August 2023
This flyer was distributed by supporters of Bolshevik-Leninist at recent rallies against AUKUS.
Australia approaches crisis. The US led order is threatened, and with it Australia’s rulers have entered a war hysteria. Hitched to a declining US, recent postures are a desperate attempt to claw out of this self-made hole. Despite the pomp and bombast, the circus at San Diego is not a show of strength but a reflection of the increasing weakness of the Australian ruling class which sees no path out other than strangling the living conditions of workers at home while playing second fiddle to the US in their pillage of Asia and direct confrontation with China. It is in this climate of increasing pressures and desperation that the Labor Party leadership’s position is weaker than it has been for decades. We call for the Australian working class to show their strength, to oust these openly chauvinist lackeys from the Labor Party. AUKUS hawks have no place in any party which claims to be in the interests of workers. Chuck ‘em out!
Within the Labor party there is an increasing amount of barking against AUKUS. Paul Keating’s dissatisfaction is well known. He criticises the AUKUS treaty as an unfavourable deal for Australia’s ruling class, an unnecessary cost soldered for the gain of the US and Britain. Similarly, AMWU’s Victorian Secretary Tony Mavromatis offers his own left posture, putting forward a motion in the recent Victorian Labor Conference that expresses “profound disappointment” in AUKUS as it “lets down Australian workers, apprentices and trainees and Australian manufacturing”, and proposed instead that “if we need to build these submarines, build them here”. All these complaints – summed up by the slogan “Welfare not Warfare” – are typical of the left Laborite brand of “little Australia” nationalism. These policies are not a challenge to Albanese but an appeal to tinker Laborism to fit in line with a parochial “independent Australia” vision where some of the would-be military budget is placed into schools, social services or promoting Australian industry. Their criticisms at best focus the anger and energy of workers towards gently rocking the boat of Australia’s bosses while entrenching illusions that the Australian ruling class’ interests can align with those of the working class. These left posers are nothing more than the motley advisers to the AUKUS hawks in Labor, and in the end bow before the eternal authority of the Australian ruling class. As for Labor’s hangers-on like the misnamed Socialist Alternative, they parrot similar points talking of how “social services will be neglected while military spending grows”. The main crux of their criticisms is that most anti-AUKUS bureaucrats are not going far enough, preferring those who peddle pacifist illusions.
We are the first to demand increased resources for social services, but the achievement and safeguarding of such gains in an era of social decay will ultimately require revolutionary leadership. The problem with Laborites’ “Welfare not Warfare” budget tinkering is that it accepts the “necessity” of the ruling class’ armament. That AUKUS itself is excessive but their rule and property is untouchable. This program is not merely insufficient but in fact a roadblock to the Australian working class’ struggle for their independent interests. Thus, at every step of the way, they can only stymie opposition to AUKUS by the working class – the only force capable of stopping AUKUS as well as the Australian rulers’ war drive. No matter how many motions are passed advising Labor’s leaders to “re-think” AUKUS, they will never re-think their commitment to supporting the ruling class’ continual pillage of Asia, and thus their fundamental opposition to China as the biggest obstacle to this aim. The ruling class’ measures are not a bug, but a feature.
If the “Welfare not Warfare” Laborites were in power, they at best would seek to return to the old policy of “engaging” rather than “confronting” China. That is, merely to return to the old methods of dominating the working class at home and abroad. For the ruling class to return to such methods, what is required is a reversal of the inevitable decay of the US made world order. In power they would have to concede all policies that pose a threat to the ruling class’ ability to pillage, including their beloved position as a junior partner to the sinking US ruling class – lest they be overthrown like Whitlam in 1975. They have no plan to actually struggle against AUKUS, all they can do is deceive workers that they can do what they claim.
The 1949 Chinese Revolution established a bureaucratically deformed workers’ state which the US and Australian ruling class could not get their hands on, and today constitutes the main obstacle in their pillage of Asia. In years past they were content fostering domestic counterrevolution, but increased pressures have forced their hand to the road of a head-on confrontation with China. Let’s be clear – this is in the interests of the ruling class and them alone. A trade war let alone a full fledged military war with China would be devastating for the working class of Australia. Inflation has already caused real wages to drop rapidly, the cost of living is getting more and more desperate. That is not even mentioning the US military bases stationed in Australia which are prime targets in the event of a war with China. If the ruling class succeeds, the working class will be plunged into even more social decay. We do not have a single shared interest with “our” rulers. Our interests are completely juxtaposed – the main enemy is at home! Instead, our interests are aligned with those of the US, British and Chinese workers – as well as the toiling masses throughout Asia, exploited and pillaged by the US ruling class as well as its junior partners. We recognise that a reversal of the social and economic gains made since the 1949 Revolution would only strengthen the Australian ruling class’ hand in their domination at home and abroad and as such we unconditionally defend China with its collectivised core of an economy. This cannot be achieved through the methods of the Stalinist bureaucracy of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in fact they can only betray the defence of the gains of the 1949 Revolution in their attempt to be accepted by China’s would-be butchers as they seek to find their niche while maintaining the status quo of this sinking world order. The only real method of defence of the Chinese workers’ state is to weaken, attack and overthrow the decaying ruling classes that dominate over British, US and Australian workers and now directly beats the drums of war against China. This must be done not with but against the parasitic CPC bureaucracy.
Suffice to say that we believe much of the anti-AUKUS left would prioritise their tailing of Labor tops over their opposition to AUKUS. We call for those who desire to genuinely oppose AUKUS to fight to kick every single AUKUS loving lackey out of the Labor Party. This is not to give a lick of political confidence to the Labor and Union misleaders or would-be misleaders who profess their nominal opposition to AUKUS. They can only betray! But it would only be a gain for the working class if workers flexed their political strength and hounded these open chauvinists out of the labour movement. It will also give an opportunity to put “Welfare not Warfare” Laborites’ program to the test, and expose them as the central roadblock to struggling against the Australian ruling class. In place of this, what is needed is a workers party armed with a revolutionary program. Such a program connects the multiracial working class of Australia with the workers of Britain and the US – as well as the toiling masses of China, Indonesia and the rest of Asia – who all have a common interest to strike against the ailing leviathan of the American ruling class and its junior partners in Britain and Australia. The only way to put a stop to this madness is to strike at the heart of the beast, for a revolution overthrowing the ruling class to establish a Socialist Republic of Australia coupled with revolutions internationally especially in the US and Britain as well as throughout Asia.
Chuck AUKUS Hawks out of the Labor Party!
Down with AUKUS – a pact between thieves! US military bases out of Australia!
For the unconditional defence of China! For a political revolution to oust the parasitic Stalinist bureaucracy!
The main enemy is at home – the Australian ruling class! Not one man, not one cent to the bosses’ army!
For a Socialist Republic of Australia!