Oppose Israel’s plans to annex the Occupied West Bank!

Written by: DFLP on 13 December 2024

 

An important message has been received from the DFLP urging widespread opposition to Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank.  The message is reprinted below.

Message from the "Department of Foreign Affairs in DFLP" to Global Parties on the Annexation Plan

Annexation is the highest and most dangerous stage of occupation, requiring resistance locally and condemnation and punishment internationally.

 

Dear esteemed members of political parties and global popular organizations,

 

Dear colleagues in international societal, media, human rights, and labor frameworks,

 

We extend to you the greetings of resilient and steadfast Palestine, standing firm on its land as it faces the genocide being inflicted upon its people across all historic Palestine. We bring to your attention the Zionist annexation plan, which has become an official strategy of the occupying entity. This plan is being implemented daily before the eyes of the international community without encountering the decisive and effective international positions and tools it warrants.

 

Dear comrades,

 

In addition to the war crimes and daily massacres being committed in Gaza in full view of the cameras and broadcast live, another crime has been unfolding for some time in the occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank and East Jerusalem). This is happening amidst international inaction and silence, which only encourages Israel to proceed with its crime known as the annexation plan. This plan is coupled with American efforts to legitimize the use of the term "Judea and Samaria," the Israeli-preferred terminology rooted in Zionist myths and historical fabrications, rather than the internationally recognized term "occupied West Bank," which includes Jerusalem and is deemed occupied Palestinian land under international resolutions. The latest of these is the United Nations General Assembly resolution in September, which declared that "Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and must end."

 

Western countries are fully aware of the seriousness and danger of the annexation plan. They also understand that the occupation has transitioned from a colonial occupation of the West Bank to a settler-colonial project aiming to annex large swathes of West Bank land and impose Israeli sovereignty over them. Annexation goes beyond occupation; it is the most extreme and dangerous stage the occupation can reach. This process is advancing gradually and strategically, avoiding sharp confrontations with the Palestinians while serving Israel’s interests and tactical goals.

 

The danger of annexation at this stage lies in the fact that it has now become the official strategy driving Israel’s actions. All measures and decisions, whether military or “civil,” undertaken in the West Bank will align with this plan. To put it more precisely, Israel’s approach to the West Bank and Jerusalem in the coming phase will focus on preparing the infrastructure to facilitate the annexation process. Meanwhile, some international parties continue to discuss the so-called "two-state solution," treating the plan as an extension of traditional occupation policies or as something that does not fundamentally alter the nature of the conflict. As a result, their response is limited to nominal opposition and superficial condemnations that fail to reach the ears of Israeli leaders.

 

Such positions are fueled by flawed analyses suggesting that annexation will be limited to small areas, downplaying the plan's threat to pacify public sentiment. However, realities on the ground confirm that the annexation plan will encompass the entire West Bank from all directions. For instance, when Israel annexes settlements, it effectively gains control over all surrounding and interconnected cities. Additionally, crossings, bypass roads near the settlements, and so-called military zones will remain under Israeli control. In practical terms, this means that Israel is moving toward the annexation of all West Bank lands, while considering the current Palestinian population density, which far exceeds the settler population (around 145 settlements housing approximately 800,000 settlers compared to about 3.5 million Palestinians).

 

There are numerous indications that the official announcement of the annexation plan is approaching. Various scenarios are being discussed regarding the method and timing of this announcement. However, a review of reports published in the Israeli media reveals that it will consist of a series of key components and stages:

 

1. The transfer of powers from the Israeli military to civilian authorities controlled by settler leaders, with direct support from ministers and senior officials in the military and government, will lead to the transition of responsibilities from an occupation authority to a civilian authority enforcing Israeli law. This process has already begun over the past few months.

 

2. The reclassification of certain areas in the West Bank from Area B to Area C, imposing full Israeli control over them, directly contradicts the Oslo Accords. Palestinian administrative bodies may retain limited functional roles without any security, military, or sovereign authority over these areas. These regions include the Jordan Valley, settlements and their surroundings, and areas adjacent to the separation wall. Gradual measures will also be implemented to displace Palestinians living in Area C, either through financial incentives or by applying security, military, and administrative pressures.

 

3. Massive budgets are being allocated for settlement construction in the West Bank. Israeli media reports indicate that the far-right Israeli government is reaching out to wealthy Jewish donors in the United States and Europe to fund large-scale settlement projects that will be announced later.

 

4. Providing military support to settler groups under the pretext of ensuring their security. A primary focus of some Israeli government ministers has become the distribution of weapons to settlers in the West Bank. According to available data, settlers now possess approximately one million firearms—a significant number compared to their population size.

 

5. Enacting laws and military orders from various ministries to intensify restrictions on Palestinians, including demolishing homes and prohibiting construction. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers are encouraged to build and are offered incentives to move to the West Bank.

 

6. To make the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state on its land and territory impossible, Israel will not stop at annexing selected Palestinian lands. As part of the annexation plan, Israel intends to divide the West Bank into over 170 isolated areas disconnected from each other. This concept of fragmentation was previously discussed during the signing of the Oslo Accords, with proposals likening the West Bank to Bantustans.

 

Regardless of international positions, particularly those of Western countries complicit in Israeli schemes through their silence and partnership, the annexation plan proceeds as intended. Even if delayed or slowed down for tactical reasons, its implementation follows the strategic framework Israel has pursued since the Nakba by imposing facts on the ground for both the Palestinian people and the world. This approach is not a single-phase process but rather consists of gradual, phased steps that collectively build the complete strategic structure of the annexation plan—what is referred to as "gradual annexation."

 

For all these reasons, we reiterate that Western countries are politically hypocritical when they claim to support the so-called "two-state solution" while criticizing Israeli plans in the West Bank for violating international legitimacy and law. They provide Israel with all the means for war, killing, and aggression, while imposing only minimal sanctions on a handful of individuals. Meanwhile, the leaders of extremism and fascism in Israel continue with their plans undeterred by Western positions or criticisms from international organizations. 

 

The Palestinian national movement remains in a phase of national liberation, meaning the current task for the Palestinian people and their political and popular forces is to resist the occupier and its infrastructure through all available forms of struggle. This requires the support of freedom-loving people around the world. Therefore, we address you on behalf of the "Department of Foreign Affairs in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine," urging political parties, societal frameworks, institutions, unions, and opinion-makers to support our people in their resistance to thwart the annexation plan. Just as we have together defeated Zionist projects and plans aimed at eliminating the Palestinian cause, we are confident in your support for our people and their national struggle to live freely on their land, free from occupation—an occupation whose existence on our land remains entirely unacceptable and necessitates resistance in all its forms.

 

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

          - Foreign Affairs Department -

   December 2024

 

Remain firmly opposed to Zionism, anti-Semitism and all forms of racism

Written by: Nick G. and Alice M. on 11 December 2024

 

(Above: Nasser Mashni denounces synagogue arson at last Sunday's rally)

Ever since the start of the current Zionist Israeli aggression against Gaza, on October 7, 2023, attempts have been made to equate criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism.

The Zionist lobby in Australia is particularly vociferous and influential in using allegations of anti-Semitism to attack supporters of the Palestinian people and critics of Israel’s genocide, many of whom are Jewish people. 

People in the media and politics who have defended “Israel’s right to defend itself” by committing wholesale genocide have rushed to condemn any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism every time the Zionist lobby has demanded it. They have sent their police to harass and arrest demonstrators against Zionist crimes.

The arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s South East is a case in point. 

This was real anti-Semitism at its worst. 

It is a hate crime just as was the mass killing of Muslim worshippers in New Zealand. There is silence surrounding other hates crimes targeting Muslims in our community.  A replica bomb was left on a car in the driveway of a house flying the Palestinian flag in Sydney.  

The family home of the founder of the Burgertory chain, Palestinian activist Hash Tayeh, was firebombed last April in Melbourne, the second time in the past five months that arsonists attacked a property connected to him. 

A driveway of a Melbourne house, displaying Palestinian flag and calls for a ceasefire, was graffitied with abusive language.  There are many unpublicised political and racist acts against Palestinian supporters.

Last Sunday night a school bus belonging to Adelaide Islamic school IQRA College was set on fire and badly damaged in a blatant act of Islamophobia.  It was parked outside bus driver’s house, and deliberately lit before midnight.

Quite correctly, the Muslim community and supporters of Palestine have denounced the synagogue attack.

The Islamic Council of Victoria said it was “saddened” by the attack, and “reiterates that the right of Australians to practice their faith and worship without fear must be upheld, and that places of worship should be respected as spiritual and community havens.”

Hash Tayeh, angered by the double standards surrounding treatment of hate crimes in Australia, nevertheless tweeted “My heart breaks for the synagogue that was firebombed, and I want to help rebuild it.”

At the Palestinian solidarity rally on December 8, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni addressed the crowd, condemning the attack. “Whoever set fire to that synagogue is a racist, is a fascist, is a Nazi,” Mr Mashni said. 

The message to anyone who took part in the firebombing who may have come from the ranks of Palestinian supporters was clear: “Piss off!”

At all pro Palestine rallies held every Sunday since 7 October 2023, Mashni and other speakers repeatedly condemn anti-Semitism.  “Anti-Semitism and all forms of racism have no place here!” they loudly proclaim to thunderous applause and cheering by tens of thousands.

There is little point speculating about who may have been involved: Nazis, or those who mistakenly think that they can show support for Palestine by using Nazi methods.  

The act itself was wrong and only plays into the hands of Zionists by lending credibility to their accusations of anti-Semitism and calls for what are essentially protections of Zionist advocacy.

It is provocation and lays the ground for calls to ban Palestinian rallies, roll out more so-called “anti-terror” powers for the state and armed forces, and jailing protestors.  Most of these state powers will continue to be used against the people in many struggles.

From this it can be expected that there will be further surveillance and harassment of those who denounce Zionist aggression and genocide. 

As Communists, we have always condemned anti-Semitism and racism in all its forms and disguises.  

In the 1930s, and in the shadow of Nazi attacks on Jews, many political leaders of the day were asked to denounce anti-Semitism. Most were silent. Only Stalin made the statement that Jews wanted to hear.

Replying to an Inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States, on January 12, 1931, Stalin said: “National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

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

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

No other major world leader made such a forthright condemnation of anti-Semitism or explained its dangers to working people. Not only did Stalin strongly condemn and denounce anti-Semitism in words, the USSR was the only country to open its borders to persecuted Jewish people fleeing Nazis occupations, pogroms and the holocaust.  No other European country would let in Jewish people seeking escape from the Nazi holocaust.

Rather than pandering to the Zionist lobby, the authorities must take the lead in treating all racist hates crimes with the severity they deserve. 

Supporters of the Palestinian resistance cannot be silenced or intimidated.

They are firm in their opposition to Zionist aggression.

They are firm in their opposition to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.

The reactionaries must condemn all terrorism, including their own

Written by: Nick G. on 10 December 2024

 

Current events in Syria, and the fire-bombing of a synagogue in Melbourne, have seen the label “terrorist” applied.  In particular, it is applied by people in the media and the government who have justified the genocidal terrorism of the Zionist occupation forces against Palestinian civilians, and Palestinian and international health workers, educators, journalists and aid workers. 

There are two ways to use the term “terrorist”. They are explored in the following statement from the Political Report to our 14th Congress in 2015.  It helps clarify the distinction between a Communist way of viewing what terrorism is, and the 'War on Terror' which was a pretext for all kinds of repression.

We agree that the rebadged al-Qaeda and al-Nusrah forces now operating as the Islamist HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) in Syria and likely to be its new government, were terrorists, and need to show cause why they should not continue to be called terrorists. We agree that ISIS forces attacking the democratic autonomous region of Rojava in North-East Syria were and still are terrorists. But equally, so are the US imperialists and the Israeli Zionists.

So too, for that matter, are persons committing arson against communities in Australia. So too, are young Australian Zionists being recruited into the Israeli Occupation Forces, knowing full well the extent of its terrorist activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

The extract from the Political Report follows:

Groups like ISIS have emerged as a type of international lumpen-proletariat.  In advanced capitalist countries the lumpen-proletariat consists of people who cannot or will not live as members of the working class, people broken in spirit by poverty, lack of education and opportunity, health failure, and drugs. Their escape route from all of this is criminal activity and criminal violence through which they seek to empower and enrich themselves.  They aspire to live like the idle rich they see at the top of society.  ISIS recruits come from all strata of society and include educated and articulate youths. They hate imperialism for its wanton random violence against the communities from which they come and for its failure to embrace the Prophet, but they are not conscious anti-imperialists.  They aspire to have an empire of their own, the Caliphate and murder and terrorise any who stand in their way.  Their open fighting is directed at armed opponents, including genuine anti-imperialists, but their terrorism is directed at non-combatants, at innocent civilians, including in the imperialist and developed capitalist countries.  Theirs is the personally brutal mirror image of the impersonal brutality of imperialist drone attacks and the rain of Zionist phosphorous bombs over Gaza.  Whether you behead the person next to you or simply feed coordinates to a drone from the safe distance of Pine Gap, you are equally a terrorist as far as your victims are concerned.

ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in Australia, France, Britain and elsewhere give the ruling classes of those countries the excuse to intensify surveillance of all progressive politically active people. We have already seen a vast expansion of police and security powers in this regard. We are also seeing the roll-out of a campaign encouraging teachers to identify potentially “radicalised” youths.  A number of case studies are presented including a young girl who leaves her supportive family to become an environmental activist.  Of course, there is the obligatory case study of a Muslim youth, but the lumping together of people exercising legitimate democratic rights with those coming under the influence of ISIS shows how terrorism enables the ruling class to spread its repressive net ever more widely. The goal of “deradicalising” ISIS followers can never succeed so long as it denies the existence of imperialist violence and terror.

Marxists eschew terrorism. The terrorism of imperialism is the much greater and the more dangerous and perfidious of the two terrorisms we have discussed.  It will be directed at the revolutionary anti-imperialist movement when it develops to a particular level of influence in Australia.  It will come from the authorised state agencies of violence and it will come from fascist thugs to whom the state will turn a blind eye and encourage.  We will only be able to defend the advances we make in the development of the movement for independence from imperialism by countering the violence of the state with the organised resistance of the revolutionary movement.  Our activity will arise as a defensive measure and gradually assume an offensive capacity, but it will always be organised against identified agencies of the capitalist state and will never take the form of indiscriminate and random violence in which members of our own class become victims.  We will never practice terrorism or endorse terrorist activity.

 

 

Australia: a hub for “US interests”

Written by: (Contributed) on 6 December 2024

 

(Source: www.asd.gov.au )

Residents of Perth may have noticed the opening of some offices for the Australian Signals Directorate in September. Some limited publicity was forthcoming. What was not so well publicised, however, were the finer points of the Cold War nature of the everyday business of that department: sensitive telecommunications linking the Australian government with their US counterparts, elevating Australia ever further as a regional hub for 'US interests' across the Indo-Pacific and enhancing US-led intelligence-gathering and surveillance facilities.

In September a brief announcement on an official Australian Government website included information concerning the opening of a new Perth State Office under the Redspice program, focussed primarily upon cyber security and signals intelligence. (1) The exact location of the office was not so forthcoming.  

The government department, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), however, has a noted presence in West Australia with their Kojarena Geraldtown military facilities which are directly linked into the sensitive Five Eyes, US intelligence and the Echelon system and form part of a global US system of satellite communications. (2) Kojarena is a ground station for satellites stationed above the equator and used for interception. (3)  

Like nearly all Australian-based military facilities, upgrades in recent times have followed US-led Cold War directives in wave after wave of militarisation.

A brief announcement in late November, therefore, was perhaps to be expected; Google were following planning to expand its $1 billion undersea cable to 'connect Darwin and Singapore with Christmas Island, a move it says will boost the reliability and resilience of Australia's internet connectivity and provide a new link between the US and Asia … via a … link to the Homomoana cable system which connects with the US' (4)

It noted, furthermore, that, 'new digital pathways for Australia, enhancing the reliability and resilience of the internet within the country and throughout the Indo-Pacific region … via a … new interconnection point between the US and Asia'. (5)

The media releases were carefully edited to avoid unnecessary publicity; information already in the public domain, however, would tend to indicate high-level military and diplomatic planning inside the Pentagon for upgrading Australian-based facilities.

The diplomatic role of the US toward Australia has a long history, dating from the earliest days of the previous Cold War. In mid-1947, for example, Australia was directed to accept its regional responsibilities toward Madagascar, a then French colony on the far side of the Indian Ocean. It was diplomatically noted that 'the direct bearing of events in Madagascar on Australians is in its strategic position … any power that controls the entrances – the Cape of Good Hope; the mouth of the Red Sea; the seaways south of the Malayan Peninsula and of Australia, controls the Indian Ocean'. (6)

And foreign policy responsibilities thrust upon Australia by the US also included wholesale domestic interference inside sovereign affairs: a diplomatic report prepared by US Naval Attache Commander Stephen Jurika Jnr., dated 6 August 1948, noted, 'Australia, its life and history, are dominated by the Communist-controlled unions … until the parliamentary Labor Party is removed from office there is not one chance in ten million that any effective action against Communism can, or will, be taken … Communism was rife in the highest governing circles in Australia'. (7)

Later the same month the new US Ambassador, Myron Cowen, arrived in Australia with the specific instruction from the president and under-secretary of State to do 'everything possible in connection with the Communist problem in Australia'. (8)

With the onset of the present Cold War the US diplomatic mentality has changed little in eight decades. The recent developments with Australian signals are merely the systematic strengthening of a strategic regional hub for 'US interests', with all which that position entails. It is interesting, therefore, to note the threads connecting the previous with the present Cold War.

A reference to Christmas Island has revealed the strategic nature of outlying islands; the island in question has also been closely linked to the nearby Cocos Islands which have been noted as highly strategic territories which possess 'a valued capability which Australia could offer the use of in a major contingency, as those sites would be a genuine gap filler between major bases in Guam and Diego Garcia'. (9)

The fact Guam and Diego Garcia are hubs for 'US interests' on an arc from Pine Gap in Central Australia is not coincidental. They have been upgraded many times.

The strategic location of the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island both resting on an arc from Australian military facilities at Geraldton, likewise, is not coincidental. The islands are located at the entrance of the Sunda Strait and South Java Sea. Even in the previous Cold War the capacity of the military facilities covered a wide area, including West Africa, the Middle East, former Soviet Union and China together with the Indo-Pacific. (see diagram)   

Studies of the period concluded with the observation that 'the US has a world-wide network of electronic listening posts engaged in eavesdropping on other nations’ radio traffic and pinpointing the location of transmissions'. (10) Modern mobile telephones also have specialised radar and motion detectors built into their programs, ensuring they are easily traceable using specialist monitoring equipment. (11) The role of the US using the elite intelligence-gathering facilities within the Five Eyes should also not be overlooked; the US regularly out-source intelligence-gathering to their partners. (12)

The intelligence-gathering is now set to be expanded still further through higher levels of US control of the internet; with the onset of the present Cold War it was already noted that the US National Security Agency had 'shifted to finding ways to exploit the global reach of Google, Microsoft, Venizon and other US technical powers'. (13) The military planning would now appear well under-way, with Australia a strategic regional hub for operations.

The US is also planning to expand their three-stage Island Chain Theory based in the Asia-Pacific region to the larger Indo-Pacific arena with fourth and fifth chains; it is not particularly difficult, therefore, to establish the timing of the present implementation of higher level signals intelligence facilities for future and more comprehensive uses across a wider arena of all those countries bordering on the Indian ocean. (14)

Studies of the strategic significance of Christmas Island have already established the ADF have submarine monitoring facilities for access and egress into the Indian Ocean. (15) They, too, would now appear set for an upgrade.

                                         We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     See: Australian Government – Australian Signals Directorate, 10 September 2024,  Australian Defence Force expands footprint with new Perth State Office.
2.     See Wikipedia: ASD.; and, Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Kojarena, The Nautilus Institute, 23 October 2024.
3.     Nautilus Institute, ibid.
4.     Google expands US-Asia sea cable, Australian, 27 November 2024.
5.     Ibid.
6.     Madagascar's Future Concerns Australia Security, Talk, Monthly Digest of A.B.C. Broadcasts, June 1947, page 64.
7.     The Spycatchers – The Official History of ASIO, 1949-63, David Horner, (NSW, 2014), quoted: pp. 78-80.
8.     Ibid.
9.     Strategic potential of the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island, Airpower / Defence Today, Dr. Carlo Kopp, March 2012.
10.   Indian Ocean Zone of Peace, Australian Left Review, Owen Wilkes, (1976), Edition 55/56, page 32.
11.   See: US Navy in race to reload on high seas, Australian, 3 December 2024.
12.   See: Spyworld, How the C.S.E. spies on Canadians and the world, Mike Frost as told to Michel Gratton, (Toronto, June 1995).
13.   The intelligence coup of the century, The Washington Post, 11 February 2020.
14.   Wikipedia: Island Chain Theory.
15.   Christmas Island, Military Significance, GlobalSecurity, 9 July 2018.

US - China Trade War Already Intensifying

Written by: Ned K. on 5 December 2024

 

Rivalry between USA and China has been well under way on many fronts, including trade.

This week the trade war took another turn. On Monday 2 December, the Biden Administration added another 146 Chinese entities to the trade blacklist.

Among the entities are large domestic chip toolmakers and semi-conductor manufacturing plants. According to the Wall Street Journal, this is the fourth time in three years that the US Government tried to restrict China's access to high performance semi-conductor technology.

Just three days later, the Chinese Government imposed a ban on export to the USA of rare earth metals gallium, germamium and antimony. 

Gallium is essential for production of semi-conductors and electronics manufacturing.

Germamium is vital in defence and space applications.

Antimony is a brittle silver-coloured metal used in rechargeable batteries, especially in car batteries.

In the last two years, US corporations imported nearly all gallium and nearly 50% of its required germanium. China has been a main supplier to the USA of these minerals. When US corporations cannot import enough of these minerals they have to rely on the US recycling industry of them for supply.

According to the Wall Street Journal, what surprised US authorities this time was the rapidity of China's retaliation with its new trade bans.

The trade war between the USA and China may intensify further under the Trump administration making job security for workers in the USA even worse than it is now.

As for China's rapid retaliatory response to the USA's expansion of its trade blacklist, this is arguably an indication that Chinese social-imperialism sees itself as more than a match for the huff and puff of its declining imperialist rival.

Woolworths Warehouse Workers' Strike Shows Strength of United Workers

 Written by: Ned K. on 4 December 2024

 

Warehouse workers, members of United Workers Union (UWU), have been on strike since Thursday 21 November 2024.

The strike by 1500 workers across four large Woolworths Distribution Centers (3 in Victoria, 1 in NSW) is "protected industrial action" under the Fair Work Act. Workers are demanding above inflation wage increases and a safe work environment. 

21st Century Taylorism

A safe work environment means no implementation by Woolworths of an artificial intelligence "productivity framework" which records a worker's every move and demands a 100% pick rate at all times by all workers.

As one worker explained, "you wake up, you think, 'how am I feeling today? Can I go to work and can I hit 100%?"

This use of technology by Woolworths is the modern-day form of Taylorism, which was used in car factories from the early decades of the 20th Century to ensure that every minute of a worker's time on the production line contributed to an increase in the surplus value produced by each worker and the workforce as a whole.

While striking workers and their UWU Delegates have said they are prepared to negotiate further on wage outcomes in the new Agreement, Woolworth's 21st Century Taylorist "productivity framework" is just not on.

Over decades of site-by-site enterprise bargaining, Woolworths warehouse workers wages have varied from site to site. One of the demands of the 1500 striking warehouse workers is that the base rate for warehouse workers across all four distribution centers be $38 per hour. 

Over the decades since the individual site enterprise bargaining has been in place Woolworths have played the divide and conquer game to keep wages as low as possible on each site. The lower the wages, the higher the surplus value extracted from workers. 

Their "preferred" union the Shop Distributive and Allied Trades Union (SDA) has been a subservient Woolworths partner by accepting low wage outcomes while members of the more militant union with coverage of warehouse workers (UWU formerly National Union of Workers), in the large Victorian Woolworths warehouses have a history of fighting on for better outcomes.

The current enterprise bargaining situation enabled warehouse workers to take collective strike action at four distribution centers simultaneously, placing the workers in a stronger position. This has been borne out by the growing shortages of goods at Woolworths retail outlets across Victoria, NSW and ACT.

Despite the workers being in a stronger position in their class struggle against the giant retailer Woolworths, the SDA still recommended their members accept Woolworth's low wage offer and the company's "productivity framework". 

This attempt to divide the workers had no real effect as the vast majority of workers are not members of the SDA.

In the second week of the strike, Woolworths announced that they were going to open their Dandenong warehouse.

Workers picketed all three entrances and their solidarity and determination resulted in Woolworths retreating. The warehouse never opened and the bus load of scabs that Woolworths planned to drive through the gates to start working never eventuated.

Then Woolworths did the predictable thing of applying to Fair Work Commission to order that the pickets be declared illegal. The Fair Work Commission hears this application on Friday 6 December.

Support For Striking Workers Widens

The attempts by Woolworths to break the picket line only widened the support for the striking warehouse workers. The Building Industry Group of Unions (CFMEU, ETU and AMWU) pledged support in large numbers at the warehouse gates if Fair Work Commission banned UWU members from the picket line.

By this time the federal Labor Government was sticking its nose in behind the scenes and urging both Woolworths and UWU to let the Fair Work Commission find a resolution of the dispute. This is usually code for getting workers back to work before an acceptable outcome to workers is reached.

Working Class Is the Advanced Class

This strike by 1500 workers shows the power of the working class when they take collective action and keep control of their own struggles. The ruling class, on this occasion represented by Woolworths and the federal government will try and steer the struggle out of workers' hands by using other arms of the capitalist state, such as the Fair Work Commission. 

So far, the UWU through its National Secretary Tim Kennedy has stuck by the workers. Even the ACTU Secretary Sally McManus made an appearance at the NSW Woolworths warehouse where workers are involved in the strike.

The strike by the 1500 workers is a visible reminder of which class is the socially useful class in society and shows that the ruling capitalists are not needed for a society to operate. It is the working class that produces and distributes the goods and services in society.

Lenin once commented that workers learn more by their own collective actions about their power as a class for themselves than a thousand speeches or leaflets.

As objective conditions for workers deteriorate further under capitalism in Australia, and more workers inevitably take collection actions, more will question the nature of the society they live in and recognize that there is an alternative - an independent, socialist Australia where the likes of Woolworths owners no longer exist as a class.

The strange case of the replacement for the JP9102 satellite system: who made that decision?

 Written by: (Contributed) on 4 December 2024

 

(Source: www.news.satnews.com)

Those observing the unfolding drama of the replacement for the Australian Defence Force JP9102 satellite system, which was cancelled by Canberra during early November, may have noticed the seemingly contradictory nature of official statements and explanations from government departments.

Serious questions would appear to have arisen about decision-making at the highest levels in Canberra; accuracy and authenticity of media releases remain a matter in question. That is, if the actors in senior positions in Canberra want to be regarded as straightforward and taken at face value.

Satellite systems are invariably about defence and security provision and intelligence-gathering; secrecy surrounding their very existence is inevitable. The stated range of the JP9102 satellite system, nevertheless, revealed areas of interest for Australian-based facilities, operating under US tutelage. With a range from US intelligence facilities on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to the Solomon Islands, and the Artic to Antarctica, the JP9102 was designed to be the pride and joy of the ADF. (1) It was noted that the JP9102 satellite system had been designed to provide 'an uncrackable data network across the ADF, providing communications and data links for its advanced fighter jets, naval assets and the army's land forces'. (2)

With the US pushing their Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) to contain and encircle China it is perhaps no surprise to find the Solomon Islands was geo-strategic point of interest for the JP9102 satellite system; Cold War military hawks based in Canberra have already assessed the past and present government along lines of 'the trenchantly pro-CCP clique in Honiara surrounding Solomons leader Jeremiah Manele and his predecessor as prime minister, Manasseh Sogavara, China's main man who, as Finance Minister, holds the purse strings'. (3)

US-led Cold War hawks are particularly concerned at the Solomon Islands establishing a security agreement with China 'that allows Chinese forces into the Pacific nation in exchange for significant investment from Beijing'. (4) Assessments from Cold War military intelligence are, therefore, not ambiguous; it has been noted, for example, that 'the US recognises China's attempts to expand its network of dependent vassal states into a quasi-military security pact designed to foil US-led alliances and existing multi-lateral security frameworks'. (5) The US fear, furthermore, that the Solomon Islands will be drawn closer to the 'Dark Quad', composed of Russia, Iran and North Korea through closer diplomatic relations with China, which may also eventually include Venezuela. (6)
 
While the proposed JP9102 satellite system was subsequently cancelled in early November, following five years of military planning, its replacement was shot into space within days.

No doubt the residents of the Solomon Islands now await increased surveillance of their everyday lives, with vast amounts of personal data being used by US and Australian intelligence analysts to profile the whole population to identify supposed 'Chinese interests'.

With the minimum of publicity, SpaceX sent an Optus satellite system into orbit using Falcon 9 rockets; described as 'a secretive military communications satellite … headed into geostationary orbit some 36,000 kms above earth … with a payload that has been shrouded in secrecy to the point of not disclosing any specifics of the mission'. (7)

The event was hardly accompanied by straightforward media releases; in fact, they appeared confused and downright misleading. Or was that the intention?

Following the cancellation of the initial JP9102 system a brief statement from Canberra concluded 'there was no word on when the alternative system would be delivered or how much it would cost … it claimed … the ADF would continue with its current satellite system, which involves purchasing bandwidth from the US military and a commercial provider'. (8)

Even the best made secrets, however, can be difficult to keep under wraps, particularly when the label JP9102 proved to be the name of the project, not the actual satellite system.

An official media release noted, for example, 'Defence confirmed that it will use the Optus-X satellite launched by SpaceX on Monday morning Australian time … and … it will complement our future multi-orbit satellite capabilities to be delivered under project JP9102'. (9) The stated satellite co-ordinates presumably remain the same, across at least 89 ADF military facilities and various ground stations; its geo-stationary orbit, furthermore, are stated as 87.75 degrees. (10)

Publicity surrounding the cancellation of the JP9102 satellite system, nevertheless, proved particularly interesting, following lines highly critical of the federal government from opposition figures only too pleased to push the US Cold War political and military line. They noted 'the looming cancellation is yet another blow to the government's plans to re-arm the ADF to prepare for a potential war with China'. (11) And, the decision is 'a seriously blow to Australia's credibility with the US and other strategic partners'. (12) Another stated 'Labor scrapping the satellites takes sovereign risk to a new level. It will also undermine Australia's defence credibility, just as the US and Britain were relying on Australia to boost Indo-Pacific surveillance'. (13)

Nothing, however, would appear further from the truth!

What has not been so well acknowledged, for example, is that the Pentagon got exactly what they wanted from the new JP9102 replacement satellite system: complete control and inter-operability between the Pentagon and Australia:

                                         We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     Satellites out: defence $7bn hit, Australian, 4 November 2024.
2.     Ibid.
3.     Beijing's Solomons strategy has outflanked Canberra, Lead Editorial, Australian, 12 November 2024.
4.     Pacific leader's rejection queried, Australian, 12 November 2024.
5.     'Dark Quad' threat demands urgent action, Defence Report Supplement, Australian, 31 October 2024.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Secrecy over Musk launch for ADF., Australian, 20 November 2024.
8.     Diggers get $40,000 to hang about, Australian, 5 November 2024.
9.     Defence to use 'Optus-X satellite launched earlier this week, itnews, 20 November 2024.
10    Australian, op.cit., 4 November 2024; and, SpaceX launches secretive 'OptusX' spacecraft, Space Connect, 18 November 2024.
11.   Australian, ibid., 4 November 2024.
12.   Ibid.
13.   Satellite cancellation shows Labor's priorities are wrong, Lead Editorial, Australian, 5 November 2024.