Independence for Australia

Some ideas and answers for changing the current situation in Australia and the predicament we find ourselves in, where US domination and our subservient ruling class are leading us down a disastrous path:

A Peoples Democratic Anti-Imperialist United Front

All classes oppressed by US imperialism and the Australian Local Monopoly Capitalists attached to them need to unite and liberate Australia from imperialist rule. This includes  the workers, working people, patriotic people at its core uniting with small business people, farmers (except multinational and local monopoly land barons), and small, medium and even some larger capitalists who are patriotic and want liberation from the US imperialists and their local hangers-on. That is, the great majority of Australians over the tiny minority of multinationals and local billionaires.

What’s needed is a united democratic alliance of the overwhelming majority of the people under the leadership of the working class. Why the working class? Because it is the most advanced class, directly attached to the multinationals’ and local monopolies’ factories, mines etc. That is, the most advanced means of production and distribution. The working class is the most revolutionary, disciplined, far-sighted, decisive and organised class. Other classes may see an independent, capitalist Australia as the answer and that is their prerogative. Their place in the sun. We can unite with these classes around freeing Australia from US Imperialist and the Local Monopoly Class rule.

All these oppressed classes have their representatives, political parties and advocates and all should combine in the interests of liberating Australia from US domination. Within this United Front there is both unity and struggle over who will lead. The working class needs to find its own voice and the individuals, parties and organisations that unequivocally represent its position. We believe the Communist Party is best placed to lead the working class and we can work with other parties and organisations that seek to lead the workers. The working class insists on independence and initiative within this united front. Some people may see this alliance of classes as unachievable but eventually people will see this is the most practical way forward to free Australia from the current inequitable morass and imperialist domination.

We also envisage revolution by stages. That is a Peoples Democratic, Anti-Imperialist  stage consummating nationhood, independence, sovereignty and development for the people as a first stage, to be followed by a socialist stage and ultimately a communist stage. A process that will inevitably encompass different epochs of time. In reality in the first stage the class struggle is subordinated to the national struggle i.e. against the main evil besetting Australia, US Imperialism and their collaborators. Or put another way, the class struggle takes the form of the national struggle.

US and the World

The major contradiction in the world today is between US Imperialism and the world’s people. That contradiction is becoming more antagonistic and intense as peoples in many countries seek to strengthen nationhood, independence, sovereignty and development of their countries for the benefit of the people without outside imperialist interference and domination. Australia sits into this world-wide stream of seeking to strengthen nationhood, independence, sovereignty and the development of the country for the benefit of our people. And the major obstacle to fulfilling that is the US hegemon and the Australian billionaire class that attaches itself to them. Many countries fit into this stream too, including China which is the biggest population-wise and development-wise.  

Since WW2 many countries and their peoples have waged extensive struggles to throw off colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialist domination and become masters of their own destiny.  A major feature of the world is that countries are at different stages of development, but the great majority are industrialising, urbanising and developing their economies at a rapid rate with varying degrees of success and benefit for their peoples. World-wide these  countries likewise face the obstacle of the US hegemon and their imperialist allies seeking to interfere, obstruct, exploit and undermine their nationhood, independence, sovereignty and development. The present Australian struggle against imperialism, primarily US imperialism, is thus part of a world-wide struggle. The US has 800 bases in 177 countries, including Australia.

In Australia, US imperialism and their flunkeys, the Local Monopoly Capitalist Class, dominate us militarily, politically, economically and culturally. We communists seek truth from facts. We study Australian conditions and the particular characteristics applicable to Australia. Australia is nominally a political independent country with a rich history of struggle by Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians but it has been enmeshed and ensnared in dependence on firstly British Imperialism until Britain’s subsequent decline by WW2. Then from 1942 onwards dependence on US Imperialism, and thus dominated by  world-wide US hegemony since then, and consequently to other secondary US allied imperialist powers, such as Britain, France, and later Germany and Japan, militarily, politically, economically and culturally. Our national bourgeoisie, collectively as a whole, have been dependent and subservient to imperialist powers. As a ruling class they have at times taken timid steps towards independence and sovereignty,  and there have been some areas of disagreement and struggle, but eventually they bow to their imperialist masters without a shred of conscious, backbone, self-respect and independence.

Like all reactionaries the imperialist powers seek to hold back the tide of history where their imperialist and neo-colonial system prevails. But all over the world there is rising struggle by the world’s people and the reactionaries are doomed.

Economic State of Affairs in Australia

With the current state of affairs in Australia we have a rich, billionaire class getting richer and inequality grows. We see the squeezing of the working class and the hollowing out and decline of the middle classes. And from the people’s collective labour the billionaire class gets the great majority of the wealth. New technology overwhelmingly benefits this billionaire class too. We are not Luddites seeking the destruction of new machines but new technology should benefit the great majority not a tiny minority as is happening now. Every time we hear the billionaires and their subservient spokespeople, academics and commentators mention the word ‘PRODUCTIVITY’ we should laugh. Likewise, their disingenuous notion of linking ‘productivity’ to wage rises. For one of the biggest frauds of the last 30 years has been new technology, automation, mechanisation, computerisation, communications, digitalisation, robotics, AI, data, block chain technology etc, overwhelmingly going to benefit one class, the multinationals and local billionaires.

While inequality rises and workers, working people, small business and small to medium-sized capitalists and farmers struggle day to day, fabulous profits go to the multinationals and their local billionaire mates. If we look at  OUR Australian resources such as the iron ore industry, we see Rio Tinto had $53 billion in sales in the last financial year 2018-2019. They exported 312 million tonnes of iron ore at an average of $170 per tonne. BHP exported 224 million tonnes and is forecasting 273-286 million tonnes in 2019-2020. Including coal and other minerals, and oil and gas production as well, BHP is forecasting  a profit of $14.6 billion in profit for 2018-2019. Fortescue (Andrew Forrest) exported 168 million tonnes in 2018-2019 and is forecasting 175 million tonnes in 2020.

If we look at Australia’s GDP in 2017 of $1.6 trillion, we see about 25% went to the government in taxes etc, i.e. $400 billion. This is ostensibly to provide services to the people but also subsidies and infrastructure for big business.  If we look at the profit share of GDP it is 38%, i.e. $608 billion (and at that rate it would be over a staggering $6 trillion in 10 years but it is much more when allowing for sales growth and compounding returns on investment). Of this profit the overwhelming biggest proportion goes to the multinationals and their local hangers-on. We see the biggest 5 banks (Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ, Westpac and Macquarie) have made approximately $50 billion nett profit in the last year. Rio and BHP made approximately $15 billion each. The market capitalisation of the Australian Stock Exchange top 200 companies is many trillions of dollars.  Much profit goes overseas to the multinationals involved in finance, mining, manufacturing, construction, health and education services, tourism, defence industries, rural production, and more recently to communication giants including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook which collectively pay little or no tax in Australia through offshore tax havens and by employing small armies of accountants and lawyers. Local billionaires allied to US imperialism also prevail like Rinehart, Pratt, Forrest, Palmer, Triguboff, Lowy whose individual wealth is near or over $10 billion each.

We do not begrudge self-employed tradespeople, small business, small and medium-sized farmers and even some larger capitalists and farmers a share of profits in a first stage of the democratic, anti-imperialist struggle but only on condition they are patriotic to the people and are opposed to US and local monopoly class domination, and treat their workers, subcontractors and suppliers fairly.

Thus, the billionaires have enriched themselves with fabulous profits through social labour and the most advanced means of production have been revolutionised particularly on an  unprecedented scale by new, advanced technology. In other words, they have privately appropriated the social labour of the people and the historical task remains for the people to appropriate the profits of their own socialised labour from the multinationals and the local billionaires.

So, What to Do?

We need to unite all who can be united and boot out the multinationals and appropriate the wealth of the local billionaire monopoly capitalist class. The working class seeks to unite all those who seek a better and more equitable Australia. A united front of classes and their representatives, political parties and organisations to repel primarily US Imperialism, their imperialist allies and their local collaborating class. Nationhood, independence, sovereignty and development of Australia for the people is stunted and deformed. We must free ourselves from foreign domination and interference.

Democracy too is stunted and deformed. The parliament we inherited from the British imperialists is used as a fig leaf, a facade to cover up the real rule of the US imperialists and the local monopoly class. People  have gained deep experience over an extended period of time of the parliamentary shenanigans that do not solve their fundamental problems. More and more parliament is seen as irrelevant or needlessly meddling in people’s daily lives or attacking the wages and conditions of workers and their organisations, and kowtowing to the US and local monopolies. Respect for parliament and many politicians are at an all-time low. People take matters into their own hands and fight in existing mass organisations or form new mass organisations and wage deep struggles for a myriad of economic, political and cultural issues. This is real democracy in action and more substantial than voting once every three or four years, although this elementary principle was extracted from the British imperialists and local collaborators through hard struggle by the people, primarily the working class and its allies.

Genuine democracy involves deep consultation, deep involvement by the people in issues and decisions that affect their daily lives. The way ahead involves the defence of existing people’s organisations and the creation of more mass organisations and a path to a genuine national assembly that truly represents the Australian Peoples’ interests with the power and state organs that enforce their rule after the domination of the US and their local cronies is ended.