May Day Greetings from CPA (M-L)

Written by: CPA (M-L) on 30 April 2025

 

On the occasion of the 2025 May Day, the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) greets our class, the working class of Australia, and all workers and oppressed peoples throughout the world.

It is important that on May Day, the demands of the working class, independent of the electioneering slogans of the parliamentary parties vying for office, are raised and heard.

Together those demands make up an independent working class agenda and unapologetically go beyond what the Labor Party and the trade union leaderships supporting it, can tolerate.

They could not tolerate strong union militancy in the construction industry, so they placed the CFMEU under Administration. 

We demand the right of workers to belong to the union of their choice and for the freedom of action that all unions should possess, namely the right of their members to withdraw their labour when and where it hurts the employer the most.

We support the rights of workers and unions to take actions in solidarity with each other's struggles, for sovereignty and self-determination of the First People, in support of people's struggles for justice, the environment, for peace and against imperialist wars.  We support the right to take actions in solidarity with workers and the oppressed around the world and at this time particularly, of the right to stand with Palestinians against Israel’s genocidal killings.

Young workers are getting organised.  Sometimes this must be done in areas of new and often precarious employment where there has been no history of union involvement.  We salute these young workers and their courage in rising to the challenge of finding new ways to organise and struggle.

We recognise the support that comes from progressive members of other classes active in environmental, antiwar and anti-imperialist activity for Australian independence and socialism. 

There is a growing united front against AUKUS. AUKUS commits us to a $368 billion spend over 30 years – or $30 million per day over 30 years! Imagine what services could be provided to struggling communities if that money was used to address cost of living matters here in Australia.

Finally, wherever this greeting is being read in Australia, it is being read on the unceded lands of the First Peoples, and we acknowledge and respect their resilience in the face of colonial genocide. We support their ongoing struggles for self-determination.

Workers of Australia, take the lead in all our struggles!

For anti-imperialist independence and socialism!

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!

(Above: Art work courtesy of Olliver Tyler, Eureka Initiative, Queensland)

 

ICOR: 1 May 2025: All over the world, come out on our day – long live socialism!

Written by: ICOR on 30 April 2025

 

On May Day, the International Day of Struggle of the working class, we reaffirm our ties and solidarity with all the exploited and oppressed.

Many people are concerned about the future, and this is beginning to come to the fore in the struggles of the workers and popular masses in many countries and all continents - on the streets, in the workplaces, factories and schools. The capitalist and imperialist world domination is becoming more and more absurd in view of the possibilities and achievements of the revolutionary productive forces: a growing working class worldwide, knowledge and possibilities of science and technology before unknown to overcome hunger and many mass diseases, to provide humanity in the entire world with work, education, health, food, housing and dignity and to save the environment. But instead, imperialist domination turns these gains into their opposite. The threat of world war, rising fascist movements and racist tendencies, and a worsening global environmental catastrophe that has begun are rampant throughout the world.

The heaviest burdens of imperialist rule are borne by the worldwide working class, their families and the women. Intensified exploitation and oppression in the factories, extended working hours, mass layoffs or even entire plant closures, dangerous working conditions, wage theft and widespread violence, particularly gender-based violence, etc. endanger health, undermine the quality of life, devastate communities and exhaust the masses. This makes the conditions more difficult to become socially and politically engaged next to work. These realities also steal hope for future generations. At the same time, fascist tendencies are on the rise: repressive laws, political persecution, and state violence are being deployed against striking workers, students, revolutionaries and the oppressed. Around the world, the ruling classes respond to the crisis with terror, but also with demagogy, seeking to break resistance with prisons, bullets, and fear – but also by means of deception.

Even more important is that 1 May must be more than a day of protest and be held in contrast to division, individualism and despondency. It is not only an occasion to develop the class struggle for the improvement of working and living conditions, but also to root the idea of socialism as the only perspective for the future among the masses of workers.

Let us recall Lenin's vision from 1 May 1919:

“Our grandchildren will examine the documents and other relics of the epoch of the capitalist system with amazement. It will be difficult for them to picture to themselves how the trade in articles of primary necessity could remain in private hands, how factories could belong to individuals, how some men could exploit others, how it was possible for those who did not work to exist. Up to now the story of what our children would see in the future has sounded like a fairy-tale; but today, comrades, you clearly see that the edifice of socialist society, of which we have laid the foundations, is not a utopia. Our children will build this edifice with even greater zeal." (V.I. Lenin, Three Speeches Delivered In Red Square, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 330)

Let us take up this vision, not as a dream, but as an urgent task.

Therefore, on 1 May 2025, in the spirit of Lenin and his legacy of struggle:

For the future of the children of the world!

Workers of all countries, unite!

Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!

Workers of all countries and all oppressed, unite!

Forward with the struggle for liberation, democracy, freedom and socialism!

Get organized and strengthen the ICOR!

 

Further signing possible.

ORC Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo

UPC-Manidem Union des Populations du Cameroun - Manifeste National pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie (Union of Populations of Cameroon - National Manifesto for the Establishment of Democracy)

CPK Communist Party of Kenya

MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line

CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia

SPB Socialist Party of Bangladesh

NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

RUFN Revolutionary United Front of Nepal

CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

Krasnyj Klin Gruppa Kommunistov-Revoljucionerov „Krasnyj Klin“ (Group of Communist Revolutionaries “Krasnyj Klin” ), Belarus

БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

BP (NK-T) Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))

KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

UMLP União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)

RMP Российская маоистская партия (Rossijskaya maoistskaya partiya) (Russian Maoist Party)

MLGS Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)

TKP-ML Türkiye Komünist Partisi – Marksist-Leninist (Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist)

MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

KSRD Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine

UMU Union of Maoists of the Urals (Union of Maoists of the Urals), Russia

OAPCM Organización Apoyante del Partido Comunista de México (Supporting Organization of the Communist Party of Mexico)

PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))

PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic

APR Ação Popular Revolucionária (People’s Revolutionary Action), Brazil

SUCI (C) Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist)

 

PROLETARIAN AND INTERNATIONALIST MAY DAY - Statement by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties

 Written by: M-L-M Parties on 30 April 2025

 

Against the Imperialist War, Reaction, Fascism, Repression, Poverty and Oppression
Proletarians and Oppressed Peoples of the World, unite!
We Have Nothing to Lose But Our Chains and Have a World to Win!

Let’s take the streets this May 1st, international day of struggle of the working class and oppressed peoples that is being held this year in a context of sharpening imperialist system contradictions and growing repression, which is opposed by a growing resistance of the proletarians and peoples.

The furious attacks of imperialists, their States and their governments on proletarians and the masses reflect the unloading on proletarians and the masses of their general crisis that is deepening.

All imperialist States and governments are increasing military spending beyond measure and explicitly say that we must prepare for war.

The imperialist powers US/NATO/EU are equipping themselves with increasingly modern and devastating armaments and plan to use of nuclear weapons; they are strengthening their armies, militarizing their territories, developing the war economy.

Russian imperialism and Chinese social-imperialism are on the one side the target of this offensive and on the other one are riding the crisis of USA/NATO/EU imperialism to prepare a new set up more favourable to them.

The imperialist war originates from the global economic crisis of the imperialist capitalist system that demands a new partition of the world.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing genocide in Palestine by the Zionist state of Israel, the attacks on Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, the occupation of Kurdistan and massacres on the Kurdish people by the fascist Turkish state, the preparations of the US to attack and encircle China through the Philippines with alliances in the Indo-Pacific are aspects of the march towards the war of partition.

It is opposed by the action of China in the global economic arena, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and also the gradual line up of other countries in the world which their reactionary regimes aspire to become gendarmes in their areas within the imperialist system: Turkey, India, Brazil, etc.

The costs of war and rearmament are unloaded on proletarians and people’s masses with heightening cost of living, unemployment, precariousness, cuts of social spending, attacks on the rights and struggles of proletarians and people’s masses. The capitalists intensify the exploitation and more and more turn the proletarians and the most exploited sections of them into modern slaves at the service of profit.

In the countries oppressed by imperialism, poverty and oppression of the people are worsening, and they also pay for the global environmental climate crisis and the effects of natural disasters.

While externally the imperialist states and governments prepare war, internally the tendency to modern fascism combined with the crisis of imperialism advances and the tendency to a world imperialist war finds today a reference point in the Trump presidency and the fraction of the ruling class of the imperialist bourgeoisie which came to power in the US, restricting and erasing the vestiges of bourgeois democracy itself, attacking democratic freedoms and filling prisons, establishing increasingly dictatorial forms of government, within which fascist parties and modern fascism advance, according to the characteristics of the different countries.

Women's rights, freedom of thought are attacked, hatred is fomented, chauvinism and nationalism are strengthened to hit the people’s resistance, divide the proletariat and the masses, at the service of the domination of the ruling classes and their lackeys. Racism is intensified with attacks in all forms on immigrants, with deaths in the sea, concentration camps, slave exploitation, expulsions and deportations. The monopoly of old and new media is increasingly in the hands of technological oligarchies that make huge profits and more and more they seek to impose obscurantist culture in schools and universities.

All over the world the proletarians and the people are rebelling and resisting against imperialism, fascism, the worsening of living and working conditions.
Inside the imperialist and capitalist countries, workers carry out general strikes, as in Greece; they block ships that transport weapons of war, as in Italy, Greece etc., the youth take the streets against fascism and racism.

The new fascist-imperialist US presidency of Trump, with the Zionist operative arm Netanyahu, launched a plan of "final solution", of genocide and deportation of the Palestinian people. Against it, the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people develops, of their organizations that also with the action of October 7 have brought back to the center of the world attention the goal of a free Palestine, a Palestinian State "from the river to the sea". The struggle of the Palestinian people fuels the awakening of all the Arab masses for a liberation struggle from the Arab regimes accomplices of Zionism and in any case subservient to imperialism.

Internationalist solidarity with the Palestinian people is a great banner that calls the people to fight against imperialism. In Turkey, students, women, workers, oppressed masses oppose Erdogan's fascist regime, putting it more and more in crisis.

In some oppressed countries, from Latin America to Asia, from Africa to the Middle East, peoples’ protests and revolts advance, demanding the intensifying of the revolutionary battle for New Democracy revolutions marching to socialism. At the forefront of these struggles are women guerrillas, women workers, revolutionary women's organizations that fuel the fire of resistance and the necessary struggle for women's liberation united with the class struggle.
In many countries, youth are rebelling and are the front line of the opposition that demands and seeks the way of the revolution.

Among the revolutionary and anti-imperialist struggles in the world, the people's wars led by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces, particularly in India and the Philippines, inspire and show to the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world the path to a true liberation from imperialism, which requires abandoning all forms of revisionism and reformism, as well as all forms of liquidationism and defeatism, to affirm that the only real alternative to capitalist and imperialist barbarism is the proletarian revolution and the only solution is socialism. We condemn the Indian state's ongoing fascist military campaign—Operation Kagar—targeting the Communist Party of India (Maoist). This offensive is not merely an attack on a revolutionary party, but a broader assault on the struggles of the toiling masses, Adivasis, and oppressed nationalities fighting for liberation and dignity. 

To support the protracted people's wars is a fundamental duty and task of revolutionary communist parties and organizations in the world.

The proletariat is the largest army that exists, if the exploited and oppressed people unite, they can put an end to the capitalist world system.

Today more than ever we need the unity of Communist Parties and Organizations of the world based on the great teachings of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that develop, in the fire of the class struggle, their being more and more the advanced detachment of the working class, leading nucleus of the entire proletariat and people, promoters and central element of the construction of a united revolutionary front against imperialism, fascism, exploitation and oppression.

Proletarian internationalism demands the march, through unity and struggle, to advance to a new Communist International. On this 1st May it is necessary to advance this tendency and affirm it in the ranks of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples engaged in the revolutionary struggle.

THIS MAY 1st LET'S RAISE HIGHER THE RED FLAG OF REVOLUTION!

Stop the imperialist war, where it develops and breaks out, let's transform it into a revolutionary war for proletarian power!
Death to fascism in all its forms!
Free Palestine from the river to the sea!
Death to imperialism, the future belongs to socialism and communism!

Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan 

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) 

Construction Committee of the Maoist Communist Party of Galicia 

Communist Party of India (Maoist)* 

Communist Party of Turkey - Marxist Leninist (TKP-ML) 

Communist Worker Union (mlm) Colombia 

Communist Unity - France 

Maoist Communist Party – Italy

 Maoist Communist Commitee - Brasil 

Proletarian Party Of Purbo Bangla (PBSP/Bangladesh). 

Red Road of Iran (Maoist group) 

People's Democratic Students Unity (PDSU) - Bangladesh

 

NSW construction workers to march on May 1

Written by: Louisa L. on 28 April 2025

 

As attacks on the CFMEU continue, NSW construction workers and allies including electrical, plumbing and maritime workers will march on May 1, International Workers Day. 

Since 2019, when outrage about 18-year-old worker Christopher Cassaniti’s death under collapsed scaffolding saw tens of thousands walk out, the CFMEU and allied unions have struck and marched on May Day in Sydney. 

This year it comes two years after CFMEU strikes and bans forced the outlawing of deadly engineered stone, and just four weeks after 13 workers were sentenced to early deaths with silicosis after Chinese-owned John Hollands and NSW governments delayed measures to protect M6 and other tunnel workers. 

For 50 years the ruling class tried to destroy the CFMEU and Builders Labourers Federation before it.  Working-class militancy always resurfaced. Finally, in 2024 both Labor and Coalition joined forces to legislate the construction union’s complete takeover in four states. 

Three lessons

In any battle, understanding the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, and our own, are essential. There’s no room for big noting. Facts are the key. Unions are part of the capitalist system, chained to it from birth by hundreds of laws. No matter how militant, unions can’t overthrow the system they operate in. They’re part of that system because unions by their nature seek only to win the best they can within it. 

Everyone makes errors.  The CFMEU nationally now understands relying on the ALP was disastrous. The ALP is not a working-class party, never has been. It’s been an essential ingredient to successful capitalist rule by deception since it was formed under capitalist laws in 1901.  

The second lesson was the need to raise political awareness so workers understood themselves as part of the working class. Extraordinarily good wages and allowances blinded many construction workers to the possibility of takeover by governments for giant mainly US-controlled developers and building corporations. 

Finally, the union realised too late how the enemy of the working class would behave when the boom began to bust. For corporations pocketing boom-time super profits, industrial peace was worth paying for. Lendlease even took the ABCC to court! The union’s last two decades showed briefly shutting jobs and slamming on bans won high wages and good conditions relatively easily. Like many construction workers, the union now realises it couldn’t last. Booms bust.

Construction is often the first industry hit. 

Sugar coated bullets and getting fired

When Robe River mineworkers fought individual contracts in the 1980s, to divide and conquer them the company paid those who signed contracts higher wages than it paid unionists. Of course it didn’t last! Once the union was weakened, the boss slashed individual contract rates.

Late last year, when anger was dangerously high on sites, under pressure Administrators signed hundreds of Enterprise Bargaining Agreements won by CFMEU workers. It was sugar-coated poison. Cementing in high wages and allowances in the short term fooled some workers who reckon the administrators are “doing a good job.” But, a government-approved union will sell them out from here to eternity. 

Last December, when NSW delegates called a strike, the Administrators cancelled it by text late the afternoon before. Administrators informed the companies “their” CFMEU would not support sacked workers. Lendlease and other corporations threatened workers with the sack. The strike and rally went ahead, but fewer attended, fewer went on strike.

Then Administrators fired a leading organiser on Christmas leave by email for refusing to attend an immediate interview without legal representation. It deliberately instilled fear, “We’ve removed one of your leaders. Who’s next?”

If not now, when?

Marching on May 1 focusses attention and forges unity with workers nationally and around the world. It builds collective strength and spirit. This year construction worker leaders have analysed the changed situation and have chosen different tactics. Construction workers will march this May Day, but they will take rostered days off won in their agreements. 

The surprise attack on the CFMEU is a warning to all workers.

Under this capitalist system, it doesn’t matter how many battles you win, unless you prepare for and defeat the entire system, workers end up with our backs against the wall. Times are quickly getting tougher. The system is heading for chaos. It’s our time! We urgently need to learn, to listen and to organise within unions and, more importantly, beyond them. 

If not now, when?

The challenge of environmentalism in modern Australia

 Written by: Leo A. on 28 April 2025

 

In the 21st century, the accelerating environmental crisis both in Australia and globally has sparked increased interest among the masses in advocating for environmental preservation and protection. Notable relevant groups in Australia include the Australian Conservation Foundation, Lock The Gate, and perhaps most prominently The Wilderness Society. Unfortunately, the environmental movement in Australia has been hindered by several key flaws. 

Lacking a Marxist understanding of the environmental crisis and its root causes, these environmental organisations currently suffer from an all-too-common case of “focusing on the symptoms, not the disease”. As a result of this lack of a deeper understanding, they don’t know who their potential allies are, and work in isolation from other working-class movements. They seem more dedicated to organising events than to organising people. 

This lack of class consciousness hides a distant history of past successes, the methodology to which appears to have been ignored or forgotten by these organisations in their current form. For example, The Wilderness Society has gone from its successful thousands-strong mass campaign against what would have been the ecologically-devastating Franklin River Dam over forty years ago, to expecting thirty voicemail messages in the Premier’s office to save the Great Koala National Park this year.

The Wilderness Society also has runs on the board in respect of the campaigns to stop multinational oil companies from drilling for oil in the Great Australia Bight. This five-year campaign united Indigenous communities, regional Councils, the surfing and fishing communities and working people, and was successful. 

They still have a vague understanding that the masses have the power to make a difference, as evidenced by promotional material last year which claimed that millions-strong mass action could end Australia’s use of fossil fuels within a decade. But they appear to have lost the knowledge of how to build a mass movement, and are unaware of how to expand it to such a scale, how important doing so is, and the wider context the environmental struggle is a part of.  

Does the environmental movement in Australia have a good future ahead of it? If it can be guided in the right direction, yes. But that is a critical “if”, and in our age of accelerating catastrophe this matter is more important than it has ever been before. A Marxist understanding of the world, or a lack of it, can have real-world consequences even in our pre-revolutionary capitalist society. 

 

On May Day we celebrate First Peoples’ revolutionary potential

 

Written by: Louisa L. on 28 April 2025

 

On May Day we celebrate not only workers, but also worldwide revolutionary struggles for national independence from imperialism and for socialism and communism. In Australia, the CPA(M-L) recognises none of these goals can be created without the full participation of First Peoples.  

We live on stolen lands. Stolen with violence, terror and deceit. This truth has already been told again and again. NO MORE. There must be action! Those everyday Australians who still support racism must open their eyes and unblock their ears. Racism supports only those who are ripping off this country and all its peoples. 

For 130 years, First Peoples sacrificed their lives in armed struggle to defend their communities, lands, waters and cultures. Despite the most terrible oppression, their struggle has not ceased since invasion. First Peoples are just 3.8 percent of these lands’ inhabitants. Yet theirs is the richest history of resistance. Land, water, people, culture remain the heart of their inspiring ongoing rebellion. Let’s tell this truth!

Generation by generation, mountainous waves of First Peoples’ rebellion grew. After 200 years, they threatened to drown capitalism’s ability to profit from their lands and waters. Through the Business Council of Australia, the ruling class deliberately set out to divide First Peoples and create collaborators to protect its power.

Elders of struggle like Gary Foley have said of the period until 1988, “We were united, because we were all poor.”  

While most First Peoples battle day to day just to survive, some ruling class collaborators have become multi-millionaires. Many land councils undermine custodians, claim land and water they have no right to, sell them, allow them to be mined or fracked or damned and sacred sites destroyed, all for private profit. Gary Foley and many others despise what he calls “the black bourgeoisie”.

Reconciliation Australia marked the birth of the collaborationist model. Zionist penetration came hand in hand with the BCA. Today some leading collaborators belittle and demonise those many First Peoples who stand for Palestine. Such traitors target their own people for removal from jobs, universities, media and more under the banner that falsely equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. 

In 1938 Yorta Yorta man William Cooper famously helped initiate a petition to the nazi German Embassy protesting the most internationally publicised anti-Jewish attacks during Kristallnacht, when over two days synagogues, businesses and homes were destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps. William Cooper is lauded by Zionists. Today events that drove him to support Jews would, almost certainly cause Willian Cooper to support Palestine.

Again and again, First Peoples have battled for release from crushing oppression. Again and again, they have been promised positive change. Again and again, they have been betrayed. 

Colonialism and imperialism have proved they will never allow First Peoples to be liberated. 

Action to undermine the standing of collaborators, to expose the ruling class, to shatter their anti-people alliance, to divide them all, strengthens the forces for liberation.

We support all the demands the mass of First Peoples raise for reform and their revolutionary call for the right to their own independent states.

US economy is not shipshape! It’s shipless!

 Written by: Ned K. on 23 April 2025

 

(Image credit: Stephane Peray)

The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on other countries' goods imported to the USA has turned the spotlight on the dependency of the US economy on imports and the weakness of its manufacturing industry.

The latest industry to receive attention from the mainstream financial papers exposing this weakness in the commercial ship building industry.

The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday 22 April exposed this glaring weakness of the US economy. 

 

• In USA the ship building industry peaked during the 2nd World War when more ships were built there than anywhere else

• Even in 1975 the USA was still building an average of 75 ships per year

• by 2024 an average of less than 5 ships per year were being built in the USA

• In China by 2024 an average of 1700 ships were being built per year

• In South Korea by 2024 the figure was 700 ships per year

• In Japan by 20224 the figure was 500 ships per year.

• China, South Korea and Japan accounted for 90% of commercial ships built in the world

 

The US decline in ship building extends to the container crane industries connected to trade by sea. Currently there are no containers for sea transportation that are made in the USA.

 

There are no sea-to-shore cranes built in the USA either.

 

80% of ship-to-shore cranes are built in China.

 

If this wasn't enough to show the decline of the USA's economy, the Australian Financial Review article also revealed that the software required for the operation of seaports in the USA also come from Chinese companies

 

To top it off, the number of Chinese warships is now greater than the number of US warships.

 

The USA still has the edge in military firepower overall it may be argued, but the US ruling class is desperate to reverse the dependence on other countries, especially China when it comes to the physical movement of goods by sea and also the software required to operate a modern seaport.

 

The Trump administration has announced that will increase the cost of Chinese ships calls to US ports to $1.5m per call or $150,000 per tonne of a Chinese ship's capacity. 

 

In 2024, there were 18,386 port calls from ships from other countries. 6,480 of these were Chinese ships.

 

Trump's strategy is to shift the sea trade shipping share away from China towards Soth Korea and Japan.

 

This strategy will fail in two ways.

 

 If less Chinese ships deliver goods of all kinds to the USA, there will be more shortages in the USA and the cost of goods will increase, leading to more and more people taking to the streets against Trump and his billionaire backers.

 

Secondly, moving dependence from Chinese made ships to South Korea and Japan does nothing to re-build manufacturing in the USA, making Trump's MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN even more of a fizzer.

 

The Australian Government still maintains that the Australia -US Alliance and AUKUS are in Australia's interests and solid as a rock. Both the Government and the "Opposition" led by Dutton tell the Australian people that the Trump administration is a "one -off" and they maintain their servitude to the sinking ship which is US imperialism.

 

Australia's dependence on overseas owned ships for trade purposes with other countries is just as bad as the USA’s. That is the result of being dominated by imperialist powers, especially USA since World War 2.

 

The lesson here is that dependence on imperialist powers for a sustainable economy is a dead end. The Trump administration's attitude towards one of its most loyal servants in Australian governments has been an eye opener for many people in Australia. 

 

They are also wary about being dependent on China and support for an independent stance in the world grows by the day

US trade war with China accelerates US imperialism's decline

Written by: Ned K. on 21 April 2025

 

(Source:shenglufashion.com)

The rising tariffs imposed by the Trump regime on its main rival China is arguably adding to US imperialism's decline not only economically but militarily. The financial pages of the capitalist press in Australia are quite informative on this matter.

For example, the Easter weekend addition of the Australian Financial Review contains an article headed "Trade war allows Beijing to fire a warning shot at US military".

 

The article says that rare earths are a group of 17 elements and that it is not that they are "rare" in the world that is the worry for the US military. What the US military worry about is that nearly all the extraction, mining and refining of the elements crucial for a wide range of military related essential goods come from China.

 

China's retaliation to the US imposed tariffs on Chinese goods include the Chinese Government "ordering restrictions on the exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets ... including special export licenses for six heavy rare earth metals which are refined entirely in China".

 

China also produces 90% of magnets made from these rare earth metals. The US military industrial complex is dependent on these magnets in the following areas -

 

• In US fighter jets to start the engines and for emergency power

• On precision-guided ballistic missiles these magnets rotate the tail fins that enable precision targeting of moving and stationary objects (or people!)

• in battery-powered drones, the magnets are irreplaceable in the electric motors

• the magnets are also vital components in US warships, missiles, tanks. lasers and submarines

• one of the rare earth elements, Yrtrium, is needed in high temperature jet engine coatings on turbine blades to stop aircraft from melting in mid-air!

 

The article in the AFR says that US defence analysts claim the US government have stockpiles of the required refined rare earth minerals in usable form for only a few months, not years.

 

US Imperialism Wants Australia's Refined Rare Earth Minerals.

 

US President Trump has imposed tariffs on some Australian imported goods but is sure to tighten the screws on whichever of the two main servants of US imperialism, Labor or Liberal, wins the coming federal election. High on the US agenda will be the lion's share of supply to the US of Australia's rare earth minerals.

 

The same deal is part of Trump's plans for Ukraine. Plentiful supply and control by the US of Ukraine's rare earth minerals.

 

Whichever party Labor or Liberal wins the federal election, neither will stand for Australian independence from the US. Both will echo US imperialism's alarm bells when US imperialism's rival, China, increases its economic. political and military interests near Australia or indeed within Australia.

 

Some of the ruling class in Australia can see the writing on the wall for a declining US power and will hope to hitch on to the rising power China.

 

Since 1788 the First Nations peoples followed by generations of migrants from Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Ocean have seen this continent "developed" primarily in the interests of imperialist powers. First the British, then the USA. Japanese imperialism had a go as well but failed to get a hold of this continent.

 

So why should Chinese imperialism be any different from the old imperialist powers regarding the interests of the First Nations and migrant origin people of Australia (including Chinese Australians)?

 

It's time for this continent to be owned and run by the First Nations peoples and migrant-origin workers and their allies as an independent Australian continent.

 

USA Out of Australia

China Stay Out of Australia

Time for an Independent, Socialist Australia 

 

Exercise Cope Thunder 2025 and declining US regional influence

Written by: (Contributed) on 18 April 2025

 

(Above: part of the Filipino and US forces involved in Exercise Cope Thunder)

Those following the latest United States – Philippines military exercises might like to consider other related and highly relevant factors having serious implications for US-led diplomatic relations with the wider Indo-Pacific region. The US remains desperate to reassert their traditional hegemonic position in the region; evidence would tend to indicate their position, however, has already been eclipsed by China and countries diplomatically associated with Beijing.

In early April the US and Philippine air forces began Exercise Cope Thunder, running until 18 April, officially aimed at enhancing interoperability and 'strategic deterrence … and … combat readiness and elevating joint mission effectiveness' across the wider region. (1) The air-forces of Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Japan and Indonesia were also involved. The exercise closely followed other similar drills to 'ultimately strengthen the collective posture across the Indo-Pacific'. (2) It is also a precursor to the Balikatan military exercises.

The election of Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to the presidency in 2022, backed by the Marcos oligarchy, has strengthened the hand of the US in the Philippines. Studies of the country reveal the US diplomatic and foreign policy toward the Philippines has changed little since the previous Cold War. In fact, the country has remained the most reliable and central vantage point for 'US interests' across the wider region; it has, historically, dominated the Philippines economically, politically and culturally due to the very deep penetration of US capital. It is also a relatively secure vantage point for regional surveillance with nine military facilities hosting US personnel overseeing the South China Seas and the Taiwan Straits to the north.

The US also relies upon counterparts based in Taiwan as another part of the regional surveillance provision with nearly five hundred personnel, on temporary leave from the State Department, based in the so-called American Institute in Taipei. (3) It is, therefore, not coincidental that Exercise Cope Thunder has taken place amid concerns about China's longer-term planning for Taiwan. Diplomatic and military tensions have escalated across the Taiwan Straits in recent times. It is, therefore, not coincidental that Exercise Cope Thunder was planned to take place in an area of the Philippines closest to the Straits. (4)

The same US military planning has also included the Pentagon considering providing the Philippines with a second Typhoon missile defence system with capability for firing Tomahawk missiles up to 2500 kms. (5) The missiles put China's east and south coasts within range, areas regarded as hosting sensitive military and port facilities. (6)

While the US has long used security-related issues to support their economic position, history, however, has significantly moved on in less than a decade. It has been noted by prestigious US outsourced intelligence bodies that the US diplomatic position in the Asia region has been challenged by a deepening cooperation between regional countries, and the US has not adapted to a changing balance of forces taking place. (7) The same institute only six years later, recently concluded that 'the US is pretty much done in South-east Asia'. (8)

The imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, for example, is not evidence of their ability to manipulate international financial markets, but a clear marker that the balance of forces is swinging away from them. In fact, informed opinion has already noted that Trump's policies have created the diplomatic conditions for regional trade blocs such as ASEAN to be pushed closer to China and 'it hands a pretty significant victory to China for the obvious reason that the US is effectively cutting ties with these countries'. (9)

Other factors also provide an interesting glimpse of how the US has been out-manoeuvred.

Making the acquisition of critical minerals a national security concern, has revealed just how fearful the US have become of confronting China as a credible competitor. In fact, security issues raised about a Chinese naval ship circulating Australia were not openly concerned about more usual surveillance considerations but research into deep-sea mineral deposits in international waters. It was noted, for example, that the vessel had stopped over areas thought to be rich in minerals and had used a submersible for exploration of polymetallic nodule fields containing nickel, cobalt and copper, used in the manufacturing of batteries and electric vehicles. (10)

Commentary from Washington that the US is considering building refining facilities for critical minerals inside Pentagon military bases has also revealed just how highly the US regard the matter on the grounds of national security. (11) While no specific US military bases were identified, it would be reasonable to assume that its Indo-Pacific Command facilities in Hawaii were being considered, due to their strategic geo-political significance, together with joint Philippine military facilities. They are within easy reach of the US, with secure shipping lanes across the Western Pacific.

The fact that US concerns about China's successful diplomacy with countries in the Pacific is also further evidence of their fear that Beijing will gain access to the vast Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the tiny countries across the vast region. Taiwan's regional influence, diplomatically, is continually shrinking, causing US-led diplomacy concern.

The high-level diplomatic visit to Australia of President Surangel Whipps Jnr of Palau in early April, for example, is best viewed along lines that fears exist of China's increasing influence in the tiny country and that, it too, may eventually switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China. (12)

Each time a country switches diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, it enables Beijing to access the EEZs of the region. At present, it already has access to about eighty per cent of the region; Taiwan's share, once based on the 50/50 basis, is now only twenty per cent. (13)

In conclusion, traditional US diplomatic hegemony in the region has been successfully challenged by China and the response of the erratic Trump administration is evidence not of their power but a panic-stricken reaction:

                                       We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     Philippines and US launch drills aimed at boosting 'strategic deterrence', Australian, 8 April 2025.
2.     See: Interoperability key to security in the region, Avalon 2025 Special report, Australian, 25 March 2025.
3.     Beijing keeps a wary eye on new US Taipei outpost, From the Economist (U.K.), Australian, 18 June 2018.
4.     Australian, op.cit., 8 April 2025.
5.     America with Manila in face of 'China threats', The Weekend Australian, 29-30 March 2025.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Why America is losing the ploy in Asia, The Carnegie Institute, 28 February 2019.
8.     Punishment will push the region into China's arms, The Weekend Australian, 5-6 April 2025.
9.     Ibid.
10.   See: Chinese 'spy ship' on survey mission, Australian, 9 April 2025.
11.   See: Minerals the ultimate bargaining chip, Australian, 7 April 2025.
12.   See: Palau defies China's pressure on Taiwan.  Australian, 11 April 2025.
13.   US v. China, Japan Forward: Politics and Security,Dr. Rieko Hayakawa and Jennifer Anson, 14 February 2020.