Photo Above: Israelâs thirteen month-long genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people has reduced most of Gazaâs people to the verge of starvation; or actual starvation. Here, Palestinians wait to buy bread from the only operating bakery in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on 23 October 2024.
Photo: Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua
Ten Ways that Australiaâs Ruling Class Backs
Israelâs Genocidal Terror
FROM PINE GAP TO SANCTIONS ON IRAN,
ALBANESE & CO. ARE KNEE DEEP IN THE SLAUGHTER
WE MUST FORCE THEM TO DO LESS â LESS HARM TO
THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE & LEBANON
2 November 2024 â The Zionist regimeâs brutality over recent weeks has exceeded even that of the crimes that they perpetrated over the preceding year. Especially targeting northern Gaza, Israel is massacring Palestinians in deliberate strikes on schools, homes and hospitals. The Israeli regime has also killed thousands in Lebanon and forced more than a quarter of that countryâs people to flee their homes. This terrorism on a mass scale is based on huge support from the U.S., Australian and other imperialist regimes. But with Israelâs crimes battering their image, Western regimes started making calls for âceasefire nowâ â by which they mean a ceasefire on Netanyahuâs terms. However, as brave Palestinian and Lebanese â and for their own reasons Iranian state â resistance to Israel intensifies, Western support for Israel has again become more overt. The U.S. has now sent a hundred troops to help Israel operate the THAAD missile system that the U.S. is providing them.
Australiaâs capitalist ruling class is also greatly supporting Israelâs genocidal terror. They do this in ten different ways:
- The Australian regime hosts and jointly operates with the U.S. the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs. Receiving data from two U.S. spy satellites, the base transmits to Israel the location of targets to hit with missiles and bombs. How many times have schools, hospitals, ambulances and rescue workers in Gaza been targeted with the direct assistance of the Australian regime and its Pine Gap terror installation?
- Two weeks ago, when the U.S. launched a massive air strike against Yemeni supporters of the Palestinian people, the Defence Department boasted that Australia directly assisted the attack âthrough access and overflight for US aircraft in northern Australiaâ. Apparently, the Australian air bases enabled air-to-air refuelling of the U.S. bombers.
- Australian troops are in the Middle East directly participating in the U.S. and British-led attacks on Yemeni supporters of Palestine who have been deterring ships linked to Israel and its allies from traversing the Red Sea.
- The regime lists Hamas and Hezbollah as âterroristsâ. That means that Australians who make donations to them face years in jail. Given that Hamas and Hezbollah are non-state groups based in poverty-stricken lands, these groups rely on overseas donations. Since Australia is a richer country with a large Arab diaspora, Australians could be a key source of the funds needed to support these groupsâ anti-Israeli resistance. The âterrorâ bans are thus very harmful.
- Australian companies sell military equipment and supplies to the Israeli military.
- The regime backs Israelâs arms providers. In February, the Australian military awarded a nearly $917 million contract to Israelâs biggest arms producer, Elbit Systems â known for supplying Israeli forces with killer drones and mortars.
- The ALP government provides diplomatic cover for Israelâs terror.
- The Australian regime sanctions Iran. Sometimes, Canberra disguises these as measures against the Iranian governmentâs repressive and anti-women policies. But Australiaâs rulers care nothing for the Iranian masses. Their real goal is to support the U.S. and Israeli drive to bring Iran to heel. This was proven a fortnight ago, when the Australian government unleashed new sanctions on Iran in response to her 100% justifiable missile strike on Israel. Â
- From their police arresting anti-genocide protesters, to their politicians threatening Palestine activists to their universities expelling pro-Palestine students and effectively sacking pro-Palestine academics, Australiaâs ruling class are trying to suppress anti-genocide protests.
- Australiaâs capitalist-owned media have unleashed a barrage of propaganda alibiing Israel.
Despite Australiaâs rulers proving to be the enemy of Palestine, some groups keep on appealing for âthe government to do more to stop the genocideâ. But to say that the Labor government should âdo moreâ is to misleadingly imply that they are actually already doing something positive! That is why the pro-ALP current leaders of our unions and other, âpro-Palestineâ ALP hacks keep selling us this âdo moreâ line. So, too, do the Greens. For, although the Greens criticise Albaneseâs stance, they do not want Australiaâs capitalist order, that they are ultimately loyal to, to be completely discredited. By appealing to the government âto do moreâ they are covering up the huge amount of harm that the ruling class is actually doing! What we do need to do is to force the Australian ruling class to do less â that is, less participation in Israeli/U.S.-led terror. We need powerful actions to demand: Close Pine Gap! No refuelling or hosting of U.S. warplanes from Australian bases! Australian troops involved in the operation against Yemeni supporters of Palestine: Get out of the Middle East! Lift the regimeâs âterrorâ listing of Hamas and Hezbollah! No military sales to Israel! Cancel Australian contracts to Israeli arms suppliers! Lift the sanctions on Iran! Down with the regimeâs attacks on pro-Palestine activists!
It is in the Working Classâ Own Interests to
Stand with the Opponents of Zionist/Western Terror!
Apart from the Western-puppet Taiwanese ruling class (and it has now been confirmed that the Taiwanese firm that made the exploding pagers used by Israel in its Lebanon terrorist attack has long-time links with U.S. intelligence agencies), no rulers administering a population size comparable to Australiaâs provide even a small fraction of the support to Israelâs terror as Australiaâs rulers do. So when you hear a co-worker say that âwhat happens in the Middle East has nothing to do with usâ, tell them that they are very mistaken! Explain too that given how much the Western regimes have invested in backing Israel, if the Zionist/Western forces were to triumph, it would embolden Western ruling classes. The victorious Australian capitalist rulers would be more confident to attack the rights of workers, Aboriginal people, refugees and all the poor. It is not completely a coincidence that the Australian ruling class launched its biggest attack on the working class in four decades â the forcing of the militant CFMEU workers union into administration â during the midst of the ânational securityâ-obsessed climate fostered by their participation in the Gaza massacre. On the other hand, if those resisting the Zionist/Western forces could hold them off, it would damage the prestige of the Western capitalists. That would facilitate the struggles that we badly need here to defend our unions, to drive down rents, to fight for Aboriginal peopleâs liberation and to resist racist attacks on people of Muslim, Arab, Asian and African heritage. So it is not only a moral imperative but is in the very interests of workers and all the oppressed here to stand for the victory of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. We must also side with Iran, Syria and Yemen against Israel and their U.S., British and Australian allies.
So why are Australiaâs capitalist rulers such intractable Israel backers? It is not because of Zionists within the ruling class. Yes, there are some capitalists who are Zionists. But most are not. And most actually could not care less about the myths of Zionism. Rather they back Israel because they need U.S. power to be upheld, because that is what underwrites their own imperialist rape of the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia. That means backing the Israeli attack dog of the U.S. in the strategically located and oil-rich Middle East. In other words, Australiaâs ruling class backs Israel in order to uphold its own predatory interests. It is as simple as that! To force this exploiting class to âdo this lessâ, we must threaten their own interests to such a level that the capitalist rulers will find it less harmful to retreat from backing Israel than to continue.
Many of the elements that we need to build a movement that can force Australiaâs rulers to retreat from their support of Israeli terrorism are contained within the Palestine Action Group-organised mass protests in Sydney. Speeches by Aboriginal activists have powerfully linked the Australian ruling classâ support for Zionist settler colonialism with their own genocidal dispossession of Aboriginal people. During the marches, we have shouted some apt chants, like: âAlbanese â Blood on Your Handsâ. But there is an, effectively opposite, political direction coexisting within the movement. One that does not oppose the ruling class as an enemy but appeals to them as a potential albeit misguided ally. When the ruling class-media reports on pro-Palestine protests, they rarely quote the hard hitting chants or most cutting speeches, lest they encourage such sentiments. Instead they quote the appeals to the ruling class to âdo moreâ. As long as the capitalist rulers know that this is the main message issuing from the protests, they will not feel threatened by them (just annoyed). And that means they will not feel compelled to retreat from supporting Israel. This is the problem we must fix!
Those most consciously promoting appeals to the ruling class at pro-Palestine events are the Greens. For although the Greens oppose the most brutal aspects of Zionist terror, they nevertheless uphold the Australian capitalist order that benefits from Israeli aggression in the Middle East. Thus, when on the October 7 anniversary, the Albanese government put a despicable parliamentary motion proclaiming âIsraelâs right to defend itselfâ and condemning Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran for resisting Israel, the Greens refused to oppose the motion and only abstained.
From the Greensâ perspective, Australian support for Israelâs terror is one of Australiaâs political orderâs few bad aberrations within an otherwise âdemocraticâ system. Thus, when addressing the October 13 protest, Greens senator David Shoebridge contrasted the ALP governmentâs refusal to support Palestine refugees with what he called its correct support for Ukraineâs war against Russia. But the Western regimes back Ukraine for the same reason that they back Israel: to feed an attack dog that will enforce their world domination â in this case by trying to subordinate Russia, which, while itself under a capitalist regime, refuses to submit to Western hegemony. Every supporter of Palestine should stand for the imperialist backers of Israel to be weakened by defeats in all the theatres that they are fighting in â including in Ukraine. Most crucially, we must oppose the imperialistsâ drive to destroy the main state threat to their global tyranny â the Chinese workers state.
Whether it is waging Cold War against socialistic China, arming a proxy war against Russia or backing Zionist terror and genocide, the Australian and other imperialist rulers are driven by their quest to reinforce their world âorderâ that facilitates their looting of the poorer countries. Far from Australian ruling class support for Israelâs Gaza genocide being an exception to the rule, it is typical of this classâ whole history. This countryâs capitalist order is based on the genocide of Aboriginal people and the continued brutal oppression of this countryâs First Peoples. That was highlighted by the brave and inspirational protest twelve days ago by independent senator, Lidia Thorpe, against Australiaâs visiting head of state, King Charles, when the Aboriginal woman shouted: âYou committed genocide against our peopleâŠ. F_ck the colony!⊠You are not our king!â Moreover, in executing civilians, massacring onion farmers and slitting the throats of teenage boys, Australian regime forces that participated in the occupation of Afghanistan perpetrated the same type of racist crimes that Israeli troops are committing on a huge scale in Gaza. It is not only pro-Palestine protests that Australiaâs rulers are trying to suppress. Politicians are threatening to throw Lidia Thorpe out of her senate seat for protesting against the blood-stained monarch, while the CFMEU union has been taken over by regime administrators for daring to stand up too staunchly for workers rights.
We must junk all illusions that we can appeal to Australiaâs capitalist rulers to support Palestine or indeed support any other just cause. Such appeals are worse than futile. They are preventing the pro-Palestinian movement from becoming a force of unalloyed opposition to the ruling class that is backing Israelâs terror. Many of us have put much effort into joining pro-Palestine protests. But we want the actions to do more than make us feel good for protesting against the genocide. We need to turn the actions into ones that so implacably oppose the ruling class, so discredits them, so destabilises their political order that they will be compelled to retreat from their backing of Israeli terror. Everyone who understands this has a duty to not only join the rallies but to do so with placards that will help steer the movement in this direction. Come bearing signs like: âResist Australiaâs Capitalists and Monarchy that Supports Israelâs Terror and Brutally Oppresses Aboriginal People!â, âStand With Palestine! Shut Down Pine Gap! Smash the U.S./Australia Attacks on Yemen!â and âDown With Support for Israel! Defend the CFMEU! For a Working-Class Intifada in Australia Against the Capitalist Elites!â
Source:







