The Struggle Against Multiple Theatres of War

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28-01-2023: The world is at war. There is one war being waged, in multiple theatres. Imperialism is waging a war for regime change against Russia and China primarily, but also against any and all governments that may not toe the line of Washington and London, or may even be on board with the agenda of the “Great Reset”. Included in this agenda is the Covid war, which is not being overtly waged, but could be rolled out the next time the ruling classes of the West feel able to do so. However, according to Davey Heller, of the purportedly Marxist Class Conscious (CC) organisation, there are only two theatres of war being waged – that of imperialism against Russia and China. Launching Anti-War Victoria in Melbourne on January 17, Mr Heller gave a speech which outlines some of the difficulties with building an anti-war movement in these times. Yet the positions of Class Conscious in themselves reflect the pressure of imperialism on the working classes of the West.

Redirect money to “fight Covid-19” ?

We will allow Mr Heller some leeway, given that an agitational speech at a picket outside a US consulate necessarily involves some rhetorical flair. Yet some of the content of this speech needs to be debated, to say the least. CC states that we must fight to end the US Alliance and all of its treaties, including ANZUS and AUKUS. We must fight to kick out all of the US bases from Australia, including the Pine Gap spy base and especially the stationing of nuclear armed B52 bombers[1] in the Northern Territory (NT). We can only agree, with the proviso that even if US forces were expelled, short of a revolution which brings the working class to power, the Australian armed forces would still be used to prosecute US imperialist wars. But then comes the clincher. CC claim that the plan to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on military hardware should instead be “…redirected to avoiding ecocide in the form of accelerating climate chaos. It must be spent on health including fighting the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, (!!!) housing and education.”[2]

This is a jaw-dropping howler. CC would of course disagree, but the “Covid-19 pandemic” was “the biggest lie in history”.[3] Whether or not the SARS-CoV-2 virus exists, Covid was and is a propagandistic cover for perhaps the largest ever assault on the working-class in history. Mr Heller is based in Melbourne, where the world’s longest and arguably worst lockdowns were imposed. The brutal repression against anti-lockdown protestors – including being fired upon with rubber bullets[4] – seemingly had no effect on the “revolutionary” CC. According to them, the lockdowns were only “public health measures” ! Yet in Sydney, these “public health measures” were enforced by the Australian Army.[5] In 2019, if anyone told you that self-proclaimed socialists would be assisting and even encouraging the police and the military of a capitalist state to suppress working people protesting for the most elementary of democratic and civil rights, you probably would have replied that this was impossible. Yet this occurred, and much worse besides. The “lockdown left”[6] not only capitulated to corporate media narratives on Covid, they joined forces with the most repressive arms of the capitalist state. Class Conscious perhaps means class consciousness for the ruling class, not the working class!

It is likely that CC also deny one of the worst outcomes of Covid repression – the undeniably large numbers of vaccine injuries and deaths as a result of mRNA vaccine mandates, i.e. take an untested series of injections, or lose your employment. The mind boggles as to how CC do not view this as an attack on the working class. Some politicians who are the last people on earth to be socialists are even raising questions as to why there is an incredibly high 17% excess mortality rate[7] in Australia since the rollout of the virtually forced Covid shots. The ruling class, it seems, took advantage of an environment of political repression to casually eliminate sections of the population which would, sooner or later, rise up against them. Talk about a pre-emptive strike! Yet CC, and the rest of the lockdown left, cannot or will not see what might unravel their Covid mania.

Imperialist war and “fascism”

CC state that “the fight against imperialist war and fascism is connected.”[8] We can only agree. Yet wasn’t the inordinate repression combined with unmistakably totalitarian ideology under the rubric of Covid also a form of fascism? When a supposedly liberal democratic state bans protest, bans free speech, bans movement in many cases, bans travel, operates concentration camps, bans sections of the population from public venues, closes state and national borders etc. – is this not fascism? Is this not a war by the ruling class against those below them? Not according to CC and the lockdown left. This is for “public health” and those that question this are “right-wing”. Perhaps CC and the lockdown left need to look in the mirror to find such souls.

CC also state that “..the war in Ukraine has been used by the (Labor Party Prime Minister) Albanese government to make Australia a de-facto member of NATO.”[9] We can only agree – but how can workers oppose the Albanese government on NATO’s proxy war on Russia via Ukraine – but strongly support the Albanese government on vaccine mandates and lockdowns, i.e., the war at home? If a capitalist government is trying to protect the health and welfare of the working class on Covid, how can we then ask workers to oppose this government when it goes to war with Washington overseas? While it is the case that the left needs to build towards such a time as there is a wave of support which can potentially produce a revolution, anything approaching revolution will NEVER occur while the “socialists” urge workers to support “their own” politicians on “public health” !!

CC are very loose when flinging around the accusation of “fascism”. They claim that the link between imperialism and fascism is demonstrated by the case of the Philippines, where the US and Australian governments have armed and supposedly supported the “fascist” forces in the Philippines military and government.[10] They were joined at this picket by the Bayan Australia group, which, like all liberal opposition in the Filipino ex-pat community, claim that the former President of the Philippines (Rodrigo Duterte) was a “fascist”, and by extension, the new government of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio are likewise.[11] This is news to the four out of five Filipinos who strongly backed Rodrigo Duterte during his six year term, who was clearly seen as one of the masses and one who defended Filipino sovereignty internationally. In fact, Rodrigo Duterte resolutely stood against war with China, and resisted pressure from the liberal opposition, bizarrely, to go to war with China.[12] So, if today, CC and Bayan Australia are demonstrating against war with China – this would make them “fascists” along with former President Duterte!

Unfortunately, CC hurl yet more accusations of “fascism”. Mr Heller acknowledges that there were national rallies against NATO’s war on Russia, but says that it was “sad” that they were “organised by an Australian fascist The Aussie Cossack.”[13] This takes the cake. The Aussie Cossack has a significant following, with 161 000 followers of his YouTube channel, most of whom are based in Australia.[14] Also known as Simeon Boikov, the Aussie Cossack was one figure who led opposition to Australian involvement in the war on Syria, and now NATO’s proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. He also was prominent in opposing tyrannical Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates – but this was “right-wing” according to CC. It is true that many socialists do not agree with the Aussie Cossack on other issues such as the economic and political nature of the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, both CC and the Aussie Cossack oppose NATO’s proxy war on Russia and Australian government involvement in backing Nazi infested forces in Ukraine. And yet, CC is not fascist, but the Aussie Cossack is? Again, CC should take a long look in a long mirror before they throw stones.

Oppose war on Russia, China..and the Covid war

Mr Heller correctly states that the Australian capitalist class also “supports US imperialism as the major force globally that works to suppress any efforts to create workers states. The fight against the DPRK, Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China are all part of the never ending fight by the imperialist countries against the striving of the masses for Communism”.[15] We can only agree. The DPRK (“North Korea”), the SRV (Socialist Republic of Vietnam) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) must be defended against internal and external counter-revolution – with external counter-revolution a very likely consequence of an imperialist war. However, genuine Trotskyists never forget to add that we offer zero political support to the Stalinist political leaderships of such states, viz., the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), nor the Communist Party of China (CPC).

This applies at all times – but especially in the era of the Covid wars. Despite swearing by revolutionary Trotskyism, CC in practice had the same position as the ultra-Stalinist bureaucracies in the DPRK, Vietnam and China, i.e., they all capitulated to imperialism on Covid repression. As the CPC was in possession of state power in the worlds largest country population wise, their Covid repression was awful – including welding shut the doors of houses during lockdowns![16] It is significant though, that the CPC was never able to enforce vaccine mandates. The WPK admittedly went rather light on Covid repression, “only” applying facemask mandates and some lockdowns much later than China.[17] In Vietnam, the CPV locked down whole cities for three months at a time, imposed “social distancing” and rolled out Covid vaccines as widely as they could.[18] In other words, the Stalinists betrayed “their own” workers in the worst way by genuflecting before Covid nonsense, fuelling non-scientific myths about what may have only been a cold or flu. This betrayal emboldened the governments of the imperialist West to lockdown harder against “their” working classes, shredding basic civil liberties and elementary freedoms in the process. In many cases, for lack of an alternative on the left, this also drove offended workers into the right-wing camp.

The Stalinists in the DPRK, Vietnam and China knew very well what they were doing – help prop up imperialism in order to promote and sustain the class treachery of “peaceful coexistence”. By falling into line behind the imperialist fraud of Covid-19, the Stalinists were policing “their own” workers while politically schooling them in the anti-Marxist dogma of “socialism in one country”. A genuinely Leninist leadership would have rejected “the Great Reset” and “the New Normal” narratives as the products of a declining and decadent Western capitalism, and even built solidarity with the then burgeoning freedom movements in Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. As Stalinism is a negation of Marxism, however, the opposite occurred. Mr Heller and CC, on the other hand, bought bucket loads of shares in the Covid deception, and seemingly advised the millions of workers thrown out of their jobs that this was an unfortunate consequence of a “deadly virus” !! While the Stalinists knew how to pull off a Covid subterfuge, CC swallowed the imperialist Covid propaganda whole.

CC are correct to state that the imperialist war against Russia and China are two different theatres of the same war. They are also correct to criticise the entirely one-sided and therefore small Australian anti-war movement which ONLY says “No War on China, No to AUKUS” – while remaining silent or even supporting NATO’s proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. This much we agree on. US and EU (European Union) led imperialism is gunning for regime change in Russia now, as a warm up for regime change in China later. Of course, any attempt at either of these means a global nuclear war, which working people must work hard to prevent. Ultimately, this can only be achieved by the sweeping away of the imperialist states through proletarian socialist revolutions. This appears to be far away currently, and building anti-war movements now are a priority. Yet the solution is revolution.

CC certainly agree with this, and would also agree that the forging of Marxist vanguard parties is the vital first step. Yet ironically, working class consciousness is impossible if socialists urge workers to work with the agents of capitalism (the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Greens, the politicians, old Trade Union officials, the Covid left, most academics and middle-class professionals etc.) on “public health” (!!), instead of against these very same forces on imperialist war. Covid is the class line. CC and the Covid left crossed this line, but then ask workers to forget all of this and fight against imperialist war. While we can forgive rank and file workers for some confusion, we expect better from “Marxists” who aspire to lead the working class towards the overthrow of capitalism.

If a capitalist and/or imperialist state is primarily concerned with saving the lives of workers – then not only is no class struggle conceivable, but nothing left-wing and indeed nothing political is possible. If the wealthiest corporations on earth can fire workers for refusing a dangerous vaccine – then the working class has no rights whatever. We are prepared to work against the West’s imperialist war on Russia and China with all those aiming to do so. At the same time, we seek to merge the remnants of the freedom movement with what we hope will be an anti-war upsurge, as part of an effort to unite the working class against domestic and international wars, and for their own international revolution.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] http://www.classconscious.org/2023/01/18/speech-by-davey-heller-at-anti-war-victoria-vigil-outside-us-consulate-in-melbourne/ (25-01-2023)

[2] Ibid, 1.

[3] www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-lie-in-world-history-the-data-base-is-flawed-there-never-was-a-pandemic-the-covid-mandates-including-the-vaccine-are-invalid/5772008 (25-01-2023)

[4] www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/21/victoria-covid-update-melbourne-descends-into-chaos-as-police-fire-rubber-pellets-at-anti-lockdown-protestors (25-01-2023)

[5] www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-30/adf-soldiers-to-arrive-in-sydney-covid19-lockdown/100336124 (25-01-2023)

[6] www.redfireonline.com/2021/11/11/australian-totalitarianism-the-yield-of-left-betrayal/ (25-01-2023)

[7] www.vaccinedeaths.com/2022-12-14-vaccinated-australia-baffled-high-excess-death-rate.html (25-01-2023)

[8] Ibid, 1.

[9] Ibid, 1.

[10] Ibid.1.

[11] www.facebook.com/watch/?v=380300374136685 (25-01-2023)