Extracting Australia from the grip of imperialism. Australia's two-stage revolution: a contribution to discussion

Vanguard February 2014 p. 4
by Alex M.

One of the central elements of the political programme of the CPA (ML) is the concept of the ‘two-stage revolution’.

 The party’s analysis of the concrete social, political and economic conditions of contemporary Australia reveal that there is no easy road to socialism in this country.

 Despite the difficulties, the goal of building socialism here, and by extension, across the globe, is not only desirable but also possible. Given that Australia is where we are situated, our primary arena of struggle has to be this country. How then can we accomplish the task of building socialism in Australia?   

The obstacle of imperialism

The key feature of contemporary Australia is that it is dominated by US imperialism.

 A relatively recent and lucid definition of imperialism – which enhances previous work on the subject by Lenin amongst others - has been developed by David Harvey and is worth bearing in mind because it helps us make sense of the world and Australia’s place in it.

 

According to Harvey, imperialism (and by that is meant the specific form of capitalist imperialism) has two components which exist in a dialectical relationship.

The two components of imperialism are on the one hand the ‘politics of the state and empire’ which is a ‘distinctively political project on the part of actors whose power is based in command of a territory and a capacity to mobilize its human and natural resources towards political, economic, and military ends’.

On the other hand there are the ‘molecular processes of capital accumulation in space and time’ which Harvey suggests are integral to imperialism and ‘…in which command over and use of capital takes primacy’ (Harvey, 2005: p.26).

 Harvey glosses this further by incorporating the concept of logics of power drawn from the work of Giovanni Arrighi. In short, capitalist imperialism is made up of two logics of power, the ‘territorial’ and the ‘capitalist’. They are different from one another, but they are parts of a whole.

The ‘territorial’ logic of power is the recognition that in the realm of global politics, states may act in the interests of particular classes but ‘[p]oliticians and statesmen (sic) typically seek outcomes that sustain or augment the power of their own state vis-à-vis other states’.

The ‘capitalist’ logic of power is not as territorially based and does not have the same time constraints that apply in the bourgeois democracies, that is, electoral cycles, but as Harvey points out ‘capitalist firms come and go, shift locations, merge, or go out of business’ (Harvey, 2005: p.27).

The capitalist accumulation process lies at the heart of this logic of power.

Thus there are two sides to capitalist imperialism, two logics in operation which exist in a dialectical relationship.

Sometimes it is possible that what is driving particular global and/or domestic events is not so much the pressures of capitalist accumulation, the ‘capitalist’ logic of power, rather it is the ‘territorial’ logic of power that is the dominant factor. That is, states and their actors are the driving forces behind events.

A recent example would be the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the US and the so-called ‘Coalition of the Willing’. The invasion was not primarily driven by business interests (though business interests did benefit – Halliburton for one) but by Bush and his cronies who sought to enact ‘regime-change’ in Iraq and underline the strength of US power in the region and thus globally. The US state was acting as the imperialist thug par excellence invading and occupying a sovereign country.

At other times, the ‘capitalist’ logic of power is the dominant factor, with the state helping to promote the interests of particular corporations and/or sectoral interests. One only has to look at the TPPA for evidence of the operation of this logic.   

Imperialism’s impact on Australia

How then does this influence the situation in Australia?

As noted above Australia is dominated by US imperialism. The mainstream political parties here accept the hegemonic position of the US state in international politics.

The ANZUS treaty binds Australia militarily with the US and closer military ties with the latter have been a disturbing feature of the past decade. Labor and Coalition federal governments have demonstrated an eagerness to uncritically accept US foreign policy goals and integrate Australia into America’s ‘territorial’ logic of power. Australia largely acts as a ‘client state’ of the sole superpower.

Regarding the other part of the dialectical relationship that makes up imperialism, the ‘capitalist’ logic of power, we see that US based multinational corporations (or US capital in short) dominate the commanding heights of the Australian economy. Trade agreements act to increase the presence, depth and breadth of US capital in Australia. American pharmaceutical corporations, for example, want the PBS scheme eroded to help maximise their profits.

There is scope for Australian governments and capitalist corporations to make decisions relatively autonomously such as ‘turning back the boats’ or making overseas investments (hello QANTAS) but the US imperialist framework remains currently inviolable.

Two stages of the Australian revolution

Recognising the constraints imposed on Australian political and economic development by US imperialism, our party has proposed a two stage process in ridding Australia of the incubus of imperialism.

The first stage is the winning of real independence with Australian working class interests to the fore.

The process involves the coming together of the masses of the Australian population led by the working class, to amongst other things, fashion an independent foreign policy free from subservience to US geopolitical imperatives.

In tandem with this struggle, it will be necessary to develop and implement alternative economic policies to the neoliberal agenda which predominantly benefits US capital and which presently blights the Australian and global capitalist economy.

The first stage will culminate in a truly independent Australia on the basis of which the second stage, the building of socialism can then proceed. This is how we can accomplish the task of building socialism in Australia.

Reference

Harvey, David. The New Imperialism Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005.