SEP/ISSE meetings in Australia
Six months after the Gillard Labor government announced with US President Barack Obama that the north and west of the country would become a base for major US military operations, the majority of ordinary people remain unaware of the significance of the agreements made behind their backs and with no public debate. The line of the Australian media and political establishment, including the Greens and their political apologists in the middle class pseudo-left, is that the military deal has no implications, and has nothing to do with the growing economic and geo-strategic conflicts between the United States and China.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Through the military agreements, the Labor government has unconditionally aligned itself with US war preparations against China—a fact openly acknowledged by foreign policy analysts around the world. Joint US and Australian operations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans are being expanded to threaten China with a blockade of its vital sea passages through Indonesia, which would cut off its access to oil and other natural resources and strangle its economy.
As well as marine deployments in Darwin, Australian ports and airbases will be upgraded for increased use by US nuclear-armed warships and aircraft; there are plans for surveillance drone aircraft to operate from the Australian-held Cocos Islands and to spy on Chinese shipping in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Washington has prompted a debate over the merits of Canberra purchasing a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines from the US to dramatically enhance its naval war capabilities.
These developments are part of a broader US strategy of forging alliances and bases throughout Asia aimed at encircling China. They stem from the historic decline of US imperialism, which has only deepened since the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the onset of the worst recession since the 1930s. From the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the bombing and regime-change in Libya, to the threats against Syria and Iran and the build-up of armed forces in Asia, the American ruling elite is stepping up its use of military power to maintain its dominance of global resources and sources of profit against its rivals. In Asia, Washington is demanding that the Beijing regime bow before its military might and grant greater US access to markets within China and across the region.
The provocative actions of the US and its allies are heightening tensions with China on the Korean peninsula, on the Indian subcontinent and in the South China Sea. In any one of these locations, a conflict could rapidly escalate into a confrontation between nuclear-armed powers, drawing Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries into a conflict with catastrophic consequences, not only for the region but for all humanity. For the third time in a century, the international working class faces the threat of world war.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) are holding meetings in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Wellington to oppose the US-Australia war preparations against China and to advance the urgent need for the development of a genuine anti-war movement, based on a revolutionary socialist program. This involves, above all, the fight for the unity of the international working class in the struggle to overthrow the capitalist profit system, which is the cause of war.
We urge WSWS and SEP supporters and readers, workers, students and young people to attend the meetings and participate in discussing one of the most urgent issues of our times.
ISSE Meeting at University of New South Wales
Tuesday, May 8, 1 p.m.
CLB 5
(near the main library)
ISSE Meeting at Victoria University—Footscray Campus
Thursday, May 10, 1 p.m.
Room D204
ISSE Meeting at Newcastle University
Thursday, May 10, 1 p.m.
Clubs and Society Room
Under the Bar on the Hill
(Look for ISSE directional signs near Commonwealth Bank and at entrance of Bar)
ISSE Meeting at Macquarie University
Thursday, May 10, 1 p.m.
Campus Hub Building, Level 3
Boyd Room
ISSE Meeting at University of Sydney
Wednesday, May 16, 1 p.m.
Quadrangle Building, McRae Room S418
ISSE Meeting at University of Western Sydney—Milperra Campus
Thursday, May 17, 1 p.m.
Building 1, Level 1, Room 106 (Lecture Theatre 1)
ISSE Meeting at RMIT
Thursday, May 17, 1 p.m.
University Function Room
08.02.8, Building 8
(Downstairs past the ATMs, next to the Kaleide Theatre)
SEP Public Meeting in Sydney
Sunday, May 20, 2.30 p.m.
Redfern Town Hall
73 Pitt St, Redfern
(Short walk from Redfern Station)
Tickets: $3/$2 concession
SEP Public Meeting in Melbourne
Wednesday, May 23, 7.00 p.m.
Meat Market Conference Centre
5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne
(Melway Reference: 2B A9)
Tickets: $3/$2 concession
SEP Public Meeting in Perth
Sunday, May 27, 5.00 p.m.
Victoria Park Centre for the Arts Gallery Room
12 Kent St, East Victoria Park
(Short walk from Victoria Park and Carlisle Stations. Transperth Bus numbers 213 and 220, along Albany Highway to East Victoria Park.)
Tickets: $3/$2 concession
Comments
Re: Public Meetings: Oppose the US-Australia war ...
Re: anti-war movement.
When China first detonated an atomic bomb devise in the summer of 1964, they put a plaque at the site, which said The Peoples Republic of China acquires the knowledge of nuclear technology for the sole purpose of dismantling all nuclear weapons on the planet earth. That China will never be the first to use nuclear weapons.
That the PRC will organize globally for a political meeting of all the countries possessing nuclear weapons with one item on the agenda, the complete, thorough, and total dismantling of all nuclear weapons on the planet Earth.
In its foreign policy it sent letters to all the countries with nuclear weapons saying it would host or be hosted at such a meeting to dismantle all nuclear weapons globally.
U.S. British, French, Israeli, and Soviet Social Imperialism refused any such a meeting. They offered up excuses, and continued to pursue the Aggressive Imperialist Nuclear War programs and updating of the Nuclear arsenals.
The Peoples Republic of China is continuing to call for such a meeting of all countries that possess nuclear weapons to hold such a disarmament meeting. It is part of their foreign policy, and you can go and have a look at the placque where the first atomic bomb explosion took place in China.
Still no response from the Imperialist Camp, and in fact they are seeking to surround Russia, China, Vietnam, DPRK, Japan, and still South Korea is illegally occupied with more than one thousand U.S. nuclear weapons in the immediate area. There is only one Korea and the only country on the planet illegally occupying it is the U.S. Imperialist Military.
What hypocracy that the North of Korea has three nuclear bombs, and the U.S.A. has more than ten thousand nuclear bombs of which approx. six thousand are aimed at China, Russia, Korea, and other Asian Countries, all of which is to enforce the U.S. Empires policy of full spectrum domination of the whole world.
Pentagon jargon has a clue to their evil rogue state policy when it co-ops the English language to such propaganda as saying there is 'Smart Bombs'.
No there is not, in an intelligent language one must describe the actual material in motion correctly to be smart. Bombs conventional and atomic are just the opposite of smart in that they fail-safe destoy kill the people,plants, animals and in-opt air, land, and water with on-going pollution for thousands and even millions of years.
I think every reasonable person would agree that killing of all forms of life on the planet is the most dumb thing that can possibly be done and certainly there in nothing smart about that.
To show their utter belligerence, they and the Imperialist Camp have six-overkill stockpiled. That insanity they call security. That is the bigest 'big lie' yet.
Such a ruling class should be overthrown, and such provison is provided in the U.S. Constitution to do so, when is says that the elected government of the American people should, if that government does not serve the peoples needs, they shall of duty reform or abolish it (revolution) and replace it with one that does serve the needs of the American people.
Threatening the world people with death is not the way to serve the people of the U.S. or any other living organic or inorganic materialism on the planet earth.
Such an ignorant Empire and entire Imperium has never been before on this planet.
Workers of the world, unite!! End pollution wars, not endless wars for more and more pollution. You yet have a world to win!!