CPA (M-L) October 7 Statement

Written by: Alice M. on 6 October 2024

 

Power to the Palestinian National Liberation struggle!  
People of the world unite and fight against Zionist Israel colonialism and US imperialism!
Condemn the Australian government complicity in the mass slaughter of people of Palestine and Lebanon!

The 7th October, 2023, Palestinian break out from the Gaza concentration camp signalled a turning point in the courageous Palestinian people’s struggle for national liberation and self-determination. 

The break out sent a message to the world that the Palestinian resistance to Israel’s brutal occupation would never be defeated.  

 

Despite Zionist Israel’s slaughter of over 42,000 Palestinians, hundreds of thousands more injured, maimed and buried in rubble, despite wiping out 85% of Gaza’s infrastructure, schools, hospitals, child care centres, mosques and churches, the fascist Zionist state is nowhere near destroying Palestinian resistance.

 

On the contrary. Palestinian resistance has only grown in numbers, more united and determined to end the US backed occupation.  For every Palestinian massacred, injured and displaced in Gaza and West Bank, scores more have joined the resistance and the fight for liberation.  Israel is learning the lessons of every colonial and imperialist power - that the struggle for freedom and liberation, against occupation and oppression, can never be crushed.  

 

The fascist Israeli genocide of the people of Gaza that followed 7th October has broadened and mobilised the global Palestine solidarity movement to end the occupation, and stop the US-led imperialist powers financing and arming Israel.  The heroic Palestinian resistance is showing the world the naked reality of 77 years of Israeli brutal colonial occupation backed to the hilt politically, financially and militarily by US-led western imperialist powers. 

 

For the US, Israel is a vital strategic base in the Middle East for safeguarding and projecting US imperialist interests economically, politically and militarily in the region.  In 1986 Biden famously said: “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” Without US imperialist backing the monstrous Zionist colonial state would not be able to survive for as long as it has unleashing the carnage on the Palestinian people.

 

The true face of US imperialism and the fascist Zionist state are on full display for the world to see.

 

The Palestinian national liberation struggle is at front and centre, leading and uniting global anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggles, inspiring the oppressed, the exploited, people’s movements for independence, peace and against imperialist war.

 

In extending their attacks on the people of Lebanon, Iran and Yemen, the rulers of Israel and the US are facing a common fate of frustration and defeat, and ultimately extinction, at the hands of the masses fighting for liberation.  

 

Internally, Israel is imploding politically and economically.   Beneath the veneer and deception of unity generated by Israel’s ruling class, Israel is a deeply divided occupying colonial state viciously oppressing the Palestinian people, and increasingly its own critics.  The colonial and racist Zionist ideology has weaponised and exploited the WW2 holocaust to control the Jewish people to manage and enforce the European ruling class’s colonial occupation.  A common method practised by empires and colonisers to subjugate the colonised.

 

The Israeli fascist state violently attacks its own peaceful protesters or any critics of Israel’s racist policies and occupation.  Peaceful protests are brutally attacked by the Israeli police. Even groups of ultra orthodox Jews protesting peacefully against genocide and the occupation are violently attacked, bashed and violently kicked by the repressive Israeli police.

 

Growing numbers of army regular and reserve soldiers are refusing to take part in genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.  Instead, many have spent years in gaol, ostracised and vilified publicly; some shunned by their families and friends.  Since the Gaza blitzkrieg the number of refuseniks is growing exponentially in numbers and organisations, and is predicted to grow with the invasion of Lebanon.

 

• Zionism and imperialism create racism to divide and subjugate the people.

• The Lebanon invasion is repeating Gaza war crimes.  Already at the start of the invasion over 2,000 Lebanese people have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced.

• Extending war to Lebanon and Iran is intended to draw attention away from Israel’s failure to destroy resistance in Gaza and the West Bank.  

  

Australia not so lucky country for migrant workers

Written by: Ned K. on 6 October 2024

 

(Above: migrant workers are an imrtant part of the Australian working class.  UWU Facebook page)

Migrant workers have been coming to Australia since the earliest times since British colonialism first invaded the lands of First Nations people in the late 1700s. After the Second World War, new migrant workers from predominantly European countries were able to find full time jobs in government departments, large government projects or in factories in manufacturing industries. 

Public housing was more accessible and affordable and with plenty of overtime available, many workers had enough savings for a deposit to buy a modest house in a working class suburb. 

The concentration of large numbers of migrant workers in large workplaces enabled them to organize in unions to win relative job security and improvement in wages in conditions. For many, the "Australian dream" of owning your own home which they had heard about when making the decision to migrate to Australia seemed like a reality.

In the 21st Century, there are still many new migrants coming from Europe but also many more coming from Asian, Middle-Eastern, African and South American countries.

They come with the same aspirations of building better lives for themselves and their families as previous waves of migrants. On arrival they also see the expansion of suburbs and strive to become new home buyers. In fact, they see this as more of a necessity than migrants who arrived in the second half of the 20th century because of the collapse of public housing by governments across Australia. 

They also find an Australia where full-time jobs for are the exception for their communities rather than the rule.

So they are forced to often work two or three jobs to make enough money to pay the rent and bills, let alone to save enough money for a deposit on a house. 

Most of the available jobs for them are via labour hire agencies or with contractor capitalists who themselves live a precarious existence competing with other contractors to win work from governments (who have outsourced work) or large multinational corporations who dominate most industries in an Australia stripped of its manufacturing base by overseas-owned capital and compliant Australian governments.

Despite the difficulties they face, new migrant workers strive to "make it" in their new country they now call home. So they walk the thin line between maintaining and improving their economic situation and economic disaster due to the decisions made by the big corporations in pursuit of profit maximization.

Recently I saw an example of how precarious the situation is for some new migrant families and communities.

About 40 migrant workers were working for a cleaning contractor in a large shopping center owned by a Queensland based property developer. The contractor had won work at the center at a lower price than that of their competitors. The workers employed by the contractor were mainly part time workers with a few full-time.

Many of the workers took the job because it enabled them to work their second job which was also part-time. For example, some would work three days a week in the evening for about 4 hours so they could work a second job in the morning. A few had full time hours and had set themselves up as self-employed in another occupation as well outside of their full-time job. A couple of these workers had been balancing this workload of about 16 hours a day in total which enabled them to save enough to buy and pay off a house, their new home in a new land.

Then one day out of the blue their contractor boss announced a whole revamp of the roster system which reduced the total working hours of the 40 workers.

More of the work was moved to reduce shift rate hours worked and hence income of workers. This was not the main impact though of the changes to the roster system. The main impact was that it meant a lot of workers would have to give up the job completely to keep their second job or the reverse, give up their second job to keep the shopping center job. 

Problems for workers did not stop there. Even if some workers were able to keep both their part-time jobs, the new roster system meant they had to re-arrange with their partners who would look after the children, and would the new roster system mean their partner then had to give up their job or cut their hours to make sure one parent at least was able to look after their children. One worker was beside himself. He had thought that with the hard work and long hours of three jobs between himself and his partner that it was safe to really live the "Australian dream" by buying a second house and renting it out as part of building some economic security for his family. Now a roster change was throwing all that up in the air. 

Their contractor boss made the roster system changes to make-up lost profits caused by their company winning the contract with the property developer on such a low price that the only way to make a profit was to cut labour costs.

As the workers were only employed under the minimum conditions of the Award, there was no such legal requirement that rosters could only be changed by agreement. All the boss had to do (reluctantly apparently) was go through a process which had the appearance of consultation with the workers and their union.

Workers in their desperation to block the new roster system met with the property developer to see if they'd tell the contractor to leave the rosters as they were.

However, the property owner washed their hands of the whole matter "satisfied" that the contractor had sufficiently "consulted" with the workers.

These migrant workers are very resilient and their communities stick together and support each other and they will live to fight another day.
Wen seeing this happen, I thought what a cruel system is capitalism but also for the large majority of people, what a useless society it is. It just doesn't work for people on so many different levels. 

Time is now for an independent, socialist Australia where First Nations and working people run and organize society for the benefit of people, including new migrants like those working for this contractor in the shopping centre.

Murdoch media’s blindness and indifference to the far-right

Written by: (Contributed) on 1 October 2024

 

Two recent developments have shown just how obtuse so-called informed opinion and government departments have become when dealing with the resurgence of the far-right in Australia. Both developments reveal an intellectual blindness and indifference to violent political actors who seek to enforce their far-right ideologies upon civil society by targeting ethnic minorities, other vulnerable people and using terrorist strategies of tension. The problem is particularly important when assessed in the context of recent developments in the Middle East and their bearing upon Australia.

In mid-August the Australian newspaper published a large feature spread about the UK riots, which had been caused by far-right groups. (1) The article formed part of a typical right-wing analysis of the far-right, without any reference to the philosophical basis of their reactionary thought; economic problems, for the far-right, are measured in ethnic and racist criteria with immigration invariably seen as the sole cause. Ethnic-based analysis also forms part of elitist thought and white supremacy, with other ethnic groups down-graded as less able and worthwhile for meaningful social inclusion.

The Australian article then followed the standard right-wing diversion tactic of ignoring the very real economic problems at the heart of the issue, caused by over four decades of economic rationalism which was used to pillage and plunder British society. Politicians and financiers had a field-day implementing user-pays economic philosophies designed specifically to destroy the welfare state and essential services and therefore penalise the working-class.

The Australian article then went to considerable lengths to praise the work of Margaret Thatcher, the main architect of economic rationalism; she was regarded as being responsible for restoring traditional authority patterns in British society, without any reference to class and state repression which was the order of the day during her Conservative administrations of the 1980s in Westminster.

A closer study of the Australian article has revealed strong underlying links to the so-called National Civic Council (NCC), an Australian far-right political group. In fact, emphasis in the article is remarkably similar to that presented on official NCC websites. (2) The organisation portrays itself as 'centrist', with an emphasis upon reason and family values; it is, however, anything but that, and a classic Cold War-type front organisation with a common pattern of operation symptomatic of intelligence agencies. 

Established in the 1950s, during the previous Cold War, the NCC was essentially an anti-Communist organisation with strong links into the Catholic hierarchy. It ran anti-Communist campaigns through highly secretive and shadowy networks in Australia which proved highly divisive for the ALP and trade-union movement, thereby strengthening the hand of those wielding class and state power by weakening political opposition.

The NCC also found a place for war criminals and those who had colluded with fascist and neo-Nazi organisations; those wielding class and state power conveniently turned a blind eye to the connection, as it clearly served their interests. (3)

The NCC also served Canberra and their US-based patrons well. Its linkage with ASIO and wider regional US military and intelligence operations, have been well recorded. (4) At a regional level the NCC, for example, was one of the main players behind the establishment of ASEAN, then a staunchly anti-Communist trade body designed to isolate Vietnam and strengthen US hegemonic positions. (5)  

The NCC is best viewed in the context of inter-war clerico-fascist organisations which drew upon extreme religious positions to enforce class and state power in an era when economic malaise created the conditions for political upheaval. General Franco, the Spanish despot, would appear to have been their role model for an effective leader. Peron, in Argentina, was another.

With the demise of the previous Cold War and subsequent present day one, it is no great surprise to find the NCC has relaunched itself in the manner which it has, using deceitful and duplicitous methods of operation. Under new national president Luke McCormack, elected in March last year, the NCC aims to revitalise the decentralised model of its founder, BA Santamaria. The fact it is able to preach its advocacy of strong government in a major Australian media outlet is evidence, in itself, of their continued threat; strong government, for the NCC, is achieved by weak and ineffective opposition.

The recent investigation into the 2022 killing of police officers at Wieambilla in Queensland is another example of the same official mind-set of those residing inside the corridors of power when dealing with the far-right. The whole investigation has remained riddled with contradictions. An official position of the investigators noted those responsible were a Christian fundamentalist group who believed in 'premillennialism'; they believed in the second coming based on a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation. (6) 

Elsewhere, quirky covers for far-right terrorism have not been difficult to establish: references to 'Justiciar Knights' and other fringe dwellers, for example, have been officially assessed by intelligence services and found to be directly linked to terrorism. (7)

Great stress, throughout the Wieambilla investigation, has been placed upon the nature of the autonomous cell of terrorists responsible for the killings. The three members of the Train family were regarded as an insular group, with the denial 'that there is anyone else in Australia that participated or assisted in this attack'. (8) But what about the international terrorist connections? Elsewhere, for example, it was officially noted that at '6am on the day of the attack, they had been attempting to convince a woman to move from the US and join them'. (9) She was presumably regarded as an asset for the far-right cell of terrorists.

Another investigator was responsible for the official denial that the Train terrorist cell was not linked to the far-right Sovereign Citizens Movement (SCM), the far-right movement which has pushed a political line that government institutions and their laws and regulations are non-legitimate and they, therefore, become legitimate targets for terrorist action. (10)

Evidence to the contrary about the Train family has not proved difficult to establish: it has been recorded from reliable sources that Gareth Train was 'an active participant in Australian fringe conspiracy forums and websites'. (11) It was noted, furthermore, that 'Gareth Train … had been … unable to find fulfilment from fringe political and SCM's … as early as … June 2021'. (12) Train was regarded as espousing SCM views on-line in a large number of emails. (13)

While the investigation has received a statement to the effect that the Trains 'were suffering shared delusions linked to their Christian beliefs when they ambushed four officers who entered their property at Wieambilla', very little time has been spent acknowledging the direct linkage between the terrorist cell and far-right political movements. (14)

In conclusion, the two recent developments reveal an ideological blindness and indifference by those wielding class and state power when dealing with the far-right.  

Questions, therefore, arise: official commentary from Canberra from December 2022, for example, highlighted problems arising with so-called 'new forms of terrorism … which represent … a significant departure from religious fundamentalism that historically accounted for most of ASIO's caseload'. (15) While there was no specific reference to radical Islam, it was presumably the main factor concerned. Related commentary has revealed, for example, a narrow focus of 'persons of interest', while disregarding other, highly relevant criteria, about far-right terrorism and strategies of tension. Who were the analysts? And what interests were they serving?

The problem, furthermore, would appear to have considerable relevance for the present-day federal government when dealing with issues arising in the Middle East which have a direct bearing upon Australia. The present Israeli government in Tel Aviv is of a far-right political nature. A great deal of the political discourse from Canberra has revealed an almost mediocre level of understanding of basic issues and slavish adherence to US diplomatic positions and those of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. The significance of intelligence assessments and who is actually providing the analysis is, for example, a foremost consideration; particularly when those concerned got it wrong.

Whether those up yonder will provide any meaningful answers to the problem of the resurgence of the far-right in Australia, remains, as yet, to be established. It would appear from their present performance to be highly unlikely.  

1.     Crisis of authority, identity politics at heart of UK riots, Australian, 13 August 2024.
2.     See Web-site: The National Civic Council – For a Stronger Australia.
3.     See: Sanctuary! Nazi fugitives in Australia, Mark Aarons, (Victoria, 1989), with specific reference to pp.239-40, pp. 293-94; and, Obituary: Lyenko Urbanchich, (1922-2006), Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes, The Weekend Sydney Morning Herald, 4-5 March 2006; and, A fight against the Right, The Weekend Australian, 22-23 September 2007.
4.     Catholic spies in ASIO's network, Australian, 11 August 2017; and, Ted Serong, Anne Blair, (Victoria, 2002), numerous references, pp. 1-203.
5.     Benign spymaster built global network, Australian, 3 March 1998.
6.     Fatal attack on cops 'religious terror', Australian, 17 February 2023.
7.     See: Justiciar Knights, The Global Intelligence Files, ref: https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/15/1548871_-ct-justiciar-knights-.html
8.     Australian, op.cit., 17 February 2023.
9.     Trains 'recruiting among Christian extremist group', Australian, 14 August 2024.
10.   Australian, op.cit., 17 February 2023.
11.   See: Experts renew warnings, Crikey, 13-14 December 2022.
12.   Australian, op.cit., 14 August 2024.
13.   Ibid.; and, Crikey, op.cit., 13-14 December 2022.
14.   'Police ambush was an act of terror', Australian, 29 August 2024.
15.   Right-wing extremist fears drive gun reform, The Weekend Australian, 4-5 February 2023.   

SA Ambo’s election shows workers want their unions to fight regardless of who holds office

Written by: Nick G. on 4 October 2024

 

The election of a new leader for the Ambulance Employees Association in South Australian reflects the desire of union members for their union to pursue their objectives free of any alignment with the Labor Party.

Like ambulance services around the country, SA ambos and the community are angry at continuing problems with ramping where unwell or injured persons are delivered to hospitals but are unable to be admitted, so are kept for hours in ambulances parked at the doors of the hospitals.

The problems in SA became so acute a couple of years ago under a State Liberal government that Labor ran a single issue campaign, promising to fix ramping and was duly elected.

Despite opening a half a dozen new 24/7 ambulance stations across the metropolitan area and in several country locations, and despite an extra 27 ambulances added to the fleet over last two years and extra beds created for hospitals, ramping not only remains a problem, but has worsened.

In the lead-up to the last election, the ambulance union ran a highly visible campaign. Ambulances carried chalked messages damning the Liberals and calling for public support, and stories of critical incidents, including of people dying while being ramped, filled the media.

But after the election, the heat was lifted from the incoming Labor government, the AEA disappeared from the media, and ambulances went unchalked.

But the crisis kept on delivering bad news. Last December, a 54-year-old man died after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance. In July, an 83-year-old woman spent 12 hours waiting to be admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital overnight. The same month saw the worst ramping on record, with more than 5500 hours of ramping for the month - equivalent to 15 ambulance crews ramped, unavailable for the community, every single day.

The crisis continued into August when at one point up to 54 ambulances were ramped across Adelaide Hospitals, 17 of which were ramped at Flinders Medical Centre alone, some for up to 7 hours.

Meanwhile 23 emergency cases remained uncovered in the community. 

Paramedic Paul Ekkelboom contested the AEA election for the General Secretary position on a campaign headlined by the promise of re-establishing the AEA’s political independence, and including promises to empower AEA representatives, have a stronger stance and advocacy on ramping, and a preparedness to take legal and industrial action. He won the election with 801 to 342 votes.

The election result clearly shows that workers want their union to have the capacity to fight for their interests regardless of which party holds office. 

We say “holds office” rather than “gets into power” because real power resides in the boardrooms of the giant local and overseas monopolies that control the economy, and hence the political and legal structures that sustain their rule.

The demand that unions adhere to an independent working class agenda, not “go soft” on Labor when it holds office, and even disaffiliate from it to secure their independence, is bound to grow.

 

Workers' Struggle Goes Well Beyond "Protected Industrial Action"

 Written by: Ned K. on 27 September2024

 

Hardly a day goes by without workers somewhere in Australia taking "protected industrial action" to win unresolved claims from Enterprise Agreement negotiations with their immediate employer.

Workers who are union members continue to use the "protected industrial action" provisions of the Fair Work Act to protect and/or advance their incomes and working conditions. Use of these provisions has led to some workers taking collective industrial action for the first time against a single employer across different worksites.

A current example of this is warehouse workers employed by German multinational logistics company DHL.

These workers are taking rolling strike action in pursuit of wage increases of up to 10% per year just to catch up to average wages in warehousing enterprise agreements. Workers in the iron ore and coal mining industries in WA and Queensland are using the new multi-employer bargaining provisions of the Fair Work Act to increase wages across large sections of these industries. The big multinational mining companies are desperate to prevent these workers from uniting across their industry.

Eventually these types of struggles around new enterprise agreements are resolved. Sometimes the workers win all their industrial demands in full, sometimes in part.

However, the longer-term win for thousands of workers who have union enterprise agreements is that the agreements often contain clauses which increase their capacity to remain organized through the whole life of their enterprise agreements. Many agreements now contain clauses that force the boss to recognize workers' elected representatives and provide paid time meetings of union members and paid time union induction meetings with new starters.

Workers have also won clauses in agreements that require the boss to maintain the status quo if there is any workplace issue in dispute. The better organization on the job that workers maintain during the life of an enterprise agreement, the less chance of the boss clawing back workers’ hard won gains.

These organizing rights clauses that workers win in agreements are important to frustrate the boss's attempts to disorganize workers during the life of an agreement.

The Fair Work Act does not allow workers to legally take industrial action during the life of an agreement. The Act protects the boss from workers' industrial action for all but the limited bargaining period for a new agreement.

For example, no matter what the industry, many bosses who are forced to agree to higher wage increases in an enterprise agreement, will try and claw back their total labour costs during the life of the agreement by not replacing workers who leave or changing rosters to avoid penalty rates or increasing workloads. 

The multinational corporations and other large employers and their governments (Labor or Liberal) are well aware that the current Fair Work Act gives them a dream run of preventing workers’ collective action for nearly the whole cycle of the enterprise agreement process. 

A campaign to force the government to scrap the "protected industrial action" provision and replace it in the Fair Work Act with provisions for workers' right to withdraw their labour at any time they deem it necessary is long overdue.

The chances of such a campaign being initiated by the ACTU current leadership are well non-existent for fear of getting too off-side with the current government. Such a campaign will need to be generated by workers themselves.
  

Zionist genocide and its Nazi character

Written by: Alan Jackson on 27 September 2024

 

(From the X account Torah Jews by Orthodox Jews who oppose Zionism)

As of writing, Zionist genocidal escalation has rapidly increased its pace and has once again spread its industrialised killing of Palestinians to Lebanon. They have done this through a kind technique showing how truly advanced the Israeli Offense Force is at apartheid and genocide. The techniques used are villainous and could come out of a ridiculous over the top spy B movie.

The most recent attacks have consisted of a shipment of pagers intercepted by the IDF that was headed for Lebanon. This was “targeted” at Hezbollah, so the Zionists say, but they seem to fail to realise or mention that Hezbollah is a governmental body and as such distributes and works with public services. Pagers are most used in hospitals and because of this hospital workers and many other public servants were injured and killed. This can only be defined as indiscriminate - there is no other word. This was terrorism from the top to the bottom. The next day walkie-talkies began to blow up with some blowing up at funerals being held for people murdered in the pager attack the previous day. Israel has given up on its more intricate dealings and dark arts heading straight back to what it knows best. Blasting Lebanon with missiles and slaughtering another Arab population. 

Israel’s escalation is being treated in a vacuum by Zionists and mainstream media alike and is being blamed on the Al-Aqsa flood. It is all being explained as Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of October 7th, which is being treated as a terrorist attack. The Al-Aqsa flood was not a terrorist attack and was meticulously planned and executed. Most importantly as Israel has shown, meticulousness does not remove genocidal intent, the Al-Aqsa flood was a national liberatory resistance from Palestinians in the world’s largest concentration camp. The Al-Aqsa flood was a resistance to settler-colonialism that the Australian government, regretfully living in a settler-colony, must uphold. The industrialised genocide of the Arab population within and around Palestine since the 1940s with beginnings in the 1920s, can only be compared with the Nazis and their industrialised slaughter of the Jewish population. 

Israel being a Zionist and mostly Jewish state has used the memory of the holocaust to justify apartheid and cast the antisemitism of the Nazis onto the resistance. This is not only a disgusting use of the history and memory of the holocaust, but also purposefully disingenuous and incorrect. The Al-Aqsa flood is as justified as the Jewish ghetto uprisings during Nazi occupation. 

The most important thing to understand about the Al-Aqsa flood is that events don’t happen in a vacuum. Especially an uprising. This is a response to decades and decades of Zionist attempts at occupation since the 1920s. The Zionists often either deny the 1947-8 Nakba or try to explain it in a gentle way. They Gish gallop and pamper their words, despite the evidence that the Zionists are and were completely intent on the ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian population. 

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and political activist born in Haifa in 1954. His book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine 2006 Oneworld Publications, London (2023 edition) contains many examples of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine.

Referring to the December 1947 Hagana (Zionist paramilitary organisation founded in 1920 and forerunner of the so-called Israeli “Defence” Forces in 1948), the Hagana second-in-command Yigal Allon said: “We could have taken Jaffa by now easily and should have attacked the villages around Tel Aviv. We have to go for a series of ‘collective punishments’ even if there are children living in the houses.” (p. 64-5) 

On 1 January, 1948, the leader of the Zionists and “founder” of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, approvingly copied these words of Allon into his diary: “There is a need now for strong and brutal reaction. We need to be accurate about the timing, place and those we hit. If we accuse a family, we need to harm them without mercy, women and children included. Otherwise, this is not an effective reaction. During the operation there is no need to distinguish between guilty and not guilty.” (p.69) 

Pappe provides extensive evidence of orders to the Israeli army for the extensive destruction of whole villages and for the destruction of hundreds of houses in Palestinian residential areas of Haifa and Tiberius, as well as the poisoning of Palestinian water supplies with typhoid germs (p. 100-101), and mass executions of Palestinian village “males between the age of ten and fifty” (p.110). 

The complete destruction and utter disregard for human life has been consistent and has been a necessity for the settler-colonial state with its specific goals and ideology. Being in a perfect strategic position in the middle east with similar values to the imperialists, Israel became a running dog for Yankee imperialism much like Australia. Israel is so vital to US Imperialism that the president of the United States Joe Biden has outright said “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.”

The industrialised ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Arabs by Israel and Zionists can only be compared with the Nazis. There is no other comparison in recent history. It is indiscriminate yet ethnically targeted. Their creativity in their murder devices is absolutely reminiscent of the Nazis. 

Israel is enforced by settler garrisons that are armed by the Israeli government and act as armed units surrounding the cities making sure Palestinians stay far away. They act as the Native Police did during earlier colonisation of Australia. The reason they are so similar is because they both were participating fervently in settler colonial projects. They were on the frontier and were the most radicalised as a result. 

The liberal argument is that Netanyahu and the far right ‘Likud’ are the issue and once they are ousted or removed from power, all will be good. This argument doesn’t understand why this is happening. This argument ignores upwards of 100 years of history of the displacement and obliteration of the Palestinian people. What they don’t understand is that settler-colonial and fascist violence is inherent and imbedded in Zionism and the Israeli state by extension. 

It must be understood that Palestinian resistance is justified, and that “political power grows out the barrel of a gun.” The Al-Aqsa flood should be upheld and learnt from. 

Have you ever thought to yourself what side of history you would’ve been on during Nazi occupation, the Holocaust or Apartheid South Africa. Now is your chance to choose and know you are on the right side of history. History will absolve the resistance. 

 

US, Japan and the Indo-Pacific Strategy

Written by: (Contributed) on 24 September 2024

 

(Above; Danjo Islands  Source: voiceofalexamdria.com)

 

A big increase in Japan's defence budget can be regarded as a move by the Pentagon for allies to make substantial contributions for involvement in US-led military and security provision and the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Recent diplomatic hostility by Japan toward China, over an alleged incursion into airspace of strategic islands in the East China Sea, is best viewed in the context of the IPS as the basis of US regional foreign policy.

In August, Japan's defence ministry requested 8.5 trillion yen ($87billion) for the next fiscal year; it has amounted to their largest ever request, forming part of a five year 43 trillion yen budget, to March 2028. (1) The request was approved, although appears to have been a significant factor in the resignation of Prime Minister Fumio Kishada, whose approval rating slumped drastically. (2) Moves by successive Japanese governments to re-interpret clause 9 of their pacifist constitution have not proved particularly popular with many voters.  

The 2024 Japanese defence also rested upon a previous one, whereby a 16.5 per cent increase the previous year, was allocated for realignment with US military forces. (3)  

It is important to note that an estimated third of the 2024 defence budget has been allocated for 'satellite constellation', aimed at China, Russia and the DPRK. (4) Espionage and intelligence-gathering has become a Cold War obsession with the Pentagon; the US-led IPS, for example, also includes the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), 'which effectively allows for unlimited sharing of all military information'. (5) What actually constitutes military information is also categorised by what might be useful, not what is necessarily the case.

Elsewhere, across the vast Indo-Pacific region, many countries are following similar military upgrades, with increased budgets. In Australia, defence budgets are likely to place huge burdens on successive generations, effectively placing the country into almost unpayable long-term debts.

The moves closely follow the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) which has included Japan being upgraded to the diplomatic position of a global alliance partner; the IPS then rests upon the 'quad', encircling and containing China from all sides. (6)

The significance of Australia within the IPS should not be under-estimated; recent high-level diplomacy between Canberra and Tokyo has included an official invitation for elite marines from the Japanese Rapid Deployment Brigade to participate in trilateral exercises with Australian and US counterpart in northern Australia. The move was accompanied by an official statement that 'this is a really huge opportunity for our three defence forces to operate in an amphibious context'. (7)

Other countries as US allies are then placed inside the IPS framework as lower-level partners, with specific responsibilities for hosting sensitive US military facilities. (8) The placing, by the US, of networks of precision strike missiles on island chains, has become commonplace; the so-called Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), has formed part of a large budget allocation of $27.4 billion. (9)

A recent official media statement from the US acting Under-Secretary for the Navy, Tom Mancinelli, has left little to the imagination: the Indo-Pacific has been described as the US 'priority theatre … and … the US Navy was laser-focussed on the Pacific region'. (10)

US intelligence assessments have continually drawn attention to the closer diplomatic relations between China and Russia as problematic. The balance of forces is swinging away from traditional US hegemonic positions; China has become the largest trading partner of most countries across the Indo-Pacific region.

A recent allegation by Japan that a Chinese Y-9 surveillance aircraft had violated their sovereignty off the strategic Danjo Islands, however, has shown just how tense diplomatic relations have become between US-led positions and China. The tiny Danjo islands, in the East China Seas, are uninhabited although close to China's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). (11) Situated at 32 degrees north and 128 degrees east, the sovereignty of the Danjo islands is not contested and face the important Chinese port of Shanghai; the five islands are not inhabited and cover an area of 4.7 square kms, rising to 281 metres above sea level.

Other islands in the area are contested between China and Japan and other countries, and remain sensitive and potentially problematic. Moves by the US to establish the IPS, for example, were accompanied by Japan nationalising 280 islands, of a total of an estimated four hundred strategic land-masses which have served as demarcation lines for territorial waters; they were referred to in government papers as 'important national territories'. (12)

While the alleged Danjo incursion was of only two minutes duration, the Japanese air force scrambled a full alert. Later commentary suggested the incursion had taken place as 'China was probing Japan's air defence network, seeking to obtain intelligence … as Japan … expands defence co-operation with the US and other countries in the region'. (13)

The speed of the Japanese air force reaction to the alleged incursion would tend to indicate the whole area of the East China Sea was under close surveillance. Japan is known to possess extensive Signals-Intelligence (SIGINT) facilities and a network of listening stations with extended range. (14) Whether sensitive military facilities are based on the Danjo islands was not, however, officially divulged. The fact the alleged incursion was also given high-level media coverage in Australia has, nevertheless, also remained a factor in assessing its diplomatic significance in the context of the IPS.

1.     Back off, Japan and Philippines tell China, Australian, 2 September 2024.
2.     Japanese PM jumps before he's pushed, Australian, 15 August 2024; and, Japan's Defence Ministry seeks record budget, Military,com, 30 August 2024.
3.     Japan approves 16.5 per cent increase in defence spending for FY 2024, The Diplomat, 22 December 2023.
4.     Military.com, op.cit., 30 August 2024.
5.     The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIAS., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Top End to host elite Japanese marines, Australian, 6 September 2024.
8.     Hankyoreh, op.cit., 12 November 2019.
9.     See: US to build anti-China missile network along first island chain, Nikkei Asia, 5 March 2021; and, US Indo-Pacific Command proposes new missile capabilities to deter China, RFA., 5 March 2021.        
10.   Indo-Pacific is our priority theatre: US Navy boss, Australian, 4 September 2024.  
11.   Australian, op.cit., 2 September 2024; and, Chinese spy plane, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 2024.
12.   Japan to nationalise 280 islands, The Age (Melbourne), 10 January 2014.
13.   Japan says Chinese aircraft incursion, The Star, 27 August 2024; and, Janes: Chinese Y-9 electronic warfare aircraft infringes Japan air space, 27 August 2024.    
14.   See: Japan – Naicho – Cabinet Research Office, Intelligence Services, Espionage, Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2002), pp. 163-65.

"When we stand together as the working class, our victory is assured” — ‘Line in the Sand’ rally, Melbourne, 18 September.

 Written by: Ashley C. and Tony A. on 21 September 2024

 

More than just an option, defiance is our duty: we truly have a world to win.   Construction Unions Dare Workers to Struggle 

On Wednesday, over 50,000 construction union members walked off their worksites and onto the streets of the Melbourne CBD to mark the beginning of the ‘Line in the Sand’ fighting campaign led by the CFMEU, ETU, PPTEU and AMWU. 

The ‘Line in the Sand’ fightback will last for the five-year period of the CFMEU’s administration and will form a concerted action by unions to ensure that the conditions of workers are not torn away from them during this latest attack against organised labour by capital. 

The decision to hold the Wednesday rally was voted up by 700 delegates at the Building Industry Group’s joint construction union delegates’ meeting last week, along with the Target 1000 campaign to sign Victorian construction workers onto 1000 EBAs (enterprise bargaining agreements) across the state.

The sunny September morning in Melbourne saw workers and community supporters congregate before the columns of the Victorian Trades Hall, where powerful speeches were delivered by union officials and members pledging united and protracted struggle to defend the CFMEU and all unions. 

“How good is this? Tens of thousands of construction workers hitting the streets yet again” said Zach Smith, National Secretary of the CFMEU's Construction and General Division, “This is why this union and building workers in this state and across Australia will never be defeated, because tens of thousands of workers have walked off the job today and are standing here for their rights and conditions.” 

Troy Gray, State Secretary of the ETU Victoria Branch, told the rally that the CFMEU’s administration would not be the main focus of the rally, and instead the rally is demonstrating the unified industrial power of workers in the construction industry. “By turning up in big numbers today you are putting all the politicians on notice. We’ve had enough. We’ve drawn a line in the sand,” said Gray. Pointing to the precarious and dangerous nature of work within the construction industry, Gray outlined the importance of fighting for EBAs, particularly as opportunistic employers have sought to erode wages and conditions amid the CFMEU’s forced takeover by the government. 

Mass mobilisation sweeps aside anti-worker laws

Speakers at the rally sent a strong message to bosses and the government that workers and their unions will not be intimidated by the anti-worker laws, and will continue to take illegal industrial action. “If there is a continued attack on the working conditions and living standards of Victorian construction workers for the building industry group of unions, we will call a third rally, and that third rally will be on a Wednesday, and there’ll be a call for a 72-hour stoppage.”

A proud CFMEU member bravely gave her first public speech to her comrades, highlighting the importance of workers safety and conditions, and the importance of the union to the advancement of non-male construction workers. She led the chant “Line in the sand! United we stand!”

Tens of thousands of workers proudly marched under the flags of their unions and of the Eureka southern cross towards Flagstaff Gardens, completely filling across 5 blocks along LaTrobe street from Victoria street to the Gardens. The mass rally was led by an enormous banner CFMEU HERE TO STAY. 

The 50,000 eventually gathered directly across the road from the Federal Court building, where less than a month ago the CFMEU had been mounting its case against Fair Work’s appointment of an administrator before the ALP overrode the proceedings and changed the law with the ACTU’s blessing. The ACTU building itself stands within earshot of the Gardens, and if Sally McManus had just stepped outside, she would have heard the cries of ‘Union Power!’ reverberating through the streets. 

Line in the Sand

The solidarity of mass rallies defying unjust laws will give more confidence to workers in the great power of organized working class standing up and fighting back, as the campaign builds further momentum. The Line in the Sand campaign is inspiring struggle carried in Zach Smith’s message to all workers:

“It’s the message that today’s rally will echo far beyond the construction workers that are here, it will echo through the halls of parliament and across the boardroom tables of corporate Australia. 

“Today we’re drawing a line in the sand. That’s what we’re doing today. As working people, when we stand together as the working class, our victory is assured if we stand together and fight together, and today we will be sending a very clear message across those corporate boardrooms, across the halls of parliament, that we’re drawing a line in the sand. 

“So what does that mean? It means that we’re not going to let any employer use administration to take wages and conditions backwards. We’re not gonna let any business use this situation to take our hard won safety rights backwards and put workers at risk. The line in the sand also means that politicians, that parliaments, will not take our conditions backwards either, or introduce draconian anti-worker laws. The line in the sand means that you won’t touch our delegates, our shop stewards, and our HSRs who are the backbone of representation on site and are the backbone of our union. That’s what the line in the sand is all about. 

“We’re not going to take a backwards step! We’re not going to let administration mean that any worker goes backwards, loses hard-won wages and conditions. 170 years of struggle, and there’ll be 170 years more because we will stand together, we will come out of this period and we’ll be stronger than ever!”

Fight for an Independent Working Class Agenda

Let this be an example to all workers that it is possible to take back our unions, and clear the way for a truly independent working class agenda. 
It is certainly a welcome and impressive act of defiance. The relative lack of commentary from senior ALP members on the developments emerging since their brazen takeover of the union suggests that they were certainly caught off guard.

It was in the lead up to the 2022 election, Anthony Albanese appealed to the audience of the Australian Financial Review business summit: "If Labor is successful in the coming federal election, I will take my lead from Bob Hawke and his successor Paul Keating". Indeed, first as tragedy, then as farce. Continuing to showcase the extent of his disengagement from the increasingly precarious conditions faced by workers in Australia, it certainly appears that the possibility of stoking the wrath of 140,000 construction workers across the country was, if considered at all, an afterthought. 

He certainly embodies the smugness and arrogance of the very class he serves, as it has become increasingly obvious that his confidence and cocksureness in executing such a brazen declaration of class warfare stemmed purely from the magnates of finance and business to whom he addressed his electoral appeal. Of course, he knew the move would rustle a few feathers, maybe cost him a few votes, but to him and his ilk it would seem the working class represent little more than passive subjects, who will sit down and take whatever is thrown at them. It is increasingly difficult to imagine that he seriously considered the possibility of the situation unfolding as it has.