seek to contain and isolate trade-union activists. The KMU operate in extremely difficult, and dangerous, circumstances.

The struggles of the Philippine working class and their progressive organisations, nevertheless, continue unabated from the previous Cold War to the present one:

                                                     Ever Onward to Victory!


1.     Manila's Duterte dynasty on the brink, Australian, 18 September 2024.
2.     See: Tightening Phil military involvement with the US, The Philippine Star, 5 May 2018.
3.     See: The objectives of the US., The Guardian, 6 August 2003.
4.     Ibid.
5.     Philippine Star, op.cit., 5 May 2018.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Tracking covert actions into the future, Philip Agee, Covert Action – the roots of terrorism, Edited - Ellen Ray and William Shaap, (Melbourne, 2003), page 13.
8.     Australian, op.cit., 18 September 2024.
9.     Ibid.
10.   Ibid.
11.   See: The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
12.   Austin-Blinken visit,  KMU., (Philippines), Official Website, 30 June 2024.
13.   See: Army Foreign Intelligence Assistance Program, Army Regulation 381-20, Declassified 1993; and, Army's project X had a wider audience, The Washington Post, 6 March 1997; and, 'The CIA cleanses itself', The New York Times, 4 March 1997.
14.   AR 381-20, ibid., Mission and Policy, Reference 1.5, page 1.
15.   Tracking covert actions into the future, Philip Agee, op.cit., pp. 9-10;
16.   See: On the June 2024 Labor Force Survey: Low quality jobs, meager wages, KMU Official Website: posted 8 August 2024.
17.   Ibid.

 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

IPAN Conference 2024: Sleepwalking into War

Written by: Allan M. on 9 October 2024

 

ETU Queensland Branch presentation at IPAN Conference

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network's (IPAN) 2024 conference took place in Perth on October 4-6. The conference, titled Sleepwalking into War, focussed on combatting the increasing subservience of the Australian political class to the military, political, and economic demands on the United States of America. 

Opening with a peaceful protest at the entrance of HMAS Stirling naval base, the epicentre of our government's ambition to become a nuclear vassal state, the conference continued into a three-day program where speakers and attendees from around the country gathered to discuss Australia's involvement in the violent U.S imperial system and formulate actions to build an independent and peaceful nation. 

With speakers ranging from First Nations leaders, student activists who led university encampments, and to Senators such as Fatima Payman and Jordan Steele-John, the conference heard an incredibly diverse range of voices and perspectives on the impacts of the U.S led imperial capitalist system. 

The talks laid bare the reality of Australia's situation on the international stage. The Australian capitalist class, and their politician collaborators, are willing hostages to U.S interests. Our government has sold out our sovereignty in exchange for a handful of board positions, meagre investment in a select few Australian companies, and the empty promise of some killing machines. 

The U.S has now received political assurance that Australian industrial capacity will be increasingly folded into the U.S military-industrial supply chain, without any say in how their outputs will be used. 

Our government would be hard-pressed to back out of this deal and regain our national self-determination, not that they have any interest to do so. Speakers clearly articulated how our government's willing subordination to the U.S results in their complicity to the crimes perpetrated by the imperial regime. Australia's involvement in the F-35 fighter jet supply chain, and our participation in the revolving door of import and export contracts for weapons, means our government has allowed our country to participate in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the destructive war being inflamed in the middle-east. This is despite the Australian people clearly wanting an end to this brutal, criminal conflict and wanting our country to make free and independent decisions. 

Many speakers presented alternative pathways for Australia that demonstrated how our country can be safe and secure without relying on the U.S. 

An independent future was shown as not only easily attainable, but vitally important in allowing us to develop the things important to Australian communities, such as health, education, and meaningful employment. Organisers facilitated discussions to formulate future actions in building a movement to end Australia's role in imperialism and lead an independent and peaceful country. 

The organisations comprising IPAN will be drawing lessons from these discussions and putting it into practice. 

What is immediately clear, as always for our work, is that the capitalist political cartel of Labor and Liberal will not change the violent status quo. It is people power that will provide peace and independence for our country. 

 

Retired military leaders – “Climate, not China, is Australia’s main threat”

Written by: Nick G. on 9 October 2024

 

A group led mainly by retired military personnel has just released a new report that says climate change is the “greatest security threat to Australia and to societies around the world”.

The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) is headed by Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret’d), Chief of the Australian Defence Force from 1998 to 2002, and includes three other senior retired military leaders, and three civilian including Ian Dunlop, former chair of the Australian Coal Association.

In releasing the latest ASLCG report, Protect, Prevent and Prepare, Barrie said that "climate, not China, is the biggest security issue”

While not directly mentioning the $368 billion AUKUS spend, Barrie said  “All the billions of resources being put into confronting China will not help one iota in dealing with the greatest threat to our future security in Australia and the region — and that is climate disruption. We have just seen Hurricane Helene in the US cause damage estimated at $A230 billion in costs—equivalent to nearly 40% of Australia’s annual federal budget. In just one storm! And with only 2-6% of affected properties insured, the financial and social toll is immense.”

The ASLCG report criticises Australian governments past and present, saying “Inadequate action by Australian governments has left our nation poorly prepared to face global warming’s consequences, and Australia remains “missing in action” on climate-security risks”.

“…right now climate-security risks are not being fully assessed or understood in Australia. There is a poor understanding of the systemic security risks posed by climate change, which constitutes a major strategic gap. As a result, Australia is failing in its responsibilities as a global citizen, as a major strategic defence ally, and to protect people. Our nation is ill-prepared for climate impacts and the security implications in one of the highest risk regions in the world, the Indo-Pacific.”

The ASLCG report comes just two weeks after the Albanese government gave the greenlight to three massive coal mine expansions in NSW that will operate as far into the future as 2066 and fuel over a billion tonnes of carbon emissions. This is more than three times Australia’s current total annual emissions.  

We can expect the report to be either ignored or attacked and discredited by Murdoch’s unAustralian newspaper and his paid stable of reactionary hacks at Sky News.

As for the current government, we can expect Albanese, Marles and Wong to continue their disgraceful service to US imperialism and its preparations for war with China.

In anticipation of the ASLCG report being ignored, Admiral Barrie said: “The analysis we have done is so shocking people don’t want to believe it, but that is what the evidence from senior security experts as well as the world’s best scientists is telling us, and I think they are right. A national conversation about the need to ‘Protect, Prevent and Prepare’ is beyond urgent.”
  

 

 

Would Albanese call Pemulwuy a “terrorist”?

Written by: Ned K. on 7 October 2024

 

Monday 7th October 2024 was the anniversary of the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israeli settlers just north of Gaza. These armed attacks by Hamas were called the acts of a "terrorist organization" by Albanese and his government, echoing the words of the USA President Biden and many other western countries. 

On this same day 7th October 2024, The Australian newspaper headline quoted Israel's Ambassador to Australia as saying "Israel Protecting free world" by the Israeli state's bombing of Gaza and now Lebanon with the thousands of people killed as a result. 

Resistance by the indigenous Palestinian people to the settler state of Israel created by the Zionists backed by British and USA empires has been labelled as "terrorism" by them. The Australian Prime Minister Albanese automatically follows them.

In 2023 the Prime Minister Albanese and his Government put a great amount of time into the Voice for First Nations Indigenous people in Australia. His actions, we are led to believe, were his way to show his support for Indigenous people in Australia.

He prided himself in his support for Indigenous people in Australia.

On this same day 7th October 2024, I was reading "Always Was, Always Will Be" by First Nations person and MUA Assistant National Secretary, Thomas Mayo.

In his book, Mayo talks about the armed resistance by First Nations people to the British colonial settlers in then New South Wales in the late 1700s and 1800s.

One passage from his book showed similarities between the armed resistance of First Nations people in New South Wales at that time and the armed resistance of Indigenous Palestinians against the Israeli Government forces and Israeli settlers in 2023-24. 

Thomas Mayo writes,

"To the west of Sydney in the fertile lands of the Burramattagal clan of the Dharrug nation, the British established their first inland settlement, along with government farms that were vital to supporting a growing population of colonists...From 1792, Pemulwuy led his warriors in guerrilla warfare across Bidigal lands, strategically burning buildings, taking crops and attacking travellers.

At the height of these raids, in March 1797, he and 100 warriors fought in what has become known as the battle of Parramatta against armed soldiers and settlers".

Pemulwuy was shot in the head during this battle, captured by the colonial settlers but escaped to courageously lead his people. Eventually on 2 June 1802 he was shot dead by a colonial settler. He was decapitated and his head sent to the fascist Sir Joseph Banks in England to add to a skull colllection of Indigenous people from lands that became British colonies.

I asked myself, would the Prime Minister call Pemulwuy a "terrorist"? If he would answer yes, then how shallow was his Voice campaign? If he would answer no, Pemulwuy was a fighter against settler colonialism, then how hypocritical to call any Indigenous Palestinian organization, or individual Indigenous Palestinian leader, "terrorist"?