Talk at Eureka Rebellion Anniversary and 50 years since Gough Whitlam's dismissal commemorative meeting

Written by: Shirley Winton on 4 December 2025

 

 

On Saturday 29 November, 2025, Spirit of Eureka (Victoria) held a commemorative meeting for the anniversaries of the Eureka Stockade rebellion and the sacking of the Whitlam government.

The meeting was held at the premises of the Victorian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia. Speakers at the meeting were Gary Foley representing Indigenous Liberation, Sarah Baarini representing Palestine Liberation, Dave Ball from the MUA and Shirley Winton from Spirit of Eureka.  The meeting was MC-ed by former state secretary of the MUA Kevin Bracken.

Shirley has kindly made the contents of her talk available. 3CR community radio recorded the speeches and played them on Wednesday morning, 3rd December, after livestreaming the annual Eureka rebellion recreation in Ballarat at 6 am - eds.

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Welcome, and thank you for coming. 

We meet tonight on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. 

Tonight, we are commemorating the anniversaries of the Eureka Rebellion and the dismissal of the Whitlam government – two defining moments symbolising the long struggles of Australia’s working people for justice, democracy and independence - for a fundamental change. 

But the fight for justice and sovereignty in this country did not begin with the Eureka rebellion in 1854. It began sixty-six years earlier, in 1788, with the First People’s resistance to the British colonial invasion, the genocidal occupation, and the theft of their country. Their resistance took many forms, including fierce armed resistance in the Frontier Wars. British colonialism imposed on their country the exploitative, profit-driven class system of capitalism to serve the British ruling class. Their land and country were never ceded, never recognised by Treaties. 

This thread of struggles for justice, democratic rights and independence runs through 237 years of colonial occupation, and today imperialist control by the US. First People have always been at the forefront of resistance. 

In 1854, impoverished migrant miners at Eureka took up the fight for justice, the rights of working people and independence. They rebelled against the oppressive colonial authority of the British ruling class. They called for an independent Australian republic, democratic rights and equality for all – demands that were ahead of their time. Their struggle helped pave the way for future victories for working people, including the world’s first eight-hour day in 1856, and helped lay the foundations for Australia’s militant trade union movement and the culture of working class solidarity. 

Migrants from 21 nationalities participated in the Eureka rebellion under the Eureka flag. They included Afro-American, Jamaican and South Americans.
Seeds of working class solidarity and multiculturalism were planted at the Eureka stockade. 

The British colonial ruling class fuelled and relied heavily on racism and scapegoating to divide and control the miners and settlers. But Eureka leaders rejected those divisions. They condemned the racism promoted by British authority and called for unity of all people under the Eureka flag. In his famous speech Raffaello Carboni, one of the rebel leaders at the Stockade declared, “…Irrespective of nationality, religion, and colour, to salute the ‘Southern Cross’ as the refuge of all oppressed from all countries on earth.”

In the formation of unions in late 19th Century, workers and their unions fought under the Eureka flag for the right to organise in unions and fight for decent wages and conditions. 

The Eureka flag became – and remains - a powerful symbol of militant working class solidarity and struggle for justice, against exploitation and oppression. It excludes Nazis and racists. Attempts to malign, erase or ban the flag, or appropriate it by the nazis and racists, are not new. In 2006, under pressure from big developers and big business, the federal government tried to ban Eureka flags and insignias on building sites. But the widespread resistance by unions and workers forced the ruling class to immediately drop the ban. Workers knew that attacks on Eureka flag and Eureka insignia on building sites were aimed to crush all workers’ and unions’ struggle, not just construction workers.

The struggle for independence from the British colonial empire continued through the mass mobilisation of workers and unions against conscription and the 1914- 1917 World War 1.

After the Second World War, British control of Australia was replaced by the US control - economically, politically and militarily. The struggle for independence continued - in the mass movement against conscription and the Vietnam War, against Australia’s involvement in US imperialist war against the Vietnamese people fighting for their liberation; in the opposition to secretive military intelligence Pine Gap and other US military bases; against continuing oppression and the theft of First People’s land and destruction of their culture; in the movements for Australian progressive working people’s culture; against the plunder of our natural resources and destruction of the environment by mining corporations.

In 1972 Whitlam rode into government on the crest of this powerful people’s movement. His government put the US on notice by threatening to close Pine Gap and other US military bases, and started pivoting Australia towards the Non-Alignment Movement. They began making plans to nationalise natural resources and corporate farms; took first steps in acknowledging the sovereignty of the First People and demanded ASIO breaks connections with the CIA. These were the demands of the people that brought Whitlam to power. The tentative steps Whitlam started making towards independence were threatening the US and British economic and military control of Australia. 

The 1975 Whitlam dismissal was a US/CIA-UK engineered coup, executed by the Governor General John Kerr, Australia’s representative of the British Crown (and supported by the conservatives and reactionaries).

Since then, US imperialist control has deepened with every Australian government servile to the US, clearing the way for greater multinational corporations and finance capital control of this country. 

Today, the most powerful sectors of our economy are controlled by multinational corporations. Our natural resources—gas, oil, minerals, and even water—are largely in the hands of multinational corporations (BHP, Woodside, Chevron, Rio Tinto, Exxon-Mobil, and Santos). The giant global financial assets managers such as US owned BlackRock wield enormous power through their f inancial control of privatised health services, child care, aged care and weapons corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and some mining multinationals.

In finance, all four major banks are majority-owned by US financial interests. In culture and media, the Murdoch empire stifles the culture of Australia’s working people. 

Multinational corporations use their economic power over this country through the Mining Council and Business Council of Australia - between them representing the top 100 biggest corporations in the country, mostly foreign owned or dominated. They use their power over governments to reduce or remove barriers to their plunder of natural resources on the lands of the First People, environmental destruction and exploitation of workers. People’s resistance to this plunder and exploitation is met with escalating repression through the state’s anti-protest, anti-democratic, anti-worker and so-called anti-terror laws increasingly used against the people. (eg CFMEU in Administration).

Even the few remaining Australian-owned corporations and businesses depend on powerful US capital for their survival in highly competitive cut throat monopoly capitalism. (Gina Rinehart) 

Privatised essential services—child care, aged care, and social services—are increasingly owned by global financial asset managers.

Multinational and local corporations pocket billions in profits from the stolen lands and genocide of First People, and the exploitation of all workers in this country. 
Militarily, Australia has become a major US base and a launching pad for US imperialism as it prepares for a US-led war with China. 
In the military sector, US owned Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and Israel’s Elbit influence and pressure Australian governments to expand the manufacture and export of weapons for their corporations’ profit making and war mongering. Militarising our economy and education system.

Today, the US control of Australia is most visible in the deep integration and interoperability of Australia’s military and defence with US military forces and the military industrial complex. Australia is an extension of the US global military and its war machine. Thousands of US marines in Darwin, the Force Posture Agreement giving US unimpeded access to all of Australia’s defence and civil infrastructure, the AUKUS pact, the US nuclear submarines in our ports and nuclear weapons capable B52 bombers near Darwin. 

More than $400 billion of Australian public money is being poured into the US ailing economy and its military industrial complex – a burden on Australia’s working people. Public money taken away from health, education, housing, environment, and rebuilding Australia’s sovereign manufacturing industries, eg local shipbuilding. Giving away our rare earth and critical minerals, on the lands of the First People, surrenders further to the US the little sovereignty Australia has left.

As long as Australia’s economy is dominated by the US and its military, (or by any other big power for that matter), our foreign policies will always serve the profit needs of the imperialist power, the class that controls the economy. (Foreign policies always serve the class that holds state power.) (eg Palestine, rubber stamping US in UN.) 

But the impacts of this domination on everyday lives of ordinary people and the environment continue to fuel powerful movements for justice, workers’ rights, environment, against imperialist war and for genuine independence – the resistance that began with the 1788 British colonial invasion and occupation, continues today.

The wealth of this country must be placed in the hands of the First People and the working class who create it. This collective wealth must be used for the needs of the people and the environment – not by profiteering corporations and their wars, and the tiny parasitic billionaire class. 

This is what the Eureka rebellion and its flag stood for 171 years ago. It is what the Whitlam Dismissal (CIA coup) exposed 50 years ago.

A broad and united people’s movements of workers, farmers, professionals, communities from all nationalities, cultures and religions makes a powerful force in the continuing struggles for a truly just, democratic and independent Australia. 

To close, I want to quote Karl Marx writing about Eureka in 1855, only a few months after the rebellion. “Eureka was a revolutionary movement. It was a revolution—small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression.” 

For 171 years the ruling class has tried to erase from history the revolutionary and progressive spirit of the Eureka rebellion and its flag which united the impoverished miners in their struggle against the oppressive British colonial ruling class. This proud legacy of the Eureka Stockade and its flag belong to Australia’s working people and continues to inspire us today in the fight for an anti-imperialist independent and just Australia.

 

 

8000 Rising Tide protesters enforce Newcastle Port shutdown

Written by: Louisa L. on 4 December 2025

 

(Above: The Knitting Nanas blockade)

For three years, Rising Tide has brought thousands to Newcastle to blockade the world’s biggest coal loader. This year, over six days, 8000 people stood firm against police and government threats. They demanded the immediate cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects; a 78 percent fossil fuel tax to fund a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel sector and to pay for climate loss and damage; and an end to Newcastle coal exports by 2030.

Rising Tide has the backing of 86 percent of Newcastle’s people, according to Newcastle Mayor Ross Kerridge. On water protesters defied possible $22,000 fines and two years jail under Section 214 of the Crimes Act, to block three coal ships. Many ships were diverted to other ports. 155 people were arrested. 

Mr Kerridge, a scientist, called for people to discuss respectfully with open minds and rely on overwhelming scientific agreement to achieve community consensus. 

‘I love this planet,’ he said. ‘I live in hope for its future.’

A Rising Tide spokesperson, 26-year-old Zack Schofield, told Guardian Australia, ‘I grew up in Newcastle. I learned to count by counting the coal ships on the horizon with my mum.

‘We have in Newcastle a responsibility at a global scale to do everything in our power not just to protect the livelihoods of Hunter workers, but to protect the future generations of the entire planet,’ he said.

This message convinced 22-year-old Zac Tritton, a Newcastle coal industry worker to join the blockade.

One older woman had a different reason, ‘It’s the grief’ of inaction. No wonder, when in four years the chance to limit average temperatures to a 1.5 degree increase will pass. 

There’s always money for US war, for mining, and for Australian police. In June the NSW Government promised $46.6 million to replace the current police Class 1 Vessel (Nemesis) that protesters faced in Newcastle. 

‘It looked like a warship,’ remarked one protester.  

A prominent placard on Horseshoe Bay quipped, ‘Now Albanese’s married, it’s time to divorce the Minerals Council.’ Its members are overwhelmingly foreign owned, mostly by US corporations and finance houses.

Night and day

On Day One, three of the 69 Knitting Nannas at the protest, plus a clown (obviously a climate change denier) and a driver broke through in a tinnie. Police chased, the tinnie turned and, while hundreds of swimmers flummoxed police, it broke through again. The tinnie captain was arrested, and police dumped the wet Nannas, with no money or phones, on the city’s edge. They walked into a pub. Patrons cheered and ordered an Uber to for them to rejoin the protest.

Every night was a dance party, with pop group Lime Cordiale and brilliant Murrawarri Filippino musician Dobbie two of the headline acts. 

Lime Cordiale hit the water in the Greenpeace breakout. While two unfurled a banner and locked-on to the anchor, the musicians demanded a timeline for action on the coal ship’s hull. Chinese crew members lowered speakers so they had music to paint to. The crew pointed out China’s record- breaking expansion of green energy, but acknowledged the issue with its new coal-fired power stations. It’s one of the reasons this risen capitalist power is beating its crumbling US imperialist rival.

122 volunteer affinity groups did everything from feeding everyone to cleaning toilets to supporting those arrested. Every morning was a decision-making big circle with volunteers reporting back to their groups.

In all, three ships were turned back, and the port was closed from Sunday lunchtime. 

By the end grief was replaced by exhilaration, the young by the determination of the old, and the old by the energy of the young.

A Nana told me, ‘I’m as high as a kite! I want to build the struggle!’

Adventurist Class War Rejecting the Working Class

 

Written by: John G. on 2 December 2025

 

There have been some activists putting forward adventurist strategies for direct action, for class war today.

Such ultra-left developments are understandable when there has been such a long period of relatively uninterrupted capitalist development in Australia, while there have been extensive capitalist crises creating turmoil around the globe and spurring great increases in liberation struggles outside the imperialist homelands. It also arises in conditions where Communist organisations in Australia don’t have the extent of connections and strength to be in a clear position to be the leading element in the struggles of the working class. 

The Communist movement in Australia has faced various difficulties and made errors in dealing with them. Sectarianism has been a recurring error. Sects find their justification in what differences they have from the working-class movement. The sects’ creation relies on subjective errors, basing thinking on hopes and wishes rather than the facts and material conditions. Ideologically it is founded on idealism rather than dialectical and historical materialism. 

The calls for immediate Class War and for ‘Peoples’ War are current cases where the working-class movement is a long way from the point of difference these calls represent. 

Calling the objective ‘Class War’ is actually a misnomer. These ultra-lefts actually have a justification which leads to them rejecting reliance on the working class. The call is actually for a war without the working class, for initiating petty bourgeois violence. The problem is not with Class War or Peoples War as a general maxim of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or with power growing from the barrel of a gun, but with the call for it to be now, to be immediate, when it is so far beyond any sense in the hearts of the working class now.   

Not only do the calls isolate them from the working-class movement, they set out systematically to reject the working class and its movement. Politically and ideologically, they arrogantly declare the great mass of the working class ‘reactionary’, ‘aristocrats of labour’ as a class, traitors to the revolutionary movement.

Some identify a tiny section of destitute First Peoples workers as forces ‘ready for revolution’. So too they look at some students as ready. Some have identified some First Peoples as targets for their hollow rhetoric. Some have even put forward tactics of conning petty bourgeois elements and some workers to organise around petty bourgeois reformist politics. 

They reject the revolutionary tactics of Marx, Engels and Lenin to “any real working class movement, accept its ‘actual’ starting points as such and work it gradually up to the theoretical level by pointing out how every mistake made, every reverse suffered, was a necessary consequence of mistaken theoretical views in the original programme; they ought in the words of the Communist Manifesto, to represent the movement of the future in the movement of the present.” Engels Letter to Wischnewetsky, Marx-Engels Correspondence, Lawrence & Wishart, p. 453. 

Immediate Class War and ‘Peoples’ War advocates also reject basic tenets of Marxism, particularly Marxist political economy. Their program denies the inevitable crunch in the contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class. The working class is the leading revolutionary force because of its place in production and the relations of production in capitalist society, which Marxism exposes as inevitably leading to the working class taking up its role of leading the Australia revolution in a real class war.

This error exposes as well as failure to grasp core elements of political economy, failure to understand dialectical and historical materialism, things in their movement and change, errors in getting a grip on Mao’s On Contradiction.  These ideological and political failures represent a lack of commitment to serve the people, to work tirelessly for the mass of working people, and to protracted struggle to build the Party among the working class and other working masses step by step. 

Efforts are made to gather militants into a sect, separate to the working class in Australia. The slogan is accompanied with a wave of sloganeering and attachment to Communist giants, particularly Mao and a few renegades like Lin Biao and Tan Malaka.

Some who take up such ideas want to stand out from the masses around them, to have their politics being their point of difference, making them important people, not just ‘ordinary workers’ or ordinary activists. There can be a wish to be special, to be leaders not followers, to be organisers not the organised. 

The problem of standing out, of being above those around us, is not the same as being different in having communist political and ideological understanding and immersing yourself among the masses, bringing revolutionary politics to people as one of them. Communists must be fish in the sea of the people. Sure communists strive to be of use, to provide insights into the troubles we face as workers and people, not to be outsiders offering pearls of wisdom as outsiders, however valued these might be at times. 

And sure communists are different to those who aren’t communists. We have different ideas. The Party doesn’t shove its views on people who we work with.

We have been mocked for organising in ways that enable communists to be at one with the people they work with, with their communities. We strive to not stand out for anything but our ideas and suggestions. We don’t bark orders. We don’t tie people up in endless internal meetings and work so communists have little time for those around them. Communists must be engaged in their workplaces, unions, communities, in fighting organisations and organisations helping with difficulties people face. It is generally not glamourous, high-profile, though some is. It serves the people, brings people together, confronts their problems and their enemies. It draws lessons from success and failure. 

We also organise to advance the ideas and strategy of national independence from imperialism, for socialism. The Party circulates and applies these ideas, ideology and political program in mass work and people’s struggles.  

We walk on two legs, both integrated within the working class and other patriotic classes and elements, sharing their experiences and working with people to resolve their problems, reviewing what is wrong and right, exposing the path forward, and at the same time promoting in various forms our ideas, politics and program, and organising as a party for study, analysis, allocating tasks and developing our politics and ideology. 

Farm Numbers Down - Farm Debt Up

Written by: Duncan B. on 26 November 2025

 

The number of farm businesses in Australia has been falling for many years. In fact, since 1974, almost 100,000 farms have gone.

In 1990 there were 83,000 broadacre farm businesses. By 2024 there were 49,000. Despite the inroads of locally owned and foreign agribusiness investors, 95% of the remaining farms are family owned.

There are many reasons for the decline in farm numbers. In the 1990’s some politicians urged farmers to “get big or get out.” Droughts and floods took their toll as did rising prices for inputs versus static or declining prices for produce. Farms were sold as farmers died or retired. The changes in Government support to farmers and de-regulation in industries such as grain growing and dairying are other factors contributing to the fall in farm numbers.

At the same time as farm numbers are falling, farm debt is increasing at a rapid rate. In the year to September 30, farm debt was about $140 billion, up from $135 billion the previous year. These figures come from the 2025 Banking in Agribusiness report by the Australian Banking Association. 

According to this report, grain and beef cattle farmers have accounted for the largest increases in rural debt, with grain growers increasing their lending by 40.1 % between 2019 and 2024, from $36.2 billion to $50.8 billion. Credit to beef cattle farmers grew by 48.1% from $21.4 billion to $31.8 billion in the same period.

In 1996 the average farm debt was $304,776. In 2024 the average farm debt was $1.2 million. Reasons for the increase in debt include farmers expanding their operations by buying more land and new equipment. No doubt some farmers incur debt to struggle to stay afloat in tough times. 

Farmers have increased their average capital from $2.4 million to $14 million, because the value of farmland has grown at a record rate in recent years. Purchases by foreign investors, particularly Canadian pension funds have helped drive the demand for farmland.

 

Criminalising Lenin - Putin’s attempts to stifle dissent

Written by: Nick G. on 1 December 2025

 

(Above- members of the Ufa Marxist study group)

On 25 November2025, Russian state prosecutors surprised no-one by demanding 20 to 24 years in a high-security penal colony for the members of a Marxist study circle in the city of Ufa, accusing them of “terrorism” and “conspiracy to overthrow the government.”

Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, part of the Russian Federation, located between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. 
Bashkortostan has a large minority nationality which formerly enjoyed autonomous rights in Lenin and Stalin’s Soviet Union when it was known as the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

It is now a scene of ethnic and political unrest.

In 2024, local Bashkir activist Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in a penal colony following a speech he delivered in 2023 as locals opposed plans for the development of a gold mine. Supporters said the verdict was delayed revenge for his role in protests in previous years when activists successfully blocked plans to mine for soda on a hill considered sacred by locals.

His jailing led to fresh protests by thousands of people, at which a further four people were arrested on charges carry a potential sentence of 15 years.
Alsynov had previously been fined for criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine online, saying the war was not in Bashkortostan’s interests.

He heads Bashkort, a grassroots movement working to preserve the culture, language and ethnic identity of the region’s people that was banned as an “extremist organisation” in 2020.

In February 2022, five persons were detained in Ufa on charges of terrorism, but really for participating in a Marxist study group. They were part of a larger group of fifteen whose houses were searched. Security forces claimed to have found two grenades at one of the houses – those arrested said they had been planted by the security police – and this was used as the basis of terrorism charges. However, the indictment also accused the defendants of reading the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin.

The arrests came a month after the “special military operation” directed at Ukraine. 

One of its members, Sergei Shapozhnikov — a former fighter in the armed formations of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” — informed the security forces that the circle was supposedly “waiting for an unstable situation to seize power and kill police officers and politicians.” No material evidence was ever provided to support these claims.

The court instructed a panel of “experts” to evaluate whether the group’s lectures and reading material could be considered “terrorist activity.” Their conclusion was that Lenin’s foundational work “State and Revolution” was a “terrorist manual.”

Putin’s regime, which claims to have inherited the anti-fascist mantle of the War Against Fascism, is itself a fascist state.  

It is criminalising the works of human emancipation and freedom and equating the study of Marxism with terrorism. Such draconian moves surely indicate that Putin’s government is beset with more troubles than he knows how to deal with – without resorting to open repression.

Modern slavery contributes to Supercars championship profits

Written by: Ned K. on 30 November 2025

 

(Source: www.autoracing1.com)

The last weekend of November has seen the Grand Final of the Repco Supercars Championship held in the Adelaide Street Circuit and Victoria Park which in a previous life was a horse racing track.

The Supercars Championship event in Adelaide was the consolation prize when the Grand Prix moved to Melbourne several years ago.
The Supercars event in Adelaide is a popular event among local car racing enthusiasts. It also attracts many people from interstate and overseas, providing a boost to the Adelaide accommodation and hospitality industry.

This entertainment event, like Liv Golf and the AFL Gather Round with all 18 teams in Adelaide in the same week, have become important pillars for the fragile SA economy as far as the SA Government is concerned. 

The SA Premier is always emphasizing how important these events are for local business and for providing jobs for South Australians.

However, like every industry under capitalism, scratch the surface of the Supercars Grand Final and the shine disappears pretty quickly.

An "army" of "hidden" event workers makes the whole show possible. These workers include construction workers, hospitality workers, security workers, cleaners and more. 

The Supercars Championship of 13 car races per year including the Grand Final in Adelaide is operated by Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises Ltd (RACE).

For the year ending 31 December, 2023, it increased profits by 16.2%. The chairperson, Barclay Nettleford, forecast "a strong outlook" for future Supercars Championships.

People who pay good money to this and other events no doubt assume that the workers making the event possible are at least paid the legal Award minimum rates.

This is often not the case. Below Award rates of pay and other dodgy arrangements enter in to the realm of what has become known as Modern Slavery.

The victims of Modern Slavery are usually new migrant workers on various forms of work visas.

RACE has several contract companies providing services at the Sportscar events, including the Grand Final event in Adelaide. The principal contract companies are often multinational or large national companies such as Pinnacle and Longreach Venue and Event Services.

Longreach won a contract for providing cleaning and waste removal services at the Adelaide event. However, it contracted out the cleaning services to a small Adelaide-based cleaning contractor who provided the cleaners to perform the work. 

Most of the cleaners were new migrant workers and to get the job they had to sign an "Agreement" with a below Award minimum flat rate of pay, no superannuation and no insurance coverage in the event of injury.

Some cleaners reject these "Agreements" as a sham contract arrangement and so don't get the job, but there are always those desperate for an income for a few days' work who agree to sign under the illegal terms offered by the immediate employer.

This is just one example of the wage swindle and super exploitation that occurs behind the limelight of the "event economy" which the SA Government and no doubt other governments have come to rely upon.

The irony of the Modern Slavery situations is that the state government/s actually are ripped off in the process as well, as the companies like Longreach and its smaller partner in crime local cleaning contractor pay less Payroll Tax to the government!

 

Pegasus: US and Israel strengthen connections

Written by: (Contributed) on 26 November 2025

 

The appointment of a top US spook to a high-level corporate position with an Israeli-based business entity has revealed far more than meets the eye of a casual observer. The US diplomatic relationship with Israel has many highly secretive links. The appointment has also shown the linkage between the military-industrial complex remains an important defence and security consideration; the former use business entities as front companies for a variety of purposes.

Australia has not been a passive bystander in the bigger picture of such pressing developments.

In early November the Israeli-based NSO Group announced the appointment of David Friedman, a former US ambassador to Israel and lawyer for Donald Trump, as their new executive chairman. (1) The corporate business is behind the Pegasus spyware: sensitive eavesdropping and surveillance technologies with facilities for hacking into mobile telephones and other devices through links in standard messages.

It has been noted that Pegasus spyware was programmed to use WhatsApp to hack into mobile phones automatically, without the target having to operate or tap into mail arriving on their handsets. (2) The spyware can convert a smartphone into an espionage device which can access files, message banks, microphones and cameras. (3) Pegasus is classic tradecraft for covert operations in the shadowy world of espionage; the data collected is then analysed, profiled and also used to establish networks which might be useful for further intelligence purposes and is therefore filed in vast troves for use at a later date and time.

NSO was established in 2010, just before the so-called Arab Spring, where supposed pro-democracy and anti-government protest movements sought to topple ruling administrations regarded as hostile to Israel. The protest movements included jihadists who sought the establishment of autocratic caliphates, backed secretly by the US for a variety of opaque agendas. (4)

Israel, as a hub for 'US interests' in the Middle East, quite clearly formed a substantial part of the hidden agendas. In fact, the senior nature of the US spook, together with his stated curricular background and non-stated extra-curricular roles, reveal two important considerations: the close working relationship between the two sides of the military-industrial complex and the close diplomatic links between the US and Israel.

Studies of the NSO organisation have revealed it has close working links with Unit 8200 of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF); established in the earliest days of the previous Cold War, the signals-intelligence (SIGINT) special unit, likewise, has strong links with the Israeli defence corporate sector. With a stated annual budget of above $3 billion, the unit employs several thousand personnel. (5) It has a long list of alumni who after military service find other employment in the secretive world of the defence sector. (6) 

Intelligence services have a long history of using businesses as 'fronts' for intelligence-gathering; IDF Unit 8200 would appear no different. (7) Legitimate-appearing businesses can be easily be established and used to provide cover for covert operations; the Sayanim, who are volunteers, likewise, provide MOSSAD with 'ground human' provision, and, 'without its Sayanim MOSSAD could not operate'. (8)

While US-Israeli diplomacy is also openly conducted and strongly based through official channels, other, more secretive diplomatic links, remain vital. The so-called Jonathan Institute, for example, founded in 1979 by Benjamin Netanyahu, 'became the emblematic think-tank of Israeli and US government officials'. (9) It has extensive links with MOSSAD, and has been noted for having 'provided the framework for the anti-UN sentiment that has consumed Washington'. (10) The institute remains the power-base for the Israeli far-right.

It would also be almost inconceivable that US intelligence facilities such as Pine Gap in Central Australia were not directly linked into Unit 8200. Research has established that there are seven separate intelligence-sharing agreements between the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Pine Gap, and the Israeli Signals Directorate, which provide intelligence for the Israeli military. (11) The issue of complicity, therefore, has arisen.

To what extent, therefore, the Israeli intelligence services, in their various capacities, are able to operate in Australia remains a matter of concern. They obviously do; but how?

A recent Australian military tribunal, for example, found that Israel was hosting secret training courses for Australians which, following their graduation and return home, 'could be considered a natural recruiting pool for MOSSAD'. (12) The fact the individual concerned, who was facing serious disciplinary charges and eventually lost his security clearance for not revealing the nature of the Israeli training, was employed by the Sydney Community Service Group (CSG), 'an organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Australian Jewish community', has raised other considerations. (13)  

Whether the CGS is formally or informally linked into Israeli intelligence-based organisations was not revealed in official military and diplomatic documentation, although it remained more than a distinct possibility, in the shadowy intrigues of intelligence-gathering and covert operations: Sayanim?

Australia's close diplomatic relationship with the US, likewise, has also carried dilemmas which Canberra may have to deal with in the future: a statement issued by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillar, while addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, for example, that, 'if the Albanese government continued to be part of the supply chain that helped create weapons being used by Israel, they could be liable in the international court', has raised serious questions about passive involvement with genocide through active association and unquestioning participation with US-led military and intelligence facilities. (14)
 
And ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law: We need an independent foreign policy!  

 

1.     Israeli spyware maker gets new owners and seeks to mend reputation, Australian, 11 November 2025.  
2.     Ibid.
3.     Ibid.
4.     See: 9/11 and America's secret terror campaign, Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Research, 10 September 2010.
5.     Official Website: Unit 8200, 7 June 2025; and, Wikipedia – IDF Unit 8200, SIGINT.
6.     Ibid., IDF Unit 8200, List of companies founded by alumni; and, From IDF to Inc., SecurityWeek, 28 February 2018.
7.     Front. Espionage, Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, London, 2002), page 110.
8.     Gideon's Spies, Gordon Thomas, (London, 1999), pp. 54-55.
9.     Covert Action, Edited by Ellen Ray and William H. Shaap, (Victoria, 2003), page 51.
10.   Ibid., page 3, page 164.
11.   Pine Gap is a place of counter-insurgency, Militarism in the NT, 2025, (California, 94104).
12.   See: Australian Army Reservist security clearance revoked over loyalty to Israel, Paul Gregoire, 5 March 2025, (Fact checked).
13.   Ibid.
14.   Labor M.P.s like Nazis: ex-UN commissioner, Australian, 5 November 2025.

 

Japan’s new PM drives tension in our region

Written by: Nick G. on 25 November 2025

 

Less than a month after being sworn in as Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi has ratcheted up regional tensions by declaring that any Chinese attempt at reunification with Taiwan Province would be a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, implying that Japan would need to intervene militarily on the side of Taiwan.

Given Japan’s prominence as a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), alongside India, Australia and the United States, the warning by former Australian ambassador to Japan, John Menadue, that “continuing on her current path would be a dangerous gamble with the peace and prosperity of the entire region” must be taken seriously.

Takaichi has matched her words with a provocative decision to deploy Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni Island, just 110 km from Taiwan.

Who is Takaichi?

She was born to a petty-bourgeois family, was university-educated, and embraced far-right Japanese nationalist causes.  She entered politics and has held ministerial positions under several Prime Ministers, most notably Shinzo Abe.  She supported Abe’s anti-China policies and his attempts to rewrite the so-called pacifist constitution adopted by Japan after its defeat in WW2. 

As a supporter of the Japanese far-right, and as a then junior lawmaker, she endorsed a book about Hitler's electoral campaign tactics and in 2011was photographed with Kazunari Yamada who was then the leader of the fringe National Socialist Japanese Workers Party (NSJAP), whose insignia is a mixture of a swastika and a Celtic cross.

She was a member of, and retains ties to, far-right organisation Nippon Kaigi which believes that "Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers; that the 1946–1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate; and that killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre were exaggerated or fabricated".

Despite her gender, and being Japan’s first female Prime Minister and first female President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Takaichi has taken conservative positions on social issues, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, to the recognition of separate surnames for spouses, and to female succession to the Japanese throne. She has criticised the Kono Statement, a statement released by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yōhei Kōno on August 4, 1993, after the conclusion of the government study that found that the Japanese Imperial Army had forced women, known as comfort women, to work in military-run brothels during World War II.

She has also continued the provocation of visiting the Yakasuni Crime where war criminals from WW2 are honoured. In January 2013, she said that "Japan should reconsider past apologies made for its wartime actions and expand its regional presence," and suggested that "Japan's leaders should pay annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine."

Condemnation grows

On Wednesday November 19, protesters gathered in Kyoto to protest Takaichi’s dangerous call for military intervention in the event of a “Taiwan contingency”, and about a thousand rallied outside the PM’s office in Tokyo.  Protesters said they joined the rally to prevent a situation that could incite war. Some emphasized Japan's position as a defeated nation in World War II, while others warned that Takaichi's comments not only threaten China-Japan relations but also the peace and stability of the entire East Asia region.

Japan's main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) leader Yoshihiko Noda said on Sunday that that in light of the deterioration in Japan-China relations following Takaichi's Diet statement on a potential Taiwan contingency, the prime minister should work to improve the relationship.
Protests were also held on the island targeted for missile installations. 

Condemnation of Takaichi’s remarks have also come from people in Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Korea.

Comrade Xiang Guanqi, Representative of the Chinese Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), denounced Takaichi’s comments for having “formally reneged on and tore up the surrender treaty signed by Japan when it announced its surrender in 1945.”

“History has repeatedly proven that the policy of repaying evil with kindness towards the reactionary forces and the reactionary government of Japan was nothing more than a well-intentioned but unrealistic and erroneous policy, and now it can be fundamentally and thoroughly corrected,” he said. 

Sanae Takaichi’s elevation to the Prime Ministership of Japan threatens to tie Australia further into US imperialist plans for war against China. A revived Japanese militarism has been demanded by Japanese capitalists because without it, the international expansion of Japanese capital cannot be securely carried out.

The Australian people want regional peace, and do not want to see a militaristic and expansionist Japan any more than they want to see an expansionist and militaristic China.

There is no good imperialism.  All people are entitled to live in peace and to engage with other countries on the basis of independence and sovereignty. 

 

Book Review: Turbulence

 Written by: Duncan B. on 23 November 2025

 

The author Clinton Fernandes is Professor of International and Political Studies in the Future Operations Research Group at the University of New South Wales. He is the author of several books about Australia’s foreign relations.

In this book Turbulence- Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era, Fernandes tries to make sense of the chaos which Trump has caused in international relations since his election and analyse Trump’s attitude to three important geopolitical regions of the world.

Trump wants to maintain US global primacy over China and seeks economic control over it. Failing that, he wants economic separation from China. As for Europe, Trump wants a Europe that is economically and politically subordinate to the US and militarily dependent on the US so that he can influence Europe’s relations with China.

Trump’s goals in the Middle East are military dominance of the region and control of Middle Eastern oil. Trump protects Israel because Israel’s actions help support this goal. Israel also helps to protect Saudi Arabia and the other pro-US monarchies in the region.

Where does Australia fit into this scenario? Throughout the book Fernandes makes the point that Australia’s policy is to demonstrate our relevance to the US. Ever since Prime Minister John Curtin’s “turn to America” in World War Two, Australia has loyally followed US foreign policy. Older Australians will remember with disgust Prime Minister Harold Holt’s “all the way with LBJ.” 

Australia has joined the US in wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been America’s faithful “deputy sheriff” in our region. Fernandes explains at length how the AUKUS Treaty ties us firmly to the US foreign policy and the US war machine. The ramifications of the AUKUS Treaty extend far beyond the nonsense about “nation building” that its proponents have tried to feed us. Turbulence is required reading for all Australians who want to know more about AUKUS.

 

Building struggle around an independent working class agenda is the key

 Written by: Nick G. on 21 November 2025

 

Journalists for the ruling class media are excited to have found internal dissension within another important union.

They are digging deep into the internal affairs of the United Workers Union amidst allegations of an official’s links to what they call an “electoral slush fund”.

The allegations go back to a time when the official belonged to another union which subsequently amalgamated with what is now the UWU.

For our part, we refuse to interfere with or comment on the internal affairs of unions. It is better that problems are left to the members to sort out without interference.

In a general sense we can say that the attraction of union officialdom sometimes rewards the wrong sort of person.

Before the moves imposed by the ACTU in the 1980s and 90s to reduce the number of unions, it was usually the case that union officials were people who had come up through the ranks. Many unions were small outfits that operated out of rented premises and did not have the means to acquire and accumulate assets. Often union officials and organisers worked from their cars parked outside their members’ workplaces.  As an official with the BLF, and later President of the CFMEU – Victorian Branch, John Cummins was rarely inside his union’s office building, but typically found at a building site or outside the gates, organising workers.  Of course, there were careerists who sought to be bumped into parliament, but cases of large-scale financial corruption were rare.

Today’s unions are larger and their capacity to attract people straight from university courses into well-paid leadership positions has disenfranchised many of the rank-and-file from senior leadership positions.  Officials have union cars and union credit cards. The unions have their own property portfolios and investments to generate additional funds.  They have a lot more to lose than our chains when push comes to shove. As one retired union official with many years of intense militant struggles behind him, reflected recently, “Comrades, we (unions) have been co-opted.”  The further union officials are from their working class base the stronger the pull of capitalism.

Some take the easy way out. Much of this is tied to the particular Labor Party faction with which the union is aligned, hoping that the ALP will accept electioneering support in exchange for wage rises. Campaigns in sectors where workers’ wages are effectively funded by ALP governments take precedence over campaigns in the private sector. Some hope that by delivering workers’ vote to the ALP it will win them pre-selection into parliament.

This has worked with many sectors winning significant wage increases as either directly employed government workers, or through wage parity with government workers where the direct employer has been a contractor.

But it creates a reliance on the Labor Party in terms of both the immediate interest of the official and his/her longer-term political aspirations.

Essentially, problems in unions arise because the official union movement (ACTU) and their state bodies have not embraced an independent working-class agenda but maintained dependence on the ALP in government.

Workers must demand their unions pursue an independent working class agenda.

That means the pursuit of demands that reflect the needs of individual sectors of the working class as well as the overall interests of the whole class of workers, and in both cases going beyond what the ALP is prepared to sanction.

It means preparedness to go beyond the economic demands and to embrace the big political issues of the day.

It means maintaining the capacity to fight on issues regardless of which party holds office.

It means establishing workers’ right to withdraw their labour at a time of their choice.

It means strengthening rank-and-file leadership on the job, and demanding accountability by officials to the membership.

It is time to push past the barriers and restore the integrity of class struggle.

The key is the promotion of an independent working class agenda, not dependent on any parliamentary party.