INDEX

 

1. China – No to war!
2. Editorial – “Save Tuvalu, save the world”
3. The way forward, growing
4. Sydney stadiums – Huge profits, huge public cost
5. Politics in the Pub – No Nukes for Australia
6. It’s dangerous, it’s undemocratic and it’s back

 

 

 

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1. China

No to war!

The US has launched a new arms race. Australia is caught up in the middle of it and could be a target if the US launches an attack on the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is not too late to stop Australia’s involvement in the US’s war plans and work towards harmonious relations with the China. But it will take a courageous government backed by a mass, anti-war movement to defy the demands of US imperialism.

For some years now the Australian and US governments have been preparing for war against China. References to China as the target in the 2014 and 2016 defence white papers were implied, rather than explicitly stated. However, there was no doubt who the main target was. Now the language has changed, China is directly referred to as a threat and war is openly mentioned.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the world had watched China for too long without acting. Meaning what?

In the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East tensions are high. A direct, counter-revolutionary challenge is being made to China’s sovereignty, in particular the internationally recognised sovereignty of One China, Two Systems is under attack. This is the aim of the external and internal forces behind the upheaval in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Australian government, the Labor Opposition and the corporate media have not let up in recent years demonising China, in a new Cold War. There is a real danger now of it escalating into a Hot War, not just with live fire but with nuclear weapons. No one wins a nuclear war. Trump is delusional if he thinks he can.

More recent use of terms such “authoritarian states”, “foreign interference”, cyber attacks, and the legislation on foreign interference and foreign political donations is all primarily aimed at China as well as Russia. Now, the government has joined the media with all out language of war as well as direct references to China as the threat.

New arms race

Military spending has been quarantined from budgets and is set to increase to an astronomical $1 trillion over 20 years in line with instructions from the US at the time of President Obama. Recent developments suggest that this could rise to even more obscene heights, while the unemployed continue to starve on $40 a day.

Earlier this month, the US tore up the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Moscow. The then US and Soviet leaders, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, signed the INF treaty in 1987. Its aim was to eliminate the presence of land-based nuclear missiles and medium-range arsenals between 500km and 5,500km from Europe.

Following his election, US President Trump announced his desire to increase the US’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. One of the barriers to this was the INF Treaty.

Trump is reportedly pushing for a sale of F-16 fighters to Taiwan worth US$8 billion, further adding to tensions.

“The sale of F-16s to Taiwan sends a strong message about the US commitment to security and democracy in the Indo-Pacific,” the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Friday August 9.

Taiwan is ruled by descendants of anti-communist Chinese nationalists who lost the civil war in 1949 and sought refuge on the island under US protection. It was recognised as the Republic of China until 1971, when the UN recognised Beijing as the only legitimate Chinese government.

Fearing an invasion from the mainland, Taiwan has been on a weapons buying spree from the US, with a US$2.2 billion purchase of over 100 M1A2T Abrams tanks and portable air defence missiles approved last month.

A Pentagon draft Nuclear Posture Review that was leaked in January 2018 by Huffington Post, sought to add two new nuclear weapons to the American arsenal that would “significantly lower the threshold for nuclear use”. In particular, the review called for the development of new, so-called low-yield nuclear weapons.

The US had, at that time, more than 1,000 nuclear warheads with low yield options! It also had 4,000 nuclear weapons in its active stockpile, which is more than enough to destroy the world many times over.

One nuclear weapon is one too many.

The US military are about to begin a program of building and testing new, previously banned missiles now that they are no longer bound by the INF Treaty.

The US is also planning to deploy land-based missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. At present the Australian government has not given the go ahead for them to be located in Australia.

Australia a target?

In any war that Australia is involved in against China, there is the possibility of Australia being targeted. There are more than 60 US military bases and facilities in Australia. The spy and communications station at Pine Gap in central Australia is critical to US operations.

There is talk that if any of these land-based missiles are deployed in Australia, they might be based near RAAF Tindal, 320km south-west of Darwin. From there, the US’s long-range missiles could reach the South China Sea and well into the east of China’s land mass.

Malcolm Davis, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that China already had the capacity to knock out Pine Gap and Tindal.

“They’re not going to let the US operate from northern Australia unmolested so we have to accept the reality that in war with China we will be hit by the Chinese directly. That’s reality,” Davis said.

Australia already hosts 2,500 US marines on a permanent, rotational basis in Darwin. Australian forces train with them under US command.

Middle East

Not unconnected to the tensions surrounding China are developments in the Middle East where tankers have been hijacked and attacked. Trump had pulled the pin on the nuclear agreement with Iran. Several British tankers were captured and there was a drone incident, all contributing to what has become a dangerous flashpoint.

The US responded by setting up Operation Sentinel that it expects its allies to join. The European countries are not rushing to join, believing that the US brought this on itself by pulling out of the agreement before it expired.

According to US Central Command, Operation Sentinel will “promote maritime stability, ensure safe passage, and de-escalate tensions in international waters throughout the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (BAM) and the Gulf of Oman.”

It might also lead to US attempts to occupy Iran – another trail of death and destruction and another war it cannot win.

Economic context

These developments have been occurring to the backdrop of a global economy that is showing all the signs of an impending crisis. The US’s senseless trade war against China is being felt around the globe, including in the US.

In particular the US’s imposition of tariffs on China could have serious repercussions for Australia if they are not lifted. The tariffs are also hurting the US economy as China retaliates with its own tariffs.

China surprised the US government by a devaluation of its currency. Devaluation makes China’s exports cheaper in the US, countering the impact of tariffs. At the same time, US’s exports to China will become more expensive. The amount of devaluation was small, possibly meant as a warning.

US pressure on anyone doing business with Iran is also aimed at Beijing.

China has a trump (apologies for the pun) card up its sleeve: it could reek havoc by dumping sum or all of the US$1.4 trillion worth of US Treasury bills it currently owns. Such action could bring global stock markets crashing down and trigger a financial crisis, possibly far more serious than the 2007-08 crisis.

In the past, China has said that it does not aim to hurt the US economy, but the tensions and pressures are mounting. Perhaps the most important is that of China’s sovereignty which is not negotiable.

War a way out of crises

More seriously, the US’s pursuit for global economic and military hegemony is facing difficulties. China’s economic growth has been more rapid than the US estimated and the level and speed of its military modernisation also caught the US by surprise.

The US faces challenges as a declining economic power against the ascendancy of China and India. China with its Belt and Road Initiative and other investments and loans, has given considerable assistance to developing countries.

Imperialism has historically used war to lift itself out of deep economic crises. This was the case in the First and Second World Wars. For example, the Second World War lifted economies out of a state of crisis following the Great Depression that hit in 1929.

Nothing has changed. The military industrial complex is big business, with some of the highest rates of exploitation and profit in the world. If they are to continue producing and making profits, then their weapons and other material need to be used. It is also one of the worst polluters.

Relations strained

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie in an opinion piece in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald (08-08-2019) made reference to the French fighting the Nazis, which in essence amounted to a comparison between Hitler and Xi Jinping.

Hastie is the chair of Parliament’s Joint Intelligence and Security Committee, and so could be seen as someone in touch with the thinking of our intelligence agencies.

He says that, “almost every strategic and economic question facing Australia in the coming decades will be refracted through the geopolitical competition of the US and the PRC.” No thought of co-operation.

His article reflects the way Hastie looks at the world, through the eyes of a capitalist. It is very different to the approach based on cooperation, mutual benefit and sharing being advanced by President Xi Jinping.

“We strongly deplore the Australian federal MP Andrew Hastie’s rhetoric,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement following Hastie’s comments. “It goes against the world trend of peace, cooperation and development. It is detrimental to China-Australian relations,” the statement said.

As a result relations between Beijing and Canberra are further strained.

The Australian government is paranoid that China will move in and take over the Pacific Islands that it sees as Australia’s stomping ground in its role as medium sized imperial power. But successive governments have taken these nations for granted, with the arrogance and racism of a colonial power. Australia’s hand-outs (“aid”) have mostly worked in the interests of Australian businesses, rather than the recipient countries.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conduct at the recent Pacific Islands Forum did nothing to bring these small nations into the embrace of Australia. Quite the contrary. (See Editorial, page 2.) It was embarrassing to say the least, as Morrison thought he could buy them off with dollars when they were talking about their survival.

AUSMIN

Just what Australia’s role will be in the new arms race is not clear at this point in time.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on August 4 in Sydney for the 29th Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).

They cemented Australia’s role as US deputy sheriff in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. However, the important content from these talks is not publicly released, rather generalised statements about closer ties, etc.

Following AUSMIN, Esper said the US “is now in an era of great power competition. And our strategic competitors are China and Russia, principally in that order.” The US sees Iran as a threat to both its and Israel’s interests in the Middle East. Whereas China has strong ties with Russia and Iran.

At present Australia has its economic foot in China and South East Asia, and its military foot in the US camp. The US is applying pressure to Australia to come down off the fence on the US side.

China is not our enemy. What has China ever done to hurt Australia? Without China Australia would have experienced a deep recession following the global financial crisis.

A war against China, apart from all the lives and damage it would cause, would not be in Australia’s interests. Our economy would come crashing down, much of the war would be fought in regions that Australia relies on for shipping cargo.

Fascism and War

It is unacceptable that Australia supports a position whereby an array of US warships can sail with impunity close to the Chinese coast and even worse that Australia joins the US in these types of threatening exercises. It is time for Australia to assert its sovereignty and independence, to stop playing the role of Deputy Sheriff for US imperialism.

The government passed legislation to allegedly remove foreign interference and influence but completely bypassed some of the main sources of political interference. The US is a foreign power too. The foreign military bases and the foreign spy/communications station at Pine Gap are not under Australia’s control. They should be shut down.

The high concentration of the Murdoch media and its reactionary politics is another example of foreign influence. In the 2013 elections it ran a front page saying “Kick this mob out”, referring to Labor, and that is what the electorate did.

The economic problems facing workers, the resultant reactionary political developments and the growing threat of war require an urgent response by the working class and progressive people in every sphere – in the workplace and community, at the national level and with the building of links of international solidarity.

War has always been a hallmark of imperialism. Fascism is also a hallmark of imperialism when bourgeois democracy no longer serves its purpose giving the illusion of democracy and freedom.

The Communist Party of Australia calls on the Australian government to:

refuse to participate in the US’s military operations in the Middle East;

refuse to host US missiles, war planes and military on Australia’s shores;

close Pine Gap and other US bases;

recognise the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China;

end its military alliance with the US;

further develop trade, cultural and other relations with China on the basis of mutual benefit and equality;

No new coal, phase out those which currently exist.

There is another path to fascism and war. It is socialism and peaceful coexistence with other nations.

 

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2. Editorial – “Save Tuvalu, save the world”

As the leaders of Pacific island states stepped off their planes at Funafuti, the capital of Tuvalu, they received a warm welcome from the children of Tuvalu, who in a symbolic action, sat singing in water in a moat. The song was “Save Tuvalu, save the world.” The leaders of 18 Pacific islands, including Australia, were in Tuvalu to attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) with the question of climate change at the top of the agenda. The PIF was founded in 1971 following decolonisation of most of the islands.

Tuvalu, according to the United Nations, is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, which could render it uninhabitable in the coming century. It is also grappling with an ongoing outbreak of dengue fever and does not have a supply of safe fresh water.

Recent PIFs had put climate change high on the agenda and adopted largely general statements about the need to address climate change. This year, in light of the urgency of the matter, the Pacific Island nations were determined to adopt a stronger statement on climate change. In particular, the smaller islands sought a commitment to limit global warming to under 1.5°C and draft a plan for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This included a commitment from Australia to ban all new coal-fired power stations and coal mines. Australia is the third largest fossil fuel exporter in the world, and as such a major contributor to global warming.

At the Forum, Australia was pitted against the smaller Pacific Islands. Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to make any specific commitments relating to climate change targets. All references to the word “coal” had to be removed, before they could gain agreement from the Australian delegation led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Pleas for action from drowning islands were met with an offer of $500 million in “aid” to adapt to climate change. The Pacific leaders were talking about the lives and future of their peoples. Already some islands are under water. Morrison was protecting the profits of mining corporations.

Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, Enele Sopoaga, condemned Morrison’s conduct during the Forum, calling his attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and went as far as questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. “We stressed very strongly during our exchange, in fact, between me and Scott [Morrison], that you are concerned about saving your economy in your situation in Australia,” Mr Sopoaga told reporters. “I’m concerned about saving my people in Tuvalu and likewise the leaders of other South Pacific small island countries. Please don’t expect that we came and we bow down [to Australia], or that sort of atmosphere.” He also said that, “... while you keep pouring your coal emissions into the atmosphere that is killing my people and drowning my people into the water.”

Fiji’s Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama described Morrison’s conduct as “very insulting”. When asked if Australia’s approach might drive Pacific nations into the arms of the Chinese, Bainimarama said: “After what we went through with Morrison, nothing can be worse than him. China never insults the Pacific. ... the Chinese don’t insult us. They don’t go down and tell the world that we’ve given this much money to the Pacific islands. They don’t do that. They’re good people, definitely better than Morrison, I can tell you that.”

Ironically, the $500 million being promised is part of the government’s Step-up engagement with the Pacific. This is one of the highest priorities of its 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. The White Paper commits Australia to a more ambitious and intensified engagement in the Pacific with the aim of countering China’s influence. It would appear that his callous and neo-colonial disregard for the people of the islands may have done the opposite.

The leaders of the Pacific Island Nations can hold their heads up with pride having supported the interests of their people as they throw off the shackles of their past colonisation. The children of Tuvalu understood the seriousness of climate change and what failure to address it would mean.

 

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3. The way forward, growing

Vinnie Molina *

On May 18, a day after the last federal election, the CPA experienced a spike in membership enquiries from all over the country, in particular from regional areas. Many of the enquiries were coming from people who have had some previous political affiliation in parties both big and small.

Following up on those enquiries, we have recruited new party members. Many feel they can no longer trust the two-party system, with the return of the Morrison government being labelled a miracle, Clive Palmer investing 80 million dollars into an election is anything but.

Since then the flurry of enquiries has returned to normal as the election result fades away. It caught my attention that people are looking for answers and are prepared to do their own research. Many of the enquiries came from areas where the CPA has had some activity. For example, some attended a rally where they saw our flags while others had been approached at rallies with a leaflet, sticker or the Guardian. Branch activity remains the most significant way to promote the Communist Party of Australia.

A couple of the new and potential members reported seeing a poster or sticker on a wall but only a few came from social media or websites. This makes sense and should highlight to members that we can’t wait for people to find us on FB or on our website: we must go to them. This was the message from our last congress, and it directs us to take the party to the people.

There are many good party initiatives out there. An example would be the initiative of one young comrade to conduct interviews with elders of the Party that are posted on our social media. Public events and fund raisers have also attracted some enquiries. Guardians sold or distributed on the streets by branch members are also doing their bit. We should be inspired by this to do even more.

Guardian sales and distribution is a task for all members. We have to hit the streets every week, everywhere, in the country where there is party organisation. From Darwin, for example, we have received many comments about the Guardian, which is distributed weekly, and now there is a move to establish the Party organisation in the top end.

We need to grow our Party. Recruitment of new members is essential, and the methods we use to attract new members must be discussed and improved. As communists, we must approach people about the Party’s policies and tell them why we are the party of the working class. We must use these opportunities to invite others to join in on the big project of building socialism in Australia. This is a call to organise, to create a better world, workplace, university, high school and, community organisation. Wherever we have one comrade that can become two or more comrades, we can come together to join the historical task of building a new, fairer socialist Australia for the benefit of all.

* Vinnie is CPA President

 

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4. Sydney stadiums

Huge profits, huge public cost

Peter Mac

Before the last NSW election, and despite widespread public opposition, the Berejiklian coalition government launched a lightning attempt to demolish the Allianz football stadium in Sydney’s Moore Park, with the intention of replacing it with a new stadium with a larger seating capacity.

The Moore Park proposal is part of a hugely expensive government program to update the city’s major football facilities. At one stage the government wanted to knock down and rebuild the Olympic Stadium at Homebush, but in view of public opposition because of the structure’s historical significance the government backed off and will now renovate it.

The estimated cost of the program is $800 million for modifying the Olympic stadium, $729 million for the new stadium at Moore Park and $360 million for the new Parramatta stadium, which opened last April. The total cost: a staggering $1.89 billion.

Opponents say the program is a huge waste of public money for the benefit of the mega-rich sporting corporations that use the major sporting facilities. And they’re right.

The existing stadiums rarely approach full capacity, partly because some spectators have advance seat bookings which they don’t always use, but also because there’s simply not enough current demand for the seats available.

The major sporting organisations believe they could boost demand by building bigger and more comfortable stadiums, so that sporting or other events in Sydney or other state capitals couldn’t compete with the Sydney football mega-stadiums for “bums on seats.”

To achieve this, the Berejiklian government wants to alter the existing Olympic stadium, which was designed to cater for one-off major events such as the Olympic, Paralympic, Commonwealth or Invictus games, so that it can accommodate regular weekly events and in particular the National Rugby League, Super Rugby, and A-League matches.

Labor expressed vigorous opposition. Labor leader Michael Daley declared during a raging interview with right-wing “shock jock” broadcaster Alan Jones that if Labor won the election it would sack Jones and all the other members of the Moore Park Trust, which manages the football stadium at Moore Park.

However, despite last minute legal challenges against the proposal failed, the government not only commenced demolition operations but was also re-elected at the last election – undoubtedly with the assistance of Jones. Flushed with success, the coalition set about demolition as fast as it could, and as someone bitterly observed the Moore Park site is now “just a hole in the ground.”

A deceit, gross waste of public money

There was never any justification for the massive expenditure of money on building a new, bigger stadium at Moore Park. The government has argued that the design of the former Allianz Stadium did not meet National Construction Code standards. However, the stadium could have been modified to comply with those standards rather than demolishing and rebuilding it at many times the cost of modifying it.

The Moore Park stadium project is, in short, a gamble with more than $700 million of public money at stake, to improve the profits of the major sporting organisations.

Lend Lease, the company nominated by Berejiklian as the construction contractor, has now declared that it cannot build the new stadium for the sum the government had in mind.

This contradicted the impression given by the government before the election, when it described Lend Lease as “the construction contractor.” Before the election, Lend Lease certainly had a contract, but only to demolish the then-existing stadium, not to construct its replacement, which was to be the subject of a second, separate contract.

Labor now says a new Moore Park stadium could be smaller to suit the current demand level, but the government won’t have any of that.

Two other companies have been nominated as possible tenderers to construct the new stadium, but now it appears that the design for the new stadium has not even been completed.

Before the election, the Berejiklian government was determined to deceive the state electorate and to present it with a fait accompli, by rushing through the demolition of the Moore Park stadium, despite the lack of a design, construction contract or reliable price.

The government has blundered because it’s ignoring the basic rules of design and cost. You can design something and get an estimate of its cost, or you can vary a design so it stays within a stated cost limit. But you can’t specify the design you want and then tell the construction industry how much it will cost. That’s not how capitalism works.

The government says the new stadium will be built on time and on budget – but that’s what they said about the new eastern suburbs light-rail system, which is running way behind schedule and astronomically over cost.

Before the election, Labor focused on the stadium program because it believed it was a great example of taxpayer money misspent, and that it lacked public support. They were right, but it’s only one example of the entire spectrum of coalition government activities which are a potential disaster for ordinary people in NSW and a bonanza for the private sector.

The narrow tunnels for the new privately-operated Metro lines were built within one term of government so it would be virtually impossible for a later government to integrate the new line into the main government-operated double-decker train system, and that’s a major long-term liability.

The NSW Lands Registry Services and other state assets were sold and much of the inner Sydney bus network was privatised, in a series of blitzkrieg attacks, surprising the public and overriding initial protests. The massive WestConnex tollway has ripped through Sydney’s historic older suburbs. In rural areas vast quantities of scarce river water has been quietly diverted for the benefit of big irrigators, and in the capital cities the big developers have been given free rein to cut corners in high-rise residential construction, with disastrous results.

The football stadium rebuilding program is just the latest example of a corrupt government in a mad rush to privatise government enterprises and boost the profit levels of the big corporations, in a vastly expensive program with major failings for the working people of NSW and their descendants.

 

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5. Politics in the Pub

No Nukes for Australia

Richard Titelius

On August 6, 1945, 75,000 people were killed instantly by the dropping of an atomic bomb. Three days later, on August 9, 45,000 people felt the same fate. Analysing the events and aftermath of those days, the Communist Party of Australia held a Politics in the Pub entitled “No Nukes for Australia” which also included discussions against uranium mining.

As we shall see, the two propositions are linked even though the latter is fuelling a global nuclear power industry which is neither efficient, economical or sustainable.

The first speaker was Dr Tilman Ruff of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear (ICAN) weapons, the recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr Ruff, who brought the award to the meeting and allowed it to be circulated around the venue for all to see.

What propelled ICAN to international prominence was its Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which “explicitly prohibits under all circumstances the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of nuclear weapons and other forms of nuclear explosive devices. Hosting and threatening to use nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices is also illegal as is assisting or encouraging anyone else to engage in any conduct prohibited under the Treaty.”

Dr Ruff said the risk of nuclear conflict was as great as it has ever been, and we are also in a climate change tension state.

The TPNW was adopted by a UN diplomatic conference on July 7, 2017 with the support of 122 nations and for it to be ratified requires the signatures of 50 states. Currently there are the signatures of representatives from 25 states – excluding Australia which instead is bound by a treaty with the US in which we support the use of nuclear weapons as a “deterrent.” Australia has signed onto other weapon treaty bans such as the Cluster Munitions Ban Treaty of 2008 and Land Mines Ban Treaty of 1997.

The next speaker was Adrian Glamorgan, a Quaker Peace Activist, who began by asking the meeting to imagine an imminent nuclear attack occurring and what we could do in seven minutes before a nuclear warhead exploded causing a 7,000C degrees heat explosion. Glamorgan said it would be futile to think there is anything you could do to escape.

He suggested calling loved ones as it would be futile to try to escape from the intense heat of a nuclear firestorm. Glamorgan said he had found it difficult trying to engage the government on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and suggested they didn’t want us to talk about it. This attitude by the government, said Glamorgan, contributes to the fear and miscalculations which can occur when there are tensions between nation states.

Glamorgan said there were so many real and pressing problems facing humanity at the moment, not the least being climate change, which are threatening not only biodiversity and causing extreme weather events to be more frequent and intense, but they are also occurring more rapidly than science had previously predicted. Glamorgan concluded that we need to transform the way Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade operated. We also needed to transform Australia’s media laws to ensure all messages get heard.

Dr Christopher Crouch, was the next speaker a member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) national committee, who had recently returned from the biannual conference held in Darwin during early August 2019. Dr Crouch said there was an urgent need for a rational discussion about the need for peace and for there to be an alternative to a military economy.

The fifth IPAN conference was held in Darwin towards the end of the Talisman Sabre war games, off the north Queensland coast, involving 34,000 troop from a number of Pacific nations including Australia, Japan and the US – and which also used depleted uranium munitions during parts of the exercises. The existence of these war games is part of a push to help soften up the Australian population to the concept of a perpetual war economy.

Part of this push came from the previous US President Obama’s Pivot to Asia/China which sought to create a ring of missile defences on China’s south-eastern flank. This has also meant the creation by the US military of a two million square kilometre zone around the island of Guam to conduct live missile tests. Australia is drawn into this pivot by having 2,500 US marines based in Darwin. Largely neglected by the Australian media, but of significance in the ramping up of the US military pressure, the recent Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) meeting saw further plans to lock Australia into US plans for perpetual war. These plans reveal a collapse of global diplomacy, the undemocratic nature of war, and the movement towards a military or war economy. What happened to the concept of international security which was supposed to build a brotherhood of nations?

Dr Crouch asked, “Can nuclear weapons bring peace? No, nuclear weapons cannot bring us neither peace nor security.” The things that bring security are having enough potable water resources, food and good health and quality education services. It is also human dignity which makes us secure.

Dr Crouch noted that the climate emergency “Doesn’t care about border crossings and who does and doesn’t want to cross.” climate change and the threat of nuclear weapons are existential issues which are eroding human life and around which an erosion of diplomacy and diplomatic missions make it more difficult to achieve consensus and action.

A question and answer session followed which included a brief presentation by the WA Nuclear Free Alliance spokesperson Mia Pepper who spoke about the movement between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to ban uranium mining. Uranium mining was becoming increasingly unprofitable as the uranium ore price was in freefall.

However, what is keeping uranium mining going was that it provided the raw materials for nuclear power which is linked to the infrastructure necessary to produce nuclear weapons. It is not possible to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The Communist Party of Australia joins with ICAN and IPAN in pushing for the abolition of nuclear weapons and war and calls on the Australian government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

 

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6. It’s dangerous, it’s undemocratic and it’s back

Scott Morrison wants to introduce the most anti-union laws we have seen in a generation – the so-called Ensuring Integrity Bill. This is a major attack on our democracy.

These laws would give Scott Morrison, big business their lobbyists power to interfere with how unions are run, to disqualify union officers, to shut down unions, and stop unions from merging.

Just today the IR minister Christian Porter has declared a war on working people and specifically stated that the bill is designed to give the government the power to deregister unions, in this case CFMMEU.

This bill is a serious attack on working people and the trade union movement. It does nothing to stop big business stealing wages. It does nothing to keep people safe at work. It will do nothing about record low wage growth that is causing the economy to stall. It will do nothing to fix insecure work.

In fact, this law will undermine workplace safety, increase wage and superannuation theft, and make it harder for workers to get pay increases and be represented when they need help.

Scott Morrison is trying to make it harder for unions to do our job of standing up for working people. When unions are under attack, all working people suffer. This bill must be stopped.

Scott Morrison doesn’t have a mandate to introduce these laws. He didn’t announce any industrial relations policy during the election campaign – in fact he didn’t talk much about working people at all – but he’s going to try and get these laws in place anyway.

When the Liberals tried to get these undemocratic laws through the senate in 2017 and 2018, union members took swift action to ask cross bench senators to block the bill, and those senators listened.

Now we have a new senate, and a government determined to ram through undemocratic, anti-union laws. As Senator Eric Abetz put it recently, the Ensuring Integrity Bill is “unfinished business” for Scott Morrison’s government.

We will need everyone to take action again in coming weeks to stop these anti-worker, anti-union laws in their tracks.

Be ready. We will be back in touch soon.

In unity,

Michele O’Neil

ACTU President

australianunions.org.au

 

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The following articles were published by The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia, in its issue #1882 of August 21, 2019.

 

Reproduction of articles, together with acknowledgement if appropriate, is welcome.

 

The Guardian, Editorial, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

Communist Party of Australia, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

 

The Guardian guardian@cpa.org.au

 

CPA General Secretary: Andrew Irving gensec@cpa.org.au

 

Phone (02) 9699 8844    Fax: (02) 9699 9833    Email CPA cpa@cpa.org.au

 

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