SANTOS pulls out of Bight

 Written by: Nick G. on 17 July 2021

Gas-producer SANTOS and its partner, the US-owned Murphy Oil Corporation, have pulled out of the Great Australian Bight in yet another great Australian environmental victory.

Equinor (Norwegian), BP (British) and Chevron are other multinationals that have been forced by peoples’ actions to surrender exploration leases in the Bight.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive David Ritter described the development as a "momentous win for people and the planet". 

"This is an incredible win for all of those who relentlessly campaigned for years to protect the Great Australian Bight from offshore drilling," he said.

“So many determined Australians worked incredibly hard to kick big oil companies out of our precious Bight, including coastal communities, Indigenous Traditional Owners, surfers, the seafood industry, tourism operators and other local businesses.

SANTOS had an 80% stake in the lease identified as EPP43 and Murphy Oil held 20%.

Canada’s Bight Petroleum is now the only company that still intends to drill in the area, even though its most recent plans were rejected by the regulator, the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA). Bight Petroleum has the leases for EPP 41 and 42.

Greenpeace has stated that “The Australian government should now impose a permanent moratorium on oil drilling in this precious marine wonderland.”

We support this demand and will support actions to enforce it.

Anti- China Government Policies Having An Effect

 Written by: Ned K. on 17 July 2021

The Morrison Government has moved further into the US camp as rivalry between the US and China intensifies, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.

The Murdoch press ran a story on a recently released KPMG report on Chinese investment in Australia. The report says that Chinese investment in Australia is the lowest it has been since 2007 and that it has declined by 83% since 2016!. 

The KPMG said this decline was following a trend of Chinese decreased investment in OECD countries overall. Concerns by the Morrison Government about "national security" (read "protecting US interests in Australia") were given as one of the main reasons for the reduction in Chinese investment, particularly by large state-owned corporations from China.

The Morrison Government will no doubt get a pat on the back from the US imperial power about these latest figures. However, it may come back to bite the Morrison Government if China goes one step further and sources iron ore from another country. Iron ore exports to China have been the Morrison Government's saviour in terms of balance of trade figures, especially with the Covid-19 caused decline in the export industry of overseas students paying an arm and a leg to study in Australia.

Many workers in Australia tend to welcome investment from any overseas corporation provided it creates jobs but are equally unwelcoming of overseas corporations when they withdraw investment and that withdrawal means workers lose their jobs. The car industry is a case in point.

The impact on employment in Australia with the decline in Chinese investment is not mentioned in the daily press articles about the KPMG report.

The history of China itself in the years 1949 to 1979 (before the Deng restoration of capitalism) show that the best job security for workers of any country is economic self-reliance and minimal, selective reliance on overseas investment.

This path is the way forward for Australian working people as well.

Foreign investment in Australia has shown that the investors take out much more than they put in, and put the people's lives at risk by setting up military bases here to protect their investments. This is the history of British and US economic dominance over Australia over the last 100 years. Would any other big power that became the dominant investor in Australia act any different? I doubt it.

Independence and socialism the only way forward.

Webinar: Our laws need to work for nature!

 Written by: Nick G. on 17 July 2021

(Above: the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater has suffered through habitat loss)

From the First Peoples to the most recent migrants, Australians are acutely aware of the unique nature of this continent’s flora and fauna

.Unfortunately, the history of colonial occupation and aggression has had a devastating effect on the natural environment. This is on top of the colonial genocide directed at First Peoples in the course of the unsettlers’ attempted dispossession of Country.

After the colonial period, free competition capitalism developed into the stage of huge monopolies controlling the vast regions of the Second and Third Worlds by the export of capital. Massive multinational corporations scrambled to exploit both the natural world and people’s labour power.

Their increasingly destructive rape of the environment created its own opposite, a powerful people’s movement determined to protect what was left of our biodiversity.

In March, 2018 we wrote a lengthy report on struggles to protect birdlife from corporate greed. It can be accessed here, and also on p. 18 of our downloadable book Fight capitalism’s destructive impact on nature. 

We have also taken a stand against the watering down of the provisions of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and wrote a submission to a parliamentary review of the Act.

In recent days, Birdlife Australia conducted a webinar on strengthening our national environmental  laws.

The session was recorded and is available here on Youtube.

Participants talked about proposed changes to the EPBC Act that would weaken environmental protections. 

It was a great display of grass roots Australians struggling in their own area of interest and expertise against the big corporate world.

They know that since colonisation, about 100 of Australia’s unique flora and fauna species have been wiped off the planet. The rate of loss, which is as comprehensive as anywhere else on Earth, has not slowed over the past 200 years.

Twenty-two species of birds have become extinct following the beginnings of the process of unsettling this continent’s peoples and wildlife.

Birdlife Australia has called on people to write to their MP demanding the strengthening of environmental laws.

Ultimately we must ensure the extinction of the system that allows the private pursuit of capital accumulation – capitalism – if we are to ensure the survival of our planet and its biodiversity.

 

Australian farmers leaving the dinosaurs for dead

 Written by: Duncan B. on 15 July 2021

Recently many Australians were fascinated to learn about the discovery in outback Queensland of the fossilised bones of what was Australia’s largest dinosaur Australotitan Cooperensis, nicknamed Cooper. Cooper is believed to have stood 6.5 metres high, was about 30metres long and weighed over 70 tonnes. We can only imagine the damage that Cooper did as it trampled through the countryside of Prehistoric Queensland.

A group of dinosaurs has also been discovered in Canberra. They are known as the leadership of the National Party. With their denial of climate change, support for coal mining and their sabotage of the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, the National Party is doing more damage to the environment than a whole herd of Coopers could ever do.

Fortunately many Australian farmers are leaving the National Party dinosaurs for dead. The rural press regularly reports on farmers who are recognising the threat that climate change poses to agriculture and are going to great lengths to deal with that threat, working to set their farms up to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Many farmers are working to make their farms carbon-neutral or even carbon-positive.  They are implementing numerous measures to reduce their carbon footprint.  They are planting trees, combatting soil erosion and restoring degraded areas. Many are active in organisations like Landcare. 

Farmers are making use of technology to better manage their use of water, electricity, fuel and other inputs such as fertiliser. They are finding ways to recycle waste water and waste products such as effluent from dairy farms. Solar power is being used extensively on many farms.   

There are also companies like Sundrop Farms at Port Augusta (SA). Here over 23,000 mirrors capture solar thermal energy which is used to provide electricity, heating and desalinated water for 20 hectares of glass houses, producing over 17,000 tonnes of truss tomatoes annually.

Progressive farmers are making Barnaby Joyce, Bridget McKenzie, Matt Canavan and the rest of the National Party leaders increasingly irrelevant. They belong back in the Cretaceous Period with Cooper and all the other dinosaurs.

Touch one, touch all – fighting call of the working class

 

Written by: Alice M. on 12 July 2021

Maritime Union of Australia members across Australia are gearing up for a long and hard fight against Svitzer-Maersk, the biggest global multinational shipping company.  Svitzer, owned by Maersk, operates 104 tug boats in Australia.

For 2 years the MUA has been in drawn out EBA negotiations with Svitzer.  MUA members around the country took 29 industrial actions against Svitzer during the tough EBA negotiations. An in-principle agreement had been almost reached and signed off. Until Covid-19 broke out and the company used the cover of the pandemic to slap on 30 new demands stripping back many hard fought conditions MUA members had won over 80 years.  Whilst Svitzer cried the pandemic was ruining its business, the parent company Maersk recorded $2.6 billion profit.  It’s a story repeated across the country in all industries and workplaces.

Repeatedly MUA members unanimously voted down the 30 new company demands that wipe out their rights, wages, job security and conditions. They succeeded in pushing back 20 of company’s new claims, but Svitzer is determined to abolish job security and push through casualisation of tug boats crews by refusing to budge on its remaining 10 demands.  

 

In December 2020 Svitzer sacked all tug boats crews in Sydney and Geelong.  (See Geelong maritime workers fight for jobs) For six months Geelong tug boats sat idle, but in June 2021 Svitzer flew in labour hire workers on lower wages and conditions to replace the sacked tug boats crews.    Svitzer had contracted out its workforce to labour hire company Strategic Workplace Solutions.

 

Nationwide fighting campaign

On Friday 9 July at 12pm, at the start of a nationally coordinated campaign, 22 MUA members working for Svitzer-Maersk at Webb Dock in Port of Melbourne walked off the job for a 12 hour stoppage.  They were met by hundreds of cheering Victorian unionists from many unions pledging solidarity.  

 

Speaker after speaker from different unions strongly pledged their unions’ support for the MUA members’ fight against the multinational’s attacks. Speakers invoked the long and victorious 1998 MUA struggle held on the same Webb Dock site 23 years earlier.  It was only the mobilisation and unity of the working class, unions and communities on the ground, especially the months long powerful and disciplined 24 hour community picket outside the Webb Dock gates, that succeeded in pushing back the shipping bosses and the government’s agenda to smash not only the MUA but all unions and the organised working class.

Christy Cain, National President of the MUA, sent a warning to Svitzer-maersk that the MUA is not afraid of taking on multinational corporations.  “We took on Rio Tinto, BHP, Chevron, Alcoa (Portland in Victoria). We have been fined, sued, maligned but we’re still standing here today.” 

 

The MUA has launched a nationwide campaign of collective working class struggle taking on Svitzer-Maersk. The fighting campaign will be a long and protracted struggle “until every one of the sacked tug boat workers is reinstated permanently and the company abandons its agenda of casualisation and slashing workers’ rights, wages and conditions.  It will be a week in, week out, month in, month out struggle, until workers’ job security, wages and conditions are protected”.

 

“Every one of the 32 unions in Victoria will be asked to come together as one, to fight as one, to win as one”, said Christy Cain. “All bets are off, no more talk … if they want to meet us they have to agree to a union agreement – put people back on the tug boats in Geelong and Sydney!”

 

The national campaign will reach out across the country, from port to port. All Maersk vessels will be affected by industrial action.  On Friday 16 July at 12:30pm a joint unions rally outside the Maersk office in Kielor, Melbourne, will kick off the nationwide campaign.  From Melbourne to Sydney, to the Newcastle coal terminal, to Adelaide, to Port Kembla, to a 48 hour stoppage in Fremantle, “until a proper union agreement is reached”.  

 

The Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, Luke Halikari, told the rally that the MUA-Maersk fight is a much bigger union story stretching out across all industries, a story of workers battling casualisation, precarious employment and thousands of permanent jobs contracted out to labour hire companies.

 

Independent working class agenda

The Svitzer-Maersk attack on the MUA exposes capital and multinational corporations’ permanent agenda of relentless attacks on the rights, wages and conditions of the entire working class. Corporate attacks can only be fought by the collective power of the working class with its own independent and fighting demands - an independent working class agenda not beholden to or reliant on politicians, parliamentary parties and the courts.

 

The enduring legacy and tough lessons of the 1998 MUA struggle for the next generation of workers is that job security and union rights have to be fought for and can be defended on the ground by the mobilised and organised working class and its allies in the wider community.   It’s a lesson that can, and will be, repeated.

As US Departs Afghanistan, A Changing Balance Of Forces Emerges

 

Written by: (Contributed) on 13 July 2021

The planned withdrawal of United States and NATO troops from Afghanistan is best viewed in the context of prolonged military failure resting upon decades of poor planning and questionable intelligence assessments.

Declassified documents from the period leave few doubts, in sensible minds, about the outcome.

Behind the scenes, however, other factors give reason to regard the US-led withdrawal as a hurried departure before greater problems, which have already begun to loom on the horizon, arise.

Earlier this year the US announced their intention to withdraw their military presence from Afghanistan by September. It would appear the logical outcome following the publication of a declassified documents by the Washington Post which revealed the Pentagon has been 'hiding unquestionable evidence the war had become unwinnable'. (1)

The documents, a collection of 2,000 pages of notes and 428 interviews, revealed a widespread military miscalculation and subsequent cover-up; early in the occupation then Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was actually quoted as stating 'I have no visible information into who the bad guys are', as evidence of a massive intelligence failure. (2) In fact, the whole Bush administration, of which Rumsfeld formed part, appeared completely out of their depth in Afghanistan, from Day One of Operation Enduring Freedom on 7 October 2001. The operation had been planned by the Pentagon to specifically remove the Taliban from control of the country; it has proved a dismal failure.

Later US presidential administrations, following the closure of the operation on 28 December 2014, merely continued the military occupation without important questions being asked. There were, therefore, no sensible answers provided about the massive cost of the operation, loss of life and failure to achieve even limited objectives.

The estimated cost of the operation lies between $934 billion and $978 billion, not including costs incurred with CIA intelligence operations and Veterans Affairs medical expenses. (3)

More than 775,000 US troops served in Afghanistan; a total of 2,400 lives were lost together with a further 20,589 wounded. (4) When those of coalition allies are added, the totals rise 3,502 to 18 May last year, which include 41 Australians killed and a further 261 wounded.

The figures rest upon a further 60,000 Afghani security force personnel killed by the Taliban during the same period together with an estimated total of 157,000 lost lives amongst the civilian population.

At no time has any publicity been given to the position that the US was automatically responsible for the security of Afghanistan following their invasion. The US aid allocation of $133 billion to re-build Afghanistan was a fraction of what was required to transform the war-torn country. The fact Afghanistan was responsible for 82 per cent of global opium production in 2018 is evidence that after seventeen years the US and NATO military occupation of the country had not resolved even the most fundamental of social and health problems arising in their midst. (5) 

The roots of Operation Enduring Freedom lay hidden in military planning from the previous Cold War. While the stated intention was to promote 'democratic values', the quirky neo-conservative political philosophy was little other than a convenient cover for aggressive militarism and neo-colonial economic theories. It became fashionable during the period of the so-called New World Order. The theory had many supporters in Washington and the Pentagon, and would appear to have clouded their judgements when planning the Afghanistan debacle. Their military planning, to return to previous US diplomatic positions without concern or regard for practicalities of the present day, would appear to have taken place inside an ivory tower of their own making. 

Afghanistan was regarded as a strategic asset for the US during the 1950s Cold War period. During the 1950s-79 period, US foreign assistance amounted to about $500 million in loans and included King Zahir Shah visiting President John F. Kennedy in Washington in 1963. US Peace Corps and US Aid were also active in Afghanistan during the period 1962-79. (6)

Part of the US aid budget for Afghanistan included the construction and maintenance of the Bagram Air Base, a mini US city about fifty kms north of Kabul, which was used a bulwark against the former Soviet Union. Numerous other bases and military facilities were also established. The King, however, was later deposed in the early 1970s and the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in April, 1978, unleashing the forces of the Saur Revolution which included large-scale land distribution. The relations of production were marked by an almost pre-feudal system. The ruling PDPA administration in Kabul was supported by the former social-imperialist Soviet Union, which sent thousands of advisors. They were later backed in December, 1979, by a Soviet Army presence inside the country.

In response, US began supporting the Mujahideen, a collection of Islamic fundamentalists, fanatics and jihadists to destabilise the PDPA. It was a foolish move. They quickly evolved into the Taliban which seized power in Kabul in 1996 after a four year civil war following the PDPA administration falling in 1992.

Throughout the period a great deal of US aid was channelled through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organisation in neighbouring Pakistan which caused a huge disruption to the country and neighbouring region. Afghanistan, and other neighbouring countries, soon became a magnet for Sunni Islamic-backed terrorist organisations; they also bit the hand which fed them. 

Following the 9/11 terrorist outrages in the US, Afghanistan together with Iraq were held responsible and military invasions took place. Nearly twenty years later, however, the US and NATO forces were never able to establish control of Afghanistan.

In early July the announcement that all US and NATO troops had left the Bagram Air Base followed the military facility coming under rocket barrages claimed by Islamic State. It has revealed a seriously deteriorating security situation. (7) The base, which was the main command centre for anti-Taliban operations for nearly twenty years, was evacuated. (8)  

Elsewhere, reports the Taliban have already secured control of an estimated 85 per cent of the country, reveal the US-backed puppet administrations in Kabul and 34 provinces are in serious difficulty and likely to fall in due course. (9) A recent US intelligence assessment concluded the central government in Kabul 'could fall within six months of the US military departure'. (10)

Behind the scenes, however, moves by China to construct the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative across Afghanistan appear a strategic part of a changing balance of forces taking place across the wider region. Afghanistan, strategically, is the shortest route from China to the Middle East. An official diplomatic statement issued by Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Deputy Foreign Minister, noted the moves included 'a unique effort for China to re-unite the region … with … connectivity and co-operation among countries primarily in Euro-Asia … with sixteen countries connected by the OBOR'. (11) It was, furthermore, noted the initiative was a 'very important step towards regional co-operation, regional and inter-regional connectivity … with … a unique effort for China'. (12)

While it has been noted the Taliban regard China in relatively friendly diplomatic terms, it would appear the US-backed puppet administrations, even with their huge military presence, have been unable to prevent China from successfully building growing trade relations inside Afghanistan. China has also become its biggest trading partner in recent years and the recent initiatives were announced as enabling Afghanistan to become 'an economic hub' of bigger regional economic development. (13) 

Feasibility studies publicised with the diplomatic statement included reference to Afghanistan being rich in natural resources and possessing an estimated 1,400 types of minerals and ores. Mining was now regarded as possible even though 'none of the mining has been utilised' to date. (14)

In conclusion, it would appear traditional US regional hegemonic positions have well and truly eclipsed; the US appear fully aware their present position in Afghanistan has become untenable. They also appear to have no wish to continue to provide defence and security provision for China's trade relations with Afghanistan.

1.     The Afghanistan Papers – At war with the truth, The Washington Post, 9 December 2019.

2.     Ibid.

3.     Ibid.

4.     Ibid.

5.     Ibid.

6.     Wikipedia: Afghanistan-US Relations, 11 July 2021.

7.     US, NATO troops leave Bagram, The Weekend Australian, 3-4 July 2021.

8.     We owe it to our helpers to save then from certain death, Australian, 7 July 2021; and,
        Taliban enter first provincial capital, Australian, 8 July 2021.

9.     China prepares, The Insider, 9 July 2021; and, Mission accomplished: Biden, The Weekend Australian, 10-11 July 2021.

10.   Afghan security on slide: US chief, Australian, 1 July 2021.

11.   One Belt, One Road, The Daily Outlook (Afghanistan), 3 April 2017.

12.   Ibid.

13.   Wikipedia: Afghanistan-China Relations, 11 July 2021, and, ibid.
        
14.   One Belt, One Road, ibid., 3 April 2017.

NT Intervention must be “cleaned out” say conference participants

 

Written by: Lindy Nolan on 12 July 2021

Mongunu Ian Gumbula, Daygurgur Gupapuyngu Elder of northeast and southeast Arnhem Land, says First Peoples are looking for “what is good for everyone.” 

Speaking at a landmark two-day conference challenging the Northern Territory Intervention, he says, “Our people are strong. They know what is best to go forward. We know best.”

Common rhythms create an overwhelming flow of communal experience and hopes.

To protect children Mongunu says, “The best way is to protect culture…If we are strong, our young people will be strong.”

He states, “Everything comes from our Land – our resources, our language, our songlines, our practices, our law. The land got everything for us.

“It was protecting us from the beginning.”

Mongonu says of the Intervention, “We need a way of cleaning up or raking all those things out first. Then before we can sit down on a clean platform together and work on what is good.”

Collective love and responsibility

Dr Thalia Anthony from UNSW Indigenous Law Centre lists the Don Dale Youth Detention Facility’s ongoing human damage, and demands it be closed instead of expanded.(See "Don Dale to expand...")

She praises the role of Aboriginal women, saying they “have led the charge in Central Australia.” 

Strong Grandmothers of the Central Desert grew out of the fight to keep kids out of custody. A co-founder, Aunty Elaine Peckham says, “We still have our voices. Nothing has taken that away… We’re survivors.”

“Our cultural values and obligations have made us strong all our lives. We’ll just continue being ourselves, having a voice… We must never give up. For our grandchildren, our great grandchildren.”

Amelia Kunoth Monks and Barbara Shaw speak of the ongoing importance of women’s night patrols in Utopia and in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). 

Aunty Barbara talks about collective love and responsibility. Often grandmothers themselves, night patrollers tell children on the streets at night that their grandmothers love them. Such words are powerful medicine to counteract the poison of colonialism and its Intervention.

Amelia Kunoth Monks has also learned from her grandmother, prominent NT Elder Rosalie Kunoth Monks, “When you give up and lie down, they’ve won.”

“It has been instilled in me who I am. We have to maintain who we are.”

Ms Kunoth Monks speaks of the need to “be on our homelands and help ourselves, without the white man’s ‘helping hand’.” 

Professor Greg Marks agrees, saying focus on strengthening homelands is critically important to charting a way forward. 

Well-resourced homelands have proved to be the healthiest option, but especially for the young, says Professor Marks. 

Into the mainstream

Mongunu says, “We need to be looking at a better way of doing justice and supporting young people and supporting young adults, male and female . That’s the sort of thing that should be in the hands of our people, our Elders, our leaders because the responsibility lies within us.”
Instead, the Intervention spent many millions inserting police complexes into communities like Yuendumu. From there, after the fatal shooting of Kumantjayi Walker, Dr Anthony states, came the demand: “No guns in Community!”. 

This call ricocheted across the Territory and the world. “Aboriginal Peoples are taking control of safety,” she says.

Long term anti-Intervention activist and NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge suggests this mainstream voice is essential if we are to end the Intervention, and drive a wedge into bipartisan parliamentary support.

Aunty Barbara states pressure needs to be put on Federal Minister Ken Wyatt. She sees a family-oriented focus as important. 

She and Aunty Elaine co-signed an open letter to Mr Wyatt, on behalf of the Intervention Rollback Action Group, outlining the Intervention’s devastation and what needs to happen instead. It calls for action incorporating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples articles that Australia currently breaches. 

Restorative justice from the ground up

Larrakia Anmatyerre man John Rawnsley works for the NT Aboriginal Legal Service. He began with a joke “to lighten the mood”. Humour is embedded in First Peoples’ ancient culture and remains a survival strategy of diminishing seemingly unbeatable colonial barbarity.

He says he finds “where I can make a difference”, identifying and developing allies, friends and networks.

Northern Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency is “doing a lot of work with educating lawyers, taking law students on to Country.” 

Kendall Trudgen is an ally born and still living in East Arnhem Land. He speaks on behalf of Yolngu Elder and independent NT parliamentarian, Yingiya Mark Guyula, who was involved in an Elder’s funeral ceremonies. 

Currently, Mr Trudgen says ‘Developing the North’ is ‘overriding’ First Peoples’ economic control. Gina Rinehart instigated this program. 

Mr Trudgen talks of restorative justice, saying Yolngu power and structure is dispersed and decentralised. 

“Women are equally involved in law as men,” Mr Trudgen says.

Giving graphic illustrations, including a letter stick to build awareness of their sovereignty, Mr Trudgen showed the work’s three main aims. 

The first aims at the governing unit of Arnhem Land, where all are “united on self-determination, sovereignty, and empowering traditional governance.”

The second aims to “move forward in self-policing”. Mr Trudgen says “there are more police than ever in Arnhem Land”, who make it hard for Elders to assert authority and employ restorative cultural solutions on Country.

Third, Mr Trudgen says, is “to build self-determined economic relationships from the ground up.” 

Not negotiable

In a statement read to the conference, Yingiya Mark Guyula likens the Intervention, and resistance to, it as a war.

After 14 years, First Peoples are organised and determined to end this 14-year obscenity.

Final speaker, Melbourne-based Arrernte woman Celeste Liddle speaks of colonialism’s creation of “purposeful wedges... country and city... black and white”.
“So, what we need is full prior and informed consent.

“Aboriginal Peoples need to be in control of their own affairs. Treaties, whatever, it must be not negotiable. The right to land, water.” 

Her last words are understated and quiet. “It needs a pretty strong fight,” she says