US President Barack Obama’s tour through Asia and to Australia in November marked a turning point in world geopolitics. On every front—diplomatic, economic and strategic—the US president outlined a sweeping militarist agenda aimed at threatening China with war if it does not capitulate to Washington’s demands for untrammelled American dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Labor Party government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard has unconditionally aligned itself with American imperialism. Northern and Western Australia are to be developed as the critical staging bases for the US Air Force, Navy and Marines as part of a US strategy to contain China, particularly in the Indian Ocean.
The implications are immense. Without any public debate and behind-the-backs of the population, Australia has been placed on the frontline of a potential confrontation between nuclear-armed states. The SEP meetings in Melbourne and Sydney will discuss the driving forces of US and Australian militarism and the international and socialist perspective that the working class requires to prevent a catastrophe.
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