In our millions the ordinary people want to live in peace with each other, in safety and well-being, and fervently oppose wars of aggression. Understanding the main forces driving imperialist wars, and recognising allies of the people, is a powerful weapon in building a broad and united anti-war movement. More than ever the U.S. is revealing its naked face and generating a great movement of the people against imperialism.
U.S. imperialism is stepping up its aggression and belligerence against the people of sovereign countries. The bullying, provocations and threats of massive attacks in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are undoubtedly preparations for war and sending a message to the world that America still wears the crown of the great superpower and unchallengeable global policeman.
Aggression in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, provocations against North Korea, overt and covert engineered “regime changes” and coups, invasions, occupations, assassinations, illegal bombing of sovereign countries and military build-ups in east Europe and Asia-Pacific are exposing the U.S. as a ruthless, blood drenched warmonger putting the world on a dangerous path.
It uses the screen of fighting ISIS terrorism in the Middle East and whipping up fear and panic of a North Korean nuclear attack, but its main targets are Russia and China who are challenging its world hegemony.
This is the behaviour of a desperate and dangerous imperialist super-power economically in decline, and flexing its military muscles to prop up its waning world supremacy.
Deeper economic and political decay
The impoverishment of millions of America’s working people, shrinking commodities markets, and the resulting falling rate of profit for U.S. multinational corporations is pushing the desperation to seize more markets and resources, and go to war. The US ruling class savagely attacks the people at home, and inflicts wars and suffering on people and sovereign countries who refuse to bow to its imperialist dictates.
U.S. driven globalisation, or free trade (NAFTA, TPP, TTIP, TISA), is now less able to rescue U.S. monopoly capitalism from its inevitable economic crash. It has only worsened the impoverishment of the people and the crisis of overproduction. It has generated strong public resistance around the world.
Unable to sufficiently re-boot the U.S. capitalist economy, and shore up its declining influence around the world, preparations are made for a major war as one of the few remaining options left to the 1% parasitic class to rescue its system. This is what Trump means by “Make America Great Again”- return to former position of unchallengeable super-power and global policeman for the U.S. ruling class of monopoly corporations.
The merging of U.S. military-industrial-finance capital is shaping a higher form of monopoly capitalism and imperialism today. Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electrics are the main U.S. industrial manufacturers and merchants of weapons of mass destruction. They reap huge profits from the expansion of U.S. wars around the world.
Australia – servile client state
U.S. imperialism needs loyal and servile “allies” to do its bidding and give credibility to its military aggressions and economic hegemony. The backing of servile puppet governments who unquestioningly follow their U.S. masters is essential in the U.S. armoury for executing its wars of aggression, regime changes and interference in other countries.
Since the British colonial theft and dispossession of the First Nations People nearly 240 years ago, Australia’s foreign policies have been dictated by its colonial and imperialist overlords. Except for WW2 and East Timor, Australia’s foreign policies and involvement in overseas wars have mirrored the British, and now U.S. global imperialist objectives. They had nothing to do with defending Australia from an external threat or our sovereignty. It is no exaggeration to describe the relationship between U.S. and Australian governments as one of a master and its obsequious doormat servant. Australia is the “deputy sheriff” and a key regional outpost doing the bidding for U.S. imperialism and its monopoly capitalist class.
America’s ‘Pivot into Asia-Pacific’ is an economic and military expansion to shore up its waning economic power and influence in the region. The failed TPP was a last ditch attempt by the US to galvanise its dominance and undermine China’s economic influence.
Australia’s defence policies, the military and the defence industries are now more than ever deeply enmeshed in the U.S. industrial-military complex, openly serving U.S. imperialist global military and strategic agendas.
The two main parliamentary parties, Labor and LNP, are sycophantic flunkeys trying to outdo each other, grovelling to their U.S. masters to prove their unquestioning and obedient allegiance to a warmonger.
Australia’s defence manufacturing industries are now designed for building U.S. weaponry, naval warships and planes for inter-operability with U.S. global military aggression, and have little to do with self-defence of our sovereignty.
The U.S. arms monopolies are being integrated into Australia’s public education system with Lockheed Martin recently establishing a major Research Laboratory Centre in the University of Melbourne, with former Labor leader Kim Beazley as its main executive director in Australia. The Lockheed Martin Research Laboratory is its largest outside the U.S.
Raytheon has been involved in South Australian state schools. It has recently been awarded a $2 billion Federal government contract to build ground based missile defence system for the “protection” of ground troops in U.S. imperialist wars overseas.
U.S. bases in Australia, especially Pine Gap, are integral to U.S. military global aggression and service the military-industrial complex.
The cost to the Australian people
Australia’s working people are carrying the financial cost of the U.S. Alliance. Working people’s taxes have been paying for the successive Australian governments servicing U.S. military agendas, and using Australia as a launching pad for its wars.
The financial cost of sending Australian soldiers and military advisers to U.S. wars around the world, expanding, building and maintaining the infrastructure for 2,500 U.S. marines in Darwin, the expansion of Australia’s air and naval bases to accommodate American planes, ships and submarines, purchasing 75 F35 war planes at a cost of $10 billion, $2 billion to Raytheon, and the list goes on – these are the costs carried by working people through our taxes.
This military hardware is designed exclusively for offensive wars, not self-defence of Australia’s sovereignty. Most expenditure on U.S. military agendas is not publicly revealed.
In announcing the Pivot in 2011-12 Obama and Clinton made it clear that Australia would have to increase its defence spending to pay for increased U.S. military activities in the Asia-Pacific and in Australia. The demand was repeated by President Trump, ordering the ‘allies’ to increase their defence spending to 2% of their GDP.
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ustralia has spent billions of dollars servicing and supporting U.S. wars and integration into America’s industrial-military complex. At the same time governments cut funding to public health and education, welfare, community services, scientific and technological research and measures to halt climate change.
Much of the recently acquired weaponry, hardware and arms procurement is from the U.S. multinational arms manufacturers – Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Boeing, General Electric, etc. Australia is purchasing from the U.S., 75 F35 joint strike fighters war planes at a cost of $10 billion; and 12 Barracuda submarines from France (member of NATO), at a cost of $50 billion. This hardware is specifically designed and built for America’s long range warfare, and has no useful value for self defence of Australia’s sovereignty.
Demands are now being raised for the government to stop spending billions of dollars of people’s taxes on U.S. wars and instead direct it to meet the needs of Australia’s working people.
Public calls for an independent and peaceful Australian foreign policy are widening and gathering momentum. From the late Malcolm Fraser, retired Defence personnel, lawyers, unionists, former politicians, faith organisations, community groups, medical doctors and thousands of others, the tide towards independence and breaking out of U.S. Alliance is gathering pace.
It is our view that real independence can only be guaranteed in a socialist Australia, where the working class will rule for people’s needs and interests.
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