Saturday 26 March 2016

No To War with China!



NO TO WAR WITH CHINA!
LIFT THE SANCTIONS ON THE DPRK!

09-03-2016 – It’s a scenario that would have seemed unimaginable even six months ago – a new war in the Pacific. Yet this is precisely what working people across the world stare in the face. The US Empire, smarting from its defeat at the hands of the Russians in Syria, have yet again ramped up its hostile provocations against the People’s Republic of China, with Canberra obediently falling in behind. It follows on from Resolution 2270 passed by the United Nations Security Council[1], imposing the harshest possible sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), for the “crime” of preparing for its own self defence in response to unending hostility from the US government. This year’s “military exercises” – in reality live practice for an invasion – on the doorstep of the DPRK will be the largest ever, involving troops from the US, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and others. The slightest error in these war games could trigger a global war – a war in which working people will be the ones who suffer first, and the worst.

It’s the supreme irony – China and the DPRK are almost universally referred to in the West as tyrannical communist dictatorships in which basic democracy is absent. At the same time, Washington and Canberra are preparing for major military operations against both China and the DPRK – without seeking, let alone gaining, any semblance of public support for war. We must ask, where exactly is the dictatorship? Working people here and internationally generally harbour a passionate hatred for war, which is one reason why the respective Western ruling classes do not even present the question for discussion, let alone debate. To be sure, many unsuspecting people will be drawn in by the corporate media’s compliance, and presentation of the question as if there is no other option. But it is essential for workers and all those opposed to war to speak out and protest loudly, not only for elementary justice, but to prevent a catastrophic war from engulfing the globe.

Barely a month passes without yet another open US provocation against China from either their military or those of toady allies in the South China Sea. Part of the US “pivot to Asia”, the goading of Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia to pursue spurious claims to reefs and islands they previously had little interest in, is part of the US strategy to build a new “coalition of the willing” against Red China. Like the disaster of Iraq which the previous “coalition of the willing” carried out, the ultimate agenda is no less than war. Unfortunately, the leaders of socialist Vietnam have prostrated themselves to the US against China, an act of disloyalty. Canberra has added fuel to the tinder-box by flying its own “freedom of navigation” operations through the disputed areas.[2]

The arch-reactionary US/Australia alliance has used so-called “freedom of navigation” operations on and off for decades, stretching back to the Vietnam War. One can imagine what the reaction from Western powers would be if China or Russia simply claimed “freedom of navigation” and flew fighter bombers up and down the east and west coasts of the US and Australian mainlands !! Bear in mind, the US has once again signalled that its advanced long-range B1 bombers may well be stationed in northern Australia.[3] Given the release of the Australian government’s Defence White Paper, which contains $195 billion worth of military spending in preparation for war, China has every right to believe that it will be targeted sooner rather than later.

Working people might ask, why would Washington and Canberra want war with China, when there is so much trade at stake? Indeed, China’s powerhouse socialist economy is a major reason why Australia has not sunk into a recession anywhere near as deep as Spain or Greece. There are some indications that the Australian ruling class is to some extent divided in going all the way to war with the US. However, all of the parties of the capitalist class currently represented in what passes for the federal parliament, are in lockstep with Washington, from the Liberals to the ALP to the Greens and Nationals. It seems suicidal, but not from the pathological rulers of the US Empire, who are driven to a state of frenzy by China’s inexorable rise. Make no mistake, China’s rise is due to its predominantly collectivised i.e. state owned, and planned economy. However much “capitalism” appears on the surface in the People’s Republic, its real drivers are its gigantic state owned enterprises, precious gains of the 1949 socialist revolution. The US, in contrast, is in a state of deep recession, with its workers paying a heavy price through unemployment, poverty and crumbling infrastructure.

The US knows that the longer it allows China to rise unimpeded, it will soon overtake the US as the number one world power. US rulers cannot allow any challenge to its bloodthirsty rule of the planet, and certainly not from an arch enemy socialist state. The US of course is not militarily strong enough to invade and overthrow 1.3 billion people, but that does not for a moment slow their other plans to undermine or break up Red China.  One is the funding of numerous “labour rights” and “human rights” NGOs in China, another is the backing of anti-socialist religious and national groups within China, from Tibet to Xinjiang to Hong Kong. Another major plan is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a massive free trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim countries specifically excluding China. The TPP is quite literally the economic arm of the “pivot to Asia” – the plan for the US to station 60% of it’s external forces in the Pacific by 2020. Needless to say, the “pivot to Asia” is a euphemism for war.

No less a preparation for war is the annual US-led “military exercises”, carried out on the doorstep of the DPRK. This years “Key Resolve/Foal Eagle” operation will be the largest ever, containing some 300 000 troops – an amount close to the number which invaded Iraq in 2003. As usual Australian troops will be participating, but for the first time New Zealand troops will also take part. These war games are quite literally a rehearsal for an invasion of the DPRK – a socialist state which has defied the US war machine for 60 years. As in the original Korean War, the US and their imperialist allies aim to overthrow not only the DPRK, but also set the stage for the undermining and/or break up of China itself. China’s leadership is well aware of this, despite its treacherous vote in favour sanctions on the DPRK in the United Nations.
Working people have no interest in a war with China or the DPRK. In however a distorted form, the conflict between Washington and Canberra on the one hand, and Beijing and Pyongyang on the other hand, is a battle between capitalism and socialism. If war does break out, working people need to refuse to participate in such a war, up to and including the point of taking concerted industrial action, regardless of whether conservative Union officials back us. Ultimately, such a struggle can only be successful as a struggle for the victory of socialism. Capitalism needs war to survive, but working people do not need capitalism.

NO TO WAR WITH CHINA!                                  LIFT THE SANCTIONS ON THE DPRK!

MARXIST-LENINIST GROUP (MLG)
PO BOX  66   NUNDAH   QLD  4012
E: mlgroup271@gmail.com
www.ML-Group@blogspot.com.au

[2] http://thediplomat.com/2015/12/did-australia-secretly-conduct-its-own-freedom-of-navigation-operation-in-the-south-china-sea/
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday 17 March 2016

Unions Must Defend Refugees!




SHUT DOWN THE PENAL CAMPS! WITHDRAW FROM US LED WARS! UNIONS MUST DEFEND REFUGEES!

Above: Part of the week long picket at Lady Cilento Hospital in South Brisbane for Baby Asha. Many rallied daily to demand to allow an injured baby and her mother to stay in Australia, rather than be shipped back to a detention camp on Nauru. Photo from www.thecouriermail.com.au

20-02-2016 – As we go to press, the protest by refugee supporters outside the Lady Cilento Hospital in South Brisbane has won a partial victory. Baby Asha, a one year old girl and her mother were transferred from the hospital to “community detention” in Brisbane, rather than be sent back to the hell-hole of Nauru. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed that this was not a back down in the face of protests, and that the issue had been “hijacked” by refugee advocates.[1] The Liberal Party Minister went on to state that the baby and her mother could yet be returned to Nauru. The 10-day picket by refugee supporters has once again highlighted the barbarous practice of the detention of children, and indeed adults, in off-shore detention centres which are little more than penal camps specialising in the imposition of unbearable torment. 

Baby Asha was amongst 80 children which was part of a group of 267 refugees which faced imminent deportation to Nauru.[2] Australia has already become notorious internationally for its appalling treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. As if to further entrench Australia’s backward status, the case of Baby Asha followed a High Court ruling that the Australian government has the power under the constitution to detain people in other countries, and that such conduct was within the law! [3] If ever there was an exhibition of the limits of the rule of law under the profit system, this is it. When the detention and effective torture of innocent people fleeing desperate situations is found to be legal, the entire system condemns itself. It is a dead end seeking justice in such courts. These are the very courts before which working people cannot afford the small fortune required to either defend themselves, nor bring a case before them. It is another lesson reaffirming the negative case with regard to the alleged neutrality of the capitalist state. 

The barbarous practice of the rape and/or sexual assault of refugees by detention centre guards on Nauru and Manus Island rightly horrify all those with a bare minimum of human compassion, on top of the already atrocious situation of incarceration without committing any crime. Combine this with reports that asylum seekers on Nauru are told that they will never be settled in Australia. The psychological trauma this could trigger is almost unimaginable. The scale and extent of the pain inflicted on those who have harmed no one and are looking for a safe place to live, is difficult to believe IF one looks at the situation in isolation. However, it can and must be explained if we are to move towards a strategy which can finish it.

Groups such as the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) perform laudable work organising meetings, rallies and pickets in an effort to put an end to the abominable treatment of those seeking protection. However, the valuable organisational work RAC performs is undermined by a political outlook which tends to focus on appealing to the humanity and compassion of people from all walks of life, from the rich to Union officialdom, from workers to politicians, from the churches to the business elite. All those “who care” are encouraged to take part. The approach tends to be one which assumes that the sum total of a movement is greater than its constituent parts. The political outlook is that of a “broad” or “popular” front. Workers plus Union officials plus church ministers plus students plus liberal political parties or groups and so on add up to – an unstoppable movement, or so the conventional wisdom goes. However, if the strategy should be a mere matter of one plus one, simply building in a linear fashion until “everyone” is on board is all that is required. Unfortunately, politics does not work solely by the method of simple arithmetic. If this was the case, there would be no need for science, nor study, nor theory.

No matter how complex modern day society has become, it is a basic Marxian precept that it rests on the turbulent relation between labour and capital. This is not only the case for the historically required workers insurrection, but the reality for political struggles now, including the struggle for refugee rights. One of the main reasons why there is a deepening of the cruelty towards refugees and asylum seekers now, as opposed to the 1970s and 80s, is that the capitalist economic system is in far worse shape than it was in previous decades. It is true that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) introduced mandatory detention in the early 90s, but world capitalism entered a precipitous decline beginning in 2008, and has yet to recover, if it ever will. Accordingly, the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers worsens almost in direct relation to how far the rate of profit for the “captains of industry” declines. The capitalist class, and its political machines, are acutely aware of how much they need to increase racism and nationalism in a time of economic crisis, to prevent workers from uniting against them. If skilful enough, the financial elite can divert all anger at the deteriorating living conditions towards “the other” – refugees, migrants, or anyone “not from here”. 

All this is well known to the left parties which buttress RAC, such as Solidarity (SOL), Socialist Alternative (SALT) and Socialist Alliance (SALL). Despite their sworn allegiance to Marxism, however, in practice such groups commit the cardinal error of entering an unprincipled bloc with the liberal wing of the ruling class – either in the form of pro-capitalist Union officials, or self-serving political parties and groups such as the ALP, the Greens, or GetUp! What this means for the refugee rights movement is that almost all of the actions initiated by RAC, while necessary in themselves, become politically subordinate to forces which aim to prevent any systemic challenge to capitalist rule. Such actions are thus confined within a liberal framework – the shell of pleading for reprieves from “our” politicians and other elites. Far from applying “pressure” to the system, such actions strengthen the very “democratic” façade which, with a federal election looming, will be wheeled out once again. Refugees, however, continue to suffer regardless.

Occasionally, the forces of the “left” wing of the capitalist class directly involve themselves in the struggle for refugee rights – precisely in order to restrict the political demands, or even to garner support for their political ends.  A classic case was the picket at the Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital in mid February. While this action involved many people who wanted to contribute, and did temporarily prevent a deportation to Nauru, it was also politically handed over, at crucial times, to operatives of the ALP, GetUp! and the conservative Union bureaucracy, including representatives of the Queensland Council of Unions. (QCU). The takeover of the movement by such forces was both a help and a hindrance. Numbers swelled, and protestors were heartened by some backing (finally!) by some Unions. However, it soon became apparent that the real aims of the QCU, the ALP, GetUp! and the Greens were both the upcoming Brisbane City Council and Federal Elections, and the political containment of the refugee rights movement in an election year. Some Union officials gave fine sounding speeches, it is true, but it was not backed by Unions mobilising workers. For example, members of Together/ASU – the main public sector Union in Queensland – were not even sent an email about the action!!

The left parties who predominate the organising committees of RAC (SOL, SALT, SALL) were either oblivious to this manoeuvre, or willingly took part in it. Moreover, their strategy remains that of building the broadest possible front on the lowest possible common denominator. They apply their theory that the broader the movement, the more politically powerful it is. This is an inversion of reality.  The broader the movement (in terms of the left and right joining hands), the more powerless it becomes – and the refugee rights movement is forced to refight its battles over and over and over again. Parties and groups representing a section of the “left” wing of the ruling class (i.e. the ALP, GetUp!, the Greens, Union officialdom etc) cannot “free the refugees”, or anyone else for that matter. This is because these forces have a material interest in preserving, not abolishing, the real source of refugee oppression – the capitalist economic casino.

The theme of this year’s Palm Sunday rally is “Stop the War on Refugees”. This is rich coming from RAC and its SOL, SALT and SALL apparatchiks. These groups have stood solidly behind the US led imperialist wars of regime change in Libya and Syria, wars which have created untold numbers of refugees. They were also silent when NATO installed a fascist junta in Ukraine, to undermine Russia. Such groups whine about “Russian imperialism”, which is an implicit endorsement of the NATO juggernaut. They are even more silent while the US is relentless with its hostile provocations against Red China, especially in the South China Sea, but also against the DPRK (North Korea). This is the golden thread which binds these left parties to the nationalist Union bureaucrats, the ALP, the Greens, and “community” groups such as GetUp! – “grassroots community activism”, in the service of imperialism.  GetUp! is at least halfway honest about where its funding comes from – some Union leaderships, but it also admits being a part billionaire financier George Soros’ death star like constellation of regime change NGOs, such as Avaaz.org and MoveOn.org.[4] SOL, SALT and SALL, who do not receive such funding, nonetheless continually deny ever politically backing US/UK/FRA/Turkish/Saudi/NATO armed jihadists in Libya and Syria, while at the same time being the loudest voices calling for the overthrow of the African or Middle Eastern states targeted by the US Empire. Neither have SOL, SALT or SALL raised virtually any call for the withdrawal of Australian troops from the Middle East. Indeed, while Australian troops assist the US empire in the horrific game of regime change – an aim they share – why would they? 

What this means for the vitally important refugee rights movement is that while it remains politically subordinate to imperialism domestically and internationally, it will remain a plaything in the hands of those we should be protesting against. Thankfully, the intervention of the Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces on the side of the overwhelmingly popular Syrian government has tipped the balance in Syria in favour of the world proletariat. As we write, a ceasefire between the US led forces and their armed mercenaries, and the anti-imperialist forces of Syria, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah is being etched out. Regardless of whether it holds completely, the situation on the ground is that the NATO powers have been soundly defeated in Syria. Hundreds of thousands have paid with their lives for this victory, something that should never be forgotten. But it is another example which demonstrates that the US Empire and its murderous reign at the apex of world capitalism does not always win. This is something we need to keep in mind as we struggle for refugee justice.

We would suggest that the refugee rights movement’s tasks are threefold. Firstly, it needs to seek to combat the influence of liberal capitalist elements (the ALP, Greens, Union officials, GetUp! etc) and not cede leadership to such elements when they barge their way into the movements to bolster an election campaign or to back yet another US led war. This means seeking to politically combat left parties which act as proxies on the ground for more conservative political forces. The aim should be the mobilisation of all working class forces and their supporters independently, not only from the major parties, but all political groups working for them, be they paid or unpaid. 

Secondly, the refugee rights movement needs to orient to the mobilisation of Unions in defence of refugee rights. This is not just because the movement backs anyone who is progressive, but because the mobilisation of labour is one of the few things that has the possibility of winning lasting gains for refugees and asylum seekers. We must reiterate that the main reason why the unspeakable abuse of refugees recurs is to divide the working class yet further, in order to prepare for further attacks, as the capitalist system slides deeper into recession. Unions will not be able to defend themselves if they do not defend refugees. The main obstacle to the mobilisation of workers and their Unions are the self-serving Union officials, who seek only to extend their well-remunerated careers, rather than fight for the cause of working people. Such officials must be positioned so that they MUST call meetings of members and start organising. Refugee rights supporters should not accept no to a demand for a meeting of members and delegates to address urgent issues.

Thirdly, the refugee rights movement needs to oppose all imperialist wars, which generate and exacerbate an already dire refugee situation internationally, as a result of the ongoing failure of free market capitalism. Today this means opposing the US led war on Syria, NATO belligerence in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and US warmongering against Red China. It means demanding that all Australian troops be withdrawn from the Middle East (Iraq, Syria) and be withdrawn from all war games with the US aimed at China and the DPRK. Anyone of these conflicts could spill over into a world war – an unprecedented nightmare for refugees and the world’s working people. The struggle to end war should be simultaneously a struggle for socialism – a collectivised world economy where working people are free to move based on an international division of labour. 

SHUT DOWN THE PENAL CAMPS!   WITHDRAW FROM US WARS!
UNIONS MUST DEFEND REFUGEES!

MARXIST-LENINIST GROUP (MLG)
PO  BOX  66   NUNDAH   QLD   4012
E: mlgroup271@gmail.com
Ph: 0421 408 692
W: www.ML-Group@blogspot.com.au
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)