CPA (M-L) extends comradely greetings and solidarity to the Communist Party of the Philippines

Written by: Central Committee, CPA (M-L) on 1 January 2026

 

At the end of 2025, the CPA (M-L) sent the following meeting of solidarity and support to the Communist Party of the Philippines on the 57th anniversary of its re-establishment.

 

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) extends comradely greetings and solidarity to the Filipino workers and the Communist Party of the Philippines on the 57th anniversary of the Party’s re-establishment on the 26 December, 1968. 

The Communist Party of the Philippines is the leading force in the struggles of the Filipino people against semi-feudalism, semi-colonialism, bureaucrat capitalism, imperialist domination and the puppet Marcos government.

The Communist Party of the Philippines has a rich history of leading the Filipino working class and peasants in the national democratic revolution, forming the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as crucial weapons in the arsenal of Filipino workers and peasants and other patriotic Filipinos in their struggle for national democracy and social liberation.  

The CPA (M-L) extends its sympathies to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the huge flash flooding and landslides inflicted on the Filipino masses by the recent disasters of Typhoons Tino and Uwan, and the corruption and greed of treacherous bureaucrat-capitalist and semi-feudal classes which left so many exposed to nature’s fury.

The deaths of at least 269 people, hundreds injured and destruction of over a quarter million homes in Typhoon Tino has left millions of working people in great hardship, confronting even worse poverty and suffering. The additional death and devastation from Super Typhoon Uwan a week later, multiplied the people’s suffering. 

Billions of pesos spent on flood control projects failed to mitigate the floods and landslides. Many structures collapsed, were swept away or had never been completed. The Marcos and Duterte governments connived with mine and quarry owners, collaborators with foreign imperialists, in exposing huge areas to this devastation. 

The people mobilised in outrage and mass protest across the country. 

The CPA (M-L) hails the Filipino people’s rising in determination to secure relief from their suffering, and justice for the victims of the recent disasters. 

People’s organisations and agencies mobilised their own capacities to provide assistance to the survivors.  

The leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the work of the NPA and NDF have seen the development of many new mass organisations facilitating mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of people thundering demands for accountability and justice despite the regime’s efforts to sabotage and suppress the rising people’s movement. 

The outburst and mobilisation confirm the CPP’s approach of protracted people’s war to destroy the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system. Under the US-Marcos regime, the Filipino people experience worsening conditions with no way out but to pursue the struggle for national democracy and win national and social liberation. 

While the Filipino people suffer these hardships and rise in struggle for relief and liberation, the Australian military take an increasing role supporting the Philippines military as the US-Marcos regime treacherously transforms the country into a battleground for inter-imperialist conflict. 

The US imperialist AUKUS pact and US-Australia military alliance is dragging Australia into US imperialist wars and now is threatening an inter-imperialist war with China.  The US and its puppet Australian governments are turning Australia into a major US military base in preparations for war with China. The Australian people are resisting the US led march to war and are building anti-war alliances with the people of Asia-Pacific. Neither the Australian people nor the people of the Philippines want war

The US with the connivance of the Marcos regime involves Australian troops to train in warfare against the NPA and other forces in Exercise Kaangga on Mindanao; Australia also takes an increasing role in preparations for inter-imperialist war in the Philippines and other parts of our region. In ‘Operation Alon’ and Balikatan the US roped in Australian and Philippine military forces, Australia’s largest troop deployment to Southeast Asia this century, drilling for large-scale combat aimed at securing US hegemony in the South China Sea. 

The Australian Defence Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have conducted more than 20 training events and exchanges in 2025, more than doubling the number in 2024. 

On top of this there is increasing military, construction industry and logistics industry penetration across Australia and the Philippines by bureaucrat capitalists and capitalist collaborators with US imperialism like Prime BDM construction with the Razon group and Brisbane’s Power family collaborating in war preparations while enriching themselves. 

The intensity of the US imperialists rivalry with Chinese social-imperialists raises the danger of a world war to new heights. People of our two countries and the world generally have to make their own preparations to defeat US aggression and their local collaborators, while rejecting overtures of the Chinese imperialists to surrender people’s struggles for national and social liberation. The Filipino and Australian people’s only defence is to smash US imperialist aggression, and step up the struggle for national and social liberation. 

We hail the victories of the heroic New People’s Army.

The comradeship between our parties embraces our peoples’ struggles against imperialism and imperialist war.

On the occasion of this anniversary, we salute the Philippines National Democratic Revolution, and the comrades of the CPP!

Workers of the World Unite! Defeat US Imperialist Aggressors and their local collaborators, and win national and social liberation. 

Central Committee

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

December2025

 

Welcome 2026 as a year of rising people's struggles

 Written by: CPA (M-L) on 1 January 2026

 

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) greets the New Year with expectations of rising people’s struggles against capitalist economic crisis, attacks on democratic rights and imperialist wars.

The cost-of-living crisis continues to hit the working class and other sections of the people very hard.  Expected interest rate rises will see money flow into the banks and other big financial institutions, the majority of which are foreign owned, while everyday people struggle with rent, with mortgages, and to put food on the table and the high cost of childcare and healthcare.  At the same time profits are at a record high for a handful of foreign and local corporations.

As a nation, we have been drawn even further into the orbit of US war plans against China. AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement, as the pillars of the US alliance, deny our nation the right to make its own independent foreign policy decisions that uphold peace, justice and the sovereignty of all countries and people.

Our leaders are subservient to US and local corporations’ interests, not what is in the best interests for Australia’s working people and the environment.

There has been a determined attack on democratic rights justified by the terrorist attacks of two ISIS-aligned individuals. These rights must be fought for and restored. The attacks on democratic rights are a sign of the ruling class’s fear at the emerging people’s movement ignited by the momentous Palestine solidarity movements locally and internationally.

While we have condemned the Bondi shootings, 400 Palestinians have been killed since the imposition of the ceasefire, adding to a genocidal tally of more than 80,000 human beings.

All of this, and more, requires the skilfull application of the mass line in our political work.

In spite of the attacks on people’s livelihoods, on unions, on democratic rights and the march to a US-led imperialist war, workers and working people are resisting the attacks and defending their rights.  Factory and warehouse workers, agricultural workers, transport workers, teachers, health workers, retail workers, public servants and many others are organising and pushing back against the bosses, and scoring victories.

The movement to scrap AUKUS, resist a US-led war with China, and support Palestinian self-determination is broadening and growing.

In spite of reactionaries’ efforts to divide the people there is rising unity and solidarity.

It bodes well for the future and puts demands on us to lift our mass work to build a stronger, more unified and more class conscious working class.

We will not let the people down.

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

 

The US and Venezuela, 2025: moves to reassert the Monroe Doctrine

 Written by: (Contributed) on 21 December 2025

 

(Source: New York Post)

The present diplomatic stand-off between the US and Venezuela is about oil, and its availability at a steady price without undue fluctuations.

Other forces, however, have been at work. Due to US imposed sanctions, for example, huge stockpiles of oil are presently available, elsewhere, outside the reach of the US, their allies and recognised oil-traders. Fears, therefore, have arisen about sudden sales of the stockpiles with a dramatic effect upon markets and official oil prices. The US, therefore, has followed diplomatic positions based in age-old neo-colonialist policies from yesteryear.

In recent months the US has staged a bigger military presence in the Caribbean. The sensitive geo-strategic area is the gateway to the southern half of the Americas, and faces the equally sensitive although much smaller area of Central America. For decades US hegemony in the region has been under siege following the demise of the Monroe Doctrine which placed the US at the pedestal of control of the western hemisphere.

Having overplayed their hand during the previous Cold War with brutal repressive regional policies which included the propping up of puppet military regimes, other forces have moved into the arena. US-led hegemony in the wider region is in decline. Progressive governments have no longer relied upon oligarchies and the US to exploit whole populations; China, likewise, is now a major trading partner, along with Russia.

Venezuela has long been a dominant player in the wider region, its geographical size and huge oil deposits once provided the US with the means of wider control. For thirty years, however, Venezuela has pursued a significantly different diplomatic course. The election of Hugo Chavez in 1999, following his seizure of power with a military coup, and his subsequent fourteen-year term of office, saw the country develop strong links with China, Russia and Iran. It was accompanied by the Bolivarian Revolution which included nationalisation of the dominant heights of industry and progressive reforms which were directed toward the working class and campesinos. The traditional ruling oligarchies, strongly backed by the US, have remained in opposition.

Chavez died in 2013, and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, has pursued similar policies to date. Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution have, in many ways, become a pivotal point for the southern half of the Americas and their diplomatic relations with the US; they have symbolised the successful struggle against the US-led Monroe Doctrine which historically underpinned all diplomacy in the Americas, and the present-day changing balance of forces.

Events during the earliest days of the previous Cold War remain important considerations.

In April, 1948, the 9th International Conference of the American States held in Bogata, Colombia, endorsed a charter for the creation of the Organisation of American States (OAS). It coincided with a London meeting of western countries convened two months earlier to create a military bloc aimed primarily at the Soviet Union and their allies. The ensuing Cold War saw the US reach their peak of western domination in a continuation of the previous century’s Monroe Doctrine. It included the southern half of the Americas being labelled the 'backyard'; neo-colonialism, was considered by Washington, as the order of the day. Europe was an ally.

The US, however, has encountered a credible challenge to their traditional hegemonic positions with the emergence of China, the Russian Federation and trade blocs including BRICs. Washington and the Pentagon have been increasingly thrown back on defensive positions; the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a typical example of their inability to control developments in what they previously regarded as their area of influence.

In August 2025, for example, high-level diplomatic meetings and negotiations between Trump and Putin with a US request for a ceasefire or comprehensive settlement were not supported by Russia. (1) It was to have far-reaching implications for what the US regarded as vital supply-lines used by Russia in what is quite clearly a military operation against Venezuela.  

The US military build-up in the Caribbean was ostensibly directed toward Venezuela on spurious grounds that the Maduro government were exporting drugs to the US. No evidence was ever provided to substantiate the diplomatic standpoint. A series of US missile strikes subsequently targeted what were regarded as fishing boats and at least 83 seafarers are reported killed since 2 September.

The prevailing diplomatic position has remained very tense, with France and the UK suspending the sharing of some intelligence with their US counterparts in opposition to the targeted strikes. Both European countries, as former colonial powers in the Caribbean, still possess extensive signals-intelligence (SIGINT) and other surveillance facilities in the region. (2)

Behind the scenes, however, the US possesses a far murkier motive.

Due to the Trump administration imposing tariffs upon Venezuela and many of its allies, a huge glut of oil has been created; fifteen per cent of global totals remain subject to official US sanctions. (3) It threatens US control of the global oil industry. It has been estimated, for example, that there are 1.4 billion barrels of oil in vessels based at sea in transportation elsewhere, an increase of 24 per cent over totals for the previous 2016-2024 period. (4)

While there has been a sixteen per cent increase in barrels from mainstream producers, supply is also increasing from countries outside of OPEC. (5)
A similar surge in oil production from countries including Venezuela, Russia and Iran, likewise, has raised concerns about 'dark barrels', which have surged 82 per cent in the past three months. (6) The same timespan, interestingly, coincides with the Trump administration beginning their military build-up in the Caribbean and the fake war on drugs.

Disclosures emerging from the European Union about their own sanctions upon Russian energy exports, moreover, contain numerous references to how Moscow has created a parallel system of transportation, trade and payments 'that insulates them from western sanctions … for … Russia's so-called shadow fleet'. (7) The fact that Russian oil already trades at a discount to other US-backed oil producing countries not affected by sanctions, has thrown doubt upon whether the Trump administration even controls the problem. (8)

The fact that Russia's war with the Ukraine is largely financed by its oil sales has added further weight to the question of whether Washington's diplomatic hostilities with Venezuela remain based in initiatives by the Trump administration attempts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. It would appear highly likely, when considering the time-span which coincides with US-Ukraine diplomatic meetings.

China is also a player, behind the scenes: throughout the period China has been stockpiling oil which it regards as a strategic reserve; it has added about 290,000 barrels of oil a day into storage during 2025. (9) It has been noted from official sources that China, to date, has amassed a stockpile of about 97 million barrels of oil, in various facilities around the world.

It has also been noted that sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have made all medium to longer-term projections questionable and unreliable. The White House ball-game keeps changing, as do the likely scenarios into what is regarded as uncharted territory.

The nightmare scenario for the US and their allies, however, is that if China starts to make its oil stockpiles globally available, it 'could cause the floor to fall out from under the price'. (10) Fluctuations in oil prices would take place, with serious implications for everyday usage in western countries and vital industries.

The fears of such a scenario taking place was a motive for the US to seize the huge oil tanker, the Skipper. It was carrying an estimated 1.1 million barrels of crude oil. (11)  Questions still remain about the actual owner of the vessel and whether its cargo was insured, with legal implications which have yet to be openly verified. The seizure of the oil tanker was followed by the Trump administration ordering a 'total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela', in mid-December. (12) The US has also threatened to seize more oil tankers. (13)  The decision, likewise, by the European Union to sanction two oil traders it has accused of facilitating Russian involvement and participation in a 'clandestine market' has also followed as if in logical sequence to US diplomatic initiatives. (14)

There remains little ambiguity in the position of the US toward Venezuela; it clearly marks a diplomatic attempt to reassert the Monroe Doctrine with subsequent implications for the southern half of the Americas and the changed balance of forces. A recent statement issued by the White House, for example, included reference to the Maduro government returning 'oil, land, and other assets that they have previously stole from us'. (15) In the name of the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela seized US oil projects operated by Exxon and ConocoPhilips after the companies rejected contracts by the Chavez administration which gave Venezuela control of its own oil. The position is now being challenged by the Trump administration; sovereignty is not a problem for Washington. It does not exist for Venezuela.

The US moves, therefore, can be seen to mark an attempt to re-introduce neo-colonial type policies toward Venezuela, in line with similar policies toward the southern half of the Americas and elsewhere.

They should be resisted: Australia should have an independent foreign policy!

 

1.     Russia's war against Ukraine, Congressional Research Service, (Washington), 5 September 2025.
2.     The flashpoints leading the US and Venezuela, ABC News, 28 November 2025.
3.     A billion-barrel oil glut forming at sea, Australian, 12 December 2025.
4.     Ibid.
5.     Ibid.
6.     Ibid.
7.     EU sanctions hit Russian oil trade tsars, Australian, 17 December 2025.
8.     Ibid.
9.     Australian, op.cit., 12 December 2025.
10.   Ibid.
11.   Trump ups the ante in Caracus, Editorial, Australian, 12 December 2025.
12.   US hits Maduro with oil blockade, Australian, 18 December 2025.
13.   Ibid.
14.   Australian, op.cit., 17 December 2025.
15.   Australian, op.cit., 18 December 2025.

 

The struggle for mastery, and the uses and abuses of power: AI data-centres in outer space, part 2

Written by: (Contributed) on 21 December 2025

 

(Source: https://space-axiom.com)

Further revelations about planning for AI data-centres in outer space have revealed a fierce power struggle for what is considered a potentially lucrative corporate sector business. It will remain outside the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies; serious questions, therefore, arise including that of control: the space-based systems, potentially, will possess vast troves of data for the uses and abuses of power.

A major player in moves to establish AI data-centres in outer space has been identified as OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman; the plans appear to be set on a challenge to Elon Musk's Space X program. (1) Altman has apparently been exploring the possibility of data-centres in outer space for sometime. While one stated explanation has been the ability of such data-centres to harness the power of the sun to generate power for operational purposes, the fact the data-centres will be outside the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies is a far more likely explanation.

In fact, commentary about the proposals has actually noted 'there aren't those pesky regulations that executives like to complain about'. (2) Data collection on Earth, for example, is subject to privacy regulations and supposedly strictly controlled to avoid problems arising with hacking and the abuses of the 'dark web'.

The present-day decisions about data-centres in outer space rest upon earlier decisions taken at the highest level of the US National Security Agency during the earliest days of the internet and on-line provision to discontinue some traditional data-harvesting techniques and turn their attention to 'finding ways to exploit the global reach of Google, Microsoft, Venizon and other US technological powers'. (3) Hacking, for such people, is a standard method of operation. Ethical considerations have no point of reference in their thinking.

Altman, for example, forms part of a small group of individuals who benefited from research and development programs in the early days of Silicon Valley. From readily available information in the public domain, he is worth an estimated $2.8 billion and 'oversees an opaque and sprawling investment portfolio that includes more than four hundred companies'. (4) 

Wealth and power would appear closely intertwined. The standard method of operation and business practice is, invariably, aggressive and designed not at competition but global domination. It is, therefore, a shadowy world which cannot be regarded as separate to the equally spurious world of the intelligence services. There remains a clear-cut commonality of interests and overlap of circles of influence.

Information about some of the companies controlled by Altman has revealed a preoccupation with information technology. The shadowy, surreptitious world of data-harvesting would appear highly lucrative. Following various processing, analysis and profiling, the returns on sales to users, likewise. Just one start-up company by Altman is set to make $13 billion revenue this year. (5)

OpenAI, controlled by Altman, recently signed contracts for 'new computing commitments' amounting to nearly $600 billion; it, therefore, raised 'questions about how it will pay for the developments'. (6) No answers, to date, have been forthcoming.

Altman, nevertheless, is no stranger to the world of self-publicity and pontification and exists somewhere along a continuum where one end is spooky science fiction reality and the other is an equally spooky corporate world of techno-fascism. He is a man for all seasons. Altman, for example, has recently been quoted as stating, 'I do guess that a lot of the world gets covered in data centres … like maybe we build a big Dyson sphere around the solar system and say … hey, it actually makes no sense to put these on earth'. (7) Earlier, when pressed about his commitment to democratic ideals, stated, 'democracy only works in a growing economy'. (8)

With the US economy in relative long-term decline, there remains little ambiguity in the personal projections of Altman and his associates. He is, in fact, an 'apocalypse preparer' with stated links to the Israeli Defence Forces. (9) Doomsday, for such people, is nigh; for his associates it marks the second coming and greater opportunities for Israel to further expand its borders into Palestinian lands.

Interestingly, Altman also has involvement with the shadowy and secretive Bilderberg group, a powerful banking cartel which carries a great deal of baggage. He is noted as attending their secret annual meetings during 2016, 2022 and 2023, tending to indicate his favoured status amongst counterparts and like-minded people. (10) Well beloved by conspiracy theorists, the banking cartel is supported by world leaders from business and political circles. Annual meetings usually attract about 120 members. (11)

When questioned about their secret banking practices, representatives of the Bilderberg Group have acknowledged that while 'they are unaccountable to voters … but … they do keep the international system functioning'. (12) They have also been accused of 'fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors'. (13)

Established during the early days of the previous Cold War in 1954, it has remained an influential body composed of agents of considerable influence to the present day. Its links with intelligence services have been well recorded. (14)

In conclusion, when the spooky Project Suncatcher was recently announced, with two satellites planned for launching in 2027, and designed to enable machine learning in outer space, it marked a significant upgrade to intelligence-harvesting beyond the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies. (15) But then, that is what they do.
                                         
                                        We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     Altman explored deal to build Space X rival, Australian, 5 December 2025.
2.     Tech moguls want to build data centres on the moon, Australian, 18 November 2025.
3.     See: The intelligence coup of the century, The Washington Post, 11 February 2020,
4.     Australian, op.cit., 5 December 2025.
5.     Ibid.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Ibid.
8.     'King among the cannibals',  The Washington Post, 23 December 2023.
9.     Wikipedia: Sam Altman – Companies.
10.   Ibid.
11.   Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group, BBC News, 29 September 2005.
12.   Ibid.
13.   Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory, BBC News, 3 June 2004.
14.   See: Bilderberg and the 'Agents of Influence', CIA Infiltration of the labour movement, Lynn Walsh, (London, 1982), Chapter 4, pp. 27-31.
15.   Australian, op.cit., 18 November 2025.

Don’t let responses to Bondi silence our voices!

 Written by: Central Committee, CPA (M-L) on 20 December 2025

 

It is now six days since the December14 massacre of Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach.

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) condemns this event, acknowledges the grief of those affected, and offers its condolences to the Australian Jewish community.

We draw on a long history of opposition to anti-Semitism within the Communist movement. Jews played a prominent part in the development of Marxism and were in positions of leadership in the Soviet Union during the attempts under Lenin and Stalin to build socialism. 

Many underground anti-Nazis Resistance movements across Europe were led by Communist Jews during World War 2.  Many German communists lost their lives fighting Nazism and Hitler.

Hitler was so enraged by the participation of Jews in the Communist movement that he coined the hyphenated term Jewish-Bolshevism to identify the close relationship between Jewish activists and the Communists.

In 1931, Stalin wrote a reply to an inquiry by the Jewish News Agency in the United States:

In answer to your inquiry :

National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.

J. Stalin
January 12, 1931

To our knowledge, this is the only statement by a major world leader, issued at the time of the rise of German Nazism, to so whole-heartedly denounce anti-semitism. 

We claim this statement by Stalin as our own.

We abhor and condemn all anti-semitism and all forms of racism and vilifications of cultures, nationalities and peoples of colour.

However, we do not support the Bondi massacre being used to pursue other agendas in the name of anti-semitism.

Anti-semitism must not silence or criminalise condemnation of Israel’s anti-Palestinian genocide.

The Jewish faith is not Zionism. Zionism is a political ideology, rooted in colonialism and imperialism, that demanded an exclusive homeland of their own for Jews who wished to leave countries where they had suffered the violence of pogroms and institutionalised discrimination.

It was developed towards the end of the 19th Century and embraced by the wealthy anti-Communist Zionist leadership in US and Europe throughout 20th Century.  Zionist leadership joined western imperialism in actively vilifying and attacking the young Soviet Union and communists. Zionism received a huge boost in the wake of the Holocaust when upwards of 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. That homeland, however, could only be created out of another people’s country, and that country was Palestine. Zionist leadership weaponised the World War 2 Holocaust for its own colonial capitalist ambitions in the Middle East.  This weaponisation of the Holocaust continues today to justify Israel and US Palestinian genocide and occupation of the West Bank.   

The peak Zionist leadership forms a part of the capitalist and imperialist ruling class oppressing and exploiting Palestinians and its own Jewish working class and working people.

Attacks on Zionism can be inspired by anti-semitism; attacks on Zionism, equally, can be devoid of anti-semitism and inspired by belief in the human rights of all people. Criticism of   Israel as a Zionist state in relation to its own genocidal killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians must not be prevented by labelling such criticism anti-semitic. 

Democratic rights must be protected.

Politicians serving the ruling class always assess the opportunities for restricting people’s rights to protest. Spurious reasons are seized upon.  

Over the past decade, successive governments have continued to expand police powers and criminal penalties.

In 2016, the NSW Baird government introduced move-on powers near mining sites after coal seam gas protests.

In 2022, the Perrottet government in NSW made it an offence to block major roads and entry to important facilities after blockades at Port Botany.

In 2023, the Malinauskas government in SA rushed harsh anti-protest laws through after an Extinction Rebellion action temporarily closed one city street. Obstructing a public place was deemed punishable by a $50,000 fine or imprisonment for three months.

This year, the Minns government in NSW created move-on powers for protests near places of worship —powers the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional.

The Victorian Assistant Police Commissioner decided to declare the entire Melbourne CBD and surrounds as a “designated area” for 6 months from 30 November 2025. The Designation gives Victoria Police extraordinary powers. Anyone in the Melbourne CBD over the next six months can be stopped and searched for no reason or be ordered to leave the area if they refuse to remove a face covering. This includes people engaged in peaceful protest.

On December 18, NSW Premier Minns declared, “So we’re looking at reforms whereby when there is a terrorism designation in the state, the police commissioner may not accept applications for protests on the grounds that it will both stretch police resources and secondly, add to community disharmony.”

But it is not just restrictions aimed at support for Palestine. Minns has also indicated his support for arming the private Community Security Group, a body boasting of hundreds of members in NSW and Victoria, and reported to have close ties to Israel’s special operations organisation, Mossad. This would be state approval for the use of violence against critics of Israel and legalise vigilante groups.

Thanks to the murders at Bondi committed by two adherents of ISIS, the democratic rights of the whole community are under attack. Bondi has given politicians who have been pushing an anti-democratic agenda the excuse they are so keen to use.

The defence of the rights of all must take precedence over sectional considerations.

Prime Minister Albanese has been weak in responding to criticism of his response to anti-semitism.  In July 2024, he appointed Israeli advocate and immediate past president of the pro-Zionist Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Jillian Segal, as the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Anti-semitism.

Segal and her husband had been major donors to the ultra-right anti-immigrant lobby group Advance which had campaigned prominently against the Yes referendum. Despite slandering pro-Palestinian demonstrators, she remained silent when Nazis helped organise the anti-immigration March for Australia on August 31, and also when some 60 Nazis paraded outside the NSW Parliament on November 8 with police approval under a banner reading “Abolish the Jewish lobby”.

This is the same Segal who released a 13-point Plan to counter anti-semitism which adopted the definition of anti-semitism advanced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The latter definition conflates anti-semitism with anti-Zionism. It was denounced by nine Australian Jewish organisations. Jesse McNicoll, of Jewish Voices of Inner Sydney said: “Australian Jews who value justice for all people are deeply concerned about the proposal to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. This definition purposefully blurs the line between real antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the State of Israel. Around the world the IHRA definition has been used to silence debate, and we are alarmed to see attempts here in Australia to use it to suppress scrutiny of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.”

On July 10, the Jewish Council of Australia warned that Segal’s Plan risks undermining Australia’s democratic freedoms, inflaming community divisions, and entrenching selective approaches to racism that serve political agendas.

“The Council,” it said, “criticised the plan’s emphasis on surveillance, censorship, and punitive control over the funding of cultural and educational institutions: measures straight out of Trump’s authoritarian playbook. We caution that some of the recommendations  — including visa powers and judicial inquiries into student activity — risk censoring criticism of Israel, deepening racism, and failing to meaningfully address the root causes of antisemitism.”

Albanese was aware of concerns about Segal’s plan voiced by civil libertarians, unions, peace activists and Jews, but criticism of his allegedly soft response to the Plan has led him, as of December 18, to completely capitulate to the Zionist influencers and declare that the Government is taking action on all 13 recommendations outlined in the Plan and would fully adopt the Segal report.

The appointment of Segal as the Special Envoy was wrong; the creation of a Special Envoy was wrong.  A position such as this should embrace the whole community, or, as Judith Treanor, of Jews Against the Occupation ‘48 said: there should be “a whole-of-society approach that unites communities instead of dividing them”.

A Special Envoy for Human Rights would prioritise all racism and division. It would tackle anti-semitism alongside anti-immigrant racism and criminalise calls for remigration (sending all non-White migrants back to the places they, or earlier members of their families, came from). It would require action to stop institutionalised racism against the First Peoples.

People will not be silenced

There is a significant, encouraging and growing push-back by communities opposing division, racism and clamping down on democratic rights. It will take many forms, develop unevenly, and require courage in the face of state violence and the threat of violence and vilification. 

But people will not be silenced. Our strength lies in our unity as a class, not in division on the grounds of race, colour or religion. 

We will not let the weaponisation of allegations of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian activists in any way diminish our determination to act against the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.

We repeat the unanimous call of the rebellious miners at the 1854 Eureka Stockade for people “irrespective of nationality, religion and colour, to salute the Southern Cross as the refuge of all the oppressed from all countries on earth.”

 

Why did heroes succeed after police leadership and ASIO fail at Bondi?

Written by: Louisa L. on 16 December 2025

 

When 42-year-old Ahmed al-Ahmed tackled and disarmed one of the two attackers at Bondi on Sunday evening it was not just an act of incredible bravery. His heroism also made an anti-Muslim backlash more difficult. 

But he was not the only one. Lifeguards and lifesavers, other first responders including police, ambos and firefighters, ran towards danger and set to work while others were fleeing. 

Since the US-British-Australia invasion of Iraq, this is the second mass terrorist act here. Our state ‘protectors’ – NSW Police leadership, ASIO, the injustice system – have questions to answer. 

Truth another casualty

Sydney’s Martin Place bears witness to the 2014 Lindt Café attack by a man who should already have been in prison. He was an isolated egotist fond of media stunts, who had already made threats against family members of military combatants. 

More importantly, he was on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. In fact, he’d been twice bailed despite 43 charges of sexual assault against her. 

He was a public figure. All this was known. Why did police continue to negotiate rather than shooting him the second they had the chance? Then why did they cover it up?

ABC’s Jessica Kidd reported the Director of Public Prosecutions applied unsuccessfully for the man’s bail conditions to be excluded from the Lindt inquest. 

Why? Was it just vicious patriarchal injustice, consistent with so many women murdered by their partners or former partners? 

Against the wishes of the families of Katrina Dawson who was killed as the siege was broken and Tori Johnson who was murdered, the DPP successfully excluded 60 of 74 documents of communications between police and public prosecutors.

Kidd stated, “’Counsel assisting the inquest, Jeremy Gormly SC,’ told the hearing ‘the DPP was ‘ambushing’ and ‘damaging’ the progress of the inquest.”

Unity within defeat

Terrorism as a way of individuals to force change is always counterproductive. Such attacks strengthen those people terrorists plan to harm. It’s so effective, state forces themselves sometimes stage violent provocations and blame so-called terrorists or violent protesters. 

No doubt, Israel and Zionists will organise more strongly here among the people.

Terrorism by individuals or small groups comes from isolation. It targets the wrong people, innocent people. It ignores the real culprits. It denies the truth that the masses create change, not individuals. 

Before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Muslim Australians knew 94 percent of Australians opposed the war. Over half a million of us had marched in Sydney against it. We all knew who our enemies were. They had names and faces. And they were not the Australian people. 

Many see those protests as a complete failure. As communists, we analyse any situation dialectically. While we were unable to stop the invasion of Iraq, that precious unity against war has overwhelmingly been ignored. That unity in struggle was the key reason no terrorist attacks occurred here until over a decade later. 

Israel’s mirror image

And now? The father of a man ASIO identified six years ago as in an Islamic State cell was allowed to renew his gun licence and own six registered firearms. Surely, even if the father didn’t share his son’s views, the guns were easily accessible.  

Given US-Zionist genocide in Palestine and brutal injustice meted out across the Middle East, given the mass deaths of children, given Australia trails behind the US master like a mangy dog waiting for scraps, they must expect attacks here? 

Australian officials, the media and far right think tanks talk and talk of rampant antisemitism. They conflate it with Zionism, yet they were unable to properly protect such an obvious target as a Hanukkah Festival run by Australia’s leading Zionist organisation in Bondi.

But Netanyahu’s statements blaming the Labor Government and its decision to recognise a Palestinian state for what happened at Bondi are nowhere near the truth; namely that his own genocide of Palestinians, continuing after a so-called ceasefire, has so inflamed passions as to have led to the appalling targeting of Jews at the Bondi Hanukkah shootings, and that Bondi’s blood is fairly on Netanyahu’s hands. 

More than this, the two terrorists were IS supporters. Their opposition to Israel is not guaranteed to be tied to solidarity with Palestinians but with wider attacks.

Mirroring Netanyahu and Israel, ISIS wants to create an ever-expanding racist, religious state, a Caliphate.  

Why were they unprepared?

Capitalism, they tell us, is the best of all possible systems. It protects us. Then how does it do such a terrible job? 

ASIO got nearly $600 million in 2024-25. How did it fail the people so miserably? 

How did the NSW Police leadership? Despite all the words about antisemitic threats, those leading NSW police were woefully unprepared. Why were no police sharpshooters in reserve? 

Ultimately, the police force is trained to suppress people, to follow orders. Police solidarity is strong. It has a positive side. At Bondi, the terrorists were stopped within nine minutes. This isn’t about this or that police officer, though many behaved heroically. Like ASIO, the force itself is a key part of monopoly capital rule. 

Protecting the people is not central to this, but expected in certain situations if capitalism is to survive. Overwhelmingly, police are trained to enforce capitalist laws and rule.

Capitalism provides endless platitudes on constant media repeat. But not the truth. Not the causes, that racism and division are fuelled by the far-right sections of the imperialist ruling class to quell the groundswell of people's resistance to escalating imperialist aggressions and capitalist oppression. 

But it's backfiring with louder cries against all forms of racism and division, instead urgings for unity and solidarity with all.  Ahmed al-Ahmed's courageous actions, and those of frontline police and first responders, embody the ordinary people's strivings for unity and solidarity.   

A lifelong Bondi lifesaver and former producer of Bondi Lifeguard, provided help. He recounted to Nine News the heroism of lifesavers and others. He said, when he got home, his daughter was terrified. He told her about Ahmed al-Ahmed and others. He said, ‘There’s many more good people around the world like them than bad people.’

It’s a glimpse of socialism – power in the hands of the working class and the masses of the people.

Meanwhile we must be ready to counter an organised Zionist resurgence with full state and media support

Workers’ struggle as a class gives life to ACTU's "strength in numbers, power in solidarity, we are unstoppable"

 Written by: Ned K. on 14 December 2025

 

(AMWU members in Victoria take action this month against US giant biopharmaceutical company CSL Behring.)

The ACTU web site "Australian Unions" opens with the inspiring words of "Strength In Numbers, Power in Solidarity, We Are Unstoppable".

It is followed by a quote from ACTU Secretary Sally McManus, "The Australian union movement has always worked towards big, important and permanent changes that benefit all workers."

In 2025 thousands of workers in their respective Unions have taken collective action to advance their working conditions and to make a dent in the continual rising cost of everyday living. It is their collective actions which breathe life into the ACTU's words quoted above.

There have been big wins by workers in the public sector in particular in several states and territories and in sectors reliant on federal or state government funding for wage increases.

Public hospital workers, aged care and early childhood education workers and disabilities sector workers are examples.
In the private sector, workers in the mining industry in particular have forced big companies and labour hire contractors to comply with "Same Job, Same Pay" resulting in significant wage increases to labour hire workers. 

However, there are large sections of the working class that have not been involved in any form of collective action recently and who have little or no knowledge of the ACTU and its role, let alone any feeling of being "unstoppable" or having experienced any form of "power in solidarity". 

There are many reasons for this situation, but one reason is that since the election of the Albanese Government, the ACTU leadership has been a "dead hand" on leading working class struggles that have "big, important and permanent changes that benefit all workers".

Peace and Justice Is Union Business:

The Australian union movement has until recent times educated and mobilized workers for peace and justice. For example, the anti-conscription movement in the imperialist World War 1 of 1914-1918. The refusal of maritime workers to load iron ore bound for Japan in World War 2 and the participation of thousands of unionists in the anti-Vietnam War campaign in Australia.

However, since the intensified genocidal bombardment of the Palestinian people by Israel over the last two years, the ACTU leadership has been conspicuous by its absence in educating and mobilizing Unions and their members to take part in the world-wide grass roots movement in support of the Palestinian people.

The ACTU and several large corporate structured Unions have shamefully been silent on supporting Palestinians and effectively fallen in behind the Albanese Government's support for Israel and its US backers. The same silence has prevailed over the issue of the increasing militarization of Australia by the US under the AUKUS banner.

Workers' Rights, Still Worth Fighting For:

The ACTU leaders may argue that they have been focused under the Albanese government's years on "big, important and permanent changes" that are closer to home for all workers in Australia. For example, the changes to the Fair Work Act which recognize in law the role of Delegates in the workplace, multi-employer enterprise agreements, the right to disconnect and same job. same pay.

Important as these changes are for workers, the ACTU has overseen the destruction of the construction division of the CFMEU which hardly resonates with the ACTU catch cry "strength in numbers, power in solidarity, we are unstoppable!"

If ACTU leaders are serious about mobilizing workers on issues "closer to home" to make permanent change, they need to have the desire and courage to campaign on an agenda that is independent of any parliamentary political party, and independent of the government of the day, whether that be a government of one Party, or a government reliant on support from minor Parties or Independents.

A good start would be for the ACTU to mobilize workers for the right to take industrial action. The only right to industrial action by workers is the so-called "protected industrial action" during a formal enterprise bargaining period. This means protection for bosses against workers’ action during the life of Agreements which is usually a  period of three or four years. For those workers paid under an Award or on an ABN, there is no right to take any industrial action at any time at all!

If the ACTU wants to be taken seriously by workers as a class regarding its mantra of "big, important and permanent changes", there's no shortage of campaigns they should be cranking up!