Category Archives: Anti-Imperialism

Support Iran against the U.S. and Australian Imperialist Rulers and Their Israeli Attack Dogs!

Photo Above: Huge crowds rally in Iran’s capital, Tehran on 20 June 2025 to oppose Israeli attacks
Photo: Xinhua

20 June 2025 – Israel is one week into its massive military attack on Iran. While continuing to murder and starve to death the Palestinian people in Gaza and unleash terror against the Palestinian people of the West Bank, the Israeli military is now raining death upon the people of Iran. With the support of her allies in Yemen, Iran is bravely fighting back. She and her Ansar Allah (commonly referred to in the West as Houthi) allies have launched 100% justified drone and missile strikes on Israel. But they are facing extremely difficult odds because Israeli forces are receiving huge support from the U.S. imperialists and their Australian and other allies. U.S. president, Donald Trump, has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and threatened to unleash direct U.S. strikes against Iran. However, even now, the U.S. is greatly assisting the Israeli attack. U.S. officials have admitted that the U.S. military is shooting down Iranian retaliatory missile strikes. A U.S. official also stated that the U.S. provided “exquisite” intelligence to Israel to enable its attack on Iran. Moreover, in the days before Israel’s assault, the U.S. quietly delivered to the Israeli military hundreds of Hellfire laser-guided air-to-ground missiles that have been crucial to the attacks. Additionally, the U.S. helped modify the F-35 stealth fighters that it had earlier provided Israel so that they would be able to reach Iran without the need for mid-air refuelling on the way.

This is a war between, on the one hand, the U.S., Australian and other Western imperialists and their Israeli attack dog and, on the other, Iran, a country that while under capitalist rule is resisting the imperialist bullies that economically oppress her and aim for her total subjugation. In such a war, we must stand with the trodden-on country fighting to maintain its independence from imperialism – we must stand for the defence of Iran! The Israeli-Western imperialist attack on Iran – the country that alongside Yemen’s Ansar Allah government has been supporting the Palestinian resistance – is part of their broader war against the people of Gaza. Standing with the Palestinian people means standing with Iran against the Zionist butchers and all the imperialist ruling classes behind them.

Our resolute support for Iran against Israel and its imperialist masters does not mean that we approve of the Iranian government. Far from it! Iran is ruled by a capitalist exploiting class whose domination of society is enforced by an anti-secular regime that subjugates women and brutally persecutes leftists. However, the imperialist Western powers and their genocidal Israeli attack dog are much greater enemies of the working class masses of the world, the peoples of the Global South and the toiling classes of Iran. The final and most ruthless stage of capitalism, imperialism, involves the ruling classes of a handful of richer capitalist countries – principally the U.S., Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Australia, Italy, Canada and Spain – exploiting and robbing the masses of the poorer capitalist countries at an even more extreme rate than that with which they exploit workers in their own countries. Imperialist regimes enforce this plunder by unleashing against those who defy them a combination of military attacks and starvation economic sanctions. They also fund and train the military and political activist campaigns of various proxy movements in these countries. In the 21st century, such Western imperialist operations within the Middle East, North Africa and West Asia alone have killed millions and millions of people. This includes through the U.S./British/Australian invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, NATO’s 2011 regime change attack and subsequent meddling in oil-rich Libya, the Western powers’ successful proxy war against the former, more independent, Syrian government, their proxy war against Yemen, their support for their Israeli attack dog’s genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people and their murderous sanctions on Iraq and then Iran. They have caused even more suffering by the poverty, division and corruption that they have created through their plundering and associated neo-colonial interference operations. Assisted by their two direct military interventions that sought to beat into shape a pliant regime in that country, Australia’s capitalist rulers have plundered tens of billions of dollars from neighbouring East Timor’s rich oil and gas resources resulting in that country having the fifth highest rate of child undernourishment in the world (and the highest in Asia next to war-ravaged Yemen). Put another way, Australia’s exploiting class have killed thousands upon thousands of East Timorese infants over the last two and a half decades by causing them to starve to death.

If the Israeli regime and their U.S. masters succeed in severely weakening Iran – the more so if they achieve their more ambitious goal of precipitating a pro-Western regime change there – then it would embolden the imperialists to intensify their oppression of other Global South countries and more aggressively attack others who defy them. On the other hand, every blow that Iran can land against Israel and their imperialist backers can only encourage the masses in the countries oppressed by imperialism to rise up against neo-colonial tyranny. Moreover, any setback or embarrassment that the imperialist Western rulers and their Israeli attack dog suffer in their campaign against Iran will open up greater opportunities for the working class, dispossessed First Peoples and embattled racial minorities within the Western countries to resist their own oppression. That is why it is in the very interests of the working class, Aboriginal people, Asian, Middle Eastern and African-based minorities and all the other oppressed of this country to stand 100% with Iran in this conflict.

Israel’s largest oil refinery burns after the complex in Haifa was struck by a precise and powerful Iranian missile strike on 15 June 2025.
Photo: The Gaza/Facebook page

As the guiding hand behind Israel, the U.S. regime is unashamedly cheering on the Israeli assault. For their part, Australia’s imperialist rulers, like their counterparts ruling Western Europe, Japan and Canada, are also publicly backing Israel. Although they speak of “de-escalation”, they have made it clear that such “de-escalation” must be entirely on Israel’s and the Western powers’ terms. Thus acting prime minister, Richard Marles stressed that “we specifically call on Iran to exercise restraint in their actions so as not to risk any broader conflict.” In other words the Australian government want Iran to simply cop the Israeli aggression and not hit back! Moreover, both extreme war-monger Marles and foreign minister Penny Wong have sided with the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran by speaking of “Israel’s right to defend itself”. They have also sought to legitimise Israel’s aggression by labelling Iran’s efforts to build a ballistic missile (and allegedly in the future a nuclear) deterrent “a threat to international peace and security.” As if the possession of nuclear weapons by the maniacal Zionist regime that is conducting a genocide of the people of Gaza is not the actual, real “threat to international peace and security”! Or that the possession of a huge nuclear arsenal by the Australian imperialists’ U.S. senior partner, which is not only the only regime to have ever dropped nuclear bombs on humans before but has directly killed up to ten million people in countless military attacks ever since – is not an even more terrifying “threat to international peace and security”! It is only because the Albanese Labor government and its counterparts ruling Western Europe, Japan and Canada are worried that Israel’s brazen attack on Iran will provoke such resistance and anti-Western sentiment that it will “destabilise” Western imperialist domination of the world that they speak of the need to “prioritise dialogue and diplomacy”.

The Australian ruling class’ verbal support for Israel’s aggression is exceeded by their military, economic and ideological support. With the backing of all the parties currently in parliament – from the far-right parties, to the Liberals, to the ALP to the Greens – Australian governments have imposed a myriad of sanctions on Iran over the years. These prevented her from acquiring the weapons that she so badly needs to defend herself today. The Australia regime’s sanctions, which include a prohibition of the export to Iran of “certain kinds of graphite, raw metals, semi-finished metals, and software for integrating industrial processes”, have also hurt Iran’s economy, thus making her less able to resist U.S./Israeli aggression. These punitive measures and the hype around them have helped manufacture the ideological “justification” for today’s full-scale assault on Iran. Just last October, the Labor government added further sanctions on Iran.

Australia’s capitalist ruling class is aiding the U.S./Israeli assault in still more direct ways. The joint U.S./Australia Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs downloads information from two U.S. spy satellites. This base has been transmitting the spy data to Israel to pinpoint its air, missile and artillery strikes on Gaza – thus ensuring that the strikes kill people rather than fall in empty space. Given that U.S. officials have boasted that they have given Israel “exquisite” intelligence to enable its attack on Iran, there is little doubt that the Australia-hosted Pine Gap base is also being used to aid the U.S./Israeli assault on Iran. The Australian regime has also participated heavily in attacks against the Yemeni Ansar Allah allies of the Palestinian and Iranian peoples. Several Australian troops are stationed in the Middle East assisting the U.S.-led operation against Yemen. Meanwhile, an Australian air base in the Northern Territory has been used by aircraft providing air-to-air refuelling of U.S. B2 stealth bombers on their way to bomb Yemen. Just as consequentially, the Australian regime has listed Hamas, Hezbollah and Ansar Allah as “terrorist” organisations. That means that people in this country are unable to make the donations that these groups require to buy the weapons that they so desperately need to wage their resistance against the Zionist terror machine. Additionally, Australian companies sell weapons and supplies to the Israeli military.

What we must do is build workers’ political strikes to oppose each of the methods by which the Australian ruling class is backing the U.S./Israeli war on Iran and Gaza. To lay the basis for such struggles, we need to win over to the cause the most politically advanced and respected worker activists; and then invigorate their commitment to this fight by involving them in rallies calling for support for both Iran and Palestine. To help build such demonstrations, we call on our readers to raise placards at the mass pro-Palestine rallies that emphasise the need to combine defence of Palestine with defence of Iran. Let us also raise slogans demanding: Lift all sanctions on Iran! Close Pine Gap! Australian military get out of the operation attacking the Yemeni allies of Iran and Gaza – troops out of the Middle East! No air-to-air refuelling from Australian bases of U.S. bombers attacking Yemen! Remove Ansar Allah, Hamas and Hezbollah from the “terror” listing! Stop Australian arms sales to Israel!

What has greatly assisted the U.S./Israeli assault on Iran is the takeover of Israel’s neighbour, Syria, last December by far-right-dominated, pro-imperialist “Rebels”. The former Ba’ath Party government led by Bashar al-Assad, although presiding over a state that served the interests of a section of the capitalist class and Syria’s privileged military and state bureaucracy, had tried to maintain independence from the imperialist Western powers. The Ba’athist government facilitated the flow of arms to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, was allied with Iran and Russia and maintained a close friendship with socialistic China. Although the Assad government’s concrete support to the Palestinian struggle did not reach the levels of its strongly pro-Palestine rhetoric, it nevertheless hosted the bases of several Palestinian resistance groups and refused to maintain any relations with Israel. By contrast, the new imperialist-subservient Syrian regime has proclaimed its wish for friendly ties with Israel and has begun talks with Israel aimed at normalising relations. Most significantly, the new regime has driven out Palestinian resistance groups from the training bases that the former government had allowed. This includes driving out Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second strongest resistance group, from their base in Syria and arresting two of their leaders. The new regime is also impeding the flow of weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Thus the new Syrian regime led by “former” Al-Qaeda in Syria leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani (who now calls himself Ahmed al-Sharaa) has not only harmed Palestinian resistance forces but is helping Israel to protect its northern, Lebanese, flank. In all these ways, combined with the confidence that Netanyahu can now have that Israel’s Syrian neighbour will not take action against it in solidarity with Iran, last December’s takeover of Syria by the pro-Western “Rebels” greatly emboldened the Israeli government to attack Iran and intensify its genocidal onslaught against Gaza.

These “Rebels” were only able to triumph because of the massive support that they received from the U.S., British, French, German, Australian and other Western imperialists and their Turkish, Israeli, Qatari, Saudi, Jordanian and Emirati regional allies. These countries imposed such severe economic sanctions on Syria when it was ruled by the previous, more independent, government that it ended up squeezing the previous government and grinding down the Syrian people’s will to resist the imperialist proxy forces. The imperialist powers and their regional allies also poured huge amounts of arms, training, intelligence, supplies and money to their “Rebel” proxies. At crucial times, including through direct U.S. and Turkish participation in their “Rebels” final offensive, the meddling powers also backed their Syrian proxies with direct military action. The regime that the imperialists installed, which is dominated by Al Qaeda-derived anti-secular fanatics, has begun to implement its long-promised, extreme “free market” agenda. It is carrying out a Donald Trump-Elon Musk-style mass firing of public sector workers and has vowed to “open up” Syria to domination by Western capital and that of the imperialists’ Turkish, Saudi and Qatari regional allies. Most notably, the new regime is massacring Syria’s minorities, imposing mandatory dress codes on women and otherwise crushing women’s rights. However, opponents of the new Syrian regime’s slaughter of minorities and subservience to imperialism and Zionism have launched an armed resistance. All supporters of Palestine and all opponents of the U.S./Israeli assault on Iran must support this insurgency and any opposition to the new regime’s attacks on workers and women. Weakening of the pro-imperialist, new regime will allow Palestinian resistance forces an opportunity to establish underground bases in Syria and will enable arms to get through to Iran and Gaza’s Hezbollah allies. We must demand that the Australian regime ends its training and technology cooperation with the Turkish military , which both through direct occupation of northern Syria and arming of the Syrian regime keeps the pro-imperialist Syrian regime in power.

Holding the world’s third largest oil reserves, imperialist powers have long sought to ensure that a puppet regime rules Iran. When Iran’s then Mosaddegh government moved to nationalise Iran’s oil wealth that was being plundered by the British predecessor to BP, the British and U.S. regimes engineered a coup to overthrow this government in 1953. Although Iran’s current theocratic government oversees the capitalist exploitation of Iranian workers, it does not allow Iran’s resource wealth to be sufficiently plundered by the imperialists for the latter to tolerate it. Moreover, the imperialists’ agenda extends beyond grabbing Iran’s resource wealth. Through either bringing to power a subservient regime in Iran, or at minimum greatly weakening her, the U.S. seeks to ensure its stranglehold over the oil wealth of the entire Middle East. It also seeks the domination of a region that is strategically located at the intersection point of the world’s three most populous continents. After the overthrow of the former Syrian government, Iran – other than for brave but tiny and war-ravaged Yemen – is the last remaining Middle Eastern country that maintains political independence from the Western powers. This and Iran’s efforts to protect her independence by backing imperialism-resisting forces in the region is not acceptable to the U.S. ruling class and its Zionist henchmen.

Australia’s capitalist class does not have significant economic interests in the Middle East. However, it is siding with the Israeli-US forces against Iran not out of subservience to the U.S. but out of its own predatory interests elsewhere in the world. Australia’s capitalist bigwigs are the main neo-colonial plunderers of the South Pacific and also engage in imperialist exploitation in neighbouring southeast Asia and beyond. However, they need the U.S. as the great power guarantor of this imperialist looting and thus want U.S. power to be protected – including in the Middle East. Moreover, there is a particular aim of the Western imperialist campaign against Iran that the Australian rulers are particularly sympathetic to. To understand this we need to note that Iran is the last remaining country in the region – other than Yemen – that is significantly closer to socialistic China than it is to the imperialist Western powers. For the imperial powers this is a big problem given both Iran’s oil wealth and the fact that she is the second most populous country in the strategic Middle East after Egypt. In seeking to greatly weaken Iran, the U.S. and its allies are simultaneously striking a blow against Red China. Ideally, they would install a subservient regime in Iran that would allow them to establish military bases targeting China near her southwestern flank.

Although Australia’s capitalists gain fat profits from their exports to China’s still-booming economy, they want socialistic rule in China crushed as much as their fellow imperialist counterparts do – and for identical reasons too. The mutually beneficial cooperation between China’s giant, socialistic state-owned enterprises and countries in the Global South is undermining the ability of the imperialist ruling classes to continue to super-exploit those countries. Already, China’s economic cooperation with countries in the South Pacific and beyond is causing Australian corporations to lose profits in the region – and they not happy about it! Even more significantly, the capitalist powers are terrified that especially given the disgruntlement amongst their own people, if average incomes in China were to continue to catch up with those of the richest countries and reach those levels in say two or three decades time, then the masses in their own countries will be demanding socialism too. Therefore, even though China’s cautious, national-centred rulers do nothing to consciously encourage the struggle for socialism abroad, the stunning successes of socialistic China in improving the lives of her people is a ticking time bomb that threatens to blow up capitalist rule worldwide if it is not first defused or contained. And the imperialist rulers are only too aware of this threat! That is why they are doing everything possible – from overt military pressure on China in the South China Sea and elsewhere to propaganda campaigns to backing of anti-communist groups within China to anti-China economic measures to targeting China-friendly countries for regime change – to undermine socialistic rule in China.

Most of the U.S. ruling class backs the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in large part because they know that victory over Iran would advance their campaign to crush socialistic China. However, some of the MAGA far-right factions are less enthusiastic about U.S. involvement in this war because they believe that the U.S. should not be distracted by wars unless they are directly aimed against Red China or Cuba or other workers states. Sharing some of the Far Right’s logic, sections of the Australian ruling class, while still backing the war on Iran, are quietly concerned that the U.S. is getting distracted from what they want their mafia godfather to be solely focussed on: squeezing socialistic China – or as they like to euphemistically put it “maintaining American engagement and leadership in the Pacific”. However, although there are differences in strategy, all the different ruling class factions of the various imperialist countries want the destruction of socialistic rule in China. But for the very same reasons that their own rulers are hostile to socialistic China, the working classes of Australia and the other imperialist countries must stand for the unconditional defence of the Chinese workers state. Despite the fragile, deformed and incomplete nature of China’s transition to socialism, the existence of a workers state in the world’s second most populous country is a great conquest for the worldwide struggle against capitalism and imperialism. We must mobilise in action here to demand: U.S./Australia military get out of the South China Sea! Resist Australia’s rapid, anti-China military build up! No to anti-China tariffs and export bans! No to restrictions on Chinese Apps and Chinese companies! Down with the lying propaganda attacks on China over Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and treatment of Uyghurs!

Any regime change in Iran brought about by the imperialist-Israeli attack would not only be bad for the whole world, it would be a disaster for the Iranian masses. The resulting regime would be a subservient one that would facilitate the theft of a large part of Iran’s resource wealth by her new imperial masters. And as the last imperialist-facilitated regime change in the Middle East proves – the one in Syria – it would hardly spell good news for Iran’s women and minorities either! Indeed, in order to enforce the impoverishment of the country’s toiling classes by the imperialist looters, a new pro-Western regime would need to incite all manner of social reaction. In particular, it would need to divert the masses’ frustrations by whipping up extreme ethnic chauvinism against Iran’s various smaller communities.

On the other hand, a victory for Iran in this conflict would boost the morale of Iran’s toiling classes. They would say to themselves: now that we have defeated the imperialist tyrants let us make short work of our local oppressors too. A victory for Iran over the imperialists and their Israeli attack dog could thus open the door to the type of regime change that the Iranian masses actually need: the triumph of the working class on a militantly anti-imperialist agenda. That is why genuine leftists in Iran must work hard to support Iran’s defence. At the same time they must agitate for measures that would, while strengthening Iran’s war effort, advance the struggle towards a socialist system. For example, they should advocate for expropriating the capitalists in key sectors to strengthen the operation and coordination of the war economy. Iranian leftists should also use the political space that they will be able to carve out through being part of the anti-imperialist forces to advance the struggle towards an anti-imperialist, pro-working class, pro-women’s rights transformation of Iran. For example, they could hold rallies under the banner of “pro-working class secularists for the defence of Iran against imperialism and its Zionist henchmen”; and include in the demonstrations the active participation of women defying the theocratic government’s dress code. Given the needs of the war effort and the masses’ determination to defeat the imperialist-Israeli attack, the government would find it very hard to get away with cracking down on such mobilisations. Genuine Iranian leftists should also form anti-imperialist defence guards to mercilessly crush any groups or individuals who engage in agitation supporting the imperialist-Israeli attackers, or who otherwise obstruct Iran’s war effort. In this way, they will not only contribute to the defence of Iran and win the hearts of the anti-imperialist minded masses but will be able to start to establish organs of workers-leftist power.

In short, Iran’s leftists must prove themselves to be the most resolute and determined defenders of Iran against the U.S.-Israeli attack. However, they should do so in a way that simultaneously advances towards the goal of a working class takeover of Iran. The latter struggle cannot be postponed, because unless the masses know that they are fighting for a future that’s more than simply the maintenance of the current oppressive, capitalist order, sizable parts of the Iranian masses will not fight with the energy and courage needed to defeat their imperialist attackers. This was proven last December in Syria. There, although the toiling masses had bravely resisted the imperialist proxies for years and although they largely continued to fear what a pro-imperialist victory would bring, they did not end up fighting to the bitter end, because they did not feel that they were fighting for their own social liberation as well. In the face of the overwhelming power of the imperialist Western powers and their heavily armed Israeli attack dog, the Iranian masses can only triumph by fighting with the greatest of heroism and courage. That is why the Iranian masses need to know that while fighting for their national independence against imperialism and its proxies, they are also simultaneously advancing towards their own class liberation and the associated liberation of women. It is this perspective that made the Vietnamese toilers fight with the most incredible heroism to triumph in the Vietnam War against U.S. and Australian imperialism, despite facing odds far more unfavourable than what Iran faces today.

The cover for Israel’s attack was provided by the Western-dominated UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The day before Israel launched its strikes, the IAEA “found” that Iran was non-compliant with the “obligations” that the capitalist powers had imposed on her to declare her nuclear fuel stocks and uranium enrichment activities. These “obligations” were imposed on Iran with the stated aim of preventing her from acquiring nuclear weapons. Thus under the cover of “disarmament” and “opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons”, Israel and the imperialists are committing mass murder against the people of Iran. This shows how the slogan of “disarmament” can be twisted to serve any agenda. It should therefore never be used by leftists as a general non-specific demand. This is what Russian revolutionary leader, V.I. Lenin, emphatically insisted in his crucial work written during the height of World War I, The Disarmament Slogan. In sharp contrast to general appeals for “disarmament”, we say: Disarm the imperialists and arm those resisting them!

In truth, it is likely that Iran remains some distance away from acquiring nuclear weapons. Moreover, her rulers insist that they do not seek nuclear weapons. However, for us, whether they do or not is not the point. As a country in the Global South targeted by the imperialists, Iran has a right to develop nuclear weapons. Indeed, if she already had a strong nuclear deterrence capability, the U.S. and Israel would have been much less willing to attack her. Given that unfortunately Iran does not have nuclear weapons, she needs all the conventional weapons that she can get. In particular we appeal to China, which has verbally condemned the attack on Iran, to do its socialist duty and send Iran the most potent weaponry available – including China’s advanced J-20 stealth fighter aircraft, surface to air missiles and other anti-aircraft warfare systems and ballistic missiles. Given that the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran is in good part ultimately aimed against China, this would be an act of self-defence for the Chinese workers state. China’s masses must press their leaders to abandon their futile dreams that the capitalist powers will “peacefully co-exist” with socialistic China. They must demand that their leaders instead do everything possible to resist the imperialists before they are emboldened enough to directly attack China.

The most powerful force for resisting the imperialist-Israeli onslaught against Iran are the exploited and oppressed masses of the world – including the working classes and oppressed minorities within the imperialist countries. The inspiring resistance in Los Angeles of the most militant elements opposing Trump’s deportations of undocumented workers and their efforts to form self-defence patrols obstructing the immigration cop raids gives a taste of the power of the working class and downtrodden peoples in the bellies of the imperialist beasts. Here in Australia, we must combine opposition to the exploiting class attacks on renters, workers’ real wages, the militant CFMEU workers union, and on Aboriginal people and other people of colour with opposition to this self-same ruling class support for Israel’s war on Gaza and Iran. Let’s leverage the disgruntlement of wide sections of the masses over unaffordable rents, steep power prices, lack of secure jobs, falling real wages, racist state killings of Aboriginal people in custody and racist scapegoating of non-white migrants and international students!

While the Australian regime assists Israel’s wars on Gaza and Iran and the Labor government and Liberal opposition make clear that they side with the U.S. and Israel, the Greens rightly “condemn these latest Israeli attacks on Iran”. However, the Greens have contributed to laying the political groundwork for this attack by repeatedly calling over the years for Australia and other Western imperialist regimes to take action against the Iranian state to bring “human rights”. But whether military, economic or political, any intervention by imperialist ruling classes in any country of the Global South is always driven by their predatory goals. Such actions can never serve the interests of the masses of those countries. Instead, whether military, economic or political, such actions always do harm. Yet, two and a half years ago, the Greens  went so far as to criticise the Australian government for not taking enough action against Iran. They demanded that the Australian imperialist regime impose new sanctions on Iran and declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a “terrorist organisation”. A year later, at a parliamentary committee, Greens senator David Shoebridge attacked the Australian Federal Police (from the far right!) for not making enough “foreign interference” arrests of people who make spirited social media comments criticising opponents of Iran and China!! The truth is that, although the Greens do not agree with the current war on Iran, Netanyahu and Trump have merely taken the agenda that they share with the Greens, for Western action to “express to the Iranian regime that they, and countries like them, will face consequences from the international community”, to the military level. By having been the most extreme advocate of Australian sanctions on Iran, the Greens have helped weaken Iran and make her less able to withstand today’s U.S.-Israeli attack.

Like the Greens, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity and Socialist Alternative have rightly opposed the Israeli aggression against Iran and opposed the role of Pine Gap in facilitating the attacks. Yet, while making powerful criticisms of the U.S.-Israeli aggression, none of these groups made a clear call to actually, as we do, take the side of Iran in her resistance against the Israeli-U.S. attack. Moreover, the Solidarity and Socialist Alternative groups backed the takeover of Syria by pro-imperialist “Rebels” that has done so much to enable the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Their position was a capitulation to the stance of the ALP and especially the Greens, who were the most rabid supporters in the Australian parliament of the pro-imperialist and fanatically misogynist “Rebels”. Furthermore, bending again to the Greens and its years of fervent campaigning for Australian sanctions on Iran, Solidarity, Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative have thus far failed to call for a lifting of the Australian sanctions on Iran since the start of the war on her. Nor have their statements on the war demanded that the Australian military get out of the operation attacking the Yemeni allies of Iran and Gaza, or called for the lifting of the Australian regime’s “terror” listing of the Hamas, Hezbollah and Ansar Allah groups that stand with Iran and Gaza. Taking such stances are well within the scope of these left groups’ programs. That they have nevertheless chosen not to emphasise these crucially relevant demands when Iran is being attacked is an accommodation to the Greens and the ACTU leaders who both refuse to make these demands.

We call on sincere leftists to break free from the influence of the Greens and other representatives of the “progressive” wing of Australian imperialism so that we can together build actions opposing every single one of the ways that the Australian ruling class is participating in the U.S.-Israeli wars on Iran and Palestine. Let us build mobilisations demanding: Lift all Australian sanctions against Iran! Close Pine Gap! Australian military get out of the operation attacking the Yemeni allies of Iran and Gaza! Remove Ansar Allah, Hamas and Hezbollah from the “terror” listing!

Sisters and brothers: history is moving fast. Now, more than ever, is the time for opponents of imperialism, exploitation and racism to stand up and fight. The capitalists’ system is decaying and causing much suffering and disgruntlement within the imperialist countries. The response of the imperialist rulers is increased union-busting, repression and racist reaction at home and ever more violent efforts to plunder and bully the Global South. The brutal assault that the imperialist Western powers and their Israeli proxy have unleashed upon Iran today gives a small taste of what they will be prepared to unleash against socialistic China in order to preserve their tyranny over the world. We truly need to sweep away the imperialist ruling classes from power through socialist revolution. Let us advance towards this goal by working hard for the defeat of the imperialist Western powers and their Israeli attack dog and the victory of Iran and the Palestinian resistance.

Unleash Aggressive Opposition to the Australian Ruling Class That Backs Israel’s Genocidal Terror! Escalate Now!

Photo above: Up to fifteen thousand people march through the streets of Sydney on June 1 to oppose Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza.
Photo: Central News

7 June 2025 – Palestinian people are facing a calamity even more horrific than what they have suffered over the last 20 months. The Netanyahu regime is trying to kill as many of Gaza’s people as they can and then forcibly expel the rest. The far-right government had shrouded this agenda in lies that their war was just about crushing Hamas. Now, the Zionist regime is increasingly open about their goal and more directly executing their agenda. They are murdering Gaza’s people by stopping aid agencies from delivering food. Instead, they have enabled a sinister U.S. outfit to “provide” a pittance that is totally inadequate for the region but just enough to incite divisive competition for the food amongst the starving people.

Israel is only able to prosecute this genocide because of the CONTINUING support it is receiving from the imperialist Western rulers. Far-right U.S. president Trump has openly urged Netanyahu to “finish the job” and has resumed shipping Israel its terrifying 2,000-pound bombs. The U.$. ruling class has long backed their I$raeli counterparts, because they are the enforcers of the predatory interests of the U.$. capitalist class in the strategic, oil-rich Middle East. Now, Trump is being driven by an additional motivation too. He wants to drive Palestinians out of Gaza to turn it into a lucrative, real estate and tourism strip for rich Westerners. The U.S. administration is today trying to force the Palestinian resistance into a ceasefire in order to release the Israeli hostages so that Netanyahu can then “finish the job” with less domestic opposition.

Second to the U.S., it is the German imperialists that are Israel’s biggest military backers. The previous Social Democrat-Greens government in Germany, with Greens foreign minister Annalena Baerbock leading the pro-Zionist policy, poured huge amounts of weapons into the Israeli killing machine. Now the new conservative government is following suit, while trying to cover its backside with some limp criticisms of Netanyahu. Having committed one genocide themselves, the German capitalist class – and its Greens, right-wing and social democrat representatives – are now supporting another!

And who is the next largest supporter of the Israeli military? None other than the Labor government-administered regime ruling this country! Australia’s capitalist rulers back Israeli terror far more than any country with a similar population size. That means that supporters of Palestine here have a huge responsibility. We must unleash militant mass actions to oppose all the means by which the ruling class here is backing Netanyahu’s terror! Let us escalate our resistance now!

Pressured by pro-Palestine protests, some European governments have “threatened” a few miniscule “sanctions” on Israel. Their new-found willingness to criticise Israel is partly due to their heightened inter-imperialist competition with their ally-cum-rival the U.S., making them feel that they can be less supportive of Israel, which is after all Washington’s attack dog and not directly theirs. However, Au$tralia’s rulers still fully back the U.$.’s I$raeli attack dog. For they want the power of their U.S. ally to be upheld since it is U.S. might that underwrites the Australian capitalists’ imperialist plunder of countries in the South Pacific and beyond. So Albanese’s attempts to reduce damage to the regime’s image by making some mild criticisms of Israel’s crimes has been even limper than his European counterparts. Moreover, even more than these European regimes, the Australian regime has maintained its huge support for the Israeli war machine. The Australia-hosted Pine Gap spy base is still pinpointing Israeli attacks on Gaza’s people. Australian troops are still in the Middle East in an operation against Yemen’s Houthis – the most effective armed force standing with Gaza. And the regime still lists as “terrorists” the pro-Palestine resistance groups, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, thus preventing Australians from providing the donations that these groups need to procure badly needed weapons. Meanwhile, Australian defence companies sell weapons to the Israeli military. In light of all this, it was infuriating that at last Sunday’s Sydney pro-Palestine rally, the Greens speaker claimed that governments are finally moving towards a better stance. Especially when talking about the government here, that is absolute rubbish! Let us not moderate our opposition to Australia’s rulers but instead greatly intensify it! We need rallies, pickets, occupations and workers strikes to demand: Close Pine Gap! Australian troops get out of the Middle East! Lift the “terror” listing of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis! No Australian arms sales to Israel! In support of these demands, those unions that have stated solidarity with Palestine must take industrial action. Let us wage a political struggle against the pro-ALP leaders of our unions to build such action.

In addition to direct support, Western powers have boosted Zionist forces by installing a subservient regime in next-door Syria. This Al Qaeda-derived regime is not only a rabidly pro-“free-market” lackey of imperialism that is massacring minorities and crushing women’s rights, it has also driven out Palestinian resistance groups from the training bases that the former government had allowed. Most notably in Syria, the new regime drove out Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second strongest resistance group, from their base in Syria and arrested two of their leaders. The new regime has impeded the flow of weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, thus protecting Israel’s northern flank. Opponents of the new Syrian regime’s slaughter of minorities and subservience to imperialism and Zionism have launched an armed resistance. All supporters of Palestine must support this insurgency and any opposition to the new regime’s attacks on workers and women. Weakening of the pro-imperialist, new regime will allow Palestinian resistance forces an opportunity to establish underground bases in Syria and will enable arms to get through to Gaza’s Hezbollah allies. We must demand that the Australian regime ends its training and technology cooperation with the Turkish military which both through direct occupation of northern Syria and arming of the Syrian regime keeps the pro-imperialist, anti-Palestine Syrian regime in power.

Many Palestine supporters, including parts of the Palestine Action Group (PAG), hoped that the elections would usher in Australia’s “most progressive government ever”. Instead, the genocide-supporting ALP government was returned. Yet even if the Greens entered into a coalition government with Labor there would not, unfortunately, have been major change. Fearful of the capitalist class ownership of the media, the Greens refused to make Palestine an issue during their election campaign. If they capitulate to the rest of the ruling class even before taking office, imagine how much more the Greens would bend when they are part of a government! Actually, we don’t need to imagine! During Israel’s November 2012 war on Gaza, when the Australian regime was, as now, giving military support to Israeli terror, the Greens were in a de facto coalition government with Labor. Indeed, in the period when the Greens were signalling their conditions for a hoped-for coalition government with Labor, Palestine just did not figure. That is why Greens politicians kept on lying that “Labor has finally been dragged kicking and screaming into a better position on Gaza”, while adding that it “still has not done enough to stop Israel” and “failed to impose sanctions”. Those latter seeming criticisms are actually a whitewash of the fact that the Labor government is actually doing a lot – a lot to support Israel’s genocidal military that is! However, a Greens party seeking to justify collaboration with the ALP – and which is as protective of the capitalist order’s image as the ALP, the Liberals and the Far Right are – would rather not focus on the extent of the Australian regime’s criminal support for Israel. There is an additional reason why the Greens do not want to focus too much on what the government is actually doing to support Israeli terror – the Greens themselves do not oppose all the means by which the Albanese government backs Israel. The Greens have never opposed the Australian regime’s participation in the attacks on the Yemeni allies of Palestine and do not call for the lifting of the terror listing of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Although there are many decent people in the Greens, the party is incapable of being a reliable force for the liberation of the Palestinian people. For they uphold Australia’s capitalist order; and, indeed, include some capitalists and many pro-capitalist, upper middle-class elements within their ranks. And it is in the interests of Au$tralia’s own capitalist exploiting class that governments here support I$rael. What we need is a party committed to mobilising the working class masses against the entire capitalist class in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Some respond that “the masses are just interested in issues like the unaffordable cost of living”. However, not only is that natural, it is not a big problem! For working class people can be mobilised for their own immediate economic needs against the very same class that is supporting the Gaza genocide. Let us combine the fight to resist the capitalist rulers’ support for Israel’s military with the struggle against the ruling class attack on the militant CFMEU union, opposition to the pro-speculator housing policies that have led to exorbitant rents, the struggle against state killing of Aboriginal people in custody and the fight against the ruling class incitements to race hate against Chinese, other Asian, Muslim, African and Arab minorities. 

We must reorient the pro-Palestine movement to follow this agenda for weakening the genocide-supporting ruling class. The movement has many things going for it. The PAG is excellent at organisation and there were great numbers at last Sunday’s Sydney march. But at the moment, the marches are merely annoying the ruling class. To make Australia’s rulers back off from their support for Israel, we need to instead terrify them. For starters, that means PAG must stop bowing to the Greens agenda of minimising the regime’s crimes by saying it is only “not doing enough”. Instead, the marches must place Australia’s ruling class as enemies equal to their Israeli and U.S. counterparts. When tens of thousands of people are marching through Sydney chanting not just “Down Down Israel, Down Down USA” but “Down Down Israel, Down Down USA, Down Down Australian Regime”, the ruling class here will really start to rethink their continued support for Israeli terror.

The ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people is an attack on humanity itself. The fact that the U.S., Australian and other Western imperialist regimes are facilitating it shows what lengths they will go to in order to enforce their predatory interests in the future. If they need to, they will try and impose the nightmarish fascist form of capitalism on us – as they are, indeed, preparing to do in many countries – or throw us as cannon fodder into an apocalyptic war against socialistic China – the greatest state obstacle to their tyranny over the world.

We really need to sweep away the Western capitalist classes from power. Let us advance towards this goal in the course of building mass action to oppose their support for the Gaza genocide. Build political strikes, pickets and occupations to demand the closure of Pine Gap and for Australian troops to get out of the Middle East! Unite this with struggles against the ruling class attacks on militant unions, renters, Aboriginal people and other people of colour! Workers of all countries unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains and the bombs raining hellfire down upon our sisters and brothers.

How We Can Resist the Australian Regime’s Participation in Israel’s Terror

Photo above: The suffering of Gaza’s people caused by Israel’s genocidal terror. Displaced Palestinian children are seen among temporary tents next to large piles of garbage in Gaza City on March 21 2025.
Photo: Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua

14 April 2025 – The Israeli military’s cold-blooded March 23 murder of 15 Palestinian medics and emergency workers who were travelling in two convoys of clearly marked ambulances says everything about the genocidal aims of its war on Gaza’s people. Every day, the Zionist butchers commit new gruesome crimes. Yet Israel would not be able to wage its war on the Palestinian people without the massive support that it receives from the U.S., German, British and Australian regimes. It is not only in Palestine that these regimes are causing immense suffering within the Middle East region. Over the last four weeks, the Donald Trump-led U.S. regime, with the assistance of its British and Australian counterparts, has been relentlessly bombing Yemen. These forces have killed a large number of Yemeni civilians, killing at least 31 of her people, mostly women and children, in just the first day of this latest wave of attacks on March 16. This operation not only seeks to stop Yemen’s brave actions in support of the Palestinian people but also aims to crush one of the only two remaining governments in the Middle East that are not under the thumb of the Western imperialists. The other remaining relatively independent state is Iran. But Trump is now threatening war against Iran too. There had been one other relatively independent government in the region – in Syria. But that government was ousted last December by a collection of “Rebel” proxies of the U.S., British and French imperialists and their Turkish, Qatari, Israeli, Saudi and Jordanian allies. The forces that the imperialists and their allies have brought to power in Syria are dominated by Al Qaeda-derived anti-secular extremists who are fanatically determined to subjugate women. This new Syrian regime’s forces have already massacred thousands of members of Syria’s Alawi minority. They have also attacked the country’s Christian and Druze communities, constricted the rights of women and subverted the country’s previously secular education system. The regime has also begun a Trump/Elon Musk-style mass firing of Syria’s public sector workers, while stating (actually re-stating) its intention to privatise most of Syria’s state-owned enterprises. This will “open” up the Syrian economy to much greater super-exploitation by Western investors and their counterparts in the Gulf states.

What the imperialists and their proxies are doing to re-shape Syria is closely connected to their limitless support for Israel’s tyranny over Palestine. For the ruling classes of the capitalist powers support Israel precisely because the Zionists are its most reliable attack dogs in the region who enforce their hegemony over the oil-rich and strategically located Middle East. Thus, Israel played a major role in the imperialists’ operation to bring its proxies to power in Syria. The Israeli military not only relentlessly attacked the previous government’s forces with air and missile strikes, it also armed and paid the salaries of at least twelve different armed “Rebel” factions based in the south of Syria. Today, Israel is its U.S. masters’ main attack dog to try and subjugate oil-rich Iran under U.S.-led Western domination.

We need to wage a powerful struggle to resist the Australian regime’s support for Israel’s genocidal terror against the Palestinian people and to resist the hegemony of the Western imperialists and their Zionist and other junior partners over the broader Middle East. Leftists in Australia have a big role to play in this regard. For the Australian regime is a major contributor to the military operations of the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. The joint U.S./Australia satellite ground station at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, is used by the U.S. to help its own military and that of its allies to locate targets for their missile, artillery and drone strikes. Today, the Pine Gap spy base is used to direct U.S. attacks in Yemen and Iraq. Pine Gap’s target data is also passed on real time to Israel to ensure that the bombs and missiles that the Zionist military unleashes on Gaza kill Palestinian people rather than fall on open space or empty buildings. It is likely too that through U.S. membership of NATO, Pine Gap spy data is also passed on through NATO to NATO member Turkey. Meanwhile, Australia’s air bases in northern Australia have been used to host aircraft conducting air-to-air refuelling of U.S. B-2 bombers attacking Yemen. When the Joe Biden-led U.S. regime bombed Yemen last October, the Australian regime bragged about the role played by Australian air bases in the attack. In addition to the undoubted role of Australian-hosted Pine Gap, it is likely that Australian air bases are also supporting the new Trump-led U.S. administration’s even more brutal bombing campaign against Yemen. However, given local anger at Trump’s tariffs that have hit Australia among other countries, the ruling class did not consider it opportune to boast about its role in facilitating this new wave of U.S. attacks on Yemen. In any case, in a mission dubbed Operation Hydranth, the Australian military has several personnel in the Middle East directly participating in the U.S. and British led assaults on Yemen. Meanwhile, Australian companies sell military equipment and supplies to Israel and continue to seek to expand this provision of support to the genocidal Zionist military. Earlier this year, Australian defence company EOS had its advanced weapon system trialled by the Israeli military as part of a bid to win a contract to supply it with counter-drone weapons. The Australian regime for its part boosts Israel’s arms providers. In February last year, the Australian military awarded a nearly $917 million contract to Israel’s biggest arms producer, Elbit Systems – known for supplying Israeli forces with killer drones and mortars. Australia’s capitalist rulers also support the U.S.-led drive to subjugate Iran. Thus, with the support of all the parties and “independents” currently in parliament, the Australian government has hit Iran with sanctions. Sometimes, Canberra disguises these as measures against the Iranian government’s repressive and anti-women policies. But Australia’s rulers care nothing for the Iranian masses. Their real goal is to support the U.S. and Israeli drive to bring Iran to heel. This was proven last October, when the Australian government unleashed new sanctions on Iran in response to her 100% justifiable, retaliatory missile strike on Israel. 

The Left and politically advanced sections of the workers movement must mobilise in mass actions to demand: Close Pine Gap! No refuelling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian bases! Australian troops involved in the operation against Yemen: Get out of the Middle East! Lift the Australian regime’s “terror” listing of Hamas and Hezbollah! No military sales to Israel! Cancel Australian contracts to Israeli arms suppliers! Lift the sanctions on Iran! Down with the Australian regime’s attacks on pro-Palestine activists! It is possible to win sections of the Australian working class to fight for this agenda because doing so is in the very interests of the working class. When the power and authority of the capitalist rulers is strengthened, like it was when their side took over Syria, they are more able to get away at home with attacking militant unions, curbing leftist dissent, demonising Aboriginal youth and scapegoating refugees and immigrants. On the other hand, any setbacks to the Western imperialists – who the Australian ruling class are part of – in Palestine, Yemen, Iran and the broader Middle East will weaken the Australian capitalist rulers at home too and, thus, give the working class and all oppressed more possibilities to win struggles against this exploiting class.

Above: A B-2A bomber of the type used in U.S. bombing raids in Yemen. U.S. attacks on Yemen aim to crush Yemen’s actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people. They are also aimed at undermining one of the two remaining governments in the Middle East that are not politically subordinate to U.S. imperialism. The Australian imperialists have assisted the B-2 bombing attacks on Yemen by making Australia’s Northern Territory Tindal air base available for aircraft to provide air to air refueling of the B-2 bombers on route to Yemen from its base in the U.S. state of Missouri.
Below: People survey the rubble of a house hit by a March 16 U.S. attack on Saada, Yemen


Photo Above: The Aviationist
Photo Below: Naif Rahma/ REUTERS

It is important to understand why the Australian rulers are so avidly assisting U.S. intervention in the Middle East. The reason is not because they are servile to the U.S. rulers. As we are seeing with the very different stance taken by the Australian government and that of the Trump Administration over the Ukraine war, the Australian regime acts in the interests of Australia’s billionaires and other capitalist exploiters and not the American ones. Australia’s rulers want U.S. power to be defended and enhanced only because it is U.S. might that helps protect the Australian ruling class’ own imperialist plunder in what it claims as its “own backyard” – that is the southwest Pacific and southeast Asian region. So they naturally back the U.S. maintaining its hegemony over the strategic Middle East and inevitably back the U.S. rulers’ Zionist attack dogs. Like the other imperialists around the world, Australia’s ruling class is counting on the U.S. rulers to spearhead the Cold War campaign to destroy socialistic rule in China and, thus, wants the U.S. capitalist superpower to remain strong for this reason too. Therefore, when the Australian capitalist ruling class backs U.S. operations in the Middle East, they are ultimately doing so with the intention of advancing their own predatory imperialist interests.

The potential to mobilise resistance to Australian ruling class support for Israel’s genocidal onslaught and the broader Western hegemony over the Middle East is shown by the fact that hundreds of thousands of people, outraged at Western support for Israel’s genocidal crimes, have joined pro-Palestine marches in Australia over the last year and a half. But for this potential to be realised the political direction of this spirited movement must be properly oriented. To be sure, there have been strongly positive aspects to the political content of the protests. Aboriginal speakers in particular have rightly drawn the connection between Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the Australian rulers’ brutal subjugation of this country’s First Peoples. Some of the rally chants – like “Albanese You Can’t Hide – We Charge You with Genocide” – have powerfully exposed the Albanese Labor government’s complicity in Israel’s massacres of Palestinian people. However, there is another component of the movement pushing a, at bottom, very different slant. Promoted most openly by Greens politicians who address the pro-Palestine events, this stance appeals to the Australian government to “do a lot more” to support the Palestinians. Although accompanied by passionate – and in the case of speakers like federal Greens senator, Mehreen Faruqi, truly heartfelt – appeals for the government to put sanctions on Israel and condemnations of the Australian government “for doing very little” to solidarise with the Palestinian people, the effect of this “doing very little” apparent criticism of the government is to cover up the fact that the Australian regime is actually doing a lot – a lot, that is, to support Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, the futile appeals that the Greens and those Far-Left groups that tail after them make for “Australia to put sanctions on Israel” – something that will never happen while Australia remains under capitalist rule and Israel remains a crucial attack dog for Australia’s U.S. senior partner – distracts from the urgent need for mass actions to oppose the ten different means by which the Australian regime is today actively supporting Israel’s terror. To see how urgent this task is we should point out this important fact: no other regime ruling over a country with Australia’s population size or smaller does as much to support Israeli terror and U.S. hegemony over the Middle East as the Australian regime does.

In part, the Greens minimisation of the Australian regime’s crimes, even while delivering it in the tone of an angry denunciation, stems from the fact that the Greens are a capitalists-including, capitalism-accepting party that, like the ALP and the conservatives, wants to protect the image of the capitalist Australian state. So, they feel more comfortable criticising the government “for doing very little” than skewering the large amount of genocide-supporting crimes that the regime is actually committing. There is another reason that the Greens do not want to focus too much on the actual ways that the Australian regime is supporting Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinian people and the U.S. domination of the Middle East that underpins it. The Greens actually back some of these Australian government policies themselves! For example, the Greens support Australian government sanctions on Iran and have often demanded that these sanctions be escalated. Indeed, when Israel bombed Iran a year ago, the Greens refused to stand in clear solidarity with Iran but instead despicably called on the government to “condemn all sides”. Moreover, in some other cases, the Greens, while not openly supporting particular Australian government measures backing U.S. and Israeli tyranny over the Middle East, nevertheless refuse to oppose those measures. For instance, the Greens have failed to oppose the Australian regime’s participation in the U.S. and British-led operation against Yemeni supporters of Palestine. The Greens also refuse to call for the lifting of the Australian regime’s listing of Hamas and Hezbollah as “terrorists”, a ban which is very harmful because it impedes Arab and Muslim Australians and other residents of Australia from sending these anti-Israel groups badly needed funds to finance their resistance operations. Indeed, while Greens politicians are keen to appear intransigent supporters of the Palestinian people when speaking at pro-Palestine rallies, all the better to gain votes from amongst the large crowds of participants, their actual stance towards the Palestinian armed resistance is hardly supportive. Several Greens statements in parliament have despicably equated the war crimes of the coloniser state Israel with the resistance actions of the largest Palestinian armed group, Hamas. For example, last June, Greens Spokesperson for Peace and Foreign Affairs, Senator Jordon Steele-John stated: “Our nation must respond to the State of Israel’s crimes in the same way we have rightfully responded to those committed by Hamas.” He further added: “We must always remember that peace is the goal and a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis has been made so much harder to achieve through the actions of the State of Israel and Hamas.” Notably, the Greens have also been aggressively demanding that Palestinian resistance groups release the Israeli hostages that they are holding (some of whom are Israeli soldiers), a demand that has been used by the Israeli and U.S. regimes as a big part of their justification for attacking Gaza. To be sure, it would better if there were no such hostages, at least civilian ones (however the Greens ought to be more energetic in demanding that the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners being held hostage in Israeli jails in horrific conditions be released). However, in the context of bloodthirsty Netanyahu and his even more extreme coalition allies wanting the hostages released so that they can pummel Gaza still more ferociously, to publicly demand that Palestinian resistance groups release the Israeli hostages is to call for placing the people of Gaza under even greater danger of annihilation. 

A screenshot of a 13 June 2024 posting on the Greens website that asserts their stance on Palestine. Although the Greens verbally oppose Israel’s war on Gaza they disgustingly equate the actions of the biggest armed resistance group of the oppressed Palestinian people, Hamas with the genocidal crimes of the Israeli oppressor state. This equivocal position is the real stance of the Greens. However, when Greens politicians speak at large pro-Palestine rallies, they dishonestly make out that the Greens are unwavering supporters of the Palestinian people’s struggle – all the better to gain votes from the attendees.

We must wage a political struggle within the pro-Palestine movement to stop the Greens and other pro-capitalist tendencies from diverting and distracting the movement away from the key task of opposing each of the actions that the Australian ruling class takes to support the Zionist war machine and the U.S. hegemony over the Middle East that this terror machine rests on. There is another political problem that needs to be corrected in the pro-Palestine movement. Significant parts of the movement promote the notion – or otherwise mistakenly believe – that the only reason that the Australian government is supporting Israel is because it is a puppet of the U.S. and/or a puppet of Zionist lobbyists. This notion is, for starters, plain wrong. For although the U.S. rulers and the pro-Israel lobby exert a nefarious influence, what primarily drives Australian government policy on the Middle East (and everywhere else) is the strategic interests of this country’s own super-powerful, ultra-rich exploiting class. The biggest problem with this notion is that it implies that the task of the movement is merely to pull the Australian government away from the clutches of the U.S. rulers and the detestable pro-Zionist lobbyists so that the government can finally act on its own supposed, innate, caged-up, “human rights”-driven inclination to come to the defence of the besieged Palestinian people. Such a notion greatly prettifies the Australian rulers – the same ones that continue to brutally subjugate this country’s First Peoples – and undercuts the need to relentlessly oppose them. Moreover, when the Australian ruling class hear the pro-Palestine movement delivering such a message, while it will of course anger them greatly, it won’t overly terrify them. For they will actually be relieved that the movement is not opposing them as an implacable enemy and that hard-hitting chants like “Albanese You Can’t Hide – We Charge You with Genocide” do not express the overall line of the entire movement. And when we are not politically threatening to the imperialist ruling class they do not feel like they need to make any concessions to us.

As well as turning the pro-Palestine movement into one that truly seeks to damage the authority and political stability of Australia’s imperialist ruling class we, of course, need to build more forces for the movement. We also need to win those who join actions sporadically to participate a lot more consistently. The biggest obstacle to doing so are the widespread illusions that the Australian government’s policy on Palestine can be changed through changing the composition of parliament through elections. Such hopes have even been expressed by some speakers at the pro-Palestine protests. As the federal election nears, such vain hopes will intensify. As long as many of the people who are hostile to the imperialist West and Zionist terror cling on to hopes of change through the ballot box, they will feel that it is not too important for them to participate in the actions on the ground that they would otherwise be joining. However, the reality right now is that even if a few pro-Palestine candidates were to win some seats, the fact that both major parties so strongly back Israel’s war on Palestine – and even more overwhelmingly back the U.S. dominance over the Middle East that underpins Israel’s actions – means that supporters of Western/Israeli tyranny over the Middle East will have a parliamentary majority regardless of who has any parliamentary balance of power between the ALP and the Coalition. More fundamentally, as long as they remain in power, the rich Australian capitalist class, driven by its own imperialist needs and through both its control of the media, think tanks and other means of influencing mass sentiment, on the one hand, and its web of influence over state institutions on the other will compel any parliament to support U.S. domination of the Middle East and the Zionist marauding that flows from this. Even in the hypothetical case that anti-imperialists truly committed to the liberation of Palestine were allowed to be elected to a parliamentary majority, the propaganda machine of the capitalist class and the capitalist state’s enforcement organs would sabotage implementation of any anti-imperialist policies; and topple the government in a coup should it persist in trying to implement them. Therefore, the only effective means from here to resist Zionist tyranny and imperialist domination of the Middle East is to build mass actions, linked to the power of the workers movement (including through strikes, pickets, occupations and marches), in opposition to each of the means through which the Australian capitalist regime is backing U.S. and Israeli forces in the Middle East. We must put all our effort into building such actions and knocking down all the political obstacles standing in the way of such mobilisations.

This does not mean that how people vote is unimportant. If a party stands genuinely opposed to imperialism and the capitalist system that imperialism is an extension of then supporting that party can help galvanise mass opposition to – and thus actions against – Australian capitalist rule and its support for U.S. and Israeli tyranny in the Middle East. But where is there such a party running in the elections? We have seen so clearly through the Albanese government that the ALP leaders are enemies of the Palestinian people, supporters of the imperialist takeover of Syria and vicious attackers of militant unions like the CFMEU. The ALP supports pro-speculator, pro-rich investor housing policies that drive low-income renters into poverty, all while engaging in the racism-inciting scapegoating of migrants, refugees and international students for the unaffordable rents and dwelling prices. The right-wing Liberal/National Coalition is all of this but in an even more shameless and extreme manner. Most rabidly hostile to the Palestinian people, Aboriginal people, other people of colour and our workers unions are the far right parties like One Nation and greedy billionaire Clive Palmer’s, Donald Trump-loving, Trumpet of Patriots party.

In contrast, the Greens not only oppose Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, they also condemn racist attacks on Muslims in Australia. Moreover, the Greens do promise more low-rent public housing than Labor do and have opposed the extreme character of the attack on the CFMEU (even though the Greens joined the rest of the parliamentary parties in calling for what is necessarily union-weakening, state intervention in the CFMEU). Thus, with the ALP so blatantly knifing the back of its working class base (yet again!), many former Labor supporters from militant unionists, to low-income renters, to progressive-minded youth to opponents of Israel’s Gaza genocide are now intending to vote for the Greens. However, it is telling that while the Greens have said that they will demand support for a big increase in environmental spending as a condition for supporting an ALP minority government, they have not stated that they will only back a Labor minority government if it stops its support for Israel’s terror and the U.S. hegemony over the Middle East that underpins it. Instead, in preparation for joining a potential coalition – or de facto coalition – government with Labor, the Greens have disgustingly begun whitewashing the Albanese government’s support for Israel’s genocidal terror by saying that Labor has now “finally shifted towards the Greens position”. Really? If true, that says a lot about the Greens’ actual position (as opposed to what Greens politicians tell us when they speak at pro-Palestine rallies)! Indeed, the Greens’ acquiescence to a Labor minority government’s support for Israeli terror is par for the course for them. During Israel’s November 2012 war on Gaza, when the Australian regime was, as now, giving military support to Israeli terror, the Greens remained in a de facto coalition government with Labor.

Not only is the Greens’ support for Palestine partial as we have detailed above, on almost every single other major international issue they side with the imperialist Western powers. For example, the Greens fully backed the imperialist proxies that have now seized Syria. Indeed, of all the parliamentary parties in Australia, the Greens were the most rabid in backing these misogynist, anti-secular fanatics. They often attacked the Australian government for not being belligerent enough in supporting these pro-imperialist forces and Greens politicians even spoke at the rallies held in Australia in support of these “Rebels” before they seized power. Moreover, while the Greens nominally oppose U.S.-led military action against Iran, they support all of the Western imperialists’ political attacks on Iran used to build up towards such a military onslaught. Thus, the Greens not only push for ever more Australian sanctions on Iran but, in August 2023, Greens federal senator David Shoebridge even joined hardline anti-communist and fanatically pro-Israel Liberal politician James Paterson – the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs – in hysterically demanding that the Australian Federal Police arrest more sympathisers of the Iranian and Chinese governments living in Australia that make social media comments defending these governments against criticism from opponents.

It is on the most important issue facing the world that the Greens show most clearly their pro-imperialist character – the new Cold War drive of the capitalist powers to crush socialistic rule in China. Although China’s transition to socialism is unfinished and deformed by hostile pressure, the capitalist powers are feverishly working to crush socialistic rule in China because they worry that the existence of a workers state in a country with more than one in six of the world’s people and one which is so successfully improving the lives of her masses will eventually encourage demands for socialism in their own countries. Moreover, even right now, China’s mutually beneficial cooperation with the ex-colonial countries is impeding the imperialists’ ability to plunder and exploit these countries. The Greens are fully behind the rest of the ruling class’ campaign to undermine the Chinese workers state. To be sure, the Greens do oppose AUKUS. However, in their political stance, they are along with the Far Right groups, the most extreme opponents of Red China. They not only voted for the draconian 2018 “Foreign Interference” laws that are aimed against people in the Australian-Chinese community and beyond who express sympathy for socialistic China but also demand additional measures to suppress expressions of sympathy (or even neutrality!) towards Red China and to persecute those who voice them. It was Greens federal senator David Shoebridge – when he was a NSW MP – who successfully spearheaded a campaign to drive out the Chinese language-teaching Confucius Institutes from schools, on the grounds that they were sponsored by the Chinese government. Shrieking that the institute was a tool for Chinese “foreign interference”, Shoebridge even attacked the then NSW Liberal government from the far right, accusing them of being slow to crack down on the Institute. Meanwhile, the Greens support every single lying attack made by the imperialist ruling classes against China over “human rights” and every single Western-backed internal force within China (and their exile allies) that seeks to destroy the Chinese workers state. Indeed, Greens politicians have even joined their Far Right counterparts like Craig Kelly (see the latter part of the following article https://www.trotskyistplatform.com/put-the-banks-under-state-control/ for photos) in guest speaking at the events of the extreme right-wing, anti-communist Falun Dafa outfit – an American government-funded Chinese organisation that supports Donald Trump and Germany’s Nazi-inspired, Far Right and rails Nazi-style against “race mixing” and gays.

For all these reasons, no genuine anti-imperialist should support the Greens at the upcoming election. A vote for the Greens is a vote for the continued escalation of the capitalist powers’ political and propaganda campaign to crush socialistic rule in China and the intensified McCarthyist repression that accompanies it at home. A vote for the Greens is a vote for endorsing the avidly Greens-supported takeover of Syria by fanatically anti-secular imperialist proxies. Although the Greens do state opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza, by supporting the efforts of the imperialist Western powers that back Israel to expand their global power, the Greens end up actually doing a lot of harm to the cause of the Palestinian people. Most directly, the triumph of the pro-imperialist forces that the Greens fanatically backed in Syria has led to Palestinian resistance groups having their bases ejected from that country and a government that was hostile to neighbouring Israel being replaced by one that craves friendly ties with Israel and was brought to power with the Zionists’ direct assistance. And what of the Greens’ support for a similar pro-imperialist regime change in Iran (as opposed to the replacement of Iran’s male chauvinist, capitalist, but currently Western-conflicting, regime by an even more militantly anti-imperialist state under workers’ rule which is what we stand for)? If the Greens side wins in Iran like they did in Syria, what would that do to the supply of arms to Palestinian resistance groups and to Hezbollah and Houthi allies of the Palestinian resistance? And what if the side that the Greens are on triumphs in the new Cold War too and socialistic rule in China is overthrown? How much more unchallenged and powerful would be the imperialist Western powers then – the ones that arm, finance and assist the genocidal Israeli military!

Because the Greens embrace actual capitalist exploiters in their ranks, as well as many capitalism-accepting upper middle-class elements, the Greens are unable to deliver on their more progressive promises. For they are unable to withstand the pressure of the capitalist class that would oppose implementing such policies. Only the class struggle mobilisation of the working class against the capitalists could achieve this – and the Greens do not even pretend to be a party that stands for this. Thus, as the federal election approaches and the possibility of a post-election Labor-Greens-Teals joint government looms, the Greens are going out of their way to ensure that the majority of the capitalist class does not campaign against the Greens’ presence in a future ALP-led minority government. They are doing this by showing that the Greens would be “responsible” administrators of the capitalist order. This was shown most clearly by the Greens Defence spokesman’s announcement in late March of a Greens promise to fund a massive $4 billion program for the Australian military to gain new missiles and drones. The Greens program is for a powerful Australian capitalist state that is, however, more independent of its U.S. senior partner. That is a recipe for the continued imperialist plunder and bullying of the peoples of the southwest Pacific and surrounding areas by Australia’s capitalist bigwigs – something that the Greens do not even acknowledge exists let alone oppose. Moreover, those who are considering supporting the Greens should consider this: with the Greens already making announcements trying to outdo the Liberals and ALP in anti-China militarism, how much further would they go to prove to the mainstream of the capitalist class that they are a “safe pair of hands” should the Greens actually become partners in an ALP-led alliance government? We actually don’t need to speculate. In Germany, the German version of the Australian Greens have been in a governing alliance led by the ALP-like, Social Democratic Party, for the last three and a half years. This German government that the Greens have been a key part of is noted for its militarism, its massive arms build up and for being one of the Israeli military’s biggest supporters – indeed second only to the U.S. regime.

Many working class people of Arab, Muslim and other people of colour backgrounds in Western Sydney are distrustful of the Greens. This is because they are wary of the Greens’, at best, indifferent attitude to the armed Palestinian resistance and because they understand the Greens to be a party led by upper middle-class whites with little real understanding of what they are confronting. As a result, a couple of independent candidates with the backing of Muslim organisations are running in two formerly safe Labor seats in southwestern Sydney. The mainstream media have dubbed these candidates “Muslim independents”, a description which the candidates themselves do not embrace. These particular independents are promising a tougher stance against Israel’s war on Gaza and more resources for the forgotten migrant-based communities in southwest Sydney. However, like the Greens, these candidates do not even claim to stand for the class interests of the working class against the capitalist ruling class. Indeed, the independent candidate running in Blaxland, a well-regarded migrant from Egypt, Ahmed Ouf, is himself a small-scale capitalist who owns a couple of pharmacies using hired labour and – like the Liberal Party – openly espouses a pro-business program. Without pushing back against the capitalist exploiting class – and this requires mobilising working class people in conscious class-struggle action – any promises by these independents to address housing unaffordability, the high cost of living and unemployment in their suburbs cannot be fulfilled. Still less can they force the Australian regime to pull back from its support for Israel which is driven by the overall interests of the rich and powerful Australian capitalist class. Therefore, while it is understandable that working class people of Arab, Asian, African and Muslim backgrounds in southwest Sydney may want to vote for these independents to register their anger at the Australian government’s support for Israel and the Islamophobia and white supremacist attitudes of the ruling establishment, they should not. Any vote by southwest Sydney’s working class people for capitalist independents, or pro-capitalist ones that do not even claim to stand for the particular class interests of the working class, represents a rejection of the basic socialist understanding that the interests of the working class masses, on the one hand, and the struggle against imperialism, on the other, can only be advanced by the struggle of the working class and its allies against the ruling exploiting class. Therefore, those working class people who get sucked into voting for such candidates will in doing so diminish their own class consciousness, thus making themselves less able to be mobilised in the class struggle and anti-imperialist resistance that we so desperately need.

In summary, we call on all working class people, all partisans of the downtrodden and all opponents of imperialist tyranny over the Middle East – and the Zionist terror that accompanies it – to refuse to vote for any of the parties in parliament or for any capitalism-accepting independents (which is, unfortunately, all the “independents” that we know of). Please convince your friends, co-workers and family members to do the same. For the main point of voting this way is to reject illusions in positive change through parliament so that we can better build the alternative path that is really necessary: determined mass actions – including strikes, pickets, occupations and rallies – that unite the power of the working class with all the oppressed and all anti-imperialists to demand the closing of Pine Gap, the ending of all Australian regime support to the U.S. and Israeli militaries, the removal of all Australian troops from the imperialists’ anti-Yemen operation, the smashing of the Australian regime’s racist attacks on Aboriginal people, a massive increase in low-rent public housing (including through confiscating the vacant houses of the ultra-rich), the nationalisation of the electricity, oil, gas and renewables sectors to drive down power prices and the booting out of the union-busting government administrators from the militant CFMEU construction workers union. In the process of such mobilisations, we can build a workers party that will truly stand for the interests of the working class masses and Australia’s subjugated Aboriginal people, while defending scapegoated Asian, Arab, Muslim and African origin minorities and championing the cause of women’s emancipation. Such a workers party would be very different to the ALP. The ALP seeks to administer the capitalist system in a way that supposedly improves workers’ lives, while craving acceptance from the powerful capitalist exploiters that would allow it to administer their system by constantly accommodating their interests and supporting all their overseas imperialist ambitions. In complete contrast, the workers party that we want to build would fight uncompromisingly for everything that the masses need, would oppose Australian imperialist tyranny over the southwest Pacific and southeast Asian regions, would resist Australian imperialist support for both U.S. intervention and Zionist terror in the Middle East and would have as its ultimate goal the replacement of the capitalist state with a state under workers’ rule.

Already, many working class people turn up to the polling booths to have their name ticked off to avoid a fine and then consciously cast an Informal vote by either leaving the ballot sheet blank or avoiding numbering all the boxes in the House of Representatives ballot; or, better still, by writing a quick political critique or an incisive message for the scrutineers of the ruling class politicians to read. In the seat of Blaxland, at the polling booth in Auburn where the most votes were cast in that suburb, the Auburn West polling booth, nearly one in five voters who turned up to the booth cast such an Informal vote at the last federal elections. At the Auburn Central polling booth, the Informal vote was nearly one in six of those who turned up. These figures do not include the many other people who risked fines by avoiding turning up to the booths because they could not bring themselves to support any of the candidates. Of course, people do vote Informal for different reasons. However, the wild fluctuations in the level of Informal vote in particular polling booths from election to election proves that the Informal vote is mainly not caused by people who do not know how to cast a valid vote. Moreover, the much, much higher Informal vote in working class, heavily people of colour areas, as compared to in wealthy, overwhelmingly white, blue ribbon Liberal or Teal areas, suggests that most of the people voting Informal are pro-working class, anti-racist minded people, or ex-Labor voters, who would rightly never support the Liberals or the more extreme Far Right parties but cannot, or can no longer, bring themselves to support a Labor Party that repeatedly stabs working class people (and most people of colour) in the back. That such people take this stance is absolutely great! However, for such people, voting Informal must only be the first step that they must take. It is important that their healthy distrust of the system does not turn into cynicism or despair that things can never be changed. We need to convince those pro-working class, anti-racist minded people who vote Informal that they need to actively support anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist mass actions that can push the Australian exploiting class back and make a real difference to our lives, while simultaneously helping build the organisation needed to mobilise more and more powerful struggles. This is the purpose of Trotskyist Platform’s policy for these upcoming elections. We urge all our supporters, friends and readers who agree with this perspective to help us carry out this work. For every pro-working class, progressive minded person, who would rightly never ever vote for the Liberals or Far Right parties and who, at the upcoming election also refuses to vote for Labor or the Greens or capitalism-accepting Independents, not because they are despairing of change but because they know that the road to positive change is not through these pro-capitalist entities, the fight to mobilise the class struggle and anti-Australian-imperialist resistance that we need will be advanced by one notch. This will be the case no matter which pro-capitalist party or parties end up administering the next government. Let us advance this struggle by countless notches in the lead up to the coming elections! 

To have the powerful actions that we need, we not only need large numbers of working class people and our allies mobilised behind the correct program, we also need these masses mobilised in an organised way. It is in our trade unions that class conscious workers are already organised into mass organisations. Therefore, mobilising sections of the union movement is key to having powerful pro-working class and anti-imperialist actions. It is through our unions that we can most easily organise industrial action – the most powerful of mass actions. We need such industrial action not only to smash the attack on the CFMEU, to fight for real wage rises and to win the rights of permanency for all casual and gig workers but also to oppose Australian imperialism and it’s meddling in the Middle East. We need, for example, right now, those unions that have given their verbal solidarity to the embattled Palestinian people to now unleash political strikes to demand the closure of Pine Gap, the removal of Australian troops from the U.S./British operation against Yemeni supporters of Palestine and the halting of all refuelling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian air bases. To mobilise such actions requires a struggle against the capitalist-accommodating program that currently dominates our unions. At the moment our unions are largely led by members of the ALP with some unions flirting with the Greens as well. Therefore, the struggle to win unionised workers to turn their backs on the ALP and Greens at these elections – as well as obviously to continue to reject the thoroughly reactionary Coalition and Far Right parties (which all class conscious workers would do in any case) – is crucial to the struggle to orient our unions onto a new path of militant struggle and intransigent opposition to the Australian capitalist class and all its imperialist interventions abroad. It is a crucial part of building the resistance that we need to the Australian regime’s participation in Israel’s terror and its broader support for Western imperialist interference in the Middle East.

Sydney, February 2025: Sydney rail workers march in a union rally against the NSW state Labor government’s refusal to concede to justified union demands for better pay, conditions and training for workers. Although union leaders failed to pull out rail workers in all out, unlimited strike action, the rolling industrial action of Sydney rail workers over the last few months has given a real taste of the power that workers have when acting collectively. We need union action that combines the fight for real wage rises, the rights of permanency for casual workers and a massive increase in low-rent public housing, with demands to close Pine Gap, remove Australian troops from the U.S./British operation against Yemeni supporters of Palestine and halt all refueling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian air bases.
Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

AUSTRALIA’S RULERS BACK ISRAEL’S TERROR AND VILIFY THOSE WHO OPPOSE IT. BUILD A WORKING CLASS INTIFADA AGAINST THIS CAPITALIST RULING CLASS!

Photo Above: On 4 February 2025 in Khan Younis, Gaza, fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hold a reception to honour prisoners freed as part of the ceasefire deal with Israel. Despite massive support from the U.S., Australian and other imperialist powers and despite slaughtering nearly 50,000 people – mostly women and children – the Netanyahu regime failed to achieve its war aims in Gaza. This was due to the heroism of Palestinian resistance fighters – not only from Hamas but from Islamic Jihad and secular leftist groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Photo credit: r/MarxistCulture

AUSTRALIA’S RULERS BACK ISRAEL’S TERROR
AND VILIFY THOSE WHO OPPOSE IT

BUILD A WORKING CLASS INTIFADA
AGAINST THIS CAPITALIST RULING CLASS!

28 February 2025 – Despite massive support from the Western powers, the genocidal Israeli regime failed to achieve its Gaza war aims. This is due to the heroism of Palestinian resistance fighters and the extraordinary resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of unparalleled brutality. The continuing blows that the Gaza resistance and their Yemeni allies inflicted against the Israeli military and the dissension that this caused within Israeli society forced Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire. However, other events have emboldened the Zionist regime. Through bombarding Lebanon – assisted by parts of Taiwan’s Western-puppet rulers who supplied Israel with the pagers used in the exploding devices attack against Hezbollah – the Israeli regime has weakened Hezbollah for the present, forcing the group to pull back from the northern front against the regime. Furthermore, right-wing ISIS-linked fanatics, massively armed by the U.S. and its Turkish, Israeli, Saudi and Qatari allies and assisted in their final offensive by direct U.S. military action, have taken over a Syria that had been ground into submission by years of U.S. and Australian sanctions. Although the ousted Syrian government’s support for Palestine was partial, it nevertheless enabled the flow of arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, provided bases for Palestinian resistance groups and shunned Israel. By contrast, the new regime has vowed not “to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel’s security” and ordered Palestinian resistance groups in Syria to close their bases and disband their military forces. No wonder Netanyahu hailed the regime change in Syria as “a historic day”. Thirdly, the new far-right U.S. regime is even more intent on backing Israel’s genocidal terror than its predecessors. The previous government headed by “Genocide Joe” Biden also supported Israel to the hilt. But it tried to limit the battering of its own image that this was causing. As a result, last May it paused shipping Israel the 2,000-pound bombs that inflicted such carnage in Gaza. Now, the Trump regime has resumed shipping these weapons. Moreover, regardless of whether Trump can actually drive out Palestinians from Gaza as he plans to, or is using the threat of this to weaken Palestine in negotiations, his Gaza plan imperils the Palestinian people.

Palestinian people are still in great danger. This is the case whether the Zionist regime unleashes a new assault on Gaza’s people, or instead focuses on intensifying its terror in the West Bank, while maintaining the caged, pre-October 2023 “status quo” in a now devastated Gaza. Since the Gaza ceasefire began, Israel has greatly escalated its attacks against West Bank Palestinians. Over the last two months, Zionist forces have killed at least 13 children there. Among those that the regime murdered was two year-old Leila al Khatib, who soldiers shot while she was in her own home in Jenin. Those who survive, the Israeli military forces to flee by bulldozing their homes and smashing connecting sewerage and water pipes. More than 40,000 people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the West Bank since the ceasefire came into force – the highest number since Israel occupied the Palestinian Territory in 1967. The Left and workers movements must escalate struggles worldwide in support of the Palestinian people. Let us mobilise mass actions to demand: No new Israeli attack on Gaza! Down with Israel’s terror in the West Bank! Israeli troops and fascist settlers get out of the West Bank, all of Gaza and Syria’s Golan Heights! Israel out of Lebanon!

We have a special responsibility here. Next to the U.S., German and British regimes, no other regime gives as much support to Israel as the Australian one. It jointly operates with the U.S. the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs that transmits to Israel the location of targets to bomb. Australian troops in the Middle East directly participate in attacks on Yemeni supporters of Palestine. Australian bases are facilitating air-to-air refuelling of the U.S. bombers that attack the Houthis. We need powerful actions to demand: Close Pine Gap! No refuelling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian bases! Australian troops get out of the Middle East! No military sales to Israel by Australian companies!

As part of this struggle, we must resist the ruling class’s attempts to silence pro-Palestinian voices by cynically branding them as “antisemitic”. On Monday, university bosses announced a new “definition” that will label as “antisemitic” any calls for eliminating Israel as an ethnic supremacist state. The next day, police hit nurse Sarah Abu Lebdeh with severe charges for merely reacting angrily to being contacted on social media by extreme Zionist provocateur, Max Veifer. Rightly furious at Israel’s genocidal terror and justly incensed at Veifer’s blatant justification of Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians – on the basis that the majority of Gaza’s people had voted for Hamas (!) – Abu Lebdeh and Blacktown Hospital co-worker Ahmad Rashad Nadir responded to Veifier’s baiting by making unfortunate, obviously false claims to him that they had refused to treat Israeli patients. Ruling class politicians and media seized on their retorts to hype them up and witch-hunt the nurses, causing their jobs to be suspended. Hospital and university administrations here – if they were actually controlled by the people and the workers at these institutions – would be speaking out against the killing and jailing of Palestinian doctors and nurses, and the destruction of hospitals and the entire university sector in Gaza by the genocidal Israeli state. We demand: Drop all charges against Sarah Abu Lebdeh! Reinstate her and her colleague! Junk the universities’ “antisemitic” definition that aims to silence pro-Palestine voices!

WHO IS THE MASTER? WHO IS THE DOG?

Some argue that Western powers support Israel because they are controlled by the Zionist lobby. However, this has it the wrong way around. In fact it is U.S. imperialism and its allies that are the masters – albeit ones that hold their nasty Zionist attack dogs on a long leash. Thus, Trump’s plan for the U.S. to annex Gaza in order to turn it into a resort run by American firms is a scheme to boost U.S. capitalist profits, with Zionist expansionist plans relegated to second place. U.S. rulers use Israel as an enforcer of their predatory goals in the Middle East. We saw his in Israel’s role in the West’s regime-change triumph in Syria, which Netanyahu proudly declared “is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted….” The U.S. imperialists are desperate to ensure that the Middle East is firmly in their grip. This is both to grab the region’s oil wealth and because of the region’s crucial location at the crossroads of the world. To do so, they must ensure that no government in the region pries out too much independence for itself, including through establishing strong mutually beneficial relations with socialistic China. With their Syria problem now “solved”, the U.S. is counting on their Zionist attack dogs to help maul the last remaining regime in the region not under their thumb – the Iranian one. As you can see, U.S. support for Israel has little to do with loyalty to Zionism, let alone concern for Jewish people. Indeed, the biggest player within the current U.S. administration and the world’s richest capitalist, Elon Musk, is at one and the same time a strong Israel supporter – who bans people from X if they call for “Palestine to be free from the river to the sea” – and a rabid antisemite. Musk promotes racist conspiracy theories against Jewish people nearly as much as he cheers white supremacist attacks on blacks, Muslims and other people of colour. Musk, Trump and Co. are not only prepared to facilitate the genocide of Palestinian people if it helps them enforce their class tyranny over the Middle East but to fight to the last drop of Jewish Israeli blood too.

Similarly, Australia’s ruling class only backs Israel because Israel helps enforce the power of the Zionists’ U.S. masters. Australia’s capitalist exploiting class needs this because it is the might of its U.S. godfather that protects its own mafia style plunder and tyranny over the resources and peoples of the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia. That is why the Australian rulers’ support for Israel is so intractable, because the interests of the Zionist lobby coincide with the predatory interests of Australia’s capitalist rulers. To force a change, we need to weaken the ruling class so decisively that they are unable to hold up their Israeli allies. But how do we do this? If we only appeal to the masses’ sense of conscience to stand with Palestine, this will never be enough, given the overwhelming pro-Israel propaganda that the masses are subjected to. However, just like in the U.S., working class people here have compelling reasons to struggle against their ruling class. Capitalist rule is driving millions of people in Australia into poverty through grossly unaffordable rents, prices that have risen faster than wages and the lack of secure, permanent jobs for young workers. The ruling class here subjects Aboriginal people to violent cop attacks and racist smear campaigns. Arab and Muslim communities are furious at the racist violence and abuse they face on the streets, attacks that are being incited by the ruling class and its media’s vilification of people with a pro-Palestine sentiment; and then further inflamed by their broader racist scapegoating of migrants and refugees. Ruling class narratives are also fuelling attacks against people of East Asian, South Asian, African and other people of colour heritage. We must build struggles that unite opposition to the Australian regime’s backing for Israeli terror with the fight against racist attacks on migrants and people of Muslim, Arab, Asian and African backgrounds, with solidarity with the Aboriginal people’s struggle for liberation, with standing shoulder to shoulder with the embattled CFMEU construction workers union and supporting union strikes to win real wage rises and permanency for casuals, and with mass action to win a massive increase in low-rent public housing.

The biggest obstacle to building these struggles are the masses’ illusions that change can be achieved through merely voting at elections to shuffle which party administers the capitalist order. Of course, no genuine Palestine supporter will vote for the Liberals or for the far-right parties. But some may vote Labor on the grounds that it is “a lesser evil”. To do so is to accept defeat and to support the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people! Many will refuse to. However, it would be a tragedy if that leads to Palestine supporters voting for the Greens. Yes, the Greens do verbally oppose the most extreme aspects of Israeli terror. But the Greens back the other agendas of the Western imperialist rulers that prop up Zionist rule. The Greens rabidly supported imperialism’s proxy-war to overthrow the previous Syrian government, enlist in the Cold War big lie campaigns against socialistic China and inflame the U.S.-led war drive against Iran – often demanding that the Western powers enact tougher sanctions against Iran. Furthermore, because the Greens embrace capitalist bigwigs and their system, when they have been part of governments, the Greens inevitably yield to pressure from the capitalists. During Israel’s November 2012 war on Gaza, when the Australian regime was, as now, giving military support to Israeli terror, the Greens remained in a de facto coalition government with Labor. For their part, the Greens German counterparts hold the ministry of foreign affairs in the German coalition government that has been Israel’s most fervent supporter in Europe. That is why we urge all Palestine supporters to convince their friends not to vote at the upcoming elections for any of the parties currently in parliament – whether directly or through preferences. The more people are convinced that nothing good can come from supporting these parties, the more willing people will be to join the strikes, occupations and other militant mass actions needed to oppose the genocide-supporting Australian ruling class. And the more open they will be to building the new workers party that is ultimately needed to organise mass resistance to capitalism and imperialism.

Let’s tirelessly oppose the Australian capitalist class that is a key prop for Zionist terror! Let’s stand against the Australian imperialists and their U.S. godfather in every battle they face around the world. Let’s support the resistance that is building in Syria against the new pro-imperialist regime there! Let’s stifle the U.S.-led war drive against Iran! Most importantly, let us resist the capitalist powers’ anti-communist Cold War and defend the greatest state threat to imperialism – socialistic rule in China. When we topple U.S. and Australian imperialism, the Zionist regime that relies on it will also collapse. Then Palestinians and Jews will live happily together in a secular, socialist Palestine – from the river to the sea!

Trotskyist Platform:
What We Stand For
Statement Updated

28 November 2024: Trotskyist Platform has just updated the About section of our website with an up to date and much more detailed statement of what our group stands for.

Today, the world is at a crossroads. Capitalist rule in Australia and around the world is bringing ever more poverty, job insecurity, economic stress, social division, racist oppression, misogyny and imperialism-driven wars. On the other hand, socialistic China’s mutually beneficial cooperation with developing countries and the example of continued socialistic success that she provides both present a medium-term existential threat to imperialist domination of the world. Moreover, the working class masses in the capitalist world are more and more discontent. However, right now, the absence of genuinely revolutionary socialist parties is allowing the dangerous Far-Right wing of the capitalist classes to gain in strength. Increasingly, the choice facing humanity is either the liberation of communism or the nightmare of the fascist form of capitalism. It is therefore urgent that politically conscious workers and other leftists build an authentic revolutionary, internationalist workers party in Australia. Trotskyist Platform is working hard to build such a party.

We believe that our What We Stand For statement provides the guide needed for those committed to the liberation of the exploited and oppressed to intervene into the events and struggles of this very high-stakes period in order to advance towards the goal of a socialist world where exploitation of labour, unemployment, racism, oppression of women and imperialist subjugation of “Third World” countries will become things of the past.

Please read our statement. With the world’s contradictions coming to a head, the entire fate of humanity may well be decided within the next two to four decades.

Our new What We Stand For statement can be accessed by clicking this link or by going to the “About” section of our website.

Ten Ways that Australia’s
Ruling Class Backs
Israel’s Genocidal Terror

Photo Above: Israel’s thirteen month-long genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people has reduced most of Gaza’s people to the verge of starvation; or actual starvation. Here, Palestinians wait to buy bread from the only operating bakery in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on 23 October 2024.
Photo: Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua

Ten Ways that Australia’s Ruling Class Backs
Israel’s Genocidal Terror

FROM PINE GAP TO SANCTIONS ON IRAN,
ALBANESE & CO. ARE KNEE DEEP IN THE SLAUGHTER

WE MUST FORCE THEM TO DO LESS – LESS HARM TO
THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE & LEBANON

2 November 2024The Zionist regime’s brutality over recent weeks has exceeded even that of the crimes that they perpetrated over the preceding year.  Especially targeting northern Gaza, Israel is massacring Palestinians in deliberate strikes on schools, homes and hospitals. The Israeli regime has also killed thousands in Lebanon and forced more than a quarter of that country’s people to flee their homes. This terrorism on a mass scale is based on huge support from the U.S., Australian and other imperialist regimes. But with Israel’s crimes battering their image, Western regimes started making calls for “ceasefire now” – by which they mean a ceasefire on Netanyahu’s terms. However, as brave Palestinian and Lebanese – and for their own reasons Iranian state – resistance to Israel intensifies, Western support for Israel has again become more overt. The U.S. has now sent a hundred troops to help Israel operate the THAAD missile system that the U.S. is providing them.

Australia’s capitalist ruling class is also greatly supporting Israel’s genocidal terror. They do this in ten different ways:

  1. The Australian regime hosts and jointly operates with the U.S. the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs. Receiving data from two U.S. spy satellites, the base transmits to Israel the location of targets to hit with missiles and bombs. How many times have schools, hospitals, ambulances and rescue workers in Gaza been targeted with the direct assistance of the Australian regime and its Pine Gap terror installation?
  2. Two weeks ago, when the U.S. launched a massive air strike against Yemeni supporters of the Palestinian people, the Defence Department boasted that Australia directly assisted the attack “through access and overflight for US aircraft in northern Australia”. Apparently, the Australian air bases enabled air-to-air refuelling of the U.S. bombers.
  3. Australian troops are in the Middle East directly participating in the U.S. and British-led attacks on Yemeni supporters of Palestine who have been deterring ships linked to Israel and its allies from traversing the Red Sea.
  4. The regime lists Hamas and Hezbollah as “terrorists”. That means that Australians who make donations to them face years in jail. Given that Hamas and Hezbollah are non-state groups based in poverty-stricken lands, these groups rely on overseas donations. Since Australia is a richer country with a large Arab diaspora, Australians could be a key source of the funds needed to support these groups’ anti-Israeli resistance. The “terror” bans are thus very harmful.
  5. Australian companies sell military equipment and supplies to the Israeli military.
  6. The regime backs Israel’s arms providers. In February, the Australian military awarded a nearly $917 million contract to Israel’s biggest arms producer, Elbit Systems – known for supplying Israeli forces with killer drones and mortars.
  7. The ALP government provides diplomatic cover for Israel’s terror.
  8. The Australian regime sanctions Iran. Sometimes, Canberra disguises these as measures against the Iranian government’s repressive and anti-women policies. But Australia’s rulers care nothing for the Iranian masses. Their real goal is to support the U.S. and Israeli drive to bring Iran to heel. This was proven a fortnight ago, when the Australian government unleashed new sanctions on Iran in response to her 100% justifiable missile strike on Israel.  
  9. From their police arresting anti-genocide protesters, to their politicians threatening Palestine activists to their universities expelling pro-Palestine students and effectively sacking pro-Palestine academics, Australia’s ruling class are trying to suppress anti-genocide protests.
  10. Australia’s capitalist-owned media have unleashed a barrage of propaganda alibiing Israel.

Despite Australia’s rulers proving to be the enemy of Palestine, some groups keep on appealing for “the government to do more to stop the genocide”. But to say that the Labor government should “do more” is to misleadingly imply that they are actually already doing something positive! That is why the pro-ALP current leaders of our unions and other, “pro-Palestine” ALP hacks keep selling us this “do more” line. So, too, do the Greens. For, although the Greens criticise Albanese’s stance, they do not want Australia’s capitalist order, that they are ultimately loyal to, to be completely discredited. By appealing to the government “to do more” they are covering up the huge amount of harm that the ruling class is actually doing! What we do need to do is to force the Australian ruling class to do less – that is, less participation in Israeli/U.S.-led terror. We need powerful actions to demand: Close Pine Gap! No refuelling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian bases! Australian troops involved in the operation against Yemeni supporters of Palestine: Get out of the Middle East! Lift the regime’s “terror” listing of Hamas and Hezbollah! No military sales to Israel! Cancel Australian contracts to Israeli arms suppliers! Lift the sanctions on Iran! Down with the regime’s attacks on pro-Palestine activists!

17 October 2024, Yemen: Death and destruction in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a following a massive U.S. air strike using long-range B-2 bombers. The attack was aimed at quelling the heroic actions in support of the embattled Palestinian people by Yemen’s Houthi forces. The Australian regime boasted that Australian air bases assisted the attack through “through access and overflight for US aircraft in northern Australia”. Apparently, the Australian air bases enabled air-to-air refuelling of the U.S. bombers. In supporting this attack on pro-Palestinian resistance forces, the Australian regime is actively assisting the Israeli regime to conduct its genocide of the people of Gaza.

It is in the Working Class’ Own Interests to
Stand with the Opponents of Zionist/Western Terror!

Apart from the Western-puppet Taiwanese ruling class (and it has now been confirmed that the Taiwanese firm that made the exploding pagers used by Israel in its Lebanon terrorist attack has long-time links with U.S. intelligence agencies), no rulers administering a population size comparable to Australia’s provide even a small fraction of the support to Israel’s terror as Australia’s rulers do. So when you hear a co-worker say that “what happens in the Middle East has nothing to do with us”, tell them that they are very mistaken! Explain too that given how much the Western regimes have invested in backing Israel, if the Zionist/Western forces were to triumph, it would embolden Western ruling classes. The victorious Australian capitalist rulers would be more confident to attack the rights of workers, Aboriginal people, refugees and all the poor. It is not completely a coincidence that the Australian ruling class launched its biggest attack on the working class in four decades – the forcing of the militant CFMEU workers union into administration – during the midst of the “national security”-obsessed climate fostered by their participation in the Gaza massacre. On the other hand, if those resisting the Zionist/Western forces could hold them off, it would damage the prestige of the Western capitalists. That would facilitate the struggles that we badly need here to defend our unions, to drive down rents, to fight for Aboriginal people’s liberation and to resist racist attacks on people of Muslim, Arab, Asian and African heritage. So it is not only a moral imperative but is in the very interests of workers and all the oppressed here to stand for the victory of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. We must also side with Iran, Syria and Yemen against Israel and their U.S., British and Australian allies.

So why are Australia’s capitalist rulers such intractable Israel backers? It is not because of Zionists within the ruling class. Yes, there are some capitalists who are Zionists. But most are not. And most actually could not care less about the myths of Zionism. Rather they back Israel because they need U.S. power to be upheld, because that is what underwrites their own imperialist rape of the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia. That means backing the Israeli attack dog of the U.S. in the strategically located and oil-rich Middle East. In other words, Australia’s ruling class backs Israel in order to uphold its own predatory interests. It is as simple as that! To force this exploiting class to “do this less”, we must threaten their own interests to such a level that the capitalist rulers will find it less harmful to retreat from backing Israel than to continue.

Many of the elements that we need to build a movement that can force Australia’s rulers to retreat from their support of Israeli terrorism are contained within the Palestine Action Group-organised mass protests in Sydney. Speeches by Aboriginal activists have powerfully linked the Australian ruling class’ support for Zionist settler colonialism with their own genocidal dispossession of Aboriginal people. During the marches, we have shouted some apt chants, like: “Albanese – Blood on Your Hands”. But there is an, effectively opposite, political direction coexisting within the movement. One that does not oppose the ruling class as an enemy but appeals to them as a potential albeit misguided ally. When the ruling class-media reports on pro-Palestine protests, they rarely quote the hard hitting chants or most cutting speeches, lest they encourage such sentiments. Instead they quote the appeals to the ruling class to “do more”. As long as the capitalist rulers know that this is the main message issuing from the protests, they will not feel threatened by them (just annoyed). And that means they will not feel compelled to retreat from supporting Israel. This is the problem we must fix!

Those most consciously promoting appeals to the ruling class at pro-Palestine events are the Greens. For although the Greens oppose the most brutal aspects of Zionist terror, they nevertheless uphold the Australian capitalist order that benefits from Israeli aggression in the Middle East. Thus, when on the October 7 anniversary, the Albanese government put a despicable parliamentary motion proclaiming “Israel’s right to defend itself” and condemning Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran for resisting Israel, the Greens refused to oppose the motion and only abstained.

From the Greens’ perspective, Australian support for Israel’s terror is one of Australia’s political order’s few bad aberrations within an otherwise “democratic” system. Thus, when addressing the October 13 protest, Greens senator David Shoebridge contrasted the ALP government’s refusal to support Palestine refugees with what he called its correct support for Ukraine’s war against Russia. But the Western regimes back Ukraine for the same reason that they back Israel: to feed an attack dog that will enforce their world domination – in this case by trying to subordinate Russia, which, while itself under a capitalist regime, refuses to submit to Western hegemony. Every supporter of Palestine should stand for the imperialist backers of Israel to be weakened by defeats in all the theatres that they are fighting in – including in Ukraine. Most crucially, we must oppose the imperialists’ drive to destroy the main state threat to their global tyranny – the Chinese workers state.

Whether it is waging Cold War against socialistic China, arming a proxy war against Russia or backing Zionist terror and genocide, the Australian and other imperialist rulers are driven by their quest to reinforce their world “order” that facilitates their looting of the poorer countries. Far from Australian ruling class support for Israel’s Gaza genocide being an exception to the rule, it is typical of this class’ whole history. This country’s capitalist order is based on the genocide of Aboriginal people and the continued brutal oppression of this country’s First Peoples. That was highlighted by the brave and inspirational protest twelve days ago by independent senator, Lidia Thorpe, against Australia’s visiting head of state, King Charles, when the Aboriginal woman shouted: “You committed genocide against our people…. F_ck the colony!… You are not our king!” Moreover, in executing civilians, massacring onion farmers and slitting the throats of teenage boys, Australian regime forces that participated in the occupation of Afghanistan perpetrated the same type of racist crimes that Israeli troops are committing on a huge scale in Gaza. It is not only pro-Palestine protests that Australia’s rulers are trying to suppress. Politicians are threatening to throw Lidia Thorpe out of her senate seat for protesting against the blood-stained monarch, while the CFMEU union has been taken over by regime administrators for daring to stand up too staunchly for workers rights.

We must junk all illusions that we can appeal to Australia’s capitalist rulers to support Palestine or indeed support any other just cause. Such appeals are worse than futile. They are preventing the pro-Palestinian movement from becoming a force of unalloyed opposition to the ruling class that is backing Israel’s terror. Many of us have put much effort into joining pro-Palestine protests. But we want the actions to do more than make us feel good for protesting against the genocide. We need to turn the actions into ones that so implacably oppose the ruling class, so discredits them, so destabilises their political order that they will be compelled to retreat from their backing of Israeli terror. Everyone who understands this has a duty to not only join the rallies but to do so with placards that will help steer the movement in this direction. Come bearing signs like: “Resist Australia’s Capitalists and Monarchy that Supports Israel’s Terror and Brutally Oppresses Aboriginal People!”, “Stand With Palestine! Shut Down Pine Gap! Smash the U.S./Australia Attacks on Yemen!” and “Down With Support for Israel! Defend the CFMEU! For a Working-Class Intifada in Australia Against the Capitalist Elites!”

STAND WITH PALESTINE!
STAND WITH THE CFMEU!

Photo Above: Palestinians inspect the damage to buildings that were attacked by the Israeli army in the refugee camp of Tulkarm in the north of the West Bank on 12 September 2024. While carrying our a genocide of the Palestinian people of Gaza, the U.S. and Australian imperialist-backed Israeli regime has been escalating its attacks on the people of the West Bank.
Photo: Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua

STAND WITH PALESTINE!
STAND WITH THE CFMEU!

RESIST OUR COMMON
AUSTRALIAN CAPITALIST ENEMIES!

19 September 2024 – Nowhere are the Palestinian people safe in their homeland. Israel is massacring Gaza’s people in Israel’s own designated “safe zones” and in schools turned into shelters – even the ones run by the UN. Israel has also escalated its assaults in the West Bank. From its assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran to its deadly air strikes on Syria to its bombings of Lebanon’s people, Israel’s terror is expanding. The only reason that Israel’s rulers are able to do all this is because of the massive support that they receive from the U.S., Australian and British imperialists. Let us not be fooled when these imperialists call for “ceasefire now”! They are just trying to limit the damage to their battered, self-appointed, “pro-human rights” image. They truly only want a “ceasefire” that’s based on greater Israeli control of Gaza.

Their puppets are also playing a criminal role. The exploding pagers that killed dozens of Lebanese people were made by a Taiwanese firm. Given that Taiwan’s rulers have long been rabid Israel backers, it is likely that Taiwanese ruling class actors were part of the plot. During South Africa’s Apartheid era, the Taiwanese, Israeli and Apartheid regimes formed an unholy alliance that assisted the Apartheid and Israeli regimes to acquire nukes. This Taiwanese firm is especially suspicious. For its CEO’s claim that they had not made the pagers but only sold its trademark overseas has been proven to be a bald-faced lie! The “manufacturer” that the Taiwanese boss blamed was found to be a trader with no manufacturing facilities!

Yet despite all these powerful forces arrayed against them, Palestinian forces are heroically resisting. And not only in Gaza. Following on from July’s China-brokered unity agreement that brought together Fatah, Hamas, PFLP and others, Palestinian forces are fighting in the West Bank in a more united way. We have a huge responsibility to stand by this resistance given that we live under one of the regimes facilitating Israel’s tyranny. We must escalate our actions standing by the Palestinian people! Let us stand with Syria and Iran against Israel and the Western capitalist powers supporting them! Let us stand with Lebanese and Yemeni people resisting genocide! Let us demand: Israeli troops and fascist settlers get out of all of Gaza and the West Bank! Stop the Australian regime’s participation in Israel’s genocide!

A destroyed house and car in the southern Lebanon village of Chamaa where a mother and her three children were killed when an Israeli warplane fired four air-to-ground missiles at the house on 1 August 2024. In the last few days, Israel has further escalated its terror against the people of Lebanon.
Photo: Ali Hashisho/Xinhua

FOR A PRO-PALESTINE MOVEMENT THAT
IMPLACABLY OPPOSES THE AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS
THAT IS PARTICIPATING IN GENOCIDE!

Huge numbers have joined weekly Sydney marches organised by the Palestine Action Group. Alongside global protests, these actions have exposed the Western regimes behind Israel and thus compelled them to make concessions – prodding Israel to murder Gaza’s people at a lower speed than it would like to. But we should not be satisfied! A slower genocide is still a horrific genocide! We must realise the Palestine movement’s potential to have a much greater impact! Now!

The problem with the movement is not that “we need to get more creative with our organising”. Indeed, the organising has been fantastic. The sole flaw of the movement that we must correct is its political direction. Actually, there are promising aspects about this. Rally chants have become more hard-hitting – especially ones like Labor Party you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide! Yet there is simultaneously a different message coming from the protests: an appeal to Australia’s rulers to support the Palestinian cause. To appeal to the ruling class as a potential friend is actually completely counterposed to condemning them as a genocide-enabling enemy that we are demanding to back off from their support for Israel. Yet, currently these two lines are co-existing in the movement. But Australia’s imperialist rulers will never support the Palestinian cause. For they are backing Israel because it is in their own predatory interests – and not just those of their U.S. allies. Australia’s capitalists not only exploit local workers but plunder even more ruthlessly the peoples of the South West Pacific and Southeast Asian region. To guarantee this neo-colonial rape, Australia’s ruling class allies with the U.S. superpower. So for the sake of their own tyranny in this region, Australia’s imperialist rulers need U.S. power to be maintained, which is why they want to protect the USA’s Israeli attack dog in the strategic Middle East.

The biggest problem with appealing to Australia’s rulers is that it makes the pro-Palestine movement far less able to arm-twist the ruling class into retreating from their support for Israel. For if the capitalist rulers are not being opposed as an implacable enemy, the movement is doing the ruling class far less political damage than it could. Such political damage is not the same as electoral damage. Sure, the ALP tops would be upset if they lost the next election. But ultimately, the main feature that defines ALP politicians and those from all the current parliamentary parties is their loyalty to the filthy rich owners of Australia’s mines, construction firms, factories, banks, agri-businesses, the power sector, tech firms and big retailers – who are the ultimate power in Australia. What would most damage this capitalist class (who can be of any race but in Australia are mainly white Protestants) and their political servants is if there is a growing movement that brands them as an unambiguous enemy and mobilises actions against them. The Palestine movement needs to urgently transform into such a movement. It is partly there. But it needs to remove all appeals to Australia’s capitalist rulers from its agenda.

Among those pushing appeals to Australia’s rulers to “act” for Palestine are the pro-ALP, ACTU union leaders. Saying that the government “should do more”, the ACTU tops call for Australia to put sanctions on Israel. This seemingly pro-Palestine slant disguises a treacherous intent – to provide an alibi for their ALP parliamentary mates. By saying that the government “should do more”, they are hiding the truth that not only is the ruling class here doing absolutely nothing to defend the Palestinian people, they are instead doing much harm: from helping operate the U.S.-Australia Pine Gap spy base that is directing Israel’s missiles, to participating in the Red Sea military operation against Yemeni opponents of Israel, to providing military supplies to Israel. Two days ago, the Australian regime joined the U.S., British, Ukrainian, South Korean, Israeli and other Western-aligned regimes in refusing to support a UN motion to end Israel’s occupation that was voted for by two-thirds of the world. True support for Palestinian people would not make futile appeals to the enemy that prettify its nature but would demand that the Australian capitalist enemy withdraw from their participation in genocide. It would demand: Close the Pine Gap spy base! U.S./Australian/British troops get out of the Red Sea! Stop Australian military supplies to Israel!

Within the Palestine movement, this diversionary, “the Australian government should do more” line is pushed by the Greens. For, although individual Greens politicians have powerfully condemned Israel’s genocide, the Greens do not consistently oppose Australian ruling class support for Israel. During the early phase of this latest Israeli war, the Greens officially took a nauseatingly, “even-handed” “condemn both sides” stance. Today, they retain elements of this stance. Moreover, ultimately, the Greens uphold the imperialist domination of the world that underpins Israel’s tyranny. They supported NATO’s 2011 “regime-change” war on Libya and imperialism’s proxy war against the not-obedient-enough Syrian government. Just a year ago, they fed into the U.S.-led war drive against Iran by pushing for the imperialist Australian regime to more harshly sanction Iran – which is very different to supporting an explicitly anti-imperialist, pro-working class opposition to the women-oppressing, Iranian capitalist regime. Today, the Greens back all the Western-backed forces seeking to undermine socialistic rule in China. For the Greens are ultimately a party that also represents the capitalist class – albeit its liberal-progressive wing, as well as the pro-capitalist sections of the progressive-minded affluent professionals. Thus, although much of the capitalist class is angered at Greens leaders speaking at pro-Palestine events, at the same time, however, the capitalist rulers remain largely reassured by this. For the movement’s links to the Greens prevent it from becoming a consistent force against Australian imperialism and the Australian capitalist ruling class. We need to urgently liberate the Palestine movement from loyalty to the Greens!

FOR FULL-SCALE CLASS WAR
AGAINST AUSTRALIA’S CAPITALIST EXPLOITING CLASS!

If the Palestine movement is able to transform into a movement of irreconcilable opposition to the Australian ruling class it would be able to intersect with the widespread fury at these rulers over unaffordable rents, rising living costs and racist scapegoating of migrants and refugees. Many from Asian, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander and African backgrounds are also angry about Western neo-colonial depredations in their homelands. Right now, workers are especially furious at the regime’s takeover of the militant CFMEU union. Every genuine supporter of the Palestinian people must support worker resistance to this attack on the CFMEU as this has the potential to bash the genocide-enabling Australian capitalist class onto the back foot. We must connect the pro-Palestine movement with the resistance to this union-busting attack. Already, some speakers at Palestine rallies have proclaimed solidarity with the CFMEU. That is a start. However, the ruling class will not feel threatened unless the movement as a whole declares opposition to the regime takeover of the CFMEU. That means slogans like “Hands Off the CFMEU” must become part of the official slogans for each Palestine action and must be included on the front main rally banner alongside opposition to Israel’s genocide. However, to do this is a big political step. For one, taking such a stance implicitly means abandoning the strategy of appealing to the capitalist rulers. Secondly, taking such a clear side in the class war will necessarily put off the small number of capitalist and other strongly pro-capitalist individuals attending Palestine rallies. But so be it! Australian ruling class support for Israel’s genocide must be stopped! The Palestine movement must be turned into one that can compel the capitalist enemy here at home to end its participation in this atrocity! This is the only way.

If we do this, then pro-CFMEU actions could also take on an explicitly pro-Palestine character and pro-Palestine contingents could be arranged to join CFMEU worker strike rallies and vice versa. However, for this to be fully realised and for worker outrage at the attack on the CFMEU to turn into a powerful indefinite strike action, something else needs to happen. There needs to be built a new, militant leadership of our unions and a new workers party connected to it. This is made possible by large numbers of working class people now turning away from the ALP at disgust at both its attack on the CFMEU and its support for Israel’s genocide. However, if this support goes to the pro-imperialist and capitalist-accepting Greens, it will not be a step forward. What we must build is a workers party that will support militant class struggle and oppose every one of Australian imperialism’s actions – including its acts against Palestine. Such a party would understand that positive change will not come from gaining office to administer regime institutions serving the imperialist, exploiting class. Rather, it will come through class struggle and other progressive actions. Let’s build such a revolutionary workers party to organise this struggle. Let’s transform the Palestine movement into a force of uncompromising opposition to Australia’s imperialist rulers! Let’s build joint resistance to the war on Palestine and the war on the CFMEU!

“Human Rights Watch” – Facilitators of Imperialist Terror, Enemies of Socialism

Photo Above, Yemen, January 2024: U.S and British forces, backed by the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand imperialists, hit Yemeni people and Yemen’s Houthi forces with deadly air and missile strikes. Human Rights Watch facilitated the attacks by producing a report accusing Yemen’s Houthis of “war crimes” for their laudable efforts to defend the people of Gaza through blocking Israel-linked shipping traversing through the Red Sea. By helping to attack actions in support of the Palestinian people of Gaza, Human Rights Watch is complicit in Israel’s ongoing Gaza genocide.

“Human Rights Watch” – Facilitators of Imperialist Terror, Enemies of Socialism

7 April 2024: Today, in the course of giving his Israeli ally the gentlest of slaps on its wrists for murdering aid workers, Britain’s foreign minister, David Cameron, referred to Israel as “a proud and successful democracy.” This compliment was given while Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza! And while the Israeli regime is forcing the Palestinian people in the West Bank to live under brutal Apartheid conditions! As for the capitalist ruling class of Britain itself and that of the U.S., Australia, Germany, France and other “Western democracies”, their self-description as “liberal-democracies” supposedly gave them the license to invade Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of her people on the basis of a false pretext; and today to arm, support and help direct Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It is in the name of “standing up for democracy” that these Western ruling classes are threatening China in the waters of the South China Sea off her own coast and massively arming the anti-China, Western-puppet Taiwanese regime. And it is supposedly a quest to “defend our democratic values” that is driving the Western regimes to engage in a massive military build-up towards war against socialistic China and her North Korean socialistic ally. Here in Australia, the capitalist rulers believe that their status as a supposed “Western democracy” allows their state institutions to continue to strip Aboriginal children from their families and culture in the name of “child protection” and their governments to impose curfews and compulsory “income management” schemes discriminatorily targeting Aboriginal people. Australia’s capitalist government thinks that its self-proclaimed status as a “democracy” allows it to maintain housing policies that enable the capitalist bigwigs that they serve – and other wealthy individuals – to rip off huge fortunes from speculative property investments and exorbitant rents, while shoving millions of low-income renters into poverty and sometimes even homelessness. All of this is supposedly acceptable, because the people are said to have “freely” decided themselves through “democracy”.

However, the truth is that in these “Western-style democracies” the masses are not truly deciding. To be sure, the “democratic” form of capitalist tyranny is preferable to other, still more repressive, forms of capitalist rule. For it allows the working class masses to more easily organise resistance against their own exploitation. However, in truth, the democracy that exists in capitalist “liberal democracies” is only a “democracy” for the capitalist class. Just like other forms of capitalist rule – like fascism, military dictatorship, absolute monarchy and theocratic dictatorship – the “democratic” form of capitalism is still in essence the dictatorship of the capitalist class over working class people. For in the “democratic” form of capitalist state as in the fascist form, the enforcement arms of the state – the police, army, courts, prisons and bureaucracy – are themselves tied to the financially dominant capitalist class and inevitably serve the exclusive interests of this class. This remains the case no matter who wins elections. Moreover, although “parliamentary democracy” under capitalism allows “one person one vote”, the means to shape public opinion – and in the end that means how people vote too – overwhelmingly resides with the super-rich capitalists. It is this class that owns the media. It is they who, in great disproportion to their numbers, have the financial resources to fund political parties, pay for political advertising, hire lobbyists and establish “independent” think tanks. Whereas in the fascist and military dictatorship form of capitalist rule, capitalist interests are enforced mostly through naked force, in the “democratic” form of capitalist rule, capitalist power is, in the first instance, mostly enforced through deception (and when this doesn’t work, they can of course revert to brutal repression and, if necessary, will even seek to overthrow their own “democracy” and replace it with the fascist form of capitalist rule).

Of all the different means of deception that the capitalists have at their disposal, their most effective tools are their supposedly “independent”, “human rights organisations”. These are especially crucial for the capitalists of the richer, imperialist ruling classes to make their “own” masses support their predatory interests abroad. Among such “human rights organisations”, there is one that stands out for its level of influence, Human Rights Watch (HRW). When the mainstream Western media or a Western ruling class politician wants to attack an overseas enemy of the capitalist ruling class that they serve, the “credible source” that they will most often quote is HRW. This in turn boosts the authority of HRW.

HRW’s number one aim is to vilify the socialistic states: the Peoples Republic of China, Cuba, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK – “North Korea”), Vietnam and Laos. HRW also targets any other state that happens to be in the gun sights of the U.S.-led Western imperialists. In 2011, HRW played a key role in facilitating the NATO operation in Libya to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi, who the Western imperialists had decided was not bowing down enough before their demands to be allowed to continue to rule such an oil-rich country. In the lead up to the NATO intervention in Libya that began on 19 March 2011, HRW unleashed a torrent of hyped-up “reports” of alleged human rights atrocities by the Libyan government that provided the “human rights cover” for NATO’s intervention.  There was, for example, this “report” that HRW released just six days before NATO’s terror bombing was unleashed: https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/03/13/libya-end-violent-crackdown-tripoli. Then as NATO continued to rain death upon the people of Libya, HRW produced more “reports” of supposed atrocities by Libyan government forces (for example: https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/06/29/libya-gaddafi-forces-occupy-hospital-terrify-patients-and-staff ) that served to justify the continuation of the blood-soaked Western imperialist, “regime-change” operation.

Tripoli, Libya, 19 June 2011: Doctors stand near the bodies of a man and a child killed when NATO destroyed yet another residential building in the Libyan capital during their neo-colonial 2011 military intervention in Libya. Through greatly hyped-up and one-sided “human rights reports” in the days leading up to the NATO attack, Human Rights Watch’s propaganda provided the “human rights” “justification” for the brutal NATO onslaught.
Photo: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

The Devious Nature of
Human Rights Watch’s “Even Handedness”

To give themselves credibility, HRW will occasionally also report on human rights violations by the U.S. and other Western ruling classes. But they will mostly only report problems that everyone already knows about and which have been substantiated many times over. That way their “exposés” of human rights atrocities of Western capitalist regimes do minimal damage. In contrast, when HRW launches an attack on China, Cuba or another socialistic state, or on a capitalist state that is being too independent of the Western imperialist rulers, they will produce either entirely new claims or spread, as fact, highly disputed claims made by others – most of which are usually completely unsubstantiated or simply plain lies. Moreover, whenever attacking supposed human rights violations in a workers state or other country in the firing sights of Western imperialism, HRW will not only use the most extreme language as possible but will always make their shrill statements in the context of accusing the targeted state of having an “abysmal human rights record”. By contrast, whenever HRW feels compelled to acknowledge human rights problems in Western capitalist countries they use moderate language and emphasise that the issues occur in the context of the state having an otherwise “strong record of protecting civil and political rights”. Having a “strong record of protecting civil and political rights” is precisely how the Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2022 described the human rights record of Australia’s capitalist regime. The very regime whose special forces murdered dozens of Afghan civilians in cold-blooded, racist executions during their war-crime-ridden participation in the two decade-long U.S./NATO occupation, whose racist police and prison guards have killed, or otherwise caused, the deaths of hundreds of Aboriginal people in custody over the last three decades and which brutally imprisons asylum seekers in offshore hell-holes.

The full range of HRW’s methods of deception were unleashed during their propaganda campaign buttressing the 2011 NATO operation in Libya. For example, HRW acknowledged that NATO killed civilians during their Libya operation but greatly downplayed the numbers. HRW stated that NATO killed “at least 72 civilians”, when even other pro-Western sources acknowledge that the NATO airstrikes killed at least several hundred civilians – and other sources report the number of civilians killed by NATO in the thousands. In contrast, HRW greatly exaggerated the number of civilians killed by the Gaddafi government enemies of NATO.

As well as greatly downplaying the numbers of civilians killed by NATO, HRW despicably praised NATO for supposedly making genuine efforts to protect civilians during its 2011 Libya intervention! Check out this disgusting HRW apology for NATO war crimes in Libya disguised as a “criticism”:

“NATO says it took extensive measures to minimize civilian harm, and those measures seem to have had a positive effect: the number of civilian deaths in Libya from NATO strikes was low given the extent of the bombing and duration of the campaign. Nevertheless, NATO air strikes killed at least 72 civilians, one-third of them children under age 18. To date, NATO has failed to acknowledge these casualties or to examine how and why they occurred.”

Unacknowledged Deaths”, 12 May 2012, HRW website

The truth is that the 2011 NATO regime-change operation that HRW deviously facilitated with its “human rights” reports not only directly killed thousands of civilians in air strikes but produced a horrific, new imperialist-created “order” in Libya. That “order” immediately resulted in murderous racist violence against black African residents of Libya. In the following years, it produced multi-sided sectarian violence and clashes between rival warlords that killed tens of thousands of Libyan people. Human Rights Watch has a lot of blood on its hands!

HRW followed its Libya playbook when “reporting” on the upheaval in Syria that erupted in 2011. Initially the anti-government protests in Syria had a multi-directional quality. But by early 2012, the U.S.-led imperial powers had taken effective political hegemony of the movement and turned it into an armed proxy war aimed at toppling Syria’s Bashar al-Assad government and replacing it with one more subservient to the Western imperialists. As they poured arms, intelligence and training into their armed proxies, HRW filled the information space with one-sided, hyped-up and often false reports accusing Syrian government forces of horrific crimes. Without ever openly stating their intentions, HRW were key propagandists who justified the imperial powers’ proxy war to subordinate Syria. This proxy war caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrian people and the forced displacement of millions more. HRW has much complicity in this carnage!

Today, HRW are at it again! This time they are facilitating the attacks of the U.S., British, Australian and other Western imperialists against the most effective international solidarity actions with the embattled Palestinian people over these last six months – the Yemeni Houthi actions to stop Israeli related shipping from traversing the Red Sea. As the U.S.-led imperialist powers took political steps to justify their impending air strikes against the Yemeni supporters of the Palestinian people, HRW provided the “human rights” justification for the attacks by despicably accusing the Yemeni Houthis of “war crimes” for the Houthis’ laudable actions to resist the Gaza genocide by targeting Israeli-linked shipping. To be sure, with Israel’s ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza obvious to most of the world, HRW also has to make stern criticisms of Israel. If they did not do so, they would lose all credibility and thus all ability to serve Western imperialism. However, by equating resistance actions in support of Israel’s victims with Israel’s genocidal terror, HRW is obscuring the one-sided genocide that is taking place. To facilitate attacks on pro-Palestinian resistance actions when a horrific slaughter of Palestinian people is taking place is to be complicit in the mass murder of the Palestinian people. Therefore, HRW shares responsibility for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

18 April 2024: Palestinian people survey the damage in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip following yet another murdering Israel strike.
Photo: Xinhua

Funded and Led By Wealthy Western Capitalists
and Serving Their Class Interests

Although HRW would like to portray itself as a “grassroots” organisation standing up for “human rights”, it is the very opposite of that. Headquartered in the U.S., HRW is a multi-hundred million dollar operation funded by super wealthy American and other Western donors and corporations. It is indeed run like a corporation. The outfit’s CEO, Kenneth Roth, is paid an annual salary package in excess of $A1.05 million per year (!!) … hardly the practice of an organisation that claims to be devoted to “bringing greater justice and security to the oppressed around the world”! For the last two years, HRW’s annual revenue averaged over $A163 million per year – overwhelmingly from contributions from rich donors and millions more from fundraising events.

HRW goes to great lengths to hide exactly who the wealthy donors and corporations backing it are. Despite its frequent criticism of various adversaries of Western imperialism for “lack of transparency”, HRW is itself a very shadowy organisation. One massive donor to HRW that the organisation has had to confirm is anti-communist billionaire, George Soros. In September 2010, HRW announced that Soros would be donating a massive $US100 million to the group over ten years. That means that this leaching hedge fund manager, known for his extreme criticisms of socialistic China and his earlier funding for the political forces that destroyed the East European and Soviet workers states through capitalist counterrevolution, has been providing a large proportion of HRW’s funding. Indeed, such corporate bigwigs also make up a big and leading part of HRW’s Board of Directors. Like Soros, many of them extracted their wealth from the especially parasitic finance sector. Thus, one of the two Co-Chairs of HRW’s Board is co-founder and General Partner of venture capitalist group Index Ventures, Neil Rimer. The other Co-Chair, Amy Rao, is a former CEO of a Silicon Valley company. Many of the Board’s Vice Chairs are also bigwigs of investment firms, including the chairman of Japanese financial services company, Monex Group, Oki Matsumoto. This HRW Vice Chair owns $A180 million of shares in his company. Another Vice Chair is Principal at financial services firm KME Consulting, Kimberly Marteau Emerson. Emerson had earlier worked in Bill Clinton’s administration as a senior political appointee and as a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department; which exemplifies the close links between the HRW and the U.S. regime. Indeed, one of the only officers in HRW’s Board who has not been a corporate bigwig is the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and the Republic of Congo, Robin Sanders. Meanwhile, the Australian in the HRW Board and indeed a Vice Chair of the Board, is one of the two owners and co-chairs of Australian private equity firm, CHAMP Private Equity, Joseph Skrzynski. Skrzynski, who was once also the chairman of SBS, is known for his ownership of extravagant beach-side mansions in Palm Beach and Elizabeth Bay.

Given that it is both funded by capitalist tycoons and other wealthy Western donors and led by corporate bigwigs it is little surprise that HRW takes a political line of strident opposition to the workers states created through the overthrow of capitalism. Indeed, anti-communist opposition to socialistic states goes to the very roots of HRW. HRW began in 1978 with Helsinki Watch – an organisation formed to support anti-communist forces seeking to overthrow the workers states then ruling the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This fundamental purpose of HRW, to provide the “human rights” cover to forces seeking the counterrevolutionary overthrow of socialistic states, has not changed to this very day.

With HRW, together with the rest of the imperialist ruling classes, having succeeded in destroying the former Soviet and East European workers states, their focus has now turned to the goal of destroying the remaining workers states. That HRW has gained much greater prominence in recent years is a reflection of the increasing desperation of the imperialist rulers to achieve this goal. With socialistic China’s spectacular successes in lifting her people out of poverty and improving the economic and cultural lives of her population such a stark contrast to the periodic economic crises, stagnant real wages, growing homelessness, divided societies, social malaise and decay of the capitalist world, the imperialist rulers know that they must destroy socialistic rule in China in order to ensure their own tyrannies at home. They are looking to the likes of HRW to rise to the occasion and spearhead the “human rights propaganda” front of their all-sided Cold War against Red China and the other socialistic states. And unfortunately, HRW is indeed rising to the task! HRW has played a lead role in selling the lie that Red China is persecuting her Uyghur minority and blares anti-communist, anti-PRC propaganda over Tibet, Hong Kong, COVID and a whole lot of other matters.

It is notable that HRW lists the Ford Foundation as one of their key partners. Established in 1936 by the big-time capitalist Ford family that owned the Ford Motor company, the Ford Foundation has always been devoted to buttressing capitalist rule and opposing communism. It worked closely with the CIA to both spread anti-communist propaganda and to assist CIA covert interference operations around the world. In the 1960s, the Ford Foundation trained elite students in Indonesia in both pro-capitalist political and economic ideology and anti-communist military operations. These students would play an important role in the CIA-backed, 1965 far-right coup in Indonesia that saw the Indonesian military and anti-communist mobs slaughter between one million to two million Indonesian communists, trade unionists, women’s rights activists and members of the Chinese and other minority communities. That HRW and the Ford Foundation should today be working closely together is thus completely natural. It is a bond between organisations that serve the same masters – the U.S. and other Western capitalist classes – share the same anti-communist ideology and have similar blood-soaked histories of providing the “human rights” and “pro-democracy” cover for hideous imperialist-orchestrated terror.


Separately and Independently
Serving Western Imperialist Interests

It is worth noting that the biggest single backer of HRW, liberal billionaire George Soros, happens to be a favourite hostile target of the reactionary far-right sections of the Western ruling classes. The far right of the capitalist establishment and its liberal wing, exemplified by the likes of Soros and HRW, truly hate each other on many issues. However, when it comes to China and other socialistic states, these feuding wings of the imperialist ruling classes – and the mainstream conservatives in between – unite as one to oppose these workers states. And they also unite as one to oppose most other states that refuse to submit to the “rules-based world order” – which, in practice, is really a “might is right” tyranny created and dominated by the U.S. and its junior imperialist partners.

In Australia, too, we see such collaboration between the organisations and representatives of the different ruling class-supporting factions in order to advance the interests of the capitalist class – especially when it comes to attacking the socialistic states. Thus, the ALP, the Teal “independents”, the Liberals and the Far-Right parties will openly cooperate to advance the Australian capitalist regime’s aggressive, U.S.-allied, military buildup targeting socialistic China. They also come together to push through legislation and other measures that allow the regime to forcefully repress and intimidate any people from Australia’s Chinese community and beyond who dare to make statements positive about the PRC. Often such collaboration extends to the Greens – such as in making lying attacks on China and North Korea over “human rights violations” or in preventing the PRC-sponsored, language-teaching Confucius Institutes from teaching Chinese language in Australian schools (the latter McCarthyist campaign was actually driven by Greens politician, David Shoebridge).

As well as open collaboration between the squabbling wings of Western ruling classes (and the social democratic organisations supporting them), they coordinate behind the scenes. You can bet that senior U.S. ruling class politicians and CIA and State Department officials are making clear to leaders of HRW what they would like the “independent human rights organisation” to emphasise. Often this may be done in an informal manner such as when they run into each other at social functions or at events promoting one of the political forces that they both support. However, for the most part, HRW does not take direct orders from the U.S. regime. There is no overall conspiracy as such. For HRW doesn’t need to receive direct orders! What makes HRW, other prominent Western “human rights” NGOs, all the arms of the U.S. and allied regimes, the different factions of the U.S., British, Australian and other U.S.-allied ruling classes, all the mainstream Western media and all well-funded think tanks in Western countries (like Australia’s ASPI and Lowy Institute) all sing basically the same tune is that they are all institutions ultimately controlled by, often directly funded by and always serving the interests of the very same people – that is, the closely-allied, Western imperialist exploiting classes. In other words, all these institutions and organisations are designed to serve either the U.S. capitalist class or allied capitalist ruling classes – like the Australian one. The fact that they are all not, for the most part, acting together in a giant conspiracy but rather act independently for the same cause, each with their own separate emphasis and nuances and sometimes even openly bickering with each other on the details, actually makes them all the more effective in advancing the predatory interests of the U.S., British and Australian imperialist ruling classes and their allies. For this makes it easier for the likes of HRW to claim that they are “independent”, “non-partisan” organisations.

HRW likes to present itself as a grass-roots organisation supporting the under-dog that is driven by nice, compassionate people who truly care about “human rights”. But the truth is that Human Rights Watch is an incredibly rich organisation directly funded by American and other Western capitalists and by wealthy, upper-middle class Western individuals. It is led by corporate bigwigs and dedicated to serving the predatory interests of the mass murdering, genocide-in-Gaza-supporting, U.S, British, Australian and allied imperialist ruling classes. We must push back against and discredit the extremely harmful, pro-imperialist propaganda that is being spouted out by Human Rights Watch! This includes through exposé’s of HRW’s deeds facilitating war-criminal-ridden, Western interventions in Libya and Syria; and now through providing the “human rights” cover for U.S./British/Australian/Canadian/New Zealand attacks aimed at crushing Yemeni support for the embattled Palestinian people of Gaza. We must also encourage any current, or former, volunteers and staff working for HRW, who mistakenly thought that they were joining a genuine human rights organisation and who are now disgruntled, to blow the whistle on the highly secretive organisation, expose all its funding sources and make the public aware of all of HRW’s connections to Western regime officials and unsavoury, imperialist-backed “rebel” groups in socialistic countries and other Western-targeted states. We in Trotskyist Platform also call on all genuine opponents of capitalism and imperialism to build street protests and pickets against Human Rights Watch. Let us work hard to obliterate blood-soaked Human Rights Watch through all political means available!

Free the Leftist, Anti-War and Anti-Nationalist Political Prisoners in Ukraine

Above: Political prisoner in Ukraine, Inna Ivanochko sits in a dock in a court. Inna Ivanochko is the head of the Lviv organisation of Opposition Platform — For Life, which was Ukraine’ second largest party in parliament until it was persecuted and then banned. She is facing up to 15 years in prison for expressing her political views in the years before the war started – which the Ukrainian regime have now retrospectively deemed to have been in the service of Russia. Her supposed “offences” include allegedly participating in a September 2015 protest rally over living standards grievances and violations of constitutional rights, taking court action in 2018 against a city council decision to knock down a monument to Soviet World War II soldiers and advocating turning Ukraine into a federal state during a 2018 television interview.
Photo: Supplied

Do Not Buy the Lie That Backing Ukraine’s
War Is a Matter of “Defending a Democracy”!

Down With the Albanese Government’s
Military Aid to Ukraine!

Free the Thousands of Leftist, Anti-War and
Anti-Nationalist
Political Prisoners
in Ukraine

25 June 2024: In late April, the Albanese Labor government announced yet another $100 million in “aid” to Ukraine. The new “aid” package includes air-dropped bombs and drones. The package was announced by deputy prime minister, Richard Marles during a visit to Ukraine where he encouraged the Ukrainian regime to continue its war against Russia. Marles also affirmed the continued participation of Australian soldiers in an operation training Ukrainian troops in Britain. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops have already been trained in this U.K.-led operation. The U.S. and European NATO powers and their allies, like the Australian imperialist regime, are prepared to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood to advance their proxy war against Russia.

As millions of low-paid workers, working-class youth, unemployed workers and pensioners suffer under soaring rents, Australian governments have failed to provide adequate funding for the public housing that could help drive down rents across the rental market. Meanwhile, governments of all stripes refuse to substantially boost the crushingly low Jobseeker payments. They say that there is a need to be “prudent” to avoid fueling inflation. Yet, when it comes to fueling death and destruction in distant lands to shore up Western imperialist domination of the world, successive federal governments have had no trouble finding large financial resources. The April announcement brings the Australian regime’s total military assistance to its Ukrainian counterparts to $880 million. Earlier announced Australian military support included the provision of armoured vehicles, six M777 155mm howitzers and artillery shells.

This military assistance is backed by all the parties in the Australian parliament, the entire mainstream media and all of Australia’s influential political think tanks. Yet despite this and the ruling class’ intense propaganda campaign supporting the proxy war against Russia, many Australians do not buy the government’s “rationales” for its military support to its Ukrainian counterparts. Indeed a poll conducted this month by the Australian government-controlled ABC news outlet found that a (small) majority of Australians actually want the government to wind back or end support for Ukraine.

One of the main narratives that Australia’s ruling class and other Western imperialist ruling classes use to justify their massive military backing of Ukraine is their claim that they are “defending a fellow democracy against an authoritarian power.” However the Ukrainian capitalist regime is no “democracy” of any kind! Fascist forces play a prominent role in Ukraine’s state organs. For example, a key part of Ukraine’s National Guard and prominent part of the regime’s ultra-nationalist folklore is the fascist Azov Assault Brigade. Formed in 2014 by neo-Nazi politician Andriy Biletsky, the Azov Assault Brigade sports Nazi regalia and trains its members in white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology. It is notorious for murdering, raping and assaulting numerous leftists, members of ethnic minorities and civilians sympathetic to Russia. The character of the Ukrainian regime can also be seen from the fact that in 2015 it made two Nazi-collaborating, anti-Soviet paramilitary groups (the UPA and the OUN), “heroes of Ukraine.” During World War II, the UPA and OUN between them murdered 100,000 Polish people and tens of thousands of Jewish people, while helping their Nazi allies to carry out the Holocaust. The Ukrainian regime has also renamed many streets after the fascist leader of the OUN, Stepan Bandera; and have also erected numerous statues and other monuments to this Nazi-allied war criminal.

Capitalism and Democracy

Of course, the Western regimes using Ukraine are hardly true “democracies” themselves. To be sure Western governments are elected and citizens are theoretically able to advance their political views. However, in practice it is the wealthy capitalists, in great disproportion to their small numbers that have the means to shape public opinion and hence steer election outcomes. It is they who own the media, establish and finance the political think tanks, provide much of the funding for political parties and political NGOs and have the financial resources to pay for expensive political advertising and lobbyists. Thus in terms of political influence, “democracies” under capitalism run more on “one dollar, one vote” rather than the nominal, “one person, one vote.” Moreover, due to their tremendous wealth and control of the economy, the capitalists are able to ensure that all the key state institutions remain tied to them by thousands of threads irrespective of which political party is elected to govern. Therefore, in all nominally “democratic” capitalist countries, the form of “democracy” masks the reality that the system is in fact just a form of dictatorship of the capitalist class. To the extent that there is any real democracy it is only that the different capitalists and pro-capitalist factions are able to freely and “democratically” debate their differences and arrive at a majority decision about which policies best serve the interests of their class. Moreover, just as in more openly authoritarian forms of capitalist rule, whenever the rule of the capitalist class faces a serious challenge, the ruling class will resort to the most brutal authoritarian repression to protect their interests.

Nevertheless, as far as the working-class and other oppressed are concerned, this pseudo-“democratic” form of administering capitalism is preferable to other forms of capitalism – like fascism, military dictatorship etc – because it allows the masses comparatively greater freedoms with which to organise resistance against capitalist exploitation. That is why in capitalist parliamentary democracies like Australia, we oppose every attack of the ruling class on the limited democratic rights that the masses do have. And as decaying, late-stage capitalism is increasingly unable to meet the needs of the masses, in nearly every capitalist parliamentary “democracy” around the world the worried capitalist class is chipping away at the political rights that it had previously conceded to the masses. Just look at the hardline anti-protest laws that have been enacted in NSW and other Australian states and the federal government’s draconian “foreign interference” laws which are aimed at suppressing expressions of sympathy for socialistic China.

Teacher from Kiev, Alla Dushkina. She spent three months in a Ukrainian jail for correspondence with an acquaintance from Russia, in which she expressed doubts about the correctness of Ukraine’s political course. Later, she was granted bail and managed to leave the country without waiting for the verdict. Ukrainian journalist Pavel Volkov managed to interview her. Here is an excerpt from what Alla Dushkina told the journalist:
“I was arrested with my son in Khmelnitskiy [a city in Western Ukraine].
“Five cars surrounded us, and then they interrogated me for 72 hours, trying to get a confession. I didn’t sign anything, we were beaten, wrapped in a black and red flag [the flag of the Nazi-collaborating OUN-UPA]. I had to confess that I made some marks [for Russian bombs and missiles] and that I had given shelter to Kadyrovites [Chechens who are fighting for Russia], whom I had never seen in my life. And they took fingerprints, and forced me to pass a lie detector, and threatened to take me in the city square with an announcement that I was putting tags [was a missile gunner] so that the mothers of the murdered soldiers would beat me. Then they realized that I wouldn’t sign anything, put bags on my son and me and started leading us somewhere. They brought us to Kiev, my son was shoved into the basement in front of me, they demanded from him to say that I had killed people, pressed on my conscience, threatened. I was taken to the SSU building on Askold Lane, then to the Lukyanovo pre—trial detention center. The jailer showed me videos on her phone every morning – as far as I can understand, she was instructed to do this – how in both men’s and women’s buildings people were beaten, dipped their heads in the toilet, bullied. They demanded a confession from me to avoid the fate of people on these videos.”

Photo: Supplied

Today’s Ukraine – Not Any Kind of Democracy At All

Today’s capitalist Ukraine does not even have the truncated, “democratic” form of the dictatorship of the capitalist class that exists today in Australia, the U.S., France and other so-called “Western democracies.” Political parties and activists genuinely opposed to the Ukrainian government’s policies face severe and brutal repression. Such repression greatly intensified after a 2014 far-right coup, engineered by Washington and the European imperialist powers. That coup overthrew the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych who attempted to simultaneously maintain friendly ties with both Russia and the EU. Yanukovych’s government was replaced by a rabidly Ukrainian nationalist regime that was as fiercely anti-Russia as it was pro-Western. The new regime enacted laws discriminating against the Russian-speaking populations in the east of Ukraine as well as against other non-Ukrainian minorities. When the post-2014 regime inevitably met with opposition – especially in the east and south of the country – this was met with extreme repression supplemented by the terror of fascist gangs. In 2015, the regime banned the sizable Communist Party of Ukraine and two smaller other, nominally communist parties. Meanwhile the regime jailed or threatened political opponents and journalists.

Some Ukrainians have made courageous efforts to detail the persecution that others are facing at the hands of the Ukrainian regime. Among these is Ukrainian journalist Pavel Volkov. Volkov was himself imprisoned from 2017 for thirteen months for merely writing articles critical of the 2014 right-wing coup and for sympathising with the plight of the people of the eastern, mostly Russian-speaking, Donbass region who were attacked for their opposition to the new ultra-nationalist order. For this, he was accused of “separatism,” “terrorism,” and “collaboration with the enemy”. Due to the efforts of out of court supporters and a dedicated team of lawyers, Volkov eventually proved the charges false in court. However, this was a very rare case where the Ukrainian regime’s trumped-up charges against opponents have been defeated in the regime’s courts. Most of those targeted end up in prison or worse. Pavel Volkov described what he observed in the years 2018-2020:

“… people have been tried under `separatist’ and `terrorist’ articles for laying flowers at the Soviet monuments; paying taxes for DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) [a pro-Russia rebel government that was established in the eastern Donetsk region by opponents of the post-2014 far-right regime]; organizing `Pushkin Balls,’ and so on. Any activity that can be interpreted as the glorification of the Soviet past, the valorization of the Russian culture, or the recognition of the authorities of rebellious Donbass came to be acknowledged as `separatist’ and `terrorist.’”

Ukrainian journalist, Pavel Volkov, in court.
Photo: Supplied

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, the Ukrainian regime has used the cover of the war and the mantra of “defending national security against treason” to persecute its opponents to a yet more extreme degree. In June 2022, the regime banned the biggest opposition party, the Opposition Platform — For Life, a party which just 17 months before had been leading Ukraine’s opinion polls. Similarly, the regime banned several other parties – accusing all of either “collaborating with Russia” or “violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” or “destabilising the social and political situation in Ukraine”. Among the parties that the Ukrainian regime banned include Viktor Yanukovych’s former party, the Party of Regions as well as Derzhava, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Socialist Party of Ukraine and Union of Left Forces.

Anyone in Ukraine who expresses even the mildest sympathy for Russia or who advocates peace talks is targeted. Other dissidents are falsely accused of pro-Russia sympathies in order to silence them. As journalist, Pavel Volkov put it:

“Today, there are thousands of civilian prisoners in Ukraine who are deprived of their liberty and human rights for `likes’ under `incorrect’ social-media posts, Internet discussions of projectile impact location, frank correspondence with relatives in Russia via messengers, performing professional duties (like teaching) in the territories occupied and then abandoned by Russia, and so on. The retreats of the Russian Armed Forces from the Kiev region, parts of the Kharkov region, and parts of the Kherson region in later 2022 were marked by mass arrests, which continue to this day. This is what the SSU [Security Service of Ukraine] calls `the stabilization measures.’ Only in the summer of 2022, as a result of these `measures’ – apartment-by-apartment sweeps – 700 people were detained in Vinnytsa and Nikolaev – two regional centers in the southern part of Ukraine bordering the Odessa region.”

Although Volkov himself was forced to flee Ukraine in the latter part of 2022, he and his colleagues have since then painstakingly analysed the open source data of the various enforcement agencies of the Ukrainian regime in order to estimate the number of political prisoners there. They found that from the time of the 2014 far-right coup to the start of the Russian intervention in early 2022, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office brought 643 cases to the court on political charges. This repression then escalated such that in 2022 and 2023 alone the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office and regional prosecutor’s offices opened up 26,821 cases on political matters of which 4,315 have already been brought to the court with an indictment. Moreover, when the cases brought by the Ukrainian National Police and the SSU secret police are also included, Volkov and Co. found that the Ukrainian regime had opened up over 74 thousand criminal cases on politically motivated charges. This means that the number of people in today’s Ukraine who are in either prison or pre-trial detention on the basis of political charges is likely to be in the tens of thousands.

Among the laws that Ukrainian regime have used to persecute dissidents is Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s criminal code which nominally prosecutes people for: justification, recognition as legitimate or denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine or glorification of its participants. Articles 110 and 110-2 of Ukraine’s criminal code also targets people for expressing dissident views but does so under the official charge of: trespass against the territorial integrity or inviolability of Ukraine or financing of such actions. Volkov’s research shows that under these three articles of the criminal code alone, Ukrainian prosecutors in 2022 and 2023 have opened up 14,411 political cases of which more than 1,400 were already brought to court during that period. Under the likes of these type of pretexts, Professor Sergey Shubin from the Nikolayev region was sentenced to 15 years in prison for merely making reflections in his personal diary on what life would be like in the region if it were occupied by the Russian army. A pensioner from Sumy region Lyudmila Vazhinskaya was sentenced to six months jail for advocating peace talks between Ukraine and Russia while talking with people in a queue for milk. In a high-profile case, Inna Ivanochko, the head of the Lviv (city in western Ukraine) organisation of Ukraine’ second biggest parliamentary party (until it was persecuted and then banned), Opposition Platform — For Life, was arrested in August 2022 and has been in pre-trial detention ever since. She is facing up to 15 years in prison for expressing her political views in the years before the war started. These include allegedly participating in a September 2015 rally against low pensions, increased tariffs and violations of constitutional rights, taking legal action in a Lviv court (!!) against the 2018 decision of the Lviv City Council to knock down a monument to Soviet World War II soldiers and advocating turning Ukraine into a federal state (an idea which is branded “separatism” in contemporary Ukraine) in a television interview in 2018. Outrageously, the three lawyers who defended Inna Ivanochko have also all been arrested. The latest of her lawyers to be arrested was Svetlana Novitskaya who was seized on February 20 of this year and has been imprisoned ever since. She is accused of violating Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s criminal code, “denying the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” … for her statements in court defending her client, Inna Ivanochko! Defence lawyers imprisoned for their submissions in court defending their clients – such is the “democracy” that the Australian and other Western capitalist rulers say that they are “defending” through sending huge quantities of weapons to their proxy!

Volkov’s research found that in 2022 and 2023 Ukrainian prosecutors had also opened 3,126 cases of suspicion of “High treason” under Article 111 of its criminal code and 7,058 cases on “Collaborationism” under Article 111-1. Most of the people imprisoned under such charges are those who worked in public institutions in the areas occupied by the Russian army. After the Russian troops withdrew from some of the areas, these public sector workers have been persecuted as “traitors” and “collaborators”. People like Anatoliy Miruta, a man from the Kiev region who was jailed for 10 years for negotiating with the Russian military to take local residents to the hospital and distributing Russian humanitarian aid. Or like, Valentina Ropalo, a resident of Volchansk in the Kharkov region, who was hit with a five year prison sentence for working as the head of the housing and communal services department while the Russian army was in her city, which was deemed to be “collaboration with the enemy”. Meanwhile, Olga Galanina, Deputy Chairman of the Berdyansk Administration for Humanitarian Affairs, is facing a life sentence because she agreed to continue her work in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, under the Russian administration. SSU officers kidnapped her student son in Dnepropetrovsk, illegally held him in detention, forcing his mother to come to the territory controlled by Ukraine, where she was arrested.

In addition to the political prisoners in Ukraine who have either been officially sentenced to jail or are in pre-trial detention, are a large number of others who have been abducted by the regime or its fascist auxiliaries. Among them is Sergey Chemolosov, a resident of the village of Ivanovka in the Kharkov region. Chemolosov had been distributing Russian humanitarian aid and helped restore the village’s electricity supply during the stay of Russian troops there. On 7 September 2022, Ukrainian military officers kidnapped Chemolosov and took him to an unknown destination. On September 9, Kirill Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the office of President Zelensky, published on Facebook a photo in which Chemolosov, with marks showing that he was severely beaten in custody, is sitting blindfolded with his hands tied. What later happened to Chemolosov or whether he is even still alive is unknown. It is also unknown the exact number of political prisoners that the Ukrainian regime has similarly abducted and is illegally detaining at secret locations.

9 September 2022: Sergey Chemolosov, a resident of the village of
Ivanovka in Ukraine’s Kharkov region, is shown in a Facebook post,
celebrating his detention, made by the deputy head of the office of President Zelensky, Kirill Tymoshenko. Chemolosov is blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back and with marks indicating that he was beaten in custody. Two days earlier, Ukrainian military officers had abducted Chemolosov and taken him to an unknown location. Chemolosov’s “crime” is that he had been distributing Russian humanitarian aid and helped restore the village’s electricity supply during the stay of Russian troops in his village. What later happened to Chemolosov is unknown.

Down With the Ukrainian Regime’s Persecution of Leftists!

The pro-Western Ukrainian regime has especially targeted avowed communists, leftists and others with sympathy for the former Soviet Union. Thus Pavel Volkov’s research shows that among the politically motivated criminal cases that Ukrainian prosecutors have opened up in 2022 and 2023 are 600 cases of suspected violation of Article 436-1 of Ukraine’s criminal code, which bans the production and distribution of communist symbols and propaganda sympathetic to communist “totalitarian regimes” (which is mostly aimed at supporters of the former Soviet Ukraine and the former Soviet Union). Already 322 people have been brought before the courts on these charges. Formally, Article 436-1 also bans Nazi symbols and propaganda sympathetic to Nazi regimes. However, that part of the law is never applied – especially since support for Stepan Bandera and his Nazi-allied OUN is a key part of the official ideology of the Ukrainian regime. Article 436-1 of Ukraine’s criminal code was indeed never meant to target neo-Nazi elements. The proscription of Nazi symbols in Article 436-1 was included purely to obscure the stridently anti-communist nature of the law.

Many of the leftists imprisoned have been prosecuted under trumped-up charges under other articles of Ukraine’s criminal code. Among them is left-wing activist from Zaporozhye, Yuriy Petrovsky who was hit with a 15 year jail term for allegedly providing assistance to the Russian military. Also imprisoned is Bogdan Syrotiuk, a leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists and who is associated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). Syrotiuk was arrested eight weeks ago on trumped charges of “treason” because of his opposition to both the Ukrainian and Russian side in the war. If convicted by Ukraine’s thoroughly biased courts, Syrotiuk is threatened with a prison sentence of 15 years to life. The ICFI have held rallies outside Ukraine embassies in several cities demanding freedom for Bogdan Syrotiuk, including a June 14 protest in Canberra conducted by the ICFI’s Australian section, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). We in Trotskyist Platform add our voice to the demand for immediate freedom for 25 year-old Bogdan Syrotiuk.

Trotskyist Platform demands the immediate release of all those imprisoned by the Ukrainian regime for expressing pro-Soviet, communist and other leftist sympathies. We say: Immediately scrap the anti-communist Article 436-1 of Ukraine’s criminal code! We also call for the immediate release of all those imprisoned in Ukraine for advocating peace in the war of for expressing sympathy for Russia or merely admiration for Russian culture. Those public sector workers branded as “traitors” and “collaborators” for performing their duties during Russian control of their villages and cities must also be immediately freed. Down with the Ukrainian regime’s mafia-style abductions of dissidents and those-branded as “Russian collaborators”! Lift the regime’s ban on the Communist Party of Ukraine! Lift the Ukrainian regime’s ban on all other leftist, anti-nationalist, anti-war and other opposition parties!

It should be noted that we support the campaign to free ICFI-associated Bogdan Syrotiuk despite our profound political differences with the ICFI and the SEP. Not least among our differences with the ICFI/SEP is our objection to their decision to “denounce the Russian military intervention in Ukraine” in February 2022 – a point which they have been reiterating of late – which undercuts their nominal position of opposition to both sides in the war and slants towards a position of partially defending Ukraine (a true defeatist on both sides stance would not have taken a position on the question of the February 2022 Russian intervention). Today, recognising that Ukraine’s war with Russia has become subordinate to the Western imperialist tyrants of the world, we in Trotskyist Platform call for the defence of Russia (despite its reactionary capitalist rulers) against imperialism and its Ukrainian proxies. In contrast, the SEP and ICFI continue to take a stated position of opposition to both sides in the war.   

Ukrainian journalist, Pavel Volkov, pictured during his 13 month period of imprisonment, starting in 2017, for writing articles critical of the Ukrainian regime. Since his release, he and his colleagues have analysed open source data revealing thousands of cases of political persecution in his country. Pictured sitting on the left is defence lawyer, Svetlana Novitskaya, who herself has been in pre-trial detention since 20 February 2024. Novitskaya is being persecuted for her defence of many high-profile political prisoner cases. She is accused of violating Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s criminal code, “denying the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” during her statements in court defending her client, opposition politician, Inna Ivanochko!
Photo: Supplied

Extreme Political Repression in Ukraine a Result of the
Early 1990s Capitalist Counterrevolution

The political repression in today’s Ukraine is far more intense and brutal than any repression that occurred in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the last four decades of the socialistic Soviet Union. To be sure, in the mid-late 1930s when the, by then bureaucratised, leadership of the Soviet worker state, under the impact of profound international defeats for the socialist movement, moved to the right in many areas – from international policy, to economic and social policies, to backsliding on Lenin’s 100% correct insistence on being sensitive to the national rights of the Ukrainian and other non-Russian peoples – the Stalin-led bureaucracy sought to muzzle potential resistance to this rightist turn with murderous persecution of the most devoted and thoughtful communists. Soviet Ukraine was especially hard hit by this repression for a several year period. However, from the late 1950s onwards, the jailing of political dissidents in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (and indeed the whole Soviet Union) became relatively rare. Moreover, the political prisoners that did exist in Soviet Ukraine during this period were largely not leftists. Rather, Soviet Ukraine’s repression mostly targeted opponents of socialistic rule – something which even a workers state operating under the ideal form of workers democracy may be compelled to do during the transition to full socialism if it is facing a world where the richest, most economically powerful countries of the world continue to be under capitalist rule.

All this is important to understand because the fanatically anti-Soviet Ukrainian regime and its imperialist masters present today’s Ukraine as “democratic” as opposed to the “totalitarian” Soviet period. Similarly, they portray the period of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as an unending series of horrors in which the Ukrainian people were supposedly “oppressed” by Russians. However, during the Soviet Union’s hey days in the late 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the masses of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic enjoyed full employment, free high-quality education, free health care and a rich cultural, entertainment and sporting life. The 1917 great October Socialist Revolution not only freed all the toilers of the former Russian empire from capitalism but it liberated the people of Ukraine from the intense national oppression that they faced in the pre-Soviet days when they were under the thumb of Russian imperialist rulers. To be sure, during certain periods of Stalin’s administration of the Soviet Union, there were bouts of partial re-institution of policies offending the Ukrainian people’s legitimate national feelings. However, from the late 1950s onwards, although there remained a degree of Russian centredness in the Soviet bureaucracy, the culture of the minority nationalities of the socialistic USSR again flourished with renewed vigour along with the economic standard of living of their peoples. It could not be said that the people of Ukraine were nationally oppressed in this period. Indeed, by the latter days of the Soviet period, the average life expectancy in Soviet Ukraine was nearly a year and a half higher than in Soviet Russia.

However, the Soviet workers state faced intense hostility from the considerably richer imperialist powers. The immense external pressure that capitalism exerted upon the Soviet Union resulted in a conservative bureaucracy being squeezed up to the top of the workers state. The rule of this bureaucracy, with its petty privileges, politically and economically weakened the workers state. Through suppressing workers democracy, the bureaucracy retarded the Soviet Union’s socialist planned economy from reaching its full and tremendous potential. Eventually, under the relentless pressure of the imperialist powers and the economic stagnation that this caused, the bureaucracy started making more and more international and domestic concessions to capitalism. This encouraged a layer of petty capitalists and speculators and highly educated, mostly younger, people – who were seduced by the promise that capitalism would bring them the standard of living enjoyed by the upper and upper-middle classes in the West along with “democracy” – to push for outright capitalist counterrevolution. They spearheaded their push under the cover of fighting for “democracy”. In Ukraine this was supplemented with virulent Ukrainian nationalism. Yet despite their promises and the massive backing they were gaining from the U.S.-led imperialists, most of the people of Soviet Ukraine did not support these counterrevolutionaries. In a March 1991 Soviet-wide referendum on whether or not to maintain the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, more than 71% of the people of Soviet Ukraine voted to maintain the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in a referendum that had a nearly 84% turnout in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, although the majority of the people of Soviet Ukraine – and indeed the whole Soviet Union – were wary of those who wanted to overthrow socialistic rule, lacking authentic leadership and being depoliticised by decades of bureaucratic rule, they were confused as to what to do and, to an extent, were even unclear about the need to forcibly resist the emerging counterrevolution. As a result, a relatively small layer of imperialist-backed counterrevolutionaries were able to destroy the greatest victory the working classes of the world have ever achieved, while the working-class masses watched on by.  

A comparison of life expectancy of Ukraine and China from 1989 to 2021. In 1989, the year before Ukraine and the rest of the Soviet Union started diving rapidly towards its 1991-92 capitalist counterrevolution, the average life expectancy in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was three years higher than in socialistic China (which then still had a long way to go to catch up from the terrible poverty of its pre-1949, semi-colonial capitalist times). But after capitalist counterrevolution, the life expectancy in Ukraine collapsed along with the people’s living standards. Three decades later, in 2021 (which was the year before the war started), the life expectancy in Ukraine was still less than it was near the end of her socialistic days in 1989, despite all the advances in global medical science over the last three decades. By contrast, China, which has remained under socialistic rule has continued to see a strongly rising life expectancy. From having an average life expectancy that was three years below that of Soviet Ukraine in 1989, socialistic China’s average life expectancy by 2021 was more than eight years higher than in, now, capitalist Ukraine (it is today almost 11 years higher).
Source: World Bank

The 1991-1992 capitalist counterrevolution and the resulting conversion of collectively-owned, public enterprises into the private ownership of a few was a disaster for the toiling masses of Ukraine. Indeed it was a catastrophe for all the masses of the former Soviet Union. Unemployment soared, people were driven into poverty, industries were dismantled, the social position of women diminished and ethnic tensions intensified. And far from the “democracy” that the leaders of the capitalist counterrevolution promised, every part of the former Soviet Union saw political persecution of opponents. In October 1993, pro-Western “democratic” Russian president, Boris Yeltsin unleashed tanks against protesters and his own parliament, killing nearly 150 people.

Such political repression in all ex-Soviet countries is driven by two inter-related factors. Firstly and most importantly, the capitalist counterrevolution reduced the living standards of much of the population. Bitter about their position and having known a better life in the Soviet days, the masses could not be held back from opposing the new social “order” through propaganda and nationalism alone. The new capitalist rulers also needed to unleash brutal political repression to keep the masses in check.

Secondly, the political repression in the now capitalist countries existing in the lands of the former Soviet Union is partly connected with the particular forms of capitalism that arose from the capitalist counterrevolution. In the lands that have never been workers states, capitalism emerged from feudalism (except in some settler colonies when it was brutally imposed on first peoples often living in egalitarian hunter-gatherer type societies) as a higher, more progressive social system than the one that it replaced. Then, after having exhausted its initially progressive content, now decaying capitalism brought only suffering to the masses, social reaction, imperialism and catastrophic inter-imperialist wars; while still containing elements of its ability to develop the productive forces further than the feudalism that it had replaced. However, when capitalism was re-introduced to the lands of the former Soviet Union, it had absolutely no traces of the young, initially relatively progressive, capitalism that replaced feudalism. Instead, the capitalism that was transplanted into the lands of the former Soviet Union was entirely the decrepit, reactionary capitalism of the late 20th century. Moreover, this capitalist rule was not replacing a still more oppressive feudalism but replacing a higher, more progressive social order – one based on collective ownership of the means of production and working-class rule. Therefore, inevitably, the new capitalist ruling classes dreamt not mainly of expanding the productive forces to boost profits but of looting the productive capacity that was already there and of making a killing by dismantling and selling off the former Soviet Union’s massive industrial base. The capitalism installed into the lands of the former Soviet Union was an especially corrupt and venal form of capitalism. Alongside the plunge in the masses standard of living caused by the reversion to a reactionary social system, capitalist restoration in the lands of the former Soviet Union led to a retrogression in the moral substance of the people. The destruction of a collectivist-based economic system and its replacement with one-based on exploitation and dog-eat-dog competition – especially in conditions of newly arisen poverty – has pushed many to abandon some of the caring, mutually aiding outlook that Soviet people were famous for in favour of a ruthless jostling for scarce jobs and assets. For all these reasons, the capitalism that arose on the ashes of the Soviet workers state has been a mafia-style capitalism, characterised by the close inter-twining of capitalists with criminal gangs and collaboration between state agencies and criminal groups. The brutality of the state organs in the now capitalist, ex-Soviet countries is then in part driven by their “need” to defend the interests of the particular capitalists-criminals that they are collaborating with by mercilessly suppressing the objections of both rival mafia capitalists and those citizens daring to challenge this corruption.

However, at the same time, more far-sighted elements within the capitalist classes in ex-Soviet countries see the need to bring order to their capitalism in order to ensure the efficiency and viability of their system. They seek a political force – typically centred around a “strongman” – to achieve this task. When such a political force is pushed into power by the dominant elements of the capitalist class, this force uses ruthless repression to make particular capitalists – and the sections of the masses that these bigwigs have brought around them – sacrifice some of their short-term criminal-linked plunder in order to ensure the overall interests of the capitalist class as a whole and the long-term survival of the capitalist order. This is the role played in Russia by Putin. The fact that he performs this function reasonably effectively is the reason why he has been backed by the majority of Russia’s capitalist exploiting class for so long – despite his occasional crackdowns on particular oligarchs. To be sure, the discipline to capitalism that such strongmen bring often does not apply to their closest friends and relatives within the capitalist class! That is why the capitalists closest to Putin are given favoured treatment – as long as they don’t drift into opposition to him (like late Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin did!).

Yet, even amongst the repressive capitalist regimes in the countries of the former Soviet Union, today’s Ukrainian one is especially brutal. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that the people of Ukraine have suffered from capitalist counterrevolution especially hard. Notably, despite all the advances in modern health science over these last three decades, Ukraine’s average life expectancy in the year before the recent war began (2021) was actually lower than it was in 1989, the year before Ukraine and the rest of the USSR started sliding rapidly towards capitalist restoration! Moreover, whereas at the end of the Soviet times in 1990, Ukraine’s GDP per capita (as determined by the more relevant PPP – Purchasing Power Parity – method) was 95% of Russia’s, i.e. basically the same despite being far more resource poor than Russia; by 2021, the year before the war began, her per capita income was less than half that of Russia’s (46% of Russia’s to be exact). By the way, this comparison alone should smash the notion that Ukraine was a “subjugated” nation in Soviet times that became “liberated” through the destruction of the Soviet Union! However, the main point for us here is that the working-class masses of Ukraine have suffered even more cruelly from the capitalist counterrevolution than the masses of Russia. And therefore the regime enforcing capitalist rule in Ukraine has been compelled to use still more brutal repression to keep the unhappy masses in line.

The second reason why repression is particularly severe in Ukraine is because the regime there took an especially fanatical anti-Soviet turn after the 2014 right-wing coup. They began knocking down monuments to the Soviet Union and to the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany. The regime even passed a law banning, under the threat of up to five years imprisonment, any singing of the Communist Internationale or the Ukrainian Soviet and Soviet anthems and any flying of the flags of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the former Soviet Union! Yet a considerable proportion of Ukraine’s population is either old enough to remember how much better life was in Soviet times or at least old enough to hear such accounts from their parents and their aunts and uncles. To people who remember fondly and are proud of the achievements of the Soviet Union and of the Red Army’s heroic victory over Nazi Germany, the extreme anti-Sovietism of Ukraine’s ruling elite and its hailing of anti-Soviet, Nazi collaborators are unbearably offensive. This is especially true for the peoples of the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, who have been less blinded by extreme nationalism than peoples in the western Galician region generally have. Thus to enforce its anti-Soviet laws, practices and ideology, the regime has had to use naked repression and intimidation against the significant percentage of pro-Soviet minded people in the country.

Thirdly, given that a significant part of Ukraine’s population speak Russian as well as other non-Ukrainian languages – including Hungarian, Moldovan and Romanian – as their first language, the post-2014 Ukrainian regime’s discrimination against the use of non-Ukrainian languages inevitably provoked strong resistance. Such discrimination is itself a result of the majority of the capitalist class realising that it could only protect itself from the wrath of the masses, discontented as they are over high unemployment and poor living standards, through diverting their anger onto Russian-speakers and ethnic minorities. Ukraine’s rulers are hardly the only capitalist ruling class to enact language discrimination in order to divide the working-class masses and prevent united multi-ethnic mass struggle against themselves. And they are hardly the only regime to face a revolt as a result of such discriminatory language policies! For example, in Sri Lanka, the majority of the capitalist ruling class, terrified by a massive 1953 general strike, which united workers from both the majority Sinhala ethnicity and the minority Tamil ethnicity, in the following years introduced language laws that ostentatiously discriminated against Tamil speakers. It was this discrimination against Tamil language speakers that in good part eventually led to the rise of the Tamil armed national liberation struggle. And similar to Sri Lanka, the Ukrainian regime’s language and other social discrimination against non-Ukraine speakers can only be enforced with brutal state repression against those who resist.

Fourthly, and in good part for the above three reasons, a significant part of Ukraine’s population does not want to fight a war with Russia. Many even sympathise with Russia, which is seen as less oppressive of pro-Soviet sentiment than the Ukrainian regime as well as obviously being more tolerant of Russian speakers. Terrified by this reality, the Kiev regime unleashes hysterical repression and violence against dissidents – both real and perceived.

Political prisoner, Professor Sergey Shubin in the dock of a Ukrainian court. The Ukrainian regime sentenced Shubin to 15 years in prison for merely making reflections in his personal diary on what life would be like in his Nikolayev region if it were occupied by the Russian army.
Photo: Supplied

Fifthly, the Ukrainian regime has a sizable support base of fanatical nationalists from which to launch repression against its opponents. Although a significant part of Ukraine’s population rejects the regime’s extreme anti-Soviet and anti-Russian hostility, there is also a sizable part of Ukraine’s self-employed and middle class population who have fallen for the extreme Ukrainian nationalism that they have been fed by the majority of the country’s capitalist class. They have bought the ruling class’ lying anti-Soviet propaganda. However, there is also a genuine fear amongst Ukrainian people that they will be subordinated by a new Russian empire as the Ukrainian people truly were in pre-Soviet, Tsarist times. These fears are born of the reality that today’s Russian Army is not the Soviet Red Army that liberated Ukraine from the Nazi invasion (and from Bandera and other Nazi collaborators). And today’s Russia is no longer a Soviet Russia that proclaims “Friendship of the Peoples” but a capitalist Russia whose rulers openly hail the expansionist, Great Russian chauvinist, Tsarist times. Ukraine’s capitalist rulers manipulate their people’s fear of being subjugated by Russia and inject into those legitimate fears ultra-right-wing nationalism, fanatical anti-Sovietism and loyalty to the program of Bandera and other Nazi collaborators.

In summary, capitalist counterrevolution has not brought the masses in the former Soviet lands any of the prosperity and “democracy” that the counterrevolutionaries promised – not even the token form of “democracy” that exists in Western capitalist countries. Indeed, it has brought the very opposite! This is true throughout all the lands of the former Soviet Union – and is especially true in today’s Ukraine.

Above, Ukraine, July 2022: Prime minister Albanese meets with Ukrainian leaders during a visit aimed at encouraging the Ukrainian regime to maintain their war against Russia. Albanese is here holding a model of the Antonov An-225, the world’s largest aircraft that was sadly destroyed during the early days of the war. Ukrainian officials had presented the AN-225 model to Albanese as a symbol of Ukrainian national pride. The people of Ukraine should indeed be proud of the magnificent AN-225. Except the AN-225 was not made during the period of the post-Soviet, capitalist Ukraine but was manufactured in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, with components and design also contributed by various other parts of the Soviet Union (Below: The AN-225 in Soviet times carrying the Soviet spacecraft the Buran). Yet today’s fanatically anti-Soviet, Ukrainian regime, that outlaws any use of Soviet symbols, ended up presenting to Albanese what is in reality a tribute to this marvel of Soviet engineering excellence! Inadvertently, that is an admission of how much more Ukraine achieved in Soviet times. For Ukrainian officials simply could not find any symbol of achievement from the more than three decades of post Soviet, capitalist Ukraine’s existence that was worthy of being presented as a gift to a foreign “dignitary”. For, given the extreme hostility to the Soviet Union of this Ukrainian regime, if there actually was such a symbol of achievement from post-Soviet Ukraine, they would have presented it, rather than having to claim as their own the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s – and broader Soviet Union’s – fabulous aircraft. In Soviet times, Ukraine was known for its aircraft manufacturing and other advanced industries, its beautiful tourist destinations and its hospitable people. In contrast, post-Soviet, capitalist Ukraine has been most known by the outside world as one of the scam capitals of the world; and even more so as a place from where large numbers of women facing poverty and lack of opportunity would seek to become “mail-order-brides” to men living in richer countries; or sex workers in the West (many of whom would end up being cruelly exploited by sex industry bosses). Capitalist counterrevolution has been an absolute disaster for most people in Ukraine and most people in all of the former Soviet Union.
Photo (top): X/Twitter @ukraine_world.
Photo (below): Peter Volek/JetPhotos.Net

Defend Russia Against Imperialism
and its Ukrainian Proxies!

The Ukrainian regime’s imprisonment of tens of thousands of political prisoners blows to smithereens the claims of the Australian and other Western capitalist governments that they are backing Ukraine’s war in order to “defend democracy.” So what then is actually driving Ukraine’s war with Russia? When Russia first intervened in February 2022, the war was mostly an inter-capitalist squabble for territory. Ukraine wanted to forcibly keep lands in the eastern Donbass region where the majority of residents, mostly Russian speakers enraged at the fanatically anti-Soviet and anti-Russian character of the post-2014 regime, no longer wanted to be part of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Russian regime, encouraged by the ethnic/cultural solidarity of many of its people with the embattled Russian-speaking population in the Donbass region, wanted to not only grab the clearly pro-Russia portions of Ukraine but to gain additionally territory in regions where the majority of residents did not want to be part of Russia. Both the Ukrainian and Russian governments were driven by the needs of the respective capitalist classes that they serve to maximise the size of their guaranteed markets and the extent of raw materials under their control by maximising their country’s territory. For this reason, when Russia first entered Ukraine in February 2022, we called for opposition to both sides. At the same time, given that our “own” capitalist rulers and its U.S. senior partners were clearly backing Ukraine, we had a tilt that especially emphasized opposition to Ukraine. We demanded an end to all Western sanctions against Russia and an end to all Western military aid to Ukraine.

However, even from the first days of the Russian intervention there was another aspect to the conflict. The Western imperialist powers wanted to extend NATO to Russia’s borders in order to intimidate her. The imperialist powers wanted to prevent Russia from becoming a potential great power rival and hoped that they could instead, one day, again reduce Russia to the humiliated and dependent status that she had in the first decade after the capitalist counterrevolution. The imperial powers also hoped to pressure Russia into abandoning her friendly ties with socialistic China so that they could advance their main global strategic goal – to overthrow the Chinese workers state. Ideally, the imperialist powers hoped that through exerting pressure on Russia they could foster a “colour revolution” there that would bring to power a Western subservient regime – like the Yeltsin-Putin regime of the 1990s or the Ukrainian regime of today. Against these plans, Russia’s rulers understandably wanted to retard the encroachment of NATO to its borders.

Initially we judged that this driving force of the conflict was less a factor than the inter-capitalist squabble for territory. However, in our initial detailed coverage of the conflict, we foreshadowed the possibility that the antagonism between the Western imperialist powers and Russia could become the main aspect of the war. Within several weeks into the conflict, this is what indeed occurred. This was shown in late March-early April 2022 when Ukraine and Russia were on the verge of agreeing to a peace deal. However, that was scuttled by not only pressure on Zelensky from Ukraine’s fascist groups but by the diktats that the Western powers made to Kiev. Indeed on 9 April, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kiev where he publicly told the Ukrainian government that no peace deal should be made with Russia. The following month, the U.S. announced a package of arms to Ukraine that was on a qualitatively greater scale than earlier military backing. It had become clear that although the element of inter-capitalist squabble between Ukraine and Russia remained, this was now the minor factor in a war that had become largely a conflict between Western imperialism and Russia, with Ukraine the proxy of the former. Although Russia’s capitalist rulers themselves long to build a new imperialist empire, they currently have neither the capital to do so nor the alliance of a wealthy imperialist power that could allow them to gain a stake in imperialist lootings through acting as a military enforcer for their ally. Therefore, what we now have is a proxy war between the real imperialist plunderers of the world and a capitalist but not imperialist Russia. Therefore, we in Trotskyist Platform called to defend Russia in the conflict, headlining in an article outlining our updated position: “Don’t Let the Western Capitalist Rulers Reinforce Their Tyranny Over the World! Defeat U.S., British, Australian and German Imperialism’s Proxy War to Weaken and Stifle Russia!” As our article explained:

“Such a defeat would weaken the ability of the imperialists to mobilise further predatory interventions abroad. It would also deter their plans to use Taiwan as a proxy to pressure socialistic China or even to incite a world war against the socialistic giant. Moreover, any setback for the U.S. imperialists and their allies in this proxy war would give encouragement to the resistance struggles of all those being subjugated by the U.S. and its allies elsewhere, like the Palestinian people suffering under incessant Israeli terror. More generally, a defeat for the Western powers in their Ukraine proxy war could only encourage the toiling masses of Africa, Latin America, the South Pacific and most of Asia to resist in their own lands the various Western capitalists that super-exploit labour, plunder natural resources, leach loan interest repayments, seize markets and manipulate and stand over governments. Within the Western countries themselves, a defeat for the capitalist ruling classes in their proxy war would weaken their authority. It would thus open opportunities for the working class and oppressed to wage mass resistance against soaring rents and food and fuel prices, plummeting real wages, the incessant expansion of insecure work forms and brutal racist oppression of persecuted communities.”

Our updated position meant that we were no longer calling for the Russian working-class to oppose the war effort of its own rulers – we were only making such an appeal to the Ukrainian masses. But for our work in Australia, the updated line did not change our fundamental slogans on the war. What it did do is to increase the urgency to oppose Australian military support to Ukraine as part of opposing the entire U.S.-NATO-led proxy war against Russia. As part of this it is necessary to campaign to free all leftist, anti-war, anti-nationalist and other political prisoners in Ukraine. This is not only to save tens of thousands of people from terrible suffering or even torture and death but to expose the lie of the Australian and other Western rulers that they are “working to defend democracy in Ukraine”.

Free the Political Prisoners in Australia Too!

It is possible through a campaign of exposure and agitation in Australia and other Western countries to make headway in winning the release of the political prisoners in Ukraine. This is because the Western regimes ability to make their own populations accept military aid to Ukraine depends on convincing their own populations that the arms are going to “defend a democracy against authoritarianism”. Therefore, exposure of the anti-democratic nature of the Ukrainian regime could significantly embarrass their Western masters and force the latter to push the Ukrainian regime to try and improve its image by releasing some of its political prisoners. In a similar but slightly different way that is how opponents of Cold War McCarthysim, demanding freedom for pro-North Korea political prisoner in Australia, Chan Han Choi and an end to the broader McCarthyist persecution of supporters of socialistic states, ended up pressuring the Australian regime to give Choi a much shorter sentence than the regime had been planning. Since attacking socialistic North Korea and its socialistic Chinese ally over “human rights” is the key method that the Australian rulers use to mobilise their own populations behind their Cold War drive against these countries, our agitation, exposing how the Australian rulers were violating the human rights of a North Korea supporter and how this was symptomatic of both the bogus character of the regime’s claims to stand for “human rights” and of the biased, anti-working class nature of its “justice system”, was very politically damaging to them. And it is only when our struggle against the capitalist exploiting class – and the state organs that enforce their interests – does political damage to them does the capitalist ruling class ever retreat. So let us fight to win freedom for political prisoners in Ukraine by politically damaging the Australian and other Western rulers through exposing the mass incarceration of dissidents by their supposedly “democratic”, Ukrainian proxies

We cannot call for freeing political prisoners in Ukraine without also calling to free the political prisoners in Australia. The latest of these is David McBride, the whistleblower who was last month despicably sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison for passing information to the media that had the effect of exposing a large number of horrific war crimes by Australian special forces troops in Afghanistan. The other three political prisoners here are victims of the Australian ruling class’ enthusiastic participation in imperialism’s Cold War drive against socialistic China. The latest of these political prisoners to be jailed was Di Sanh Duong. Duong was outrageously sentenced to nearly three years in prison for supposedly “preparing to conduct foreign interference” on behalf of China, because he … publicly donated money to a Melbourne public hospital charity! Additionally, many Aboriginal people in prison, although not formally political prisoners, are in practice facing a political persecution. For they have been hit with not only over-policing but with especially harsh punishments because of the enduringly racist nature of the Australian regime. So we demand: Free the Aboriginal victims of Australia’s racist “justice system”! Free David McBride! Free Di Sanh Duong and fellow Cold War prisoners in Australia, Daniel Duggan and Alexander Csergo! Free the thousands of leftist, anti-war, anti-nationalist and other political prisoners in Ukraine!

STAND WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!

Photo Above: A man carries a young girl injured in an Israeli attack on the densely populated, southern Gaza city of Rafah on 8 May 2024. Over 1.4 million Palestinian people have fled to Rafah to oppose Israel’s murderous attacks elsewhere. Now, Israel’s assault on Rafah threatens a new catastrophe for the people of Gaza.
Photo credit: Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua

STAND WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
OPPOSE THE U.S. & AUSTRALIAN
IMPERIALIST BACKERS OF ISRAEL
ON ALL THEIR BATTLEFRONTS!

10 May 2024: Over the last seven months, Israel has killed 35,000 Palestinian people. Now they are attacking densely populated Rafah. This Gaza slaughter is only happening because of the massive support given to Israel by the U.S., German, British, Australian and other imperialist regimes. Just two weeks ago, Joe Biden signed into law a package for the U.S. to provide Israel with a further $A21 billion (!!) of weapons. Despite its smaller size, the Australian ruling class is also hugely participating in Israel’s mass murder. Pro-Palestinian activists have rightly slammed the Australian government’s military ties with Israel and the hundreds of millions that the Albanese Labor government gives to Israel through granting Israeli defence firms military contracts. Australia’s rulers are also joining in Israel’s genocide in two even more consequential ways. Firstly, the Australian regime greatly assists Israel to direct its bombing raids through hosting and helping operate the NT- based, Pine Gap ground station for U.S. spy satellites. Secondly, the Australian military is participating in the U.S.-led strikes on Yemen aimed at crushing pro-Palestine actions by the Houthis in the Red Sea.

The world is outraged by the Western rulers’ support for Israel’s genocide. So, these rulers try to appear like they are restraining Israel. The Labor government has publicly given its Israeli allies soft slaps on the wrists. This while the joint U.S.- Australia Pine Gap base is pinpointing Israel’s strikes on Gaza’s people! For its part, the U.S. regime leaked vague claims that it had delayed one weapons shipment to Israel. But the Pentagon then denied that there had been any decision to withhold arms. Washington and Canberra are behaving like a mafia thug who owns a vicious attack dog. The crime boss fears that the dog’s extreme brutality is setting everyone against them. So they give the dog a gentle public scolding. But they still keep on feeding the dog chunky pieces of meat, for they need the dog to keep on attacking their adversaries.

So concerned are the Western capitalist rulers at their damaged credibility that their media have been implying that it is Western governments – and only these governments – that have been opposing an Israeli invasion of Rafah! This, even as it is clear that it is actually Western imperialism’s adversaries – Yemen’s Houthis, Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Russia – who have (albeit to differing degrees) been the ones opposing Israel’s terror. Yet many are seeing through the deceit of Western mainstream media outlets. There have been large protests in Western countries against their own regimes’ complicity in Israel’s genocide. In Australia, opposition to the ruling class’ racist oppression of people of colour and Muslims is magnifying sympathy for the Palestinian cause amongst not only people of Arab background but people of Asian, African and Islander heritage, as well as anti-racist whites. In Sydney, there have been huge marches organised by the Palestine Action Group, attempts to stop the loading of ships belonging to Israel’s pro-war Zim shipping line and pro-Palestinian protest camps at universities. We in Trotskyist Platform support all these actions. We struggle for the world’s working class movements and all anti-imperialists to take action to demand: Israel stop your terror now! Israel out of Gaza and the West Bank! Stop the massive support being given to Israel by the U.S., Australian, British and German imperialists! Close the U.S.-Australia Pine Gap spy base! U.S., British and Australian forces get out of the Red Sea region! Let’s support the brave Palestinian resistance! Let’s stand with Yemen, Syria and Iran against U.S. and Israeli attacks!

RESIST THE WESTERN IMPERIALISTS
UPHOLDING ISRAEL’S TERROR!

Many activists have shown great energy and courage to stand with the Palestinian people. But for our efforts to actually make a difference, another key factor is urgently needed: a clear political direction. For starters, we need to understand why the U.S. and its allies so intransigently back Israel. Some say it is because “Zionists control America”. But this has it completely the wrong way around! In fact, it is the U.S. capitalist ruling class which controls Israel’s Zionist ruling class. Israel is the attack dog for U.S. imperialism in the oil-rich and strategically-located Middle East. Its role is to weaken all forces in the Middle East that fail to adequately subordinate themselves to Washington – whether they be Syria’s government, certain factions in Lebanon, Yemen’s Houthis or Iran. In imperialism’s new Cold War, Israel’s key designated task is to target countries that choose to have friendly ties with socialistic China. For undertaking this project, the imperialists are prepared to support Israel’s murderous subjugation of the Palestinian people.

The imperialists know that China’s cooperation with developing countries is making it harder for them to super-exploit these countries. Moreover, despite the incomplete, uncertain and deformed nature of China’s transition to socialism, the Western capitalists fear that if China continues to successfully lift her people further away from poverty, the masses in their own countries will eventually be demanding socialism too. And the more that the Western powers see this existential threat resulting from the rise of Red China, the more unconditionally are they willing to back their Zionist attack dog. This is part of why Australia’s imperialist rulers back Israel. With Australia and China both inhabiting the Asia-Western Pacific region, China’s cooperation with the ex-colonial countries is particularly damaging to Australian imperialist plunder in the region. Australia’s ruling class also backs Israel because they want the power of Israel’s U.S. masters to be protected. It is U.S. might that underwrites the Australian capitalists’ plunder of PNG, Fiji, East Timor and other Pacific and Southeast Asian countries. Furthermore, Australia’s rulers are counting on their U.S. allies to spearhead the destruction of the socialistic rule in China that an exploiting class in the Asia-Western Pacific region finds so threatening to its own rule.

The Israeli regime is not imperialism’s only attack dog. The anti-working-class Taiwanese regime has long been built up by the capitalist powers to be an unsinkable aircraft carrier targeting the Chinese workers state. For its part, imperialism’s Ukraine attack dog has been designated the task of waging a proxy war against Russia and the anti-Western inclined, Russian- speaking community in Eastern Ukraine. Although Russia is itself ruled by a reactionary capitalist class, Russia and the Russian-speaking East of Ukraine are too independent for the Western masters of the world to tolerate. That is why twelve days ago, Australia’s government announced that it was sending yet another $100 million of weapons to Ukraine.

There is a perverse “solidarity” among imperialism’s attack dogs.The Taiwanese and Ukrainian regimes are among Israel’s most rabid supporters. Most significantly, the very same U.S. law that granted $A21 billion in weapons to Israel, gave billions in military aid to Taiwan and an incredible $92 billion (!!) to Ukraine. This proves just how much imperialist support for Israel and their opposition to the Chinese workers state and to unbowed Russia go hand in hand. Conversely, true support for the Palestinian people means standing for the defence of socialistic rule in China and taking the side of Russia and Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine against NATO and its Ukraine proxies. Unfortunately, some of the groups supporting Palestine are actually backing Israel’s Western masters in their proxy campaigns. The Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance groups even back imperialist military support for their Ukrainian proxies. Yet, it is very obvious that the liberation of Palestine requires the weakening and not the strengthening of Israel’s Western imperialist backers.

WAGE POLITICAL WAR AGAINST THE
AUSTRALIAN CAPITALIST RULING CLASS
THAT IS PARTICIPATING IN ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE!

Sydney, 28 April 2024: Thousands march to oppose Israel’s genocidal assault on the people of Gaza. Shown here are some of the placards that Trotskyist Platform supporters carried at the action.
Photo credit: Trotskyist Platform

Given how much Israel’s terror depends on imperialism’s support, it is crucial that the pro-Palestine movement becomes a movement that fights to degrade the imperialists by opposing them on every single one of their battlefronts. Most of all, the movement here must become a movement of unyielding opposition to Australia’s capitalist ruling class. For Australia’s rulers will not be swayed one bit by appeals to their conscience. The only thing that will make them retreat from their support for Israel is the prospect of a resistance movement that undermines their rule. There are aspects of today’s movement that are promising. Aboriginal speakers have powerfully exposed the connection between the rulers’ brutal oppression of Aboriginal people and their support for Israel’s terror. Meanwhile, protesters have aptly chanted: “Albanese Your Hands are Red, Fifteen Thousand Children Dead!” When the ruling class hears such determined opposition and see activists making the connection between their support for Israel and their tyranny at home, it makes them very worried.

However, there are other aspects of the pro-Palestine movement that will be a relief to Australia’s ruling class. They are reassured when they see some at the protests appealing to them to be “independent of the U.S.” To be sure, the capitalist rulers do not agree with this appeal as their alliance with the U.S. is in their own interests. But the ruling class will be comforted that those pushing such calls are only appealing to them to change their policy, rather than staunchly opposing them as supporters of genocide, as some protest chants are doing. Other calls have downplayed the crimes of the Australian government by promoting the illusion that it could be a positive force for the Palestinian cause; or by appealing to the government “to do more to oppose Israel’s war.” Do more?! Far from having done anything at all to defend the Palestinian people, this government has been actively supporting Israel’s slaughter. Among those consciously pulling the movement back from unyielding opposition to the Australian ruling class are ALP “Left” forces, soft-on-Labor groups and pro-ALP union officials who have joined the pro-Palestine protests. The Greens are also pushing in this direction. For although individual Greens politicians like Mehreen Faruqi have spoken up against Israel’s terror, the fact is that the Greens ultimately uphold the rule of the capitalist class whose interests lie with supporting Israel. That is why when the Greens were part of a de facto coalition government with the ALP from August 2010 to February 2013, the Australian government continued to back Israel’s subjugation of Palestine. Today, the Greens German counterparts and the Greens foreign minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, are among the most rabid supporters of Israel.

Although some consciously hold back the movement from becoming one of staunch opposition to Australia’s rulers, in other cases, one and the same activists simultaneously hold sentiments of intransigent opposition to the capitalist rulers alongside support for slogans that pull the movement back from such a direction. Therefore, the duty of all pro-Palestine activists who understand the need for resolute opposition to the capitalist rulers is to strengthen such attitudes amongst fellow activists, while dispelling illusions in the potential benovelence of Australia’s capitalist class. The same political struggle is needed within our unions in order to turn verbal union statements in solidarity with Palestine into concrete actions – such as wharfies’ action refusing to load and unload Zim ships. This struggle to turn our unions into bodies of relentless opposition to Australia’s capitalist class is precisely what is also needed to make our unions weapons in the struggle to secure real wage rises, win a massive increase in public housing to drive down rents and fight for the conversion of casual jobs into secure ones. In short, the struggle to mobilise the workers movement in support of Palestine is one and the same struggle as the fight for workers rights and the struggle to oppose imperialism on all its battlefronts.

Let’s force Australia’s rulers to pull back from their support for Israel’s genocide! Let’s do this by making the pro-Palestine and union movements forces of unrelenting opposition to the capitalist rulers! If we succeed, we will inspire similar struggles in the U.S. and other Western countries. Two and a half million people in Gaza need us to succeed!