A-Infos (en) Australia: A willing accomplice to genocide (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Picket Line ---- Where things stand ---- Israel's assault on Gaza is 
entering its final stage. Israeli forces have killed over 50,000 people. 
Tens of thousands more are wounded or missing in the rubble. The strip 
has been flattened. Now, the survivors face a blockade with only a 
trickle of food and medicine admitted. ---- This has been the goal all 
along. There was never a war in Gaza - only an attempt to impose a 
permanent solution on the "Gaza question". Another ceasefire deal is 
being considered. If this one holds, it will be because the Israelis 
believe they have made Gaza sufficiently unlivable.

With the end in sight, and the judgement of history looming, governments 
around the world are changing their rhetoric. The genocidal propaganda 
in Israel has become too obvious to justify outright support. It's not 
that these politicians have discovered a back bone or plan to impose 
real consequences on Israel. The Israeli government's overt extremism 
has simply forced its allies to save face.

In the UK, the Labour government has condemned the blockade and 
suspended trade talks with Israel, but continues to supply it with parts 
for the F-35 fighter jet. Here in Australia, the language of the 
Albanese government has changed too. But while the PM has been willing 
to call the starvation of Gaza an "outrage" and slap sanctions on a pair 
of the most extreme Israeli ministers, nothing has been done to end 
Australian complicity in the genocide. Like the UK, Australia also 
supplies Israel with parts for the F-35; the very planes now bombing 
Gaza. Some of these parts, like the bomb bay doors, are only made in 
Australia, and the planes can't fly without them.

The more isolated Israel becomes, the better. But the reality is that 
we've failed to stop the genocide. Israel's assault has mobilised one of 
the largest mass movements in recent Australian history and there is now 
unparalleled international support for the Palestinian cause. But 
despite this we still weren't able to stop it.

Why are we failing?
Why hasn't turning millions of people into the streets been enough to 
stop the genocide? Why hasn't re-electing Anthony Albanese - who 
co-founded the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine in 1999 - been enough 
to change things?

The Palestinian solidarity movement lacked the kind of power necessary 
to force real change. In the place of that power, there has been a 
strategy based on two mistaken assumptions. The first mistake is the 
idea that Australia has no interest in supporting what Israel is doing, 
or that it only supports Israel because it is following the orders of 
the U.S. The second mistake is that government policy can be changed if 
enough people become educated on an issue, turn out to protest, and vote 
the right way in elections.

The reality is very different. Australia has a real interest in 
maintaining its relationship with both Israel and the U.S. To confront 
this interest, we need working class power.

U.S. puppet or willing accomplice?
The idea that Australia is an unwilling puppet of the U.S. is used to 
explain our participation in everything from the Vietnam war, to the 
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Many on the Left share this idea. At 
the last election, the Greens argued for "an independent foreign policy" 
capable of "reducing reliance on the United States". The language of 
"independence" has also been embraced by some socialist groups. It 
paints a picture of Australia as a bullied nation, acting contrary to 
its peaceful instincts.

This is wrong. When Australia joins the U.S. in its imperialist wars, or 
support for Israel, it is because it is in the independent interests of 
Australian capitalism. Australia is a willing accomplice.

Australia is an imperialist power-a minor one-but still imperialist. Our 
ruling class seeks to dominate the Pacific and parts of South East Asia, 
projecting power through its role as an enthusiastic junior partner in a 
U.S.-led alliance. For instance, supporting General Suharto's 
dictatorship in Indonesia was good for the U.S. dominated world-system. 
But that didn't stop Australia establishing domination over Timor Leste 
when Indonesia had unrest in 1998.

Australia's main contribution to the U.S-led alliance is the Pine Gap 
facility in Alice Springs. Pine Gap is jointly run with the CIA, and 
conducts surveillance over a third of the world, including China, Korea, 
Eastern Russia, and West Asia. Central Australia was chosen because it 
was too remote for spy ships to intercept its signals from international 
waters.

Again, there are parts of the Left that like to talk about Pine Gap as 
if it were a purely American base which has been forced on Australia. 
While it's true that the base is largely managed by U.S officials, no 
Australian government has ever seriously objected to its existence or 
following U.S. leadership. They supported Pine Gap's use in the Vietnam 
War and later for coordinating drone strikes. Today, they support its 
being used to provide targets in Gaza.

The Israel connection
Israel has played a similar role in the alliance, and likewise 
benefited. It is a strong counterweight to the threat of Arab 
nationalism - and so control over one of the most strategically 
important and oil-rich parts of the world. Like Australia, Israel has 
also been a reliable ally in the struggles against communist movements. 
By serving the alliance, Israel has gained support for its own colonial 
and imperialist ambitions over the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

Israel and Australia share another unique connection in the alliance, 
which stems from their shared history as settler-colonial states. Like 
the United States (and apartheid-era South Africa), both countries 
consider themselves islands of European, capitalist civilisation in a 
"savage" part of the world. This is a powerful psychological link, but 
the real driving interest is material. As colonial outposts, these 
countries have been able to extend American power across the world, and 
establish their own regional dominance in reward.

Where do we have power?
Australia is directly complicit in the genocide, and has a real interest 
in maintaining that complicity. This is why protesting hasn't been enough.

This raises the question of how and where we have power. It's clear that 
we can't build it in parliament. Government policy isn't dictated by 
morality, popular opinion, or even the personal positions of elected 
leaders. Capital calls the shots. Government's either ensure those 
interests are served, or they get replaced.

Clearly, we also have very little power in the streets. Governments can 
ignore or wait out protest movements, while the police are equipped to 
deal with both civil disobedience and riots. Where we really have power 
as ordinary people is as workers, primarily in the workplace. Workplace 
power gives us two points of leverage. First, workers in key industries 
can refuse to participate in harmful work. Second, all of us can strike 
and hit the ruling class where it hurts them most: their profits.

Hitting them where it hurts
To operate, Pine Gap needs electricity, water, and other logistical 
support supplied by workers who don't work for the base itself. 
University workers can fight to end research assistance to weapons 
companies. The engineers, manufacturers, and logistics workers who 
supply Israel with crucial parts for the F-35, or the R400 remote weapon 
system, can limit the Israeli army's supplies. Union dock workers at the 
French port of Fos-sur-Mer took this kind of action on 5 June, refusing 
to load a container of machine gun parts bound for Israel. Because of 
their industrial action, fewer guns will be aimed at the people of Gaza.

If we're going to do the same here, it requires getting organised and 
having the strength to pull off unprotected industrial action. This is 
the kind of power that the Palestine solidarity movement has largely 
failed to focus on.

As long as we keep our activism to our free time, and bosses' profits 
are safe, the Government can ignore us. Hundreds of thousands of people 
around Australia can turn up every Sunday, for years, and it won't force 
them to stop. But workers' make society run, and we can decide to run it 
differently if we want.

'Never Again' means getting organised
It's time we place a price on Australian imperialism. If we want to save 
what's left of Gaza, and make sure that Never Again means never again 
for anyone, we need to build the kind of movement that we don't have today.

Building real power means building strength in our workplaces. All of us 
need to be organised with our co-workers in our unions. Our delegates 
and branches need to be linked together in rank-and-file networks across 
every union in every industry - including those that produce and 
transport weapons.

Only workers' power can put us in the driver's seat. Without it, 
Australia will continue to follow the imperialist demands of capital. 
With it, we can make a revolution - and build a new world.

https://ancomfed.org/2025/07/australia-a-willing-accomplice-to-genocide/
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