Lessons for Australia in Trump’s Ukraine switch

 Written by: Nick G. on 26 February 2025

 

(Source:   https://www.republicworld.com)

If ever any of the US bootlickers in Australian political and military circles needed a wake-up call, it has come directly from Trump’s change of US policy on Ukraine.

Trump has thrown Zelensky under a bus, demanded mineral and rare earth deposits worth 50% of Ukrainian GDP as “compensation” for its financing of Ukraine’s efforts to defeat Russian aggression, and set out to negotiate a deal for ending the war with Putin to the exclusion of the Ukrainians.

Then on February 24, to coincide with the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN General Assembly debated two resolutions on the conflict, one proposed by the US, and one by Ukraine.

The US resolution omitted mention of Russian aggression, and only passed after a majority of Member States voted to add EU-led amendments which led to the US abstaining on its own motion and voting against the Ukrainian’s. 

The Ukrainian resolution was a three-page document that included clauses noting that “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has persisted for three years and continues to have devastating and long-lasting consequences not only for Ukraine, but also for other regions and global stability.”

It called for a commitment to “the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”.

Ukraine’s version was eventually passed, supported by 93 countries, opposed by 18 with 65 abstentions including China.

The US voted with Russia, Belarus and Israel to oppose the Ukrainian resolution. The majority of the remainder of the 18 were African nations, indicating Russian imperialism’s increasing influence on the continent. 

Later, the US took its original resolution to the Security Council where it was carried 10-0. Five European countries abstained while the US, Russia and China voted in favour.

US imperialism’s about-face on Ukraine must be of concern to its cheer-leaders and lackeys in Australia.

For our part, we have never believed in the US-Australia “Alliance” and have rejected calls to accept US “security guarantees” allegedly contained in the ANZUS Alliance. 

The prospect of US imperialism demanding “compensation” for such “guarantees” is now a grim reality.

Will the Brisbane Line be revived and parts to the north of it ceded to the US?

The reality is that something like that is already underway through the US Force Posture Agreement.

Trump’s demands for compensation from Ukraine were described by one journalist as a “gangster protection racket disguised as foreign policy”.

Will we also need to pay the US for its “protection”?

The reality is that we are already committed through AUKUS to pay $30 million a day for the next 30 years – or $368 billion and counting – for a handful of submarines which they and we will pretend are “ours”, but which will be part of the US Navy on an interoperable and interchangeable basis.

It is time to end the grovelling to the US by loyalists to its Empire in Australia. 

We are determined to fight for an independent and peaceful Australia.

Both independence and peaceful non-alignment are cornerstones for our future and of equal value and importance.

Smash US imperialism!

For independence and socialism. 

How "highly credible" is corporate ownership of the Whyalla Steelworks?

Written by: Ned K. on 22 February 2025

 

(above: Malinauskas and Whyalla Steelworks workers    Source: InDaily)

With the Whyalla Steelworks in administration, large corporations are circling to see how much profit they are likely to make if they successfully bid to buy the Whyalla Steelworks. Corporations from Germany, South Korea, India along with Australian-based BlueScope are reported to be interested in buying and operating the steelworks. 

BlueScope is being promoted by SA Premier Malinauskas.  In the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper on 21/2/2025, Malinauskas is quoted as follows:

 "There is no secret about the fact that I've been talking, along with other members of our team, in the state government, to a range of potential owners, and BlueScope is only one of them. But let me say this, BlueScope a HIGHLY CREDIBLE (writer's emphasis) Australian publicly - listed company and I look forward to news emerging in coming days and weeks about how our relationship with BlueScope in Whyalla might be deeper again."

 

Malinauskas is a popular leader among the local capitalists and big event-based capitalists in SA with his brand of "bread and circuses" capitalism and his general confidence and belief in capitalism. 

 

To him, GFG Alliance was just a rotten tomato in a good "crop" of big businesses and BlueScope is not only a ripe tomato in the crop, but "highly credible"!

 

BlueScope's "Highly Credible" Record?

 

A closer look at the history of BlueScope makes the highly credible label an illusion.

 

• BHP-Billiton owned Whyalla steel works and in July 2002 it split off its steel assets creating BHP Steel. 

 

• 17 November 2003 BHP Steel re-named BlueScope, perhaps a marketing ploy as BHP-Billiton was known as ruthless exploiter of workers across its international operations

 

• 2004 BlueScope merged with US corporation Butler Manufacturing which had twelve steel manufacturing plants in the USA, Mexico and China at the time.

 

• October 2011 BlueScope, which owned Port Kembla Steelworks, closed its No 6 Blast Furnace reducing production capacity by 50%!

 

• In 2012 BlueScope set up a new coated steel plant in the large industrial area of east India, Jamshedpur.

 

• In 2019 BlueScope expanded its capital investment in the USA by $1 billion

 

• In August 2019 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) started a civil case against BlueScope and its then CEO Jason Ellis for engaging in "cartel conduct"

 

• In December 2022 the Federal Court of Australia found BlueScope and its CEO guilty of attempting to induce 8 steel distribution companies in Australia and an overseas manufacturer to enter agreements to fix and/or raise the level of pricing for flat steel products

 

• In July 2020 BlueScope was fined $30,000 by SW Environment Protection Authority for failing to comply with dioxin air emission limits six times over two months of March and April.

 

• BlueScope current Managing Director is quoted in the Adelaide Advertiser on Saturday on 21/2/2025 as saying BlueScope was a "net beneficiary" of US tariffs on imported steel and 45% of BlueScope" earnings" came from its US steel plants. He added that at the moment BlueScope is in the "early stages of a $200 million cost-cutting blitz to reap returns" (returns = profits)

 

• At the same time, Albanese is on the phone to Trump to plead for exemption on tariffs on steel imported from Australia!

 

• BlueScope US plants produce 3 million tonnes of steel a year. BlueScope exports 200,000- 300,000 tonnes of steel to the USA

 

Other corporations competing with BlueScope to make profits from the Whyalla Steelworks will no doubt have their own histories in their relentless search for profits or they call them "earnings". 

 

The only short-term solution to benefit the Whyalla community and Australian people as a whole is for the steelworks to be a government owned entity. The only longer-term solution is for major industries and services to be owned and run by the people in an independent, socialist Australia.

Whyalla Workers Steeled In Struggle Deserve Job Security -Nationalise the Steel Industry!

 Written by: Ned K. on 21 February 2025

 

The working-class community of Whyalla, led by over 1,000 steel workers have won a significant short-term victory. For months steel works workers and workers employed by contractors dependent on the steel works for their very existence, endured reductions in working hours, layoffs, weeks of work without being paid any wages in an economic climate of ever-increasing costs of living.

The steel workers and their Whyalla community affected allies repeatedly demanded action by the SA Government and GFG Alliance CEO, Sanjeev Gupta. Many promises were made by Gupta about the GFG Alliance commitment to the workers and to the SA Government that payment of lost wages, payment to GFG Alliance's many contractor feeder companies was just around the corner. However, the " corner" remained over the horizon!

The SA Premier Malinauskas read the mood of the town and the emptiness of Gupta's promises well. As well as the possible situation of GFG Alliance going belly-up and the steelworks grinding to a halt, he needed a fully functioning Whyalla Steelworks to be the main customer of his pre-election promise in 2022 to build a liquid hydrogen fuel plant at Whyalla.

By January 2025, the Labor Prime Minister Albanese could see disaster ahead if Australia's only producer of high-grade steel essential for the construction industry and rail transport stopped producing steel. It would cost him the loss of Seats in the federal election that he would call to be held one Saturday before mid-May 2025. 

In mid-February Premier Malinauskas pushes through SA Parliament an amendment to the 1958 Whyalla Steelworks Act to enable the GFG Alliance Whyalla Steelworks arm of its global economic "empire" to be put into administration.

The next day, Thursday 19 February, Premier Malinauskas and Prime Minister Albanese visited Whyalla and announced the much broadcast $2.4 billion "rescue package" to pay lost wages and pay contractors owed money by GFG Alliance, to keep the steelworks operating while it is under administration and to partly fund a modernization of the steelworks with a hoped-for new owner of the steelworks.

This announcement received a big sigh of temporary relief from workers and the whole Whyalla community. 

The appointed administrator Korda Mentha was also the administrator in 2017 which led to the previous owner of the steelworks, Arrium, being taken over by GFG Alliance. Korda Mentha is reported by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper on Friday 20 February 2025 to charge $795 per hour per senior partner for administering the steelworks and sorting through GFG Alliance finances. Korda Mentha will also be making a recommendation to the SA and federal governments on which company should take over and own the steel works

The underlying cause of the current situation has been the large corporate owners of the steelworks, British-based GFG Alliance and those before it - Arrium, One Steel and its parent BHP have always put profits before the interests of the workers, Whyalla community and the Australian steel industry as a whole. 

These large corporations have not only made profits from the steelworks itself, but also from the nearby Middleback Ranges where they owned and mined some of the highest grade iron ore in the world. The iron ore from Iron Knob and Iron Monarch in these Ranges has purity of ore of over 60%. In the 1920s and 1930s before the steelworks at Whyalla was constructed, the high grade ore was shipped to Newcastle and Port Kembla steelworks. In 1939, the UK declared the ore to be the highest grade deposit of iron ore known in the world.

In the turmoil of the last few days, it was reported in mainstream media that GFG Alliance was propping up its European steelwork interests from profits made from the iron ore mines and the steel produced in the Whyalla steelworks

NATIONALISE THE STEEL INDUSTRY

Albanese in his announcement on Thursday 19 February rightly made the comment that the steel industry is part of Australia's national sovereignty. Malinauskas made the same point.

If they really believe this, rather than just sounding good before a federal election, they should take the first step towards a nationalised steel industry by placing the steelworks and iron ore mines at Whyalla into public hands.

Workers in Australia, led by the courageous people of Whyalla have the ability to operate the steelworks and the iron ore mines for the benefit of their community and the needs of Australian construction and expanding rail network construction.

Albanese and Malinauskas may say the steelworks need the "expertise" of a foreign owned multinational corporation or a nominally Australian owned company like Bluescope who operate Port Kembla steelworks. 

Or they may say Australia has not got the money to modernise our own steelworks.

Where then did the Albanese Government find the money to send to the USA to part-finance the building of more nuclear-powered submarines? Where do they miraculously find $368 billion to fund nuclear-powered submarines in coming decades?

DEMAND NATIONALISATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN STEEL INDUSTRY NOW! 

Message to Ukrainian Australians on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion

Written by: CPA (M-L) on 19 February 2025

 

February 23, 2025, marks the 3rd anniversary of Russian imperialism’s illegal and unjust war of aggression against Ukraine. 

On February 25, 2022, we issued a statement condemning Putin’s invasion, saying “Ukraine has become the battleground of the rival imperialist blocs of the US-NATO-EU and of the Russian Federation. A struggle over imperialist spheres of influence is at the heart of the crisis. It arises due to the uneven development of the strengths and weaknesses of the powers and of their abilities to protect their respective spheres of influence.”

On the first anniversary of the invasion, we attended rallies of Ukrainian Australians and distributed a leaflet headed Russian imperialists – out of Ukraine!

After reviewing Putin’s “justifications” for his aggression, and the role of the US in creating instability in Ukraine as part of an expansion of NATO towards the east, we concluded “Ukraine for the Ukrainians, not for the Russians, and not for the US and NATO.”

We stand firm in our belief that, as Ho Chi Minh said of Vietnam, “nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”.

Today, fresh dangers face the Ukrainian people.

The Russian authorities not only continue their aggressive ad unjust war, but impose new repression on Ukrainians in Russia itself. 

Of the more than thirty Ukrainian cultural autonomies and organisations that existed in Russia at the end of the 2010s, only a few continue to function actively. Most of them exist solely due to their complete loyalty to the Russian state authorities.

In 2024, the Russian government initiated a bill to denounce the agreement with Ukraine that regulated the activities of information and cultural centers. This decision was the final blow to the National Cultural Center of Ukraine in Moscow - one of the last legal centers of Ukrainian culture in the Russian capital.

Activists who tried to continue working to preserve Ukrainian culture and identity are under constant threat of detention, fines, or other repressive measures. 
Our comrades in the Russian Maoist Party initiated a statement, “Solidarity with the Ukrainians of Russia” which was released on January 6, 2025 and signed by ourselves and 17 other Marxist-Leninist parties and organisations. They included our comrades in the Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine.

When it was announced that North Korea was sending troops to support Russian aggression, we released the statement “Condemn the DPRK’s sending of troops to the Ukrainian conflict” on 6 November 2024.

Now, a further complication has emerged with the election of Donald Trump.

Ukrainians must maintain their vigilance and not place any trust in the new US President.

He must not be allowed to do a deal with Putin at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

He has boasted that he will end the war in a day.

But he has also cited his own imperialist aims to absorb Greenland into the US, retake the Panama Canal from Panama, and make Canada the 51st state of the US. He has proposed the ethnic cleansing of Gaza for the sake of a US-led real estate development.

Nothing would suit him better than a deal with Putin based on a redivision of areas of influence and the seizure of territories not their own.

To that end, the February 7 “deal” presented to Zelensky by Trump, requiring Ukraine to grant the US the right to oversee Ukraine’s mineral resources, ports, energy infrastructure, and future economic projects must be rejected. The agreement would claim a larger share of Ukraine’s GDP, at $500 billion, than Germany’s post-World War I reparations under the Treaty of Versailles.

For our part, our focus as an Australian Marxist-Leninist Party is on winning our own anti-imperialist independence and socialism.

In this conflict, there is no “good” imperialism – neither Russian nor Western.

Ukraine needs to defeat the tiger that has burst in through the front door, while keeping out the wolves that lurk around the back door.

We hope that the Ukrainian working class will establish its leadership in the resistance and guarantee Ukrainian independence through a socialist state.

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

A Capitalist Parliament Won’t Get People Out of the Mess - Mass Struggle for People’s Power the only Solution to the Crisis

Written by: John G. on 17 February 2025

 

(Above: Keep the initiative in our own hands, and lift the level of struggle!)

 

In the economic crisis that stalks Australia, there is only one solution. The struggle of Australian workers and working people.

Struggle is against the multinationals and their collaborators, struggle for increased wages, for adequate social services, for easing workload burdens, for shorter hours, for secure jobs and for housing we can afford. The common thread is to throw foreign monopoly corporations and their collaborators off our backs and out of Australia, to establish the rule of the working and patriotic people, the vast majority

Struggle mustn’t be held back by any of the scam cures offered, restraining wages, balancing government budgets, increased spending on infrastructure, cutting spending on infrastructure, spending super on housing, lowering interest rates, multi-employer bargaining, subsidies on windfarms, cutting subsides on renewable power, spending hundreds of billions on nuclear power, and on and on. 

The grim reality is economic crisis rolls on whatever parliament has done or will do. Struggle mustn’t be held back by the parliamentary hassle that’s going on, pumped up to hoodwink people.

It’s important to get over the complete rubbish, get to grips with the fundamental reality of what’s going on, and solve it.  

The capitalist system is failing the people. Inflation of the currency has robbed people of their livelihoods, their savings and prospects for the future. Inflation is the current expression of a long-festering crisis of overproduction in the capitalist system here and overseas. After years of people’s agony with wages held way behind price rises, high interest rates and rents, business bankruptcies, countries drowning in debt, the economy will pick up sometime, at a huge cost to people. It won’t last long. The major centres of capitalist funds and power are choking on mountains of accumulated capital funds with nowhere to profitably go. That problem’s going nowhere. It’ll come out in the next problems in one form or another. 

Markets, sources of raw materials and production centres, are all dominated by monopoly corporations from the US, China, Europe, Russia and other imperialist powers. The battle between the various capitalists for markets and things to invest in has come to a peak, turning from mainly economic and political struggles to military struggles. Trade Wars may head into world wars.

Wars for oil are no news to anyone. Now its wider, with proxy wars in the Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere. The waste of war, the destruction of arms and infrastructure creates shortages and markets, offering some relief for capitalists to use their money capital to get profits, getting round the crisis of oversupply for a while. For capitalists, war’s a way out of their mess. 

The US is gearing up for war with China. Trump is concentrating on war in Asia to grab control of China and those countries increasingly dependent on it. Proxy wars head into direct warfare between the big imperialist powers. 

People find ways to stand up to US and western imperialists moves to war. People from Palestine to West Papua to Kurdistan have risen with arms in hand to win and defend their national liberation from imperialist vultures. They are showing organised resistance knocks the imperialists back, serving up defeats to imperialist conspiracies against people.

 We’ve had both Liberal and Labor governments in the last decade. We’ve had Greens in a ‘balance’ of votes in the senate. We’ve had Greens and Independents manoeuvring between the two big players. 

The tactics of Labor leaders might differ from Dutton, which has some importance, but essentially, they all look after the rich and attack the poor.  The Greens and Teals, Jackie Lambie, Palmer and others tout various different programs to get votes promising to get people out of the mess.  

Irrespective of the government, and the mix of parties in parliament coming out of an election, hardships keep cutting a swathe through working and small business people time and again, while the big foreign monopolies keep plundering Australia and the people. 

Parliament and party shadow-boxing in its chambers works to keep capitalism on our backs. 

Stop Dreaming! Parliament is no way out of the mess. 

Get organised! Build mass struggle for people’s power against foreign, corporate monopoly power.

Stand up to US and other imperialisms to win independence from foreign-moneybags and their local collaborator capitalists and bureaucrats, Canberra included.

Democratic Anti-Imperialist Revolution for Power to the People. 

Australian culture under attack

Written by: Duncan B. on 16 February 2025

 

(Progressive Australian culture has had its ups and downs: the 1890s, 1930s and 1970s. The above is the front cover of the SA-based Australian Cultural Association’s 67-page history of its 1975-1980 activities. Maybe it’s time for another upsurge!)

 

Australian culture has come under attack on several fronts lately. In the past six months, two big multinational publishers have taken over two independent Australian publishing houses.

Simon & Schuster took over Affirm Press and Penguin Random House took over Text Publishing. The big five overseas publishing companies (Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan) now control a large chunk of the Australian publishing industry. 

These take-over deals are bad for Australian authors, Australian readers and Australian literature. We risk losing more Australian culture because of them. The big companies are cautious about what they take on, while independent publishers take more risks and support innovative and experimental writing. Text Publishing has authors who have been short-listed for the Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer prizes. Other Text authors have won the Miles Franklin and Stella Prizes. Text has also reprinted books by past Australian authors, bringing them to a new generation of Australian readers.

The Australian Music industry is also facing a crisis thanks to Spotify. This Swedish-owned streaming platform with global revenues of $25 billion per year, controls 70% of the Australian audio streaming market. Australian music is suffering as a result.

Many people now  get their music from Spotify instead of buying CDs or listening to radio stations such as Triple J. American pop stars dominate the music played on Spotify, which is not subject to any local content rules, despite promises by the Labor Party to introduce them. Three major record labels, Warner, Sony and Universal, released 95% of the music on the Australian top-100 in 2023.

Only five Australian songs made it to the ARIA top 100 for 2024. Only 18 Australian artists made it into Triple J’s Hottest 100 for 2025. Triple J’s ratings have dropped to 4.3% nationally. This is a sad result for a radio station which has done so much to promote Australian music in its 50 years of operation.

The Triple J playlist has always featured a much higher level of Australian music than the commercial stations. Programmes such as Unearthed and the One Night Stand travelling live music shows have allowed many Australian musicians to gain recognition.

Live music in Australia is dominated by overseas multinationals such as the US-based Live Nation. The three top video streamers in Australia are foreign-owned-Netflix, Amazon and Disney. Video streamers are also not subject to local content quotas.

The government is being urged to introduce local content quotas of at least 25% for streaming services. This would be a start. Much more action is needed to seize back control of our culture from the multinationals and return it to Australian authors, performers and audiences.

 

Who the Nationals serve

Written by: Duncan B. on 13 February 2025

 

Vanguard has previously said that the National Party serves the interests of fossil fuel companies, miners and big graziers. 

The latest records of disclosure return forms published by the Australian Electoral Commission covering 2023-24, show that British American Tobacco, Phillip Morris, Adani, Fortescue Metals and the Minerals Council of Australia were among the major donors to the Nationals.

Phillip Morris donated $100,000 and British American Tobacco donated $84,000, up from $55,000 the previous year. Adani donated $66,000 and Endeavour Group which owns Dan Murphy’s and hundreds of poker machine hotels donated $22,000. 

Responsible Wagering Australia donated $25,000, as did Tabcorp Holdings, Telstra, and oil and gas company Santos. Donations to the National Party and Laneway Assets (the National’s vehicle for receiving membership fees), totalled $4.16 million.

It is easy to see why the National Party denounces climate change, opposes renewable energy and promotes fossil fuels. 

“He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

 

Listen to people so as to improve mass work

 Written by: Nick G. on 13 February 2025

 

(Original image from Milwaukee Independent)

In December 2022, the United States Study Centre of the University of Sydney released the results of a survey of Australian attitudes towards the “US-Australia Alliance”.

The survey identified 30% of respondents as “full supporters” with no concerns about what the “alliance’ means; 33% are described as “reserved supporters” with concerns about Australian independence and sovereignty; 23% are described as “sceptics” who are not convinced that the Alliance, in its current form, is necessarily benefiting Australia’s security and would like to see significant change; and 8% are described as “opponents”.

Kym Bergmann, editor of the online Asia Pacific Defence Reporter could perhaps be placed in that second category. Bergmann is a journalist with a commitment to the military and has an unquestionable belief in the US as Australia’s “most important security partner”.  He has held senior positions in several companies, including military contractors Blohm+Voss, Thales, Celsius and Saab. His online journal is a daily compendium of which government has given which arms manufacturer which contract, together with news of the latest in military technologies.

Bergmann has a weekly podcast in which he editorialises on the absurdity of the AUKUS arrangements and the secrecy and stupidity of the Department of Defence.

In his most recent podcast, he criticises Trump’s proposed “ethnic cleansing of 2 million Palestinians”, and Netanyahu’s rejection of a “two-state solution” and determination to cleanse not just Gaza, but also the West Bank, of Palestinians.

He doesn’t mince words when criticising Trump and Netanyahu, but says “You can’t hear anything this strong from the Australian government because for them it represents the absolute worst of two worlds: the risk of offending the Americans and the risk of offending the Israelis.”

He reviews our massively expanded military ties with the US and the money we are giving them hand over fist for what he says are a “couple of second-hand clunkers” in the form of  Virginia-class submarines, and says that if any country in the world is in a position to express mild discontent with America, it is Australia. But all we get, from the Government and the Opposition, is “vague motherhood sort of stuff.”

He says that there are other countries out there beside the US and asks what must they think of us?

He is scathing of our politicians who “still cower in terror rather than say anything that could be interpreted as criticism.”

“What must they (other countries) think of our ongoing craven forelock tugging” he asks.

“From Copenhagen, Ottowa, Panama City, we must look like the most abject, pathetic bootlickers they have ever seen.”

So here we have a person, deeply embedded in and committed to the military, to military industry and to military culture who nevertheless has major concerns about the loss of Australian independence and sovereignty and who clearly wants Australia to have a capacity for independent decision-making in matters of foreign policy.

People like Bergmann are all around us.

They are a complex of attitudes and values. Their ideas are unlikely to be 100% progressive or 100% backward.

In our workplaces, communities and families, our understanding of the massline requires us to listen to those around us, avoid immediate judgemental attitudes but carry out investigation that allows us to make appropriate categorisation of the people based on the relative balance between progressive and backward elements in their outlook.

Those categories could follow the pattern of those in the US Study Centre.

From that investigation and subsequent understanding of the categories that people in our workplace, community group or family fall into, we can improve our mass work with a view to raising the ideological level of the people concerned.

This means having the confidence to reject passivity, and the understanding to reject acting like a bull in a china shop. Not everyone will respond to our mass work with a sudden light globe moment. Ideological development takes time and is different for different people depending on their starting point.

For example, in relation to those categories of people in the US Study Centre survey, we could aim to isolate the full supporters by challenging their faith in the “alliance” and then try to shift those who can be shifted into the category of reserved supporters; within the latter group, make more of an issue of independence and sovereignty so that some change from being supporters of the Alliance to sceptics; and turn the doubts and misgivings of the sceptics into conscious opposition to imperialist domination and control.

Investigation and study of our workplaces, communities and families is a Marxist-Leninist approach that counters the danger of left-blocism where people are only comfortable in the presence of others who share their advanced views. It allows us to move within the people like a fish through water.

 

China’s anti-socialist counter-revolution

Written by: Nick G. on 11 February 2025

 

(Where the People's Daily once produced lists of labour heroes, Bloomberg now produces lists of Chinese rich.)

A certain organisation has commented this week on what it calls “China’s socialist revolution”. 

The comment is little more than a repeat of the revisionist CCP’s rewriting of its own history. 

It says, for example, “In the first years following the revolution China was set back by the “great leap forward” and then, the “cultural revolution” which were implemented under the leadership of Mao Zedong, who, in the later period of his life adopted extreme “leftist” policies.”

Things allegedly took a “dramatic turn for the better” when Deng and his cronies rejected these “leftist” policies and switched China from the socialist to the capitalist road.

One assumes that it is “better” that one of the most equal and classless societies in the world has been destroyed and a society of vast social polarisation has taken its place. (See “China and the Widening of Relative Poverty” on pages 3-8 here: AC+2020+Spring.pdf )

One assumes that it is “better” that a socialist country is now a major exporter of capital to non-socialist countries where it can only function as any exportable capital in purchasing the natural resources of other countries and exploiting the labour of the workers of those countries, taking the surplus value created by those workers for the profit of its private and/or state-owned corporations. (See: “Explaining China: How a socialist country took the capitalist rod to social-imperialism” here: Explaining+China+Final+v2.pdf )

One assumes that it is “better” that China no longer seeks the restriction of bourgeois right, but rather its frantic expansion, resulting in China now having more billionaires than its rival US imperialism, and millionaires allowed to join the ruling Communist Party as one of three representatives of contemporary forces of production. (See: “Understanding the Need to Restrict Bourgeois Right” pages 14-34 here: AC+2022+Autumn.pdf )

One assumes it is “better” that when the new Chinese Deepseek AI platform is asked how China is restricting bourgeois right, it avoids any explanation of bourgeois right and doesn’t initially know what to do, twice replying “The server is busy. Please try again later.”

6 hours later, again asked “What is bourgeois right and how is it being restricted in China?” it lamely offers this non-answer:

In China, we adhere to the socialist system, where the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics are the fundamental guarantees for China's development and progress. The Chinese government is always committed to safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods, promoting social fairness and justice, and ensuring that the people share in the fruits of reform and development. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been continuously improved, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people. China's development practice has proven that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the correct one that suits China's national conditions, and it has also received widespread support and active participation from the entire Chinese people.

One assumes that it is “better” that the proletarian revolutionary Comrade Mao Zedong is discredited and maligned, and that his ideology is replaced with the officially described revisionist nonsense of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

In a further post, we will look again at the revisionism of so-called Xi Jinping Thought.

American Empire Is Past Its Prime

 Written by: Ned K. on 11 February 2025

 

It is often said these days that while America (USA) is still the biggest imperialist power, that it is in decline.

A recent article in the online news service, Pearls and Irritations, provides some facts about the American empire's decline, The article is by Les Macdonald and was posted in Pearls and Irritations on February 9, 2025.

The post reveals some revealing statistics about different aspects of the USA economy and society.

 

• Life expectancy. In 1900, 46.6 years for men, 48.7 years for women. In 2000, 74.7  years for men, 79.9 years for women. Between 2017 and 2021, life expectancy dropped by nearly 4 percentage points, a decline that marks a stark departure from the previous century’s progress.

 

• Income and "Productivity". According to the Economic Policy Institute, the earnings of the US middle class (middle income earners) in real terms was $17,867 less per year in 2007 than in 1979. Between 1979 and 2007, productivity increased by 74% while real wages increased by 9%. Since 1979, wages and salaries for the top 1% of employees rose by 138% while real wages for the bottom 90% rose by 15%

 

• Consumer Price Index. Since 2000, the CPI went up by 83.28% while the median wage went up by 34.7%

 

• Health Care Access. Tens of millions of people have no health coverage or minimal health coverage with the resulting added cost to individuals contributing to over 40% of the average 530,000 bankruptcies per year.

 

• Manufacturing. In 1946, More than 50% of the world's manufactured goods were produced in the USA. in 2024, it was only 15.9% of world's manufacturing produced in the USA. In 1979 there were19.6 million USA workers employed in manufacturing. In 2019, only 12.8 million, a reduction of 35%. (USA Bureau of Labor Statistics). The largest sector of USA manufacturing is military production, approximate dollar value of $1trillion per year!

 

• Education. USA graduates 70,000 engineers per year compared with USA main rival China's 600,000 per year. USA student loan debt is $1.74 trillion with 7% in default category.

 

• Privatization. Privatizations over the last four decades has seen a boom in private prison population. Prison population in 1980 was 320,000. In 2024 it was 1.8 million. Private prison operators lobby for harsher prison sentences to fuel their labor force inside prisons.

 

• Firearms. In 2024 more than 500 million firearms in the USA were in private hands which is an average of 1.93 firearms per adult.

 

These figures do not indicate a rosy picture of USA society and economy. The recent signing off by Trump and the Republicans for a further $1 billion military export to Israel and Trump's plan to "redevelop" Gaza into a "Middle East Riviera" and sending Palestinians out of Gaza altogether is being trumpeted (!) to give lucrative contracts to USA big business. A taste of this is the announcement only a day ago by the USA government that private USA security contractors would replace some Israeli troops in a small part of northern Gaza.

Unions say "Don't risk Dutton" but avoid issues of substance

Written by: Ned K. on 9 February 2025

 

On Tuesday 4 February, the ACTU held an online webinar for affiliated Unions to outline the ACTU's plan for the fast-approaching federal parliamentary elections. The webinar was run by ACTU Secretary Sally McManus and President Michelle O'Neill with support from State and Territory Secretaries.

Over 700 people joined the webinar from a diverse range of Unions covering workers from many different industries and backgrounds.

Sally McManus said that the coming election was being framed by the mainstream media and Dutton as a referendum on the how the Albanese Government has "performed" regarding the rising cost of living. The ACTU's intention was to frame the election around the theme "Don't Risk Dutton".

For Union members and workers generally, the ACTU campaign would emphasize the risk of workers losing the gains made on the workplace front under the Albanese Government term of office if Dutton and the Liberal Party were in government. Sally McManus specifically mentioned multi-employer bargaining, Same Job-Same Pay, Workers Right to Disconnect, Wage Theft laws, restrictions on use of casual labor and Delegate Rights.

McManus implied that Dutton's agenda on these workplace issues alone would see workers worse off and therefore intensify rising cost of living issues for workers.

In this respect the thrust of the ACTU campaign is similar to the Rights of Work, Worth Fighting For campaign which was a main factor in the defeat of the Howard Government in 2007.

The difference in 2025 is that the existing rising cost of living issues for workers did not subside under the last three years of an Albanese Labor Government. The exception has been significant pay rises ranging from 15% to 25% to thousands of Aged Care and Child Care (Early Childhood Education) mainly women workers and a relatively small number of labor hire workers who are already seeing the benefits of the Same Job, Same Pay laws despite vigorous opposition from the multinational mining companies.

In the webinar, there was no mention about ACTU campaigning on issues such as opposition to AUKUS, Palestinian struggle and surprisingly no mention of the specific issue of affordable housing.

The ACTU plan for their election campaign is a focus on key marginal Seats in each State and Territory and asking Unions to "lock in their membership base " to the theme "Don't Risk Dutton" by focusing on the workplace/industrial issues mentioned above.

The campaign is being launched on 18 February with Unions in each State and Territory conducting leaflet blitzes at busy public places such as train stations. This will be followed by the now familiar door knockings in targeted Seats and phone calling members and holding workplace meetings.

Union members in past elections have shown that they can be an influential force when mobilized on the ground to have conversations with fellow workers and their communities.

Many Union members are from English as Second Language backgrounds and in the western suburbs of Sydney in particular, many are from Middle Eastern backgrounds. Their main issue may be the lack of support by the Albanese Government for Palestinian people which results in them lodging a protest vote against the government. Many other workers may agree with the ACTU about a Dutton led government trying to wind back workplace rights gains made, but they also may lodge a protest vote against the current government which may mean more votes for Liberal candidates or more likely, more votes for Independents or the Greens Party.

At the webinar, there was some awareness of this possibility with the ACTU steering away from any slogan that included "Vote Labor".

How rank and file Union members react to the ACTU proposed campaign remains to be seen, with some key Unions already deciding to withdraw funding of the ALP for the election and deciding to support the Greens.

Whether it is a Labor or Liberal Party forming the next government or minority government, both will continue to support AUKUS and the Australia-US Alliance and resulting US domination of this country. There was no mention of this reality in the ACTU election campaign webinar presented on 4th February.