Condemn the DPRK’s sending of troops to the Ukrainian conflict.

 Written by: Nick G .on 6 November,2024

 

(Source: CNN.com)

First reports are arriving of fighting between Ukrainian and DPRK troops.

As much as we have always supported and praised heroic North Korea’s defiance of US imperialism, we cannot endorse its support for Russian imperialist aggression against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian conflict was born of rivalry between the US and European imperialist bloc on one side, and the Russian imperialists on the other.

Its origins can be traced back to the string-pulling exercised by Virginia Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in 2014, at the time of the Maidan Rebellion that brought down the Ukrainian government. Nuland directed the subsequent coup, declaring who should, and shouldn’t be in the new regime, and monopolizing the conspiracy so as to exclude the European Union and telling US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt “Fuck the EU.”

In the face of provocations instigated by US imperialism and NATO, the Russians unleashed a so-called “limited” action, in the form of a “special military action”, against Ukraine. Ostensibly this was to protect the interests of Russian-speaking separatists in Eastern Ukraine, whose declarations of independence had long been ignored by Moscow, and to root out the influence of open Nazis and their influence within Ukrainian political and military circles. 

Despite this complicated situation, the fact remains that Russian imperialism committed an act of aggression. That act determined that theirs was an unjust war, and the Ukrainians’, irrespective of the capitalist nature of their ruling class, and its embrace of the US/NATO imperialists, was a just war.

Putin’s “limited” action has required the suppression of civil liberties in Russia and a massive cost in armaments and lives. These both represent significant drains on Russia.

Putin has now had to seek reinforcements.  Despite supporting Putin politically, the Belarusians have resisted direct involvement in Ukraine. The DPRK’s involvement may, however, induce the fascist leader of the Chechen Republic President, Ramzan Kadyrov, to follow through on his threat to send 80,000 “volunteers” to support the Russians in Ukraine.

In an act of desperation, Putin signed a treaty on military assistance with the DPRK on Jue 19, 2024. According to the Treaty, North Korea and Russia “shall immediately provide military and other assistance” to the other party if it “falls into a state of war due to armed invasion from an individual or multiple states.” 

The Russians claim that the Treaty came into operation because the Ukrainians have waged war against the four counties in the east of Ukraine that Russia says have “voluntarily” supported their annexation to Russia. According to the logic of the Russian imperialists, their war of aggression against Ukraine has now become a “war of defence” against Ukraine’s invasion of its own territory. 

Russia can also claim that the Ukrainian’s August seizure of Russian territory in the region near Kursk also constituted “armed invasion”. 

However, given Russia’s original sin of having first invaded Ukraine, the counter-incursion by Ukraine is not the beginning of a new “armed invasion”, but a continuation of a war begun by the Russians.

It is believed that DPRK troops have already clashed with Ukrainian forces inside the Russian zone taken by Ukraine.

Far from being close to ending, everything points to the Ukrainian conflict intensifying and dragging on with further unspeakable suffering on both sides. The US has so far been content to only supply Ukraine with arms sufficient to tie the Russians down so as to exhaust them in a prolonged war. 

There are signs too, particularly from the Trump camp, that the US should let the Russians win so as to engage with greater focus on preparations for war with their main rival, Chinese social-imperialism.

Russia's aggression against the Ukrainian people is bound to fail, and North Korea's joining as an ally at this time means it will only share the consequences of such defeat with Russia. 

Whatever the outcome of the US election, the system of US imperialism will remain in place, and ensure that the people of Europe and the world will face being sacrificed in the interests of defending and expanding US global hegemony.

 

NSW Teachers Win New Award

 Written by: Seb A. on 6 October 2024

 

Above:  NSW teachers vote for new Award October28.  Photo: NSWTF Facebook

New South Wales public school teachers have held mass meetings across the state to vote for acceptance of an offer for a new award. 97% of NSW Teachers Federation members attending the meetings voted in favour of the new award on 28 October. 

The pay rise is 9% over the three years of the Award, and 0.5% superannuation increases each year, which is the baseline offer the NSW government announced for public sector workers in NSW after the 2023 election of the Minns ALP state government. 

While this pay rise keeps NSW teachers up with official inflation figures, the real significant gains of the new award are to workload and conditions. With teachers leaving in droves because of the piling up of unsustainable workload since 2012 under the regime of the neoliberal Department of Education Local Schools, Local Decisions agenda and the worst teacher shortage in decades, these improvements are vital in ensuring teachers’ work health and safety and a healthy work-life balance. 

Around twenty improvements have been achieved, with some of the more significant including a one hour weekly limit to before and after school meetings enshrined in the Award. Over recent years, schools have seen dramatic increases in after and before school meetings with hours often spent weekly in meetings before and after school with no real benefit to teachers or students. This win will significantly decrease the unsustainable workload burden that is seeing so many teachers leave schools. 

Classroom teachers themselves will now determine 50% of what they do on the eight student-free School Development Days each year. These days are when teachers engage in professional learning and development and prepare for the school year; however, all too often they become opportunities for irrelevant top-down determined professional learning, no consultation, and teachers doing all their real preparation outside of school hours. This means that now classroom teachers will have much more opportunity to use these days for what they are most useful for: actually preparing quality lessons for our students. 

These wins would never have been made without the committed and unified strike action members took during the More Than Thanks campaign that won NSW teacher unionists the previous award last year, and which made them the highest paid teachers in the country. 

From the perspective of building teacher union strength, the improvements won in the new award will be an opportunity to empower union activists to push back locally and put power in teachers’ hands to have a say in determining what their work day looks like. 

The new award will also see the development of a new consultation framework that will mandate that teachers have a say when there are proposals to change or add to their workload at the school level. 

While a major objective of the union was not achieved in the new award, the granting of an additional two weekly hours of release from face-to-face teaching to deal with the increased administrative workload that teachers have been burdened with, the wins discussed above place teacher unionists in a strong position to further build union strength and be ready to campaign for those goals as yet unachieved. 

Unionists In SA Celebrate 140 Year Anniversary of United Trades and Labour Council

Written by: Ned K. on 2 November 2024

 

CFMEU members in SA staying strong: delegates' training a couple of days ago (CFMEU Facebook)

On Friday 1st October over 150 Union Organizers attended the annual SA Unions Organizing Conference which also celebrated the 140th anniversary of the SA United Trades and Labour Council which formed in 1884.

In 1884, the name "Trades and Labour" was fitting because at that time most of the recognized Unions consisted of trades people and most of them were men.

140 years later, the same body goes by the name SA Unions which is more appropriate as the make-up of union membership is far broader now than workers with a trade. There are many more union members who do not have a formal trade and about 50% of members of Unions in SA are women workers.
That fact was reflected in the large number of women Organizers at the SA Unions Conference on Friday.

The Conference came at a difficult time for the relatively new SA Unions Secretary Dale Beasley. He has had the task of uniting the affiliated Unions at the state level following the federal Labor Government's disgraceful attack on construction workers by placing their Division of the CFMEU into the hands of an Administrator.

To Dale's credit he demonstrated for all to see, including two ALP MPs who were guest-speakers, that workers’ collective organizations are quite capable of discussing differences and working out problems internally through democratic processes. 

There were strongly held views among Organizers at the Conference regarding the actions of the federal Labor Government against the CFMEU. Everyone had a chance to speak and despite differences of opinion, everyone's view was respected.

One of the guest-speakers at the Conference was the Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt. He copped plenty of criticism from Organizers about the implications for workers of a Labor Government interfering in the internal affairs of a Union, paving the way for deeper attacks on workers' mass organizations by future governments particularly a government led by Dutton. Murray Watt did not retreat from the official Labor Government position that it was united with Unions as the political arm of the "labor movement" and that the Government's aim was to ensure that the Construction Division of the CFMEU returned to running its own affairs no later than 3 years under an Administrator!

One of the women Organizers at the Conference said to Watt in so many words that if he and other Labor MPs wanted union members' support in the coming federal election campaign, he and they had better take on board that many union members are extremely concerned about the Government's interference in the internal affairs of a Union.

Murray Watt did appear to be quite surprised at the level of anxiety among Organizers and he left the Conference with plenty to think about. He was particularly surprised and embarrassed to know that in SA there was no Union Official with the authority to go on to a building site to investigate a health and safety issue on the site. The reason for this was that the Government's new laws against the CFMEU resulted in all the relevant Officials of the Construction Division being given "the bullet" by the Government appointed Administrator!

This dangerous situation of construction workers in SA not being able to have their Union Official come on site to investigate a safety issue was seen as absurd by Conference Organizers.

They had just heard from the first guest-speaker, Kyam Maher, the SA Labor Government Attorney General about recent reforms to the Health and Safety laws in SA. The new laws enable a Union to take a safety issue caused by employer neglect to the South Australian Employment Tribunal (SAET), effectively as an industrial matter. 

Organizers at the Conference were under no illusions about the coming attacks on workers if a Dutton led Coalition wins the fast-approaching federal election. They acknowledged the changes to the Fair Work Act mentioned by Murray Watt in his speech, such as Same Job - Same Pay, Multi-Employer Bargaining, Delegate Rights and tighter laws around definition of a Casual worker. 

They also realized that workers’ and their Unions’ solidarity and collective strength is needed irrespective of which political party forms government under capitalism.

Israel's Approval of the Law Banning UNRWA: A Declaration of Total War on the United Nations and Palestinian Refugees

 

Israel's Approval of the Law Banning UNRWA: A Declaration of Total War on the United Nations and Palestinian Refugees

Written by: Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine on 30 October 2024

 

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Foreign Affairs Department: Either respect the charter or get expelled from the United Nations.

Ladies and gentlemen in political parties and parliaments worldwide,

Dear friends in international community, media, human rights, and trade union frameworks,

To all free individuals and those with a living conscience in our world,

In a dangerous precedent, the Israeli parliament (on November 28) passed a law banning the activities of one of the United Nations agencies in Israel, namely the "United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees" (UNRWA), which employs around 30,000 staff members. The parliament had previously voted in July 2024 to classify UNRWA as a "terrorist organization."
Days before the new law's vote, the UN Security Council, the United Nations, and dozens of countries and international institutions—including some allied with Israel—called for the project to be withdrawn and not approved due to its legal violations and humanitarian consequences that would affect millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who depend on UNRWA for health, education, and social relief services. Despite this, Israel insisted on its position and proceeded with the law, disregarding global opinions and the humanitarian fallout.

What does banning UNRWA's activities in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza mean?
Since its establishment in 1949 by the UN General Assembly under resolution 302, UNRWA has operated freely in the West Bank and Gaza to provide education, health, and relief services to refugees. After Israel's occupation of all Palestinian territories in 1967, an agreement was signed with UNRWA to regulate its work and grant it freedom of movement and necessary exemptions. However, this agreement has effectively been annulled by the law's approval, depriving UNRWA of many rights and privileges that would prevent it from operating, including:

The cancellation of all privileges and immunities granted to international diplomatic missions, including the cessation of tax and customs exemptions, lifting protections for UNRWA staff, facilities, and vehicles, severing communications with it, and barring it from any activity in areas Israel considers "sovereign."

The classification of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem as illegal, housing over 100,000 Palestinian refugees, which will adversely affect the camp's legal status and gradually facilitate collaboration with armed settler gangs to displace its residents in preparation for dismantling it.

UNRWA facilities in the West Bank will be targeted by the occupation army based on Israeli laws purportedly for combating terrorism, allowing settlers, who have previously besieged UNRWA offices and called for their burning, to invade them.

Beyond the legal descriptions of Israel's step, which not only violates the conditions for Israel's admission to the United Nations but also contradicts the UN Charter, which mandates respect as a fundamental principle and a condition for membership—particularly in Articles 2 and 105 that state: "All members shall provide every assistance to the United Nations in any action it takes in accordance with this Charter" (Article 2), and "The organization shall enjoy in the territory of each member such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes..." (Article 105). This means facilitating UNRWA's work and granting it the privileges and exemptions is a fundamental requirement outlined in the Charter, not a decision of the occupying state to revoke at will.

The Israeli law is akin to a declaration of true war against the United Nations and its various institutions, following the Israeli foreign minister's declaration of the UN Secretary-General as "persona non grata," among other UN officials. It presents the international community with a genuine challenge regarding its reputation and credibility, as UNRWA is one of the organizations under the UN, both in terms of its foundation and its regular program renewals. Thus, defending Palestinian refugees in this case is also a defense of the international organization’s reputation.

Despite the considerable risks posed to refugees and the services provided to them by UNRWA, the law's impact on the right of return will remain limited, especially if the UN and Arab countries show the will to confront it and nullify it. The right of return derives its strength not only from the existence of UNRWA—important though that is—but primarily from the natural and historical right of refugees to their land. This right, as affirmed by numerous international resolutions, and I say by courts and international legal scholars, does not expire with the passage of time, no matter how many years go by, especially as millions of refugees still carry its banner. Secondly, it is a right supported by UN resolution 194 and dozens of other international resolutions that do not grant a right to refugees but rather affirm an existing, established right that predates resolution 194.

Since UNRWA constitutes one of the foundations upon which the right of return is established—including resolution 194, the existence of camps, and the legal definition of a refugee—these elements will remain even after the law is enacted. What the law proposes is the opening of a new battle added to the series of struggles waged by the Palestinian people and freedom-loving individuals worldwide. Because while Israel may impose the law's implementation through its military and occupying force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it cannot do so in areas where refugees reside outside Palestine, numbering over six million.

The world's silence over Israel's crimes and the pressure on international courts and judicial frameworks have led Israel to feel protected under the American veto and support from Western and allied countries, facilitating its persistent violations of the UN Charter and human rights. This has encouraged it to continually challenge the international community and reject its resolutions, including tearing the Charter apart at the United Nations platform by the Israeli representative last May.

The approval of the law reflects a disregard for what remains of the international system, and it would not have occurred with such arrogance were it not for the unlimited support Israel receives from the United States in particular, and the silence or even complicity of Western countries in allowing Israel to evade accountability for decades for its breaches of international resolutions and its continued criminal acts and genocide against the Palestinian people.

Moreover, Israel's insistence on continuing its comprehensive war against the United Nations, represented by UNRWA and other international organizations and institutions, necessitates more than condemnation and denunciation. The time has come for the United Nations to take swift responsibility in enacting measures to expel Israel and isolate it from the UN.

On behalf of the "foreign Affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine," as we present this overview of the Israeli law declaring war on the UN and UNRWA, we are confident that this serious development will be on your agenda in your future movements opposing the genocidal war perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and in favor of supportive stances from your governments, aimed at isolating Israel and forcing it to respect the international community and its supportive positions for the Palestinian people and their national rights, rejecting the fascism represented by Israel with direct support from the United States and some Western countries that continue to practice political hypocrisy in their public rejection of Israel’s actions while providing it with unlimited support for its policies of killing, terrorism, and rebellion against the international system and its political, legal, human rights, and humanitarian foundations.

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's foreign Affairs Department

-30 October 2024-

 

Port Adelaide Community Opposes AUKUS

Written by: Nick G. on 27 October 2024

 

More than 120 residents of the Port Adelaide area attended a meeting yesterday, called by the Port Adelaide Community Opposes AUKUS (PACOA).

The meeting began with MC and local resident Eileen Darley introducing former WA Senator Jo Valentine by video link. Jo expressed solidarity from WA opponents of AUKUS and gave a detailed account of developments over there.

The meeting closed with messages of solidarity from the Wollongong Against War and Nukes (WAWAN) group which has held very large protests against a suggested nuclear submarine base at Pt. Kembla harbour.

Residents then brainstormed ideas for further developing their campaign against AUKUS and the radioactive waste it brings.

Speakers at the meeting included former SA Senator Rex Patrick (who will be standing as a Senate candidate with the Jacqui Lambie Network – Lambie herself was seated in the audience), economist Prof. Al Rainnie, Michael Williss (speaking as a member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, IPAN), Amanda Ruler from the Medical Association for the Prevention of War), and co-leader of the Greens in the SA Parliament, Tammie Franks.

We are reprinting here the talk by Michael Williss. 

Talk at the Take Action Against AUKUS meeting October 26, 2024
Port Adelaide Community Opposes AUKUS

Thank you for inviting me to speak on the unceded lands of the Kaurna people. What a pity Australia is not an unceded independent nation state instead of a grovelling puppet of the United States.

But let’s start in the traditional way…with a pub quiz. 

I’m going to list ten wars, and I want to know the odd one out: Sudan Campaign, Boxer Rebellion. Boer War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Malayan Emergency, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq.

Yes, the odd one out was WW2 – the only one of the ten in which our national independence and sovereignty were threatened. Japan bombed northern Australia at least 111 times between February 1942 and November 1943. The first time Darwin was hit, 262 aircraft killed at least 235 people and caused immense damage.  Other places hit over a nearly two-year stretch included Broome, Katherine, Townsville, Wyndham, Port Headland, Mossman, Milingimbi, Exmouth, Horn Island, Bathurst Island.

Every other war, in my opinion, has seen us surrender our capacity for independent decision-making in matters of foreign policy, and blindly follow either the British or the US imperialists into wars not required for Australia’s defence.

That is why AUKUS and talk of war preparations by the US against China don’t unduly worry some people.  Apart from WW2, our wars have been fought “up there” or “over there”.  A war with China, some think, will follow that pattern. If we follow the US into war with China, it is unlikely that these people have considered Australian cities looking like parts of Ukraine or Gaza or Beirut. Osborne and surrounds are just such a potential target.

Bur Gillard, Rudd, Abbott, Morrison and Albanese have almost guaranteed that as a continental-sized air craft carrier for the US military, we have cities and suburbs that will almost certainly be hit in a Chinese retaliation against our participation in a US war against China.

Post WW2 we have had US bases here: Pine Gap and North West Cape spring to mind. But a qualitative change occurred when Obama’s pivot to Asia was married to Gillard’s cheerleading for the US Empire.

Obama’s pivot occurred in the first year of Gillard as PM. Starting in 2012 with 200 Marines, their Darwin rotation has grown to around 2,500 Marines.
U.S. aircraft, including bombers and surveillance planes, use Australian airbases, such as RAAF Base Tindal and RAAF Base Amberley.   US B-52s can be nuclear armed, and Wong accepts this as the US’s right not to disclose. US B-2 bombers just recently bombed Yemen having used Australia as a stop-over.

The Force Posture Agreement (FPA) between the United States and Australia, signed in 2014, significantly enhances the U.S. military presence in Australia by formalising and expanding military cooperation between the two countries. It provides US forces with access to critical Australian military bases and infrastructure, including ports and airfields and allows them to station fuel dumps, equipment, and munitions wherever they like.

We are upgrading submarine docking facilities in WA at a cost of $20 billion, chicken feed perhaps alongside the $368 billion submarine arrangements.

Our country has been handed to the US on a plate.  You have no doubt seen statements by Paul Keating, Gareth Evans and Bob Carr deploring the surrender of our independence through the AUKUS arrangements.

As much as Morrison likes to boast of his role in creating AUKUS, it was really a rerun of an idea first put to Australia by the US in October2013 after Tony Abbott had defeated Kevin Rudd. Morrison was in Abbott’s Cabinet and would have known of the US proposal that Australia operate 10 or 12 Virginia class submarines. Under AUKUS he simply tweaked the proposal for leasing the submarines into purchasing them. 

Former PM Malcom Fraser saw the dangers to Australia of such a submarine deal, saying that “The reliance by Australia on the United States for military communications in reality means that we cannot conduct operations unless the United States approves of them. That is a derogation of sovereignty” (Fraser, Dangerous Allies p. 256).

He would no doubt laugh at the idea that flying an Australian flag on an AUKUS sub would allow us to make our own decisions.

We must stand up for the independence of Australia and break the US stranglehold on the decision-makers in the Liberal and Labor parties.

Thank you.

Fight Against Inequality Forum – 16 October 2024

 Written by: Shirley Winton on 26 October 2024

 

We reprint a talk given by Shirley Winton at a public forum in Melbourne on 16 October, Fighting Inequality.  Shirley's talk addressed military spending in Australia and the US Alliance.   

Shirley spoke as a member of No AUKUS Coalition Vic and Independent and Peaceful Australia (Vic).

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this forum.  I hope my talk on military spending in Australia will be of some use in building the fight for justice and equality.

I’m on the land of Wurundjeri people of Kulan Nation.  I pay my respects to traditional owners of this unceded county.  I stand in solidarity with the First Nations people in their long fight for justice, sovereignty and Just treaties.  Always was always will be Aboriginal land.

 

I want to start my talk by briefly putting this period of rapid global militarisation in a broader context.  World wide, capitalism is in crisis of overproduction.  Goods are flooding markets, remain unsold as people’s incomes shrink, jobs disappear, social services are cut back resulting in many not able to buy even necessities of life.  Government funds for social services are drying up as corporations demand more government funding for their profit making. 

 

For example, in Germany today some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers are closing down, or dramatically cutting back their production lines.  Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off, mainly as a result of competition from China’s cheaper vehicles flooding the European markets.

 

Finance capital, that is the multinational global assets management corporations, control trillions of dollars of world’s assets and make decisions that ensure the trillions are invested in industries where profit returns are maximised, biggest and fastest.  Not for a secure and dignified life of all people and protection of the environment. 

 

At the same time more wars are breaking out.  The main drive for most of these wars is competition between big powers for control of shrinking markets and resources.  The military industrial complex makes huge profits from wars and destruction. 

 

In today’s world, weapons manufacturing industries are the most rapidly expanding profitable sectors of the economy.  It is in these industries that many of the world’s finance corporations, or assets managers, are investing billions and trillions of the world’s wealth.

 

For example, Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest weapons manufacturer, is owned and controlled by the world’s 3 biggest assets managers.  BlackRock, State and Vanguard.  Governments are the biggest customers of weapons corporations, ploughing billions of people’s taxes into the war machines.  

 

Lockheed Martin’s biggest customer is the US government.  

 

The Australian government has contracted Lockheed Martin $500,000 million for weapons manufacturing, that’s half $billion of people’s taxes taken away from the urgent needs of the people, public housing, public education, healthcare, community services, to build the global US war machine.  And this is only one of top global weapons corporations to whom the Australian government is gifting people’s taxes.  Elbit, Israeli weapons company involved in the Gaza genocide has been awarded $917 million contract by the Victorian government.

 

BlackRock, the world’s largest assets management, worth $10 trillion, is one of the main investors in Lockheed Martin. It has enormous power in decision making.  BlackRock controls pension funds, private health and medical companies, construction companies – wherever profit can be made BlackRock will be found.  I’m only stating this to illustrate how the wealth created by the labour of ordinary people of this country is being parcelled out to a handful of financial and weapons corporations.  This enormous wealth, created by millions of Australia’s working people, must be taken out of the hands of these parasitic corporations, and used for the urgent needs of the people.

 

The world’s top 5 weapons corporations are embedding themselves in Australia’s economy, industries, education.  Australia’s economy and industries are being militarised, workers’ jobs and livelihood are becoming more dependent on weapons corporations.  Weapons manufacturing for multinational corporations is now a rapidly growing industry in this country, integrating Australia’s economy and industries into the US military industrial complex.  

 

Under US direction Australia has removed all barriers to the export of arms.  Now integral to US weapons supply chain Australia will have no control over where and how these weapons are used.  Sovereignty over our self-defence industry and policies has been surrendered.

 

The Australian government’s military expenditure has nothing to do with defence of Australia.  Only turning Australia into a weapons production expanding line, a US military base, and a launching pad for US war with China.

 

As well as enormous costs of embedded multinational weapons corporations in Australia’s economy, the demands of AUKUS and the US-Australia alliance on public expenditure are eyewatering.  

 

Just to name a few:

 

AUKUS and Force Posture Agreement

 

AUKUS and Force Posture Agreement are locking Australian into US imperialist wars and its military industrial complex.   

 

Australia’s defence policies and military infrastructure are indistinguishable from the US military machine, under the US command.  Our taxes feed the US war economy.  AUKUS and Force Posture Agreement is complete integration and subservience of Australia’s defence, military and foreign policies into the US war machine.   

 

In 2014 the Australian government and the US signed the Force Posture Agreement which gives the US unimpeded access to most of Australia’s military and defence facilities and infrastructure, from where the US is allowed to conduct wars of aggression.

 

The US is demanding Australia increases our military defence budget to fund the hugely expanding US militarisation of Australia and in Asia-Pacific.  

AUKUS –has nothing to do with defence of Australia.  It is a US war machine to instigate war with China.

 

The US-led AUKUS is militarising Australia’s economy, industries and education.  Syphoning off billions from public health, education, aged care, social services, environment. The world’s top 10 multinational weapons corporations -Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE, Raytheon, Northrop, GE, Thales - are embedding themselves in our schools, universities, defence and military establishments, infiltrating and advising governments, political parties and government bureaucracies.  They have strong influence over government policies that benefit only their profit making. 

 

AUKUS PILLAR 1

 

This extensive US militarisation of Australia is a burden on the people of Australia.  Australian government has committed to purchasing 8 US and UK nuclear powered submarines at a cost of more than $368 billion.  That’s $33 million a day of peoples’ taxes at a time of cost of living crisis, more people living in poverty, housing crisis, underfunded struggling public health, education and social services, unaffordable child care and aged care, and devastating climate change.  In addition, under pressure from US and UK the Australian government has committed $10 billion more to US and UK shipyards to build nuclear submarines but without any guarantee from US and UK that they will be delivered on time or delivered at all. The $10 billion of our taxes will be used to prop up ailing US and UK shipbuilding yards, and the US and UK economies. This is the extent of the Australian government’s subservience to major imperialist powers.

 

The cost of militarisation of Australia as a US base and its proxy in imperialist wars is a major burden on Australian people.

 

AUKUS Pillar 2 expenditure       

 

The Australian government has committed to spend $765 billion in military spending between 2024-2034.  The $368 billion on nuclear powered submarines is not included in this $765 billion.

 

The $765 billion is for upgrading and building new ports and military air bases to host giant US war ships and submarines, F35 and B52 bombers, some carrying nuclear weapons, missiles.  Expanding and building new military facilities, installations and spy bases; hosting thousands of continuously rotating US marines stationed in northern territory.  Northern territory is being turned into a major US military base under US command.

 

It is predicted that the lifetime cost of AUKUS 1 and 2 is likely to be $2 trillion to $3 trillion.

 

Australian people are paying a huge price. The cost of militarisation of Australia as a US base and its proxy in an imperialist war with China is a major burden on Australian people.   The only beneficiaries are the US imperial power and the military industrial complex – weapons corporations

 

The entire system is geared to make profits, not for needs of the people and the environment.

 

Workers not only face the day to day hardships of rising cost of living, housing crisis, but the threat of a major war.   We carry the main heavy burdens of these imperialist wars. The cost of AUKUS, nuclear submarines and the Australia-US military alliance will deepen the economic hardships for the people, worsen climate crisis and accelerate the march to war.  It will be a war of aggression led by the US, with Australia, its deputy sheriff, and an expandable nuclear target.

 

This is the price we are paying for being in the US-Australia military alliance.

 

The government is telling the Australian people a big lie that AUKUS, military spending and wars will ensure security for us.  But nothing could be further from truth.  AUKUS, US-Australia military alliance and climate crisis are the real threat to our security and people’s well being.

 

The only security for the people is decent and dignified housing for all, properly funded public health and education, high quality aged care and child care, secure and dignified jobs for all, decent social and community services, an independent foreign policy and living in peace with the people of Asia Pacific.

And while we meet here the  people of Gaza are being wiped out by these same masters of wars.

 

Same corporations and their governments inflicting the horrendous genocide on the people of Gaza and Lebanon.

 

Shirley Winton

Member of No AUKUS Vic and IPAN - Victoria

16 October 2024. 

Support Rojava – condemn Erdogan’s attacks on the liberated region

Written by: Nick G. on 25 October 2024

 

(Above: destruction caused by Turkish bombs, Rojava, 24 October 2024)

With the world focussed on the continuing atrocity of Zionist Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, and its aggression against Lebanon, the Turkish authorities have resumed intensive bombing of the mainly Kurdish stronghold of Rojava in neighbouring north-eastern Syria (NES).

For the last couple of days, the Turkish fascist regime has carried out airstrikes on 42 sites in NES, including Qamishlo, Kobane, Amude, and Derik. To date, 12 civilians have been killed and 25 wounded. The strikes are still ongoing, and included several power stations, 2 bakeries, a health centre, and grain silos. In past months, the Turkish forces had burnt large areas of food crops in an effort to starve the Rojava people.

These attacks indicate Turkey’s intention to control these areas and displace their residents, in order to crush the democratic and progressive Rojava revolution. Itis contrary to what was being promoted about the peace talks between the Kurds and Turkey that were expected to start this month. The attacks show that Turkey is not seeking peace with the Kurds, but rather seeking to exterminate them under the pretext of fighting terrorism. 

This repeated targeting of service facilities is leading to a humanitarian disaster in an area that is home to millions of people, who are already suffering from severe fuel and gas shortages as a result of Turkey’s repeated targeting of infrastructure facilities in previous years.

The same Erdogan who correctly condemns Zionist genocide against the Palestinians is head of a fascist government whose values are threatened by the example of the Rojava revolution. 

“The only reason Turkey attacks is because we are a threat to their fascism. The society here is the antidote to the state's poison!” said one resident of Rojava.

(Above: the people of Kobane protest the bombing, October 24,2024)