Turkey plays the Russia card to force US imperialism to drop the Kurds

(The following article is from the International Bulletin of August 2019 published by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party Turkey/Kurdistan.  We have made some minor stylistic changes.  The article explores the apparent contradictions between the fascist Turkish state and US imperialism over the former’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles.)

Why does Turkish State Want the S-400?

The S-400 conflict between the U.S. and Turkish state has passed its first round as the first batch of the Russian S-400 missile defence systems was delivered on July 25.

The U.S. has responded to this move by excluding Turkey from industrial participation in the F-35 program.    As we recall, the negotiations over the S-400 between Turkey and Russia began in 2016, one year after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near its border to Syria in 2015, which stood as a compensation payment for the jet shot down in the crisis.

Going parallel with a remarkable rapprochement process between two states, which has developed especially over their conjecturally matching policies on Syria, the S-400 negotiations resulted in a 2.5 billion dollars deal at the end of 2017, under which Russia agreed to supply Turkey, a NATO member state, with four S-400 batteries.

Since then, despite the objection of NATO’s big boss, including verbal ‘threats’ pointing out various sanctions, the Turkish state has mainly preserved its position and made some advance payments, as well as received loans from Russia. While the fascist chief Erdoğan has been marketing this process as a courageous step by the Turkish nation challenging the imperialist system(!), the Russian Federation on the other hand enjoyed an important profit not only in an economic but also in a political sense by pulling a NATO country to its side.

So, what was the actual reason behind Turkey heading towards the S-400 system, rather than to NATO’s Patriot missile defence system at the expense of deepening its conflict with the U.S.? Does the fascist dictator Erdoğan really intend to land a blow on the imperialist influence of the U.S. on Turkey, as his lackeys keep on yelling night and day? Is he conducting an anti-imperialist fight against the U.S.?

Of course not. Just as how he was in his initial years in power, today’s fascist chief Erdoğan keeps on working together with the U.S., IMF, World Bank and other sorts of imperialist states and monopolies for eliminating any kind of economic and political obstacles against Turkey remaining a financial-economic colony. The imperialist monopolies and their integrated collaborators, the monopolist bourgeoisie are still exploiting the labouring masses with the most brutal methods and there is no obstacle for them to letting the profits flow outside the country. Neither the U.S. nor Erdoğan will allow their capitalist exploitation brotherhood to be ruined.

Then why did Turkey move to deepen its conflict with the U.S. by buying the Russian S-400 missile defence system? The answer is nothing other than the Kurdish liberation struggle, the Rojava revolution.

If we remember the initial years of the Syrian civil war, we see that Erdoğan was the most loyal partner of the U.S., because of his bloody appetite towards benefiting from the regional hegemony gap. However, the Kurdish liberation gave this show away. If the Rojava revolution had not erupted, then he would have already seized Syria together with the U.S. But after the Rojava revolution erupted and conducted a heroic war against the ISIS, the U.S. was obliged to build a tactical alliance with the YPG. This led the Turkish state to approach Russia in order to destroy the advances of the Kurds. The fascist chef Erdoğan is well aware of the fact that neither his regional hegemony, nor his own fascist existence could be preserved unless the Rojava revolution was liquidated. Struggle is the actual reason for buying the S-400 missile defence system.

One may say that the Kurds in Rojava have no missiles that would threaten Turkey. Yes, it is true. That’s why the S-400 does not have a military meaning in this picture. It is the ransom for approaching Russia which Erdoğan uses as a “political weapon” to move the U.S. away from the Kurds in Rojava, or at least, make them totally neutral against the Turk’s fascist and colonialist hostility. In this equation, the fascist chief and his team are getting more and more close to Russia in order to save their political future while Russia seizes every opportunity to pull Turkey to its side, as an imperialist power.

However, economic relations and class interests may force the fascist chief to switch his way again. Let’s put it clearly once again: Turkey is a financial-economic colony of the world monopolies. The imperialist states and their local collaborator states are the representatives of the interests of the global financial oligarchy and their collaborator monopolistic bourgeoisies. The Turkish economy has been integrated with the world market which is dominated by the world monopolies, and Erdoğan has played a major role in this process. With any sort of bourgeois administration, Turkey cannot turn the tables on this situation.   

Does the Turkish state have the power to redirect the political superstructure, even though it has completely tied its economic relations to the financial oligarchy? We do not argue here that the economic conditions determine the political superstructure one to one. This would be nothing more than economic determinism. There is no doubt that contradictions between the ruling classes, the struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed, as well as the class struggle all appear in the field of politics and thus create space for various manoeuvres.

However, economic conditions are ultimately crucial, and due to Turkey's dependence as a financial-economic colony there is scope for action to some extent. This action ends where political manoeuvres threaten the interests of the financial oligarchy as a class.

If faced with such a threat, the financial oligarchy will not hesitate to translate this financial-economic colonial dependency into a political blackmail against Erdoğan. Some sections of the financial oligarchy have already begun to prepare other bourgeois political alternatives manifest in the attempts of Erdoğan's former companions to found new parties or in the "rise" of the bourgeois opposition, the Republican People's Party (CHP) with its new political figure İmamoğlu, the newly elected mayor of Istanbul.

All in all, just as it is seen in the S-400 crisis, the fascist chief Erdoğan seems to continue holding the “Russian weapon” to create room for himself to manoeuvre against the U.S. hegemony which is an economic obstacle to Turkish colonialism’s objective of an immediate occupation on Rojava.

So far, being excluded from the F-35 program does not seem to be enough to dissuade this “naughty” NATO member from its plans. The “anti-imperialist” limitation of the Turkish state will show itself after a possible defeat in Rojava or other sanctions of the U.S.

Workers step up industrial action against US multinational O-I Glass

Danny O.                                                   23 August 2019

Ever drank beer from a stubbie? Poured a glass of wine? How about made vegemite on toast? Well if you’ve ever done any of these things in Australia, then you’ve probably handled a glass container made by workers employed by US-owned multinational glass maker O-I Glass.

For over 4 months, about 100 maintenance workers at O-I Glass plants in Melbourne and Brisbane have been taking protected industrial action to secure their conditions in a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. Workers have been taking a variety of actions to push their claim including rolling stoppages, overtime bans, and a rally out the front of O-I’s Australian headquarters. Workers in Melbourne are now holding a series of 4-hour stoppages and public rallies over the next month to help build wider union and community support for their dispute.

The workers, members of the ETU and the AMWU, have been met with nothing but contempt from management. Management are refusing to bargain fairly after workers overwhelmingly voted down a substandard proposal from the company, and have been bringing in scabs through dodgy labour hire companies to try and complete work. According to the ETU, at the Melbourne plant scab electricians were being brought in from sub-contractors as far away as South Australia!

But all of that is par for the course for a multinational like O-I. According to reports, the company had revenues of over $2.6 billion in Australia between 2013-2017 and didn’t pay a single cent in tax during the same time. Again, it’s hardly a surprise. It’s typical practice of so many of the foreign multinationals and handful of local big businesses that dominate and control Australia’s economy.

And O-I certainly dominates its sector of Australia’s economy. Not only is it the largest glass container manufacturer in the world, the US multinational has a 90% share of the glass container market in Australia. That means just about every glass container used in Australia is made by workers at O-I Glass.

Australian workers making everyday products used by the Australian people, but the profits go to a tax avoiding American multinational – talk about a rort!
There’s nothing the bosses fear more than a united working class that understands their labour power is the source of profit and that the bosses are redundant parasites. And there’s nothing a foreign multinational fears more than a united people that understands they are being ripped off and taken for fools.

O-I Glass should have plenty to fear.      

We need to fight for a country run by and for the working people of Australia – not the thieving multinationals! We need to fight for an Independent Australia and Socialism!

Truth discarded and NSW MPs targeted in anti-abortion media rants

Louisa L                                                            22 August 2019

Abortion became a crime in NSW in 1900. Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph is cynically spearheading media attacks to keep it that way. Its real aim is to use the issue to further suppress the people.

On Friday 16 August, the Tele corralled key anti-abortion allegations, lies and distortions in one place.

It ignored the overwhelming vote in favour – a two thirds majority – implying NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was doing “deals” to “shore up support”.

The anti-abortion crew waited till Berejiklian was in Europe on a trade mission to prepare an ambush.

They used an upper house review they’d demanded to further air their allegations.

The Australian Medical Association actively supports the bill, demolishing an avalanche of anti-abortion amendments. None of this made the Tele.
Instead it outright lied, saying “the AMA upped the ante on its opposition to the bill”.

One amendment played the race card against Chinese and Indian people who are alleged to abort female foetuses. The Tele raged against gender selection.

The Tele also warned doctors about a previous (failed) prosecution involving “live-birth termination” for late term abortions, but really aimed to stir up readers against an extremely rare occurrence.

Non-religious and non-political?

It turned truth on its head again in a headline, “Support group says majority of women are pressured to abort”.

According to the Tele, NSW Pregnancy Help Inc which opposed the bill alleges, “Almost all women who call a pregnancy support group in the Hunter region do so because their partners are threatening to leave them or not support the baby.”

Sadly, this is true for many women, but any claim it is the major reason women seek abortion is not backed by evidence.

Obviously, women being pressured not to have a baby they want would seek an agency like Pregnancy Help that counsels in favour of giving birth.

They don’t need nonsense that most women “regret abortions” or other half truths.

The Tele described the group as “non-religious and non-political”. But Pregnancy Help Inc encourages delay which makes abortion more complicated and dangerous.

The first fact sheet on its website speaks in glowing terms of motherhood and of adoption, but in entirely negative terms about abortions and their effect “on both mother and baby”,  not “mother and foetus”.

The Pregnancy Help Inc “fact” sheet bleats about all the help a single mother gets. Tell that to single mums whose payments have been cut by outrageous demands of the privateers running the federal government’s ParentsNext!

Pregnancy Help Inc also insinuates that “vested or pecuniary interests in abortion facilities” are encouraging abortion.

The bill, said the Tele, was “rushed through parliament” without a “formal inquiry”. Clearly anti-abortion activists wanted more time to fan hysteria over their lies and distortions.

Rural women suffer most from delays

Another article that day (Friday, 16 August 2019) drove a wedge between the rural community and Berejiklian by making out she was more concerned with the abortion bill than Essential Energy’s rural job cuts.

It didn’t mention the AMA’s concerns about the disproportionate suffering for rural women and their families of delays that anti-abortionists tried to insert into the bill.

The article gave huge prominence to a leaked “call to arms” by Nationals Deputy Premier, Barillaro, targeting Berejiklian and other social liberals in Coalition ranks. The aim is to mimic the federal Coalition coup that cleansed all but the hard right.

Berejiklian backed down and ensured the job cuts would not go ahead, a win for far-right ‘champions’ of the working class as well as the workers themselves in a publicly owned company.

Scaremongering hits its target

Liberal Health Minister Brad Hazzard who co-sponsored the bill was also hammered by the Tele. He and Manly MP James Griffin were “called to a crisis meeting” of local members to explain their stand. Party members were “furious… about the whole process.”

In Sydney’s south eastern suburbs, which includes Cronulla where PM Morrison is based, only two of seven MPs voted in favour of the bill. MPs in these suburbs are open to pressure by well-organised and active community-based church groups.

These groups have successfully intervened in recent elections against Labor candidates. Former head of the Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy was narrowly defeated in Banks electorate after widely distributed and totally false allegations that he supported paedophilia.

In local media, the anti-abortion MPs each highlighted a different scaremongering ‘concern’, obviously coordinated well beforehand. No medical advice was included in the article. The local paper is now owned by Nine Network.

In a pointed attack noted by the Tele, the Armenian Apostolic Church to which Berejiklian belongs sent a representative to oppose the bill at the Legislative Council review.

It all had an effect.

Gladys Berejiklian returned to Australia. First the bill was delayed. 

Next came this: the ABC’s Sarah Thomas wrote, “After pressure from religious leaders and conservative MPs, Ms Berejiklian said she would be prepared to change the bill to ban gender-based abortion.”

This is unlikely to save Ms Berejiklian. Too many other factors apart from her stand on abortion are at play, as those in the ruling class favouring far right methods mobilise their forces.
 

Abortion rights and a corporate bonfire

Louisa L                           21 August, 2019

The hard right is using the Reproductive Healthcare Reform Bill to undermine MPs who don’t fall in line with their authoritarian, patriarchal model. They are particularly targeting NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

They represent a rising section of the ruling class which believes their interests are now best served by suppression of those who rebel against aspects of capitalism.

They still use deception to rally their troops and influence the people.

They’ve had another win, with the bill now delayed till the middle of September.

This gives more time for their supporters to fan a bonfire of lies and distortions to immolate Premier Berejiklian and Liberal Party “moderates”. Anti-abortion protests are set to grow.

Opposition to the bill is likely to assist the far right of the Coalition to engineer a coup against Ms Berejiklian.

The ever-ethical Barnaby Joyce weighs in with robo-calls against the bill.

But it’s about more than abortion.

Poster girl

The premier is set to take the blame for the growing debacle of uninhabitable buildings from the unrestrained construction boom in NSW.

ABC publicity described its Four Corners program ‘Cracking Up’ like this, “From shoddy workmanship to lax laws, Australia's apartment building crisis is leaving owners out of pocket and, in some cases, homeless. Industry insiders reveal a litany of failures that could leave defects for years to come.”

Airing on Monday, August 19 it was all that and more. Not only will increasing numbers of buyers be left with massive bills but taxpayers look likely to be landed with a huge bill. A backlash is growing.

Berejiklian has been the poster girl of the construction boom. The NSW government allowed giant corporations unfettered access to profit with the most minimal oversight. Now Berejiklian will be the scapegoat for an increasing outcry.

But there’s more still. On February 9 this year Independent Australia concluded a powerful six part series, ‘The Unspoken Crimes of the ASX’ by Benjamin John Pauley. 

The final article looked at hostile company takeovers and stock market manipulation in the construction sector.

“A stranglehold over government and society”

Pauley begins with this, “The big infrastructure companies who are tendering for and winning the main infrastructure projects in Australia have a stranglehold over government and society.”

He says “governments are at the mercy” of these “mostly foreign-owned corporations”. 

“Share price manipulation…is the key” giving them the “ability to take over Australian companies at a reduced price”, he writes.

He focuses on Spanish Grupo ACS’s takeovers of a number of companies including Leighton Holdings to form CIMIC.

This is where the woes of a state government reliant on foreign construction monopolies begin.

Pauley gives two examples of major NSW infrastructure projects in which CIMIC is involved.

First is the M5 motorway extension where the company is claiming $690 million more than the NSW Government offered to cover design and construction changes.

Then this: “In May 2018, it was revealed that the NSW Government had to compensate the operators of the $8.3 billion Northwest Metro project’s Skytrain … between $400 and $500 million over delays due to cracked spans during the construction by Italian contractors Salini Impreglio.”

Next Pauley cites Spanish company, Acciona, taking “legal action against NSW’s transport agency.” The agency “accused the Spanish company of launching a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the state because the contractor is liable to pay ‘substantial sums’ in damages for the project running late.”

“If governments try to hold them to account they are likely to get sued,” Pauley says.

Lendlease ditches contract

Meanwhile the ABC’s Nick Dole reported that Lend Lease is in dispute with the government after demolishing the Sydney Football Stadium and walking away from the $729 million rebuilding contract.

The controversial demolition began just before the State Election, when Sports Minister Stuart Ayers stated "Lendlease will adjust to any planning conditions that are required." Hmm. Apparently not.

Like the cat with the cream, Lend Lease is purring, "Building social infrastructure in partnership with Government is a source of pride for Lendlease and we look forward to supporting future projects."

Meanwhile NSW Coalition MPs are up a very smelly creek without a paddle, trying to push each other in.

There’s no doubting the twisted fervour of many anti-abortion activists. We can expect their protests to grow as lies take hold among the people. 

But Coalition MPs are using the furore to try and save their own skins.

Channelling Sydney’s 1808 Rum Rebellion by rising capitalists, they are likely to depose Gladys, although it may be some time yet.

Yep, Corporate Colony NSW is open for business. Amen. But expect resistance.