03-07-2023: The Australian Labor Party (ALP) federal government has once again used taxpayers’ money to funnel funding and weapons to Ukraine. In a media release from the office of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Australian government announced a new $110 million “assistance” package for Ukraine. The package includes 70 military vehicles, including M113 armoured carriers, a supply of 105mm artillery, and $10 million for the United Nations (UN) overseen Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund.[1] This latest tranche of “aid” brings the total Australian government contribution to Ukraine to a staggering $790 million, which includes $610 million in military hardware.[2] The “opposition” Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) criticised the ALP – for not providing enough money and weapons. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton described the package as a “garage sale” of unwanted and obsolescent military vehicles that needed to be decommissioned anyway. The M113 armoured vehicle does date back to the Vietnam War, and some military commentators say that they would have depreciated in value to zero many years ago. Dutton also complained that Australia should have sent the new Australian built Hawkei vehicles, given that Ukraine has specifically requested them previously.[3]

Danger of world war

Every dollar and every weapon that the West now ships to Ukraine continues to add to the extreme danger of a nuclear world war. The West, via NATO and other quisling governments such as Australia and Canada,[4] is not only waging a proxy war on Russia via Ukraine but is recklessly endangering the future of human civilisation. More than this, the US and UK governments – along with their allies – are funding and arming Nazis in Ukraine to do their bidding. It is undeniable that the Ukrainian government, since it was overthrown in a US backed coup in 2014, has integrated Nazi militias into its state – the Azov Battalion being only the one which is most well-known. Ukraine is the only state in the world to have Nazi formations as part of its state, and some say that the Azov Battalion has even built a “state within a state”.[5] Yet the so-called liberal and supposedly progressive Labor Party does not even bat an eyelid at dumping money and military vehicles directly into the hands of Nazified forces with a vitriolic hatred of Russians to aid NATO’s endless war escalations.

Albanese’s rhetoric about Russia’s “immoral invasion” of Ukraine is daily exposed as a wild inversion of the facts on the ground. NATO has been provoking Russia for at least 20 years, and Russia has demonstrated almost limitless restraint in responding to dire threats to its security. Meanwhile the Nazified Ukrainian forces, knowing that they are being totally overwhelmed by Russia’s military and manufacturing capacity, are resorting to all kinds of provocations in an effort to draw NATO directly in to confront Russia. Reports say that “UkroNazi” junta forces have effectively taken over the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk in the Nikolayev region.[6] Speculation is rife that the Ukrainian forces will set off some type of nuclear explosion in the plant, blame Russia, and then somehow invoke Article 5 of NATO’s charter to draw the US directly into the conflict. This comes after the Ukrainian armed forces have repeatedly launched air strikes on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,[7] in a seeming effort to trigger an explosion at the plant which Russian forces secured in the early days of its Special Military Operation (SMO). Yet much of the Western corporate media barely reported these deliberate efforts to blow up the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

The “left” and “democracy”

Potentially, these latest weapons shipments from Western governments to Ukraine come in the wake of an attempted coup by parts of the Wagner private military corporation in Russia, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.[8] This coup failed and was extinguished by Vladimir Putin’s government in less than 24 hours, arguably resulting in a strengthening of the Russian government and its steady military gains. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian shell government of Volodymyr Zelensky has long since carried out its own coup against “their own” people, demolishing any pretence of elective democracy. In 2022, Zelensky simply banned eleven opposition political parties in Ukraine, for allegedly maintaining ties to Russia. The largest opposition party which was banned was the Platform for Life, which until that time held 44 out of 450 seats the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.[9] If this wasn’t enough of a shredding of the remaining scraps of democracy, Zelensky recently announced a cancelling of any elections at all in Ukraine, supposedly because of martial law.[10]

In a situation where NATO is waging a proxy war against a nuclear superpower, and US imperialism and its satraps are funding and arming Nazis to defend a government which bans opposition parties and cancels elections, one would expect the political left to be up in arms. Yet almost all of what passes for the left in the West remain silent, or even quietly applaud the warmongers to “stand with Ukraine”. Phil Shannon skillfully draws the parallels for this nominal left which fell holus-bolus for both of the Covid and Ukraine psy-ops.[11] Firstly marching in lockstep with an imperialism which shut down economies, threw millions of workers out of employment and subjected them to house arrest with the excuse of “health”, this so-called left heeled on command to prosecute NATO’s perilous war on Russia. In the process, this fraudulent left has aligned itself with Big Pharma, capitalist states, the CIA, censorship and more,[12] while lowering itself to cheering on near genocidal Nazis as “democrats”.

To be sure, it is not only the Socialist Alliance[13] and Socialist Alternative[14] which have either stumped for imperialism or remained silent as the West drives the globe to war. Trade Union officials remain totally silent, which once again demonstrates their fealty to Australian and international capitalism. This betrayal of the ostensible left on Covid and imperialist war has led to a situation where the Aussie Cossack[15] is virtually the only figure who has the position to call anti-war actions, given his leading role in stirring opposition to Covid lockdowns and mandates, and now facilitating a defence of Russia against all kinds of anti-democratic acts. The extreme Russophobia being perpetrated by the government includes the terminating of a lease on land which the Russian government was planning to build its new embassy in Canberra.[16] The Aussie Cossack, despite his pro-Tsarist views, is exposing the so-called left as willing foot soldiers for a declining empire, all while being effectively detained in the Russian consulate in Sydney. Working people should demand the dropping of the entirely trumped-up charges weighed against the Aussie Cossack by the New South Wales Police.[17]

No to war on Russia or China

Those aghast at the apparent lunacy of Washington and Canberra risking nuclear war by constant escalations directed against Russia need only glance at a few economic statistics to find out why. Despite all of the Western sanctions levelled at the Russian Federation, its inflation rate remains at a measly 2.3%.[18] Yet many realise that Russia is currently being targeted by imperialism only as the precursor to the larger confrontation with Russia’s ally the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  In the PRC, thanks to predominantly public ownership of the means of production and a planned economy, its inflation rate in May this year is a virtually negligible 0.2%.[19] Due to private profit not being the primary driver of economic activity in the PRC, almost 30% of world manufacturing output now takes place in China – which is more than that of the US, Europe and Japan combined.[20] In the critical fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), it is estimated that the PRC will produce 77 000 PhD graduates each year compared to 40 000 each year in the US. If international students in the US are excluded from its count, Chinese STEM PhD graduates would outnumber their US counterparts by a ration of more than three to one.[21]

Socialistic rule is today only the case for China, and not at all for Russia. Nevertheless, their strategic alliance combined with Russia’s military superiority, still largely inherited from the former Soviet Union, fuses to form a formidable non-imperialist bloc which is attracting many countries of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. 25 countries have expressed interest in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) alliance, and eight have formally applied to join.[22] The US and Europe are in the throes of losing centuries of dominance, so it is lashing out in a catastrophically dangerous last-ditch attempt to remain in power. Yet their capitalist mode of production has long since proved obsolete on the scales of history, and now it only produces entirely absurd political contradictions, such as the funding and arming of Nazis in the name of “democracy”.

Despite the fact that neither of the leaderships of Russia or China attempt to provide political direction, the working class internationally has a vital stake in defending them militarily against the encroachments of US and Australian imperialism. A final escape from the danger of war means the overthrow of the rule of finance capital in the West, combined with proletarian political revolutions in the East, and especially in the PRC. Key to this historic task is the forging of internationally linked vanguard parties with a foundation of the Marxist theory of Permanent Revolution. Meanwhile, workers should demand an end to, and seek to block, all funding and weapons shipments to Ukraine.

WORKERS  LEAGUE   


www.redfireonline.com        

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.pm.gov.au/media/australia-pledges-further-support-ukraine (28-06-2023)

[2] www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2023/06/26/australia-aid-military-ukraine/ (28-06-2023)

[3] www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-re-starving-ukraine-opposition-blasts-government-aid-package-20230627-p5djun.html (28-06-2023)

[4] www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-ukraine-visit-counteroffensive-russia-1.6871411 (28-06-2023)

[5] www.theinteldrop.org/2022/06/25/ukraines-neo-nazi-azov-battalion-has-built-a-state-within-a-state/ (28-06-2023)

[6] www.infobrics.org/post/38703/ (28-06-2023)

[7] www.sott.net/article/474471-Ukrainian-forces-hit-Zaporozhye-plant-12-times-nuclear-cooling-waste-storage-amongst-areas-hit (28-06-2023)

[8] http://www.sputnikglobe.com/20230626/putin-mutineers-wanted-russian-soldiers-to-kill-each-other-kiev-wanted-the-same—-1111480880.html (28-06-2023)

[9] www.nationalreview.com/news/zelensky-suspends-opposition-parties-in-ukraine-with-russia-ties/ (28-06-2023)

[10] www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/no-elections-in-country-until-martial-law-ends-ukrainian-president-zelenskyy-articleshow.html (28-06-2023)

[11] www.real-left.com/covid-and-ukraine-ctrl-c-ctrl-v-part-1/ (28-06-2023)

[12] www.real-left.com/covid-and-ukraine-ctrl-c-ctrl-v-part-2/ (28-06-2023)

[13] www.greenleft.org.au/content/us-socialist-we-should-support-ukraine-against-russias-military-imperialism-and-wests (28-06-2023)

[14] www.redflag.org.au/article/ukraine-war-russia-out-no-nato (28-06-2023)

[15] t.me/AussieCossack (https://t.me/AussieCossack) (28-06-2023)

[16] www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-15/government-to-terminate-lease-for-new-russian-embassy/102482098 (28-06-2023)

[17] www.redfireonline.com/2023/03/06/release-the-aussie-cossack/ (28-06-2023)

[18] www.statbureau.org/en/russia/inflation (01-07-2023)

[19] www.tradingeconomics.com/china/inflation-cpi (01-07-2023)

[20] www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/countries-manufacturing-trade-exports-economics/ (01-07-2023)

[21] http://www.cset.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/China-is-Fast-Outpacing-U.S.-STEM-PhD-Growth.pdf (01-07-2023)

[22] www.watcher.guru/news/brics-full-list-of-countries-that-want-to-join-alliance (01-07-2023)

Image: Australian M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers. Some of these tracked vehicles date back to the Vietnam War, and were destined for the scrapyard, but are now being shipped to Ukraine for NATO’s proxy war. http://www.reddit.com