For peace, and against Australian military involvement in Afghanistan

Vanguard October 2012 p. 5

Alex M.

The military base at Swan Island, near Queenscliff, Victoria, will be the site for a concerted campaign directed against Australian involvement in Afghanistan.

The campaign, organised by the group Swan Island Peace Convergence, is scheduled for September 23^rd to 27^th inclusive. The aim is to blockade the base, not only to protest the continuing Australian military involvement in Afghanistan, but to also draw attention to the darker nature of some the Island’s occupants.

This year marks the second such attempt at a blockade of the base. As pointed out on the website www.swanislandpeace.org , the aim is to non-violently protest Australia’s role in supporting the US imperialist presence in Afghanistan.

Moreover, part of Swan Island is an Australian Defence Force Special Forces facility (primarily used by the SAS) and, since the 1950s, the base has hosted the spooks of the Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIS). (There is much more on the clandestine nature of the base on Swan Island; follow the links on the website). Presently SAS troops are deployed in Afghanistan and many will serve there after 2014, as part of a Special Forces contingent.

According to Rev. Simon Moyle, one of the organisers of the blockade, the planned withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan in 2014 will not end the Australian military presence in the country: “The Australian Government wants the public to think that our involvement in Afghanistan ends with the withdrawal of Australian troops by 2014. This is not true. Gillard has said that Australian Special Forces will continue their deadly occupation of Afghanistan until the end of the decade at least. We’re saying that if they want to do that, they’ll have to go through us.”

Moyle witnessed at first hand the damage that the US led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has brought in its train, visiting the country last year. He is critical of how Australian governments automatically follow US foreign policy. Highlighting the subservience that lies at the very heart of the ANZUS alliance, Moyle states that: “Australia’s alliance with the U.S. has dragged us into two disastrous wars in the last decade and is fuelling rising tension in the Asia Pacific. Australia needs to end the ANZUS alliance and develop cooperative relationships in our region”.

Another member of the Swan Island Peace Convergence, Jess Morrison, makes the obvious link between imperialist occupation and the rise of fundamentalism and armed resistance: “The last decade of Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan has fuelled fundamentalism and armed resistance. We listen to the voices of Afghan people who have had enough guns and bombs, of foreign soldiers breaking down their doors, and of war destabilising their country. We believe that all troops, including the SAS troops trained here in Swan Island, need to come home now and allow Afghans to start rebuilding their own country.”

The Swan Island Peace Convergence is a necessary step in not only resisting Australian involvement in imperialist aggression, but in building mass struggles for global peace. As such it deserves our wholehearted support.