AUKUS is fundamentally part of a global program to reassert US dominance as its power fades. That is what AUKUS is about; it’s about tying Australia to that slowly sinking ship, the United States Empire. The Labor Government has been captured by this militaristic ideology, and it is our job to shake them out of it.

Labor Against War started at the beginning of last year from a standing start.

Until that time, I had been a press secretary in the Albanese government. One of the reasons I left working for the government was because, we saw confirmation of the rotation of nuclear-capable B52s through Tindal airbase in the Northern Territory. And then came the doubling down on AUKUS.

I’m usually not very naive: the best way not to be disillusioned in the Labor Party, is never be illusioned in the Labor Party. And that’s generally been my approach.

However, I had thought that in government, the Labor Party would ‘committee AUKUS to death’, claiming the details emerging about the program made it impossible to continue and it could be dumped on the big pile of ‘Scott Morrison bad ideas’.

However, Marles, Wong and Albanese have embraced AUKUS, much to the shame of many members of the Labor Party. And that is why Labor Against War exists. We speak for rank-and-file Labor values against war, for peace and for regional cooperation and solidarity, not warfare.

It is a mistake to regard AUKUS as merely a submarine program, however, as obscene as the cost of that is alone. I think some in the Labor Party, and I also think, unfortunately, some in the trade union movement consider that given the submarines are 20 to 30 years down the track, or they may not even come, “Let’s not rock the boat, maybe it will all disappear”.

I think that is a big mistake. Because there is AUKUS Pillar II and other aspects to AUKUS that are already having real impacts on Australian society.

We heard from the AEU President Correna Haythorpe about attempts by arms manufacturers and the defence establishment to get into our schools to promote militarism and the nuclear industry.

This is happening now. And there are impacts on scientific cooperation affecting and narrowing the scope of research in our universities. The impact extends to small technology companies considering leaving Australia because of the red tape around AUKUS.

AUKUS is fundamentally part of a global program to reassert US dominance as its power fades. That is what AUKUS is about; it’s about tying Australia to that slowly........

© Pearls and Irritations