The US has (so-called) ‘Joint’ Bases with Australia at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs NT, RAAF Tindal, near Katherine NT, Robertson Army Base in Darwin NT, North West Cape Communications Base in Exmouth WA, and RAN Stirling Naval Base, near Perth WA.
US bases make us a sitting duck. We are a target just like Middle East countries that are now being attacked in retaliation by Iran because these countries agreed to US bases on their soil, and the US used these bases to attack Iran.
US bases in Australia are used as part of their worldwide war machine. Pine Gap Communication Centre near Alice Springs is a massive part of that war machine, monitoring US satellite coverage of all countries, collecting vital US intelligence, and is involved in the directing of US forces in combat.
Likewise North West Cape Communications Base in WA is involved in directing US naval forces in the Western Pacific and Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
RAAF Tindal in the NT is the base for US nuclear-armed bombers with combat readiness to potentially attack anywhere in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, including the Middle East, China, India and Africa.
The US arrogantly considers Australia part of its empire.
Independence for Australia is urgently needed and an Independence Movement must be organised against US imperialism and their allied, local monopoly class.
Our rallying call must be a United Front for Independence – Uniting all Australians who can be united to get rid of the US and their local hangers on. The core of the people’s resistance must be led by the working class and their allies. The working class is the most numerous, organised and decisive class, directly attached to the US multinationals’ and the local monopolies’ factories, mines, wharves etc.
We have recently endured the selling out of Australia by the Gillard Labor Government in 2011. This was when the Australian Government agreed to station 2500 US marines at Robertson Army Base in Darwin to help the US project military power into Asia and the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
These 2500 marines (according to Wikipedia) ‘routinely operates throughout Australia, the South West Pacific, and South East Asia, including Papua New Guinea and Indonesia’. The Robertson Base will be the future headquarters of the US Pacific Command.
It is also to psychologically condition Australians to the direct presence of the US military. It attempts to intimidate and it demonstrates US control of Australia, both to Australians and countries in our region.
Our Defence forces have been entangled further with the US military by the Liberal Governments of Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. Then, further consolidated by the Albanese Labor Government with its continued support for the $368 Billion AUKUS deal for the supply of nuclear submarines to Australia but these will be controlled by the US. We pay, they control.
A further deal between the US and Australia has been done for the IMMEDIATE use by US nuclear-armed submarines of our Stirling Naval Base near Perth.
84 years ago there was a United Front by Australia with the US to fight Japan. In 1942 the Pacific War Allied Command led by US General MacArthur was based in Melbourne. This was a part of joint, worldwide war effort (including with the Soviet Union and China) against the fascist Axis Powers of Japan, Germany and Italy, until victory was won.
The only problem is the Americans never left Australia. After WW2 their multinationals flooded Australia and Australia became subservient to the US politically, economically and militarily. We gave the bastards an inch and they took a mile.
As well as militarily, Australia is subjugated to the US financial system. It is not independent. US finance giants, Blackrock and Vanguard, with $16 trillion in world wide funds, own Australia’s big four banks and other vital Australian financial arteries.
Economically, other essential industries such as our oil and gas, are controlled by the US. And the current PETROL CRISIS, caused by US and Israeli aggression against Iran, demonstrates the outright folly of being tied to the US oil and gas monopolies.
Their decision to close 7 oil refineries in Australia, in recent years, including Altona in Melbourne, Port Stanvac in Adelaide, and Clyde and Kurnell in Sydney, was criminal. It leaves Australia extremely vulnerable, and was not in our national interest. It was purely in the financial interest of these US oil and gas monopolies who, chasing greater profits, built new refineries in other countries with lower labour and regulatory costs.
Now we have very little independent capacity to refine oil and petrochemicals and we have to import them. We have very little storage capacity of petrol and successive governments have run it down to, we are told lately, 25 days storage!
It is an independent Australian Government‘s most essential job to ensure vital lifelines of the economy, and of the people, are kept open.
Now the people are whacked with skyrocketing petrol and gas prices. We are told this will lead to higher prices for all essentials. We are told by the Reserve Bank this leads to inflation and they have to increase interest and mortgage rates which again hammers the people. Such are the joys of being part of the US empire!
And the most fundamental question is: Can the US be trusted to support our best interests?
Politically, are our parliamentarians up for the job of fighting for Australia’s independence and our best interests? On past performance the answer is a resounding NO.
Like our military and economic entanglement with the US, politically, our parliamentarians are tied hand and foot to the US. This is demonstrated by our politicians agreeing to involve us in aggressive US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, (all losses for the US and it’s allies), and including the current war in the Middle East against Iran.
And what say did the Australian people have to get involved in this war? Did the Australian people give their endorsement and authorisation?
The Albanese Labor Government has sent military personnel and RAAF planes to the Middle East to assist the US and Israel. Australia has a military base supporting the US in the United Arab Emirates which has been attacked twice during the current US aggression against Iran. The Government’s decision to get involved in this war has put our military in harm’s way.
We need to get rid of the US, get rid of our subservience, be independent and stand on our own feet.
And the starting point is a United Front of the People with the authority and standing to wage a successful struggle for Australian Independence.
