Firming up on fictitious capital – Firmus and its capital raising

 Written by: Nick G. on 24 September 2026

 

(Data Centre - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0)

The proposed public float of Australian data centre company Firmus in late October is symptomatic of the speculative capital being drawn to the expansion of data centres.

The company hopes to raise $A7.7bn in the largest capital raising by an entrant to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), based on a market capitalisation of $A70bn. This will make it bigger than Telstra, whose market cap of $A43bn ranks as the ASX’s biggest listing. (Market capitalisation is the current value of a publicly traded company, based on the total dollar amount that all of its outstanding shares are worth.)

Firmus’s three founders are Oliver Curtis, his father Nick, and Tim Rosenfield who own 13 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively. US private equity Blackstone owns 6.7 per cent. US technology giant Nividia owns 7.2 per cent.

Firmus' three founders will be able to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of shares 12 months after the data centre developer lists in the largest ASX float on record, and can offload another 30 per cent of their stake a year later.

The Firmus prospectus reveals Mr Curtis and Mr Rosenfield are paid $US1.6m annually in fixed salary, are entitled to receive a short-term incentive of up to 180 per cent of their base salary for next year and long-term incentive worth up to 270 per cent of base salary up to June 2029.

Investors who will be putting their money into Firmus shares will be making a claim on future profits from the surplus value accruing to the company. How that surplus value is created in an industry with few employees whose labour power is the sole source of surplus value will be investigated in a later article.

The investor speculation gambles on Firmus’s ability to grow quickly as a publicly listed company.

Its only two operational data centres at present are a 5 megawatt facility in Singapore and a 42MW centre operating in a building owned by CDC Data Centres in Melbourne. It has received development approvals from the Tasmanian government for two more. Two other centres in SA are proposed for Stirling North (near Pt Augusta), and Tailem Bend on the Murray River.

Investors will need to be convinced that the community supports, or at least tolerates, the existence of data centres in their backyards. The Australian reported that “There’s talk that all of its support so far has come from the US, with Asian investors as equally wary of the deal as Australians. Sources say American investors are willing to take a bet on the transaction because gaining data centre development consent is becoming increasingly more difficult across the United States as the population pushes back on construction of data centres near residential areas and as excess power supply to operate them becomes more limited.”

Firmus claims it can achieve pre-tax profit margins of 90 per cent across its artificial-intelligence data factories, far eclipsing those of powerhouse mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is not yet convinced, saying on Tuesday that central banks around the world were “all a little bit worried” that the AI investment boom could be a bubble. That is, there is the strong likelihood that what Marx termed “fictitious capital” – capital placed into shares and bonds separated from actual production – will be massively devalued if later surplus value creation fails to materialise.

Capitalism is an inherently anarchic economic system and is incapable of systematic planning to meet the real needs of the people.

Socialism will put an end to the speculative waste of capital that should be employed for socially useful purposes.

Further reading: Financialisation: fictitious capital and its real impact. (booklet)

Press Statement by Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

 Written by: Communist Party Nepal (Mashal) on 24 September 2026

 

Our comrades in the Nepal Communist Party (Mashal) have issued a statement which refers to a possible Australian involvement in the mining of uranium in Nepal’s Mustang region. At this stage, no Australian company has been positively identified as planning to become involved, but the possibility certainly exists. In 2025, Australia was one of the original seven signatories to the US State Department’s Pax Silica focused on securing supply chains for advanced technologies such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and rare earth elements. Last April, the Nepalese People’s Review, a political and business weekly, reported that leaked government documents referred to a 30-square-kilometer area in Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, which would be designated as a “Mustang Special Zone,” giving the U.S. and Australia exclusive processing rights under the so-called “Pax Silica” coalition.

At the end of June 2024, 197,800 Nepalese−born people were living in Australia. This is almost 5 times the number (42,900) at 30 June 2014. This is the eighth largest migrant community in Australia, so general awareness of events in Nepal helps unify the Australian working class – Eds.

 

Press Statement by Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

This statement is being issued to inform about the decisions made at today's meeting of the Central Office of Nepal Communist Party (Masal), attended by available PVM (Politburo) members and office staff.

1.Some media outlets have revealed that during the tenure of the previous Sushila Karki government, an agreement was reportedly made—reportedly involving certain senior officials—to hand over the mining of Mustang's uranium deposits to the United States and Australia. That agreement has not been made public. Nevertheless, our party takes seriously the information that has come out about it. It points to a serious threat to Nepal's national sovereignty and to the growing danger of American imperialism in Nepal. 

Our party had earlier publicly expressed concern about the possibility that Trump's government in America had its eye on Mustang's uranium mines. The information now brought forward by some media has raised serious suspicion about this matter. Since the current government of Nepal is a puppet government of the United States, the possibility cannot be ruled out that it has begun secretly conspiring to hand over Mustang's uranium to American imperialism. According to available information, some companies from the US and Australia, working together, are trying to establish ownership over the uranium in Mustang.

In this connection, there is also a strong possibility that American CIA and military personnel may go there disguised as technicians. In that sensitive area bordering China, such activity carries a strong possibility of creating serious tension and unrest in the country. Is Prime Minister Balen's visit to Mustang not connected to this very conspiracy? This question, too, cannot go unasked. Even the activists and ordinary people of the so-called independent party who support the Balen government need to pay attention to such anti-national steps. Our party wants to draw the attention of all patriotic Nepali people, political parties, social organizations and intellectuals to demand that the government bring out the truth in this matter, and to adopt heightened vigilance against such dangers.

2. The massive loss of life and property caused by the Bhote Koshi flood in Nepal is not merely a natural disaster; although the high Himalayan mountain ranges along the Nepal-China border area and their geographical and geological structure are also largely responsible for it. In addition, the rising temperatures caused by industrialization in imperialist countries are polluting the environment of the entire world. This effect is also being felt in the Himalayan region, increasing the danger of glacial lake outbursts, floods and landslides. The catastrophic Bhote Koshi flood and the destructive damage caused by it are the result of all these factors. In this context, it is also worth noting that the danger created by the recent Bhote Koshi flood poses a serious threat to the entire Himalayan region and mountain range. It is certain that such danger would directly harm both Nepal and China. Besides this, there is also a strong possibility of great danger to the whole of South Asia, including India, as well as to countries around the oceans due to rising sea levels from melting snow. According to various environmentalists and geologists, the danger arising from environmental degradation has increased the risk that floods or landslides many times greater than the Bhote Koshi flood could damage large parts of the country.

3. In the above circumstances, paying attention to protecting the environment of the whole world, of Nepal, and of the Himalayan region has become both an international and national necessity today. For this, our party has decided to organize an international seminar on the subject of the environment in the coming days. We had earlier organized such an international environmental program in Kathmandu as well. After the crisis brought upon the country by the Bhote Koshi flood, the need for such a program has grown many times greater than before. The date and venue of that program will be announced later.

4. As mentioned above, the news that has come out about a secret agreement made with America during the tenure of the previous Karki government regarding Mustang's uranium is making it increasingly clear that the current puppet government was installed as part of America's strategic plan to advance that very effort. The matter will not remain limited to that alone. America has also established the current puppet government in order to turn Nepal into a battleground for fulfilling its strategy of reinstating Dalai Lama in Tibet. 

Since its very establishment, that government has been moving in a fascist direction. According to information received from certain sources, in order to suppress all opposition to its imperialist policy and its strategy regarding the Dalai Lama, America has also made plans to eliminate those who oppose such policies. Given America's background of carrying out campaigns of violence and assassination against opponents in many countries, the possibility that it may adopt a similar approach in Nepal cannot be entirely ruled out. Even the President of America himself has been pursuing such a terroristic policy at the global level since coming to power. 

However, we must also pay attention to another aspect connected to this. At the global level, and even within America itself, its position is growing weaker day by day. Therefore, rather than being frightened by such a terroristic policy of American imperialism, we need to wage an even harder struggle against it. It is only through such uncompromising struggle that we must, and can, defeat imperialism. This is certainly not only a national question for Nepal but a serious question connected internationally as well. Therefore, we must try to move such a movement forward effectively by uniting with all forces around the world who oppose imperialist war and fascism and who favor world peace.

5. The puppet government currently established in Nepal is working in a planned manner to implement America's imperialist policy, while also attempting to establish fascist rule in the country. Accordingly, it is working in the direction of completely rewriting the constitution. It would not be surprising if, in that process, they also attempt to strike at republicanism and secularism. This is not hard to infer from the reality that the very person who wrote "Come King, Save the Country" as a status update has been made the coordinator of the task force formed for constitutional debate.

6. In the above situation, widespread public awakening and a united movement in favor of the country's national sovereignty, republicanism, secularism, and the progressive demands of the people have become today's national necessity. For this, broad working unity or alliance is needed among all left and democratic forces. But this task, too, is not easy. On one hand, various unclear, wavering, or compromising attitudes found among different left or democratic political forces regarding imperialism, national sovereignty, republicanism, and secularism have repeatedly caused problems for the united movement. If these forces cannot free themselves from such thinking, the united movement in the country will not be able to move forward powerfully, and the possibility cannot be ruled out that this would affect not only the country's sovereignty and democracy but even its very existence. In addition, the widespread populist thinking that has emerged among the people has also been of great help to reactionary and imperialist forces. Therefore, it has become today's historic and national necessity for all left and democratic political forces and patriotic people of the country to strive to move the united movement forward through broad working unity on the vital questions facing the country, despite all their differences.

7. In this context, we must also pay attention to another fact. In any country, the role of the people is decisive for revolutionary and progressive change. If reactionary forces succeed in suppressing public opinion, or if populist sentiment comes to dominate among the people, the country is more likely to move toward regression. Therefore, the work of raising a high level of political consciousness among the people always carries immense importance. Public consciousness can be raised only by struggling against the misleading ideas spread among the people by various domestic or foreign reactionary or opportunist elements; therefore, this work of raising public consciousness is of decisive importance for any revolutionary or progressive movement. We must pay serious attention to this task of raising public consciousness.

31 Bhadra 2083 (16 September 2026)
Mohan Bikram Singh
(General Secretary)

 

Book Review: Motown and the making of working-class revolutionaries…

Written by: “Contributed - Craig Brittain” on 23 September 2026

 

A reader has sent us his review of a book on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers who were organised in the Detroit auto plants in the late 1960s. Rank and file workers in America, led by oppressed minority groups (Black workers and immigrant workers from Central and South America) have a proud history of waging the class struggle. This continues today, but is concealed by the US mainstream media and the two Party system of Republicans and Democrats - Eds.

"Working Class Marxists"

Review of: Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-Fishman (2025), Motown and the making of working-class revolutionaries: the story of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, University of Georgia Press

Of all the radical groups to emerge in the U.S. in the 1960’s one of the most interesting was the League of Revolutionary Black Workers that began organising in the car industry in Detroit. 

Motown and the making of working-class revolutionaries is based on extensive interviews done with the surviving members of the League

Before and after the Second World War large numbers of Blacks had moved north from the southern states to escape segregation and police violence, and in search of the $5 a day Henry Ford was promising in his factories, when they were used to earning about $6 a week.

However, what they discovered in the car plants wasn’t the utopia they’d hope for - as usual, whites got the pick of the jobs, and Blacks did the dirty work. Management were white and so was the union. Both were racist.

Those who went north might not have experienced the legally sanctioned discrimination they’d experienced in the South, but there was plenty of discrimination nonetheless; in housing, education and employment. And the police were just the same.

In 1967 things came to a head in the Detroit Rebellion, which the media naturally referred to as “race riots”. President Johnson called in the National Guard and the military, which opened fire with machine guns upon ordinary Americans. 45 died in the street.

Finally, Black workers in Detroit had had enough. They started organising in their work places. A few student workers got together and created the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement or DRUM in May 1968 at the Chrysler Hamtramck Assembly Plant. Later on other RUMs (Revolutionary Union Movement) were set up in other plants and industries  - FRUM (Ford) and ELRUM (Chrysler Eldon Avenue), UPRUM (UPS United Parcel Service). They were formed in opposition to the United Auto Workers (U.A.W.). which like so many unions, then and now, had effectively become another branch of management. The U.A.W and the company had come to a convenient arrangement whereby the union would give advance notice of a strike. The companies would prepare and plan around it, effectively undermining the reason for going on strike in the first place. The union got financial and other kickbacks for this service.

The first thing the DRUM workers did was stage a wildcat strike over speedups on the assembly line. They were also protesting against the racist practices of the company and the union. 4000 workers walked off the job which stopped the production of 3000 cars.

Wildcat strikes became their main tactic.

The League of Revolutionary Black Workers was established to bring the various RUMs together and coordinate their activity. The leadership were Marxist-Leninist, but most of the production-line workers didn’t start out that way, they became Marxist on the shop floor.  

None of the white officials had counted on the fact that Blacks had learned strategies and tactics in the Civil Rights movement, the Black nationalist movement, and a range of socialist groups many had belonged to. They were experienced in mass meetings, collective decision-making, and direct action, and believed strongly in grass-roots leadership. And they knew how to put what they’d learnt to good use. 

Right at the beginning they set up newspapers to communicate with workers and the Black community at large. The Inner City Voice and South End became major sources of information.

As a group they were prepared to use whatever methods worked. It didn’t matter whether they’d originally come from the I.W.W., the Communist Party, the anarcho-syndicalists or the Maoists. 

They held demonstrations and rallies; issued plant bulletins and leaflets; picketed union headquarters and forced union executives to listen to their demands; boycotted nearby bars that refused to hire blacks. They also worked out how to quickly move pickets from one plant to another to outsmart the police… Two of the standard texts they studied were Mao’s “On Practice” and “On Contradiction”, which helped them analyse situations dialectically, and then decide what to do.

The League of Revolutionary Workers lasted two years (1969 - 1971) before it split. But it achieved a remarkable amount in that time. The split, when it occurred, was primarily over a difference of opinion about priorities. There were those like General Baker and Jerome Scott who felt that they should stick with what they’d set out to do - improve conditions for Blacks in the car industry; but others, like Mike Hamlin and Ken Cockerel wanted to broaden the focus to include areas like education and health care, publishing and film making. By-and-large the production-line workers thought that the Executive Branch were separating themselves from the workers and no longer listening to their grievances. They wanted more democracy; as it had been in DRUM at the beginning, when everyone had a say, and there wasn’t a gap between the “thinkers” (the Executive Branch) and the “workers” on the shop floor. Eventually, some of them, like Ernie Allen, were expelled for complaining, and the organisation didn’t last long much after that.

What is reassuring however (and true of most old leftist I know) is that they didn’t give up and become born-again capitalists or move to a commune in the country - they, each in their own way, kept up the struggle. Some members of the League, like Jerome Scott and General Baker, joined the Communist Labor Party, which eventually became the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, with the die-hard old radical, Nelson Peery.  They stuck with production workers in the factories and then, as automation and offshoring took over, increasingly concentrated on organising and educating the unemployed and under-employed. The other group went into community work, legal support, health work and local government. Both groups have made long-standing contributions. 

As one of the original League members, Luke Tripp, said in 2017: “The system in this country keeps me in a revolutionary orientation. The criminality and immorality of the system. Billionaires just sucking up all the wealth - super greedy, selfish and mean spirited. That’s what keeps me in a fighting spirit - a lot of outrage and anger.  Revolutionaries are fighters” p.155

The class struggle goes on. 

Another excellent book about the League is: Dan Georgakas’ and Marvin Surkin’s Detroit: I do mind dying: a study in urban revolution, St Martin’s Press, N.Y. 1975, available at the Internet Archive 
https://archive.org/details/detroitidominddy0000geor/page/n5/mode/1up

A documentary made by the group at the time is called Finally got the news and is available at the Internet Archive:
 https://archive.org/details/finally-got-the-news-1970

International Day of Peace action in Port Adelaide

Written by: Ned K on 22 September 2026

 

(Day of Peace participants march across the Port River Bridge. All photos supplied courtesy Fernando Goncalves)

On Sunday 20 September over 300 people gathered at the Workers' Memorial at the Black Diamond Corner at Port Adelaide as part of International Day of Peace actions against AUKUS across all States and Territories capitals and major regional centres such as Port Kembla as well.

The over 300 people attending the Port Adelaide actions were from many different groups including local resident members of Port Adelaide Community Opposing AUKUS (PACOA),

(PACOA speaker Eileen Darley)

Friends of Palestine, trade unions, women against war groups, environmental groups, First People's and tertiary education sector.

The significance of gathering at the Workers' Memorial at Port Adelaide was that previous generations of workers in the Port Adelaide area had taken action against Australia's involvement in imperialist wars, including the World War 1 and the Vietnam War. Seamen and dock workers at Port Adelaide had been active in the Vietnam Moratorium campaign and many lived in the Port Adelaide and Osborne area, the very place where the Australian Government and its master US and UK imperialists planned to waste $368 billions of taxpayer's money building nuclear powered and armed submarines at Osborne Naval Base, a few kilometres from the Workers Memorial.

There were many speakers demanding an end to AUKUS and no nuclear submarines.

A First People's speaker from APY Lands, Coralie Lester reminded everyone of the devasting impact on First Peoples from the UK's atomic bomb explosions at Maralinga in the 1950s and the danger to people today not only of AUKUS making Port Adelaide a nuclear target, but the dangers associated with turning South Australia in to an AUKUS nuclear waste dump.

One of many highlights of the day's actions was the arrival of Peace walkers, waving First Peoples’ flags. They had walked from Port Augusta in the mid north of SA to Port Adelaide, timing their arrival at Port Adelaide with the International Day of Peace actions.

Their arrival was enthusiastically received by all present, leading to dancing on the Port wharves to the music of the Fiddle We Must Band.

The following day, a delegation of International Day of Peace participants took the Anti- AUKUS no nuclear subs message to the Port Adelaide office of federal MP Mark Butler, whose office at Port Adelaide is a "stone's throw" from the Workers Memorial.

As the people's movement against AUKUS grows, those MPs who ignore it will be case aside, especially an MP like Mark Butler whose Seat covers the site on which the nuclear submarines are planned to be built.

Party’s discussion paper published

A CPA (M-L) discussion paper sent to the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star this September has been published on the Media & Archives/Booklets drop down menu on our website. It can also be accessed here: 

The Red Star comrades asked us to address the question of a paradigm shift in the balance of power between the imperialist states.

The paper identifies the main imperialist states; claims that Australia can be correctly defined as an advanced capitalist country under the domination of US imperialism; and offers opinions on how Indian and Australian revolutionaries, in each of our respective countries, can address tensions in our region.

It discusses whether or not imperialism is best thought of as the highest, or the latest, stage of imperialism and whether or not the five characteristics of imperialism identified by Lenin are still relevant. 

In relation to the inter-imperialist rivalry between China and the United States, it argues that “Efforts must be made to counter views sympathetic to Chinese social-imperialism. We do not want the US to launch a war with China, but neither do we accept the view that China’s expansion is a strategy designed to oppose US hegemonism. There should be no support for China as a leader of anti-hegemonic struggle when it is itself striving for hegemony.”

Trump and Xi meeting will not solve the crises inflicted on the people

Trump and Xi meeting will not solve the crises inflicted on the people

Written by: Nick G. on 22 September 2026

 

(Trump and Xi in Beijing May 2026  Wikimedia Commons public domain)

 

The upcoming visit of Xi Jinping to the United States, where he will meet and have talks with US President Trump, will see both imperialist powers trying to gain advantages over the other.

The US is the world’s strongest imperialist power measured in military projection and diplomatic reach. China is equally strong economically and is building a strong military which already rivals the US in key areas such as submarine and aircraft carrier numbers and in the application of AI and robotics to war plans.

But their respective strengths are fluid, with the US in an overall position of decline while the Chinese are the rising power.

Xi Jinping hopes to manoeuvre Trump into having to accept a certain degree of cooperation, even collusion, while Trump sees the relationship mainly as one of confrontation. Xi pushes for “multipolarity” or a strategic balance of power, whereas Trump’s view is largely unipolar with the US hoping to maintain its position of global hegemony.

Trump has been forced to accept the failure to bring the Iranians to their knees, despite his barbaric boasting that he would destroy their civilisation though intense bombing and missile attacks. Instead, the Iranians have inflicted considerable damage on 15 US military facilities throughout the Persian Gulf and destroyed several radar facilities designed to protect against missile attacks and worth billions of dollars. Far from winding down, the regional conflict is only heightening as the Houthis seize extra territory from the Yemeni regime. They now have 80% of the population and two thirds of Yemeni territory, and threaten Saudi Arabian oil exports through both the Bab el-Mandeb strait and the Saudi east-west pipeline, causing world oil prices to rise.

Trump has also failed to exercise any significant influence over the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine, despite boasting prior to being elected that he would end the Ukraine war in "one day" because he "got along very well" with the Russians. His various plans to end the war have come to nothing with recent escalations of the conflict on both sides, including successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries and pipelines.  In the first eight months of 2026, a Russian refinery was hit on average once every three days. Russian oil production is at its lowest level in more than 20 years and roughly 30% below a year earlier. Reported gasoline output is down by 20% compared with 2025 levels, while diesel production is estimated to have fallen by nearly 30%, prompting the government to restrict fuel exports to protect domestic supplies.

The Chinese see the US mired in difficulties and try to get them to accept “a constructive relationship of strategic stability.” When Xi met Trump in Beijing in May, Xi offered four dimensions of such a relationship: “a positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, a sound stability with moderate competition, a constant stability with manageable differences, and an enduring stability with promises of peace.” He will no doubt pursue this with Trump when they meet on September 24.

Whilst there are these two aspects to inter-imperialist rivalry, namely, cooperation and collusion on one hand and contention and confrontation on the other, it is the latter that is all-embracing, permanent and absolute, while their cooperation and collusion is partial, temporary and relative. That is the nature of the contradiction between them that arises from each other’s attempt to achieve global hegemony.

The strategic decline of the US inclines it towards unilateral expressions of domination and power such as its recent declaration that it already has weapons in the new warfare domain of space, and in its coerced agreement with Denmark and Greenland to permanently exclude Russian and Chinese military and economic presence in Greenland.

The strategic rise of China inclines it towards placing its rival on the defensive, letting it expend its energy in conflicts it cannot win, and outsmarting it diplomatically by being the voice of reason and avoidance of confrontation.  It is strong enough economically to withstand the bullying of US sanctions and tariffs.

The contradictions between US imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism are irreconcilable and now extend beyond the globe to outer space. “Multipolarity” and “strategic stability” can only be empty words so long as imperialism exists.

The old adage that so long as imperialism exists, so too does the danger of world war, remains true.

The just struggles of the peoples of the world for the independence of their nations and for overthrowing capitalism and advancing along the socialist path will continue until the end of the imperialism system.

“Imperialism wounds so many people. We can’t look away.”

Written by: Louisa L. on 21 September 2026

 

(Stomping on US puppets as resistance flags fly -Supplied)

On the 54th Anniversary of the imposition of martial law in the Philippines, around 50 gathered in Sydney, before an anti-Aukus, pro-Palestine rally.

Claude Mostowic, representing Pax Christi, spoke first. He condemned ongoing colonialism both here and overseas. He pointed out the Catholic Church had stood for truth and justice in the Philippines. But in Australia the McMahon government endorsed martial law by providing military aid. Mostowic spoke of the “violence of silence”.

But his particular target was US imperialism.

“We can’t look away,” he said. “Imperialism wounds so many people. Yet the struggle always continues.”

A number of young people also spoke. From Migrante, Aya hailed the massive anti-corruption protests. She said, “My pride comes from my people.”

US embassy drools over war bases and potential profits 

Vanguard recently reported, “During December, 2025, the Trump administration finalised an agreement with the Philippines to establish a huge AI facility on 4,000 acres of land with a 99 year lease. Based in Tarlac Province, the proposed Pax Silica facility has made use of the former US Clark Air Force Base, officially closed in 1991, with the ending of the previous Cold War.” 

On August 31, Indigenous peoples, farmers, scientists, workers, students and many others protested against Pax Silica and the massive the US Luzon Economic Corridor, which includes Pax Silica. 

A drooling US Embassy in the Philippines factsheet – a must read! – lays out the staggering scale of the project. It calls the massive Luzon Economic Corridor, a “trilateral” initiative between the US, Japan and the Philippines, plus Australian and other US “partners” But in reality, it carves up 50 percent of the Philippine’s economy under US military and corporate control. https://ph.usembassy.gov/fact-sheet-luzon-economic-corridor/ 

Speakers in Sydney praised “the new generation of Filipino youth” rising here and overseas, saying the only way is to fight. Instead of parliamentarism, “We see the people rise up against US imperialism.”