The following articles were published by The Guardian, newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia, in its issue #2182, 16 March 2026.

 

Reproduction of articles, together with acknowledgement if appropriate, is welcome.

 

The Guardian, Editorial, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

Communist Party of Australia, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

 

The Guardian editor@cpa.org.au

 

CPA General Secretary: Andrew Irving gensec@cpa.org.au

 

Phone (02) 9699 8844    Fax: (02) 9699 9833    Email CPA cpa@cpa.org.au

 

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INDEX

 

1. STOP WAR
2. EDITORIAL – Safety last?
3. Time to take profit out of NDIS
4. Leadership re-elected
5. Joint Statement of the TUDEH, the CPI and the CPUSA
6. Inflation set to soar
7. DINGO
8. Anti-Imperialism protest in Canberra
9. Free Palestine, Iran and Lebanon rally Boorloo/Perth
10. Women’s Day picnic
11. Adelaide: Anti-war protest
12. CPA Congress – Political Resolutions
13. Union backs call to scrap anti-discrimination exemptions
14. How to fund tax cuts for battlers
15. Goodbyes – and hello to RAFFWU union action
16. GREEN NOTES – Mosquitoes in Iceland
17. The choice before humanity
18. Growing crisis needs communist activity and solutions
19. Japan: Slush fund culture remains unchanged
20. GLOBAL BRIEFS
21. WEASEL WORDS
22. Communist parties condemn attack on Iran

 

 

 

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1. STOP WAR

Marcus Browning

The Albanese government is taking Australia into the US/Israel war on Iran. Australians have every right to be angry and outraged as once again the rich and powerful of this planet, the huge transnational corporations, have sent their military machines to grab land and resources which are not theirs.

The aggression is an act of arrogance and of contempt for the international community which opposes it.

A vast movement of the people for peace and against war is sweeping the world. It is a movement seen before in human history. Very broad sections of the community have taken to the streets and taken many other actions against the war on Iran and against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.

Behind the war are the forces of international capital and imperialism. They have become more and more ferocious and desperate as the movement against war and opposition to the economic and social policies of the IMF and the transnational corporations increases.

The leaders and giant corporations of the United States head the drive to war and oppression. Their aim is the reimposition of colonial regimes everywhere.

In desperation, they have  thrown all caution to the wind and torn up long established norms of behaviour and international law. The war camp is no longer able to achieve its objectives by economic and political means and is more and more resorting to brute military force — invasion, occupation, the direct appointment of governments and the suppression of the popular people’s movements.

If the US-Israeli war is a war for regime change then it is a war that cannot be won without enormous loss of human life. There are nearly 100 million people in Iran, a large section of whom will defend their republic till their death.

US DOMINATION

It is a war for US domination of the Middle East, a war for oil, a war for US supremacy over the oil-producing nations of the Arab world. Wars against other nations are planned. As in the past, an Australian government is following the US into war. The Albanese government has played a despicable role, handing over Australia’s independence and sovereignty to the service of a war-mongering power.

Historically, governments have hidden the truth about the US military base at Pine Gap (near Alice Springs) which is now directing the missiles and bombs to their targets in Iran and spying on Iran’s communications.

The cost of the war will be paid by cuts to Medicare and public health services, and will create a shortage of money for public education, job creation and social services.

The joint US-Israel attack on Iran is an illegal war. The forces for peace must do everything to prevent Australia’s further involvement in it, and break from Trump’s reckless war rampage. This is a monstrous and immoral war waged by the most powerful military force in the world against a small power, already bringing death and destruction to the people of Iran.

This act is not only a violation of the Charter of the United Nations but is further tearing at the fabric of long-established norms of international relations and is also aimed at the very existence of the United Nations itself.

It is a war in disregard of the strong opposition of the majority of people around the world. There is a gathering storm of opposition with France, Russia, China, Germany, and many other countries bringing a common demand that there be “No war on Iran.”

The actions of the US and Israel are war crimes and should be immediately taken up by the International Criminal Court.

PM Albanese echoing the strategic plan of the United States to justify war against Iran reflects that Australia is already deeply enmeshed in the long-range plans of the United States for world domination. The participation of any Australian military forces to Iran is not the “minuscule” or “token” involvement that some in the media are suggesting.

The Australian government can and should make a contribution to peace by immediately withdrawing from the AUKUS war-making alliance. The US spy station at Pine Gap should be closed. US warships should be refused entry to Australian ports.

TRAMPLING ON DEMOCRACY

The Albanese government is morally and politically bankrupt; it ignores public opinion and tramples on democratic rights.

The major political parties which have dominated elections have failed the people of Australia. They have failed the innocent victims of war in Iran and Palestine. They have failed the planet, plunging it into a war which could escalate. The US is already claiming the right to use nuclear weapons.

We have to wage a political war for a new kind of government which will listen to the people and act in our interests. A government which will end the military alliance with the US and close the US bases. A government of the people and for the people.

Let us build the movement to stop the war so it reaches into every city, every neighbourhood, every street, every workplace in this country. If the government will not listen to the overwhelming majority of the people, throw it out! Let the people set the agenda.

 

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2. EDITORIAL

Safety last?

Australia is sending a ‘Wedgetail’ early warning aircraft and some air-to-air missiles, along with 85 defence force members to the UAE. Cue lots of ooh-aah commentary from our easily impressed media about how terrific the Wedgetail is and how advanced our air-to-air missiles are. There has also been justifiable worry about our involvement in an illegal war. PM Albanese, typically, has tried to have it both ways – we’re not in the war so don’t worry, but also we’re helping our big friend the US which must always be appeased if you’re an Australian PM.

One thing that’s overlooked in all this is why anyone needs to protect the UAE in the first place. Albanese has called the attacks ‘reprisals’ which suggests Iran has its reasons, but has also called the attacks ‘unprovoked.’ Iran didn’t attack nations in the region for nothing. The US and Israel have attacked Iran illegally with no real justification. Iran has limited options for defence, so it’s attacked nearby countries that host US bases, as well as UK bases in Cyprus. It’s simple: if you’re helping the US devastate our country, you’re an enemy.

US military bases in the Gulf states were meant to make the UAE and its neighbours safer. The reasoning was that once a country has a base on its  territory, the US will have to come to the rescue if the host nation is attacked. All fine and dandy, but it also means the host is complicit in what the US does to other nations. The Gulf states have just found this out in a very uncomfortable manner. Having a US base makes a country a target.

Australia has around 50 US bases under a similar approach to that of the Gulf states. It’s the Australian way to treat the US as a ‘big friend’ we have to have for protection. That’s why no matter what violence the US practices on other nations and no matter how wrong or unhinged that violence is, the nation that twice elected Donald Trump as President is called our “vital security ally and closest global partner” by the Australian government.

Australia has a Marines base, facilities set up for helping US nuclear-armed bombers land and refuel and we’re putting serious money into making a naval base in Perth a facility for US submarines. If you’re finding life a bit expensive at the moment, don’t worry, you’re helping out a superpower.

Do the bases Australia hosts make us safer? Let’s ask the Gulf states how safe they’re feeling just now. Or do US bases make us partly responsible for the actions of a nation that has launched an illegal war and facilitated a genocide in Palestine? If the answer to that question is ‘yes’ it means Australia is on the hook for future US acts of aggression. If the answer is ‘no’ does that mean the bases here don’t help the US?

The truth is that the bases make us significantly less safe. Although almost nobody in the media or Parliament thinks so, there is an alternative. This country could be truly independent. We could be a genuine friend to neighbouring nations instead of a friend that’s working for the US. It’s a lot better than being a target.

Real independence and real friendship with other countries is what the Communist Party of Australia is working for. If you think that’s worth going for, consider joining or supporting.

 

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3. Time to take profit out of NDIS

The Australian Services Union has warned that for-profit providers are jeopardising the viability and integrity of the NDIS, and is urging the federal government to consider banning profiteering companies from the scheme.

The call comes after the ABC’s 7.30 program aired a story about hundreds of disability support workers being shortchanged on their hard-earned pay, superannuation and other entitlements by a complex group of for-profit providers in the NDIS.

Over the last 18 months in NSW alone, the ASU has investigated 102 providers for underpaying workers and breaching the Fair Work Act, and all of these, bar two, have been for-profit providers.

“The NDIS is increasingly becoming a vehicle for profiteering providers to make a quick buck at the expense of the integrity of the scheme,” ASU NSW & ACT Secretary, and the union’s NDIS spokesperson Angus McFarland, said.

“As the union for NDIS workers, we see the raw data and hear from exploited workers every day. Our union is constantly playing whack-a-mole on dodgy providers who rip off workers. Virtually all of these bad players are for-profits.

“Many of these NDIS providers are ripping off workers then phoenixing or leaving the industry. But they don’t draw a line there – in our experience the same providers are also engaging in broader fraud of the system, ripping off NDIS participants and the taxpayer.

“Our union can’t point to a single for-profit provider where workers are happy, where participants’ goals and aspirations are met, and where there are no complaints or grievances to the regulators.

“When there is so much commentary about the sustainability of the NDIS, it’s time for a conversation about why we have providers with profit motives in the scheme at all. It’s time to scrutinise the motive and mix of providers in federally funded essential services from the NDIS through to aged care and childcare too.

“The proliferation of for-profit NDIS providers all began under the Coalition government where we witnessed a rise in rip offs, fraud and undermining of the promise of the NDIS largely driven by a marketised and deregulated system.

“To its credit, the federal government is cracking down on fraud in the NDIS but we need to have a bigger conversation about the clear patterns that are emerging.

“The NDIS was built on a promise to provide people with disability genuine choice, quality support, and the freedom to pursue their goals. That promise depends on properly paid workers who stay in the sector, and providers committed to quality supports not making a buck and gaming the system.”

Australian Services Union

 

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4. Leadership re-elected

An interview with General Secretary Andrew Irving and President Vinnie Molina

So how does it feel to be re-elected?

VM: I feel very proud and happy to be re-elected to the position of National President. In the Party, to be elected to a position means more responsibility and more work to be carried out.

AI: I’m honoured to be tasked with the responsibility of continuing my work as General Secretary. It’s an important task I’m happy to continue to do and happy to improve. I’m honoured that the Central Committee has continued my term.

Apart from your re-election, how do you see the Congress that has just finished?

VM: Congress was very successful. It is an opportunity every four years for a Party-wide discussion to improve our activity based on the outcomes of the past Congress.

It is in fact a good opportunity to elevate our party to higher outcomes, and leading where possible on the priorities identified by Congress.

AI: Congress was an outstanding success. It showed that comrades from across the country could meet and have a constructive discussion. Consideration of the Congress document and resolutions will strengthen the whole party’s understanding and ability to respond to the tasks of building the party and building a movement in Australia.

How has the Party changed since you first took on your position?

VM: The quality of congress delegations at all levels has improved. There is an understanding and appreciation of the historical role of the communist party in our country. The challenge is to continue to grow with discipline and commitment.

AI: Many new members have joined the Party, and there’s a lot more interest in what the Party is presenting as an alternative political position. There’s a lot more learning involved – both political education and organising new members as activists and communists. We’ve strengthened our understanding of how to manage the Party and build campaigns with the community.

How do you see the political environment the Party faces over the next four years?

VM: We live in a  changeable environment with many challenges. The rise of right-wing expressions and the ruling class pushing to further undermine civil and democratic rights is a call for our party members to continue to develop initiatives and organise around key demands for the people in general.

AI: Conflict in the world is reflected in Australian society. So we have an opportunity to work with a broad cross section of the community to meet those challenges and address and unite the community to start building a stronger working class movement and community movement to challenge the divisions that are becoming prevalent across society

What for you are the most significant changes over the last four years – both in the Party and in Australia?

VM: Our membership had the opportunity to challenge the status quo. They campaigned for the Yes to a voice to Parliament. In the last 2-3 years they have mobilised against the genocide in Gaza and for a free Palestine. The constant activity and working with other fraternal groups and organisations have also enriched the way we do things. There is always more room for improvement and more work to do.

We are lucky that we have a Party press which has played a positive role. Regular reports from local activity means more and more people get to know about the existence of the CPA and that we are still here, still working. It is just one way we have gained more recruits.

AI: In the Party, it’s the new members. In Australia, the politics of division has played an increasing role.

What gives you hope about the situation now?

VM: The process of rejuvenation is important to appreciate. We have a much younger membership with all the opportunities and limitations that brings. The majority of delegates at Congress were under 40, and for many it was their first Congress. The congress political resolution was adopted unanimously with only minor amendments. This reinforces the role of the collective. It shows that the collective will always prevail for the better. There is enthusiasm and the will to overcome the obstacles put before us by the class enemy. Despite all the difficulties our Party will continue to exist far beyond the current 105 years since its foundation.

AI: The success of the Palestinian movement and the engagement of a large cross section of the community and the union movement in solidarity with their cause. All sections of society continue to recognise that the political parties in Australia aren’t addressing the needs of ordinary Australians. It’s only our party that can provide the alternative ideas that can build a movement to challenge their backward policies.

How does the international situation affect the Party’s work in the period ahead?

VM: It’s a period in which the law of the jungle dominates. It is a very precarious situation that could have catastrophic consequences for the entire world and its democratic forces.

Pre-emptive and unprovoked military attacks on several countries by US imperialism. The kidnapping, assassination and threats on elected leaders in breach of international law is of a serious concern. Unfortunately, we have a weak government that does not stand for the rights of the people and follows the mandates of the US alliance to the detriment of the Australian people.

We must embrace internationalism and work with fraternal parties and progressive peoples for the better world we know is possible.

AI: The international situation directly impacts on the policies adopted by governments in Australia and continues to expose their compliance with repressive and warmongering imperialists. This gives us the ability to highlight the difference in approach that relies on developing friendship and cooperation with nations in opposition to the violent and criminal actions of the imperialist west.

 

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5. Joint Statement of the Communist Parties of Iran (TUDEH), Israel (CPI) and the United States (CPUSA)

The war of aggression launched by the Netanyahu criminal government and the United States Imperialism against Iran has ignited a full-scale war and dragged the region and its peoples towards more disasters and civilian casualties – all in the service of imperialist interests, against the interests of peoples, their independence and their right to self-determination in an effort to dominate and control the region and the world.

The Trump Administration’s declaration of its intention to “regime change” in a sovereign country in the region and elsewhere in the Latin American continent is a gross trampling on the sovereignty and dignity of peoples and a dismantling of the meaning of the existence of international law and all previously established norms, even if they are not often for the benefit of the peoples, and it is a danger that grows with every war and aggression of the United States and Israel.

The experiences of the peoples in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, and in every country in the southern half of the globe facing colonialism and imperialism cannot be overlooked – true liberation and salvation from reactionary and authoritarian regimes and their change can only come with the action of the people and patriotic leadership – not from Washington or Tel Aviv.

We reiterate that this attack on Iran and the Iranian people is the prelude to total domination over the rest of the countries of the region, a plan that the Israeli government and the US administration do not hesitate to disclose, and we also affirm that this US-Israeli imperialist military aggression, not only does not herald Iran’s liberation from the yoke of tyranny and the current dictatorship, but is also an attempt to destroy Iran as a capable regional state, and to replace the current government with a subordinate and authoritarian regime that has previously announced its program to bloodily suppress its opponents.

As internationalist communist parties, we call upon all forces seeking true liberation from the regimes of exploitation and oppression in each of our countries, as well as the peace-loving and progress-loving forces in the world, to unite their efforts with all their force in these critical and decisive moments in order to struggle against the governments of war and aggression.

 

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6. Inflation set to soar

M Santos

The pursuit by banks of ever-increasing profits is never ending. Their massive profits come at a high cost to families struggling to pay inflated mortgages and put food on the table as well as to small businesses.

One of the most pressing economic questions driving the present cost-of-living crisis affecting households, in particular young people and sole parent families, is the housing crisis. Many factors are driving the crisis, including government tax concessions that benefit investors and increases in interest rates on loans.

By hiking interest rates, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) aims to reduce demand for goods and services and cool the economy as incomes are eaten into by higher repayments on housing and other loans.

The RBA’s constant references to a “tight labour market” are weasel words indicating unemployment is not high enough. The more unemployed, the lower the demand for goods and services.

Hopes were raised when the RBA started reducing COVID-driven high interest rates in February 2025, but that was short-lived with the Board deciding to increase the cash rate from 3.6% points to 3.85 per cent on 3 February 2026.

The RBA governor, in announcing her decision, said “inflation is likely to remain above target for some time” – meaning further hikes are on the horizon. That was before the US and Israel launched their unprovoked, illegal war against Iran. The price of oil is now soaring in Australia and globally. Oil in some form or other is an input to almost all goods and services.

Around 20% of oil exports travel through the Strait of Hormuz which is effectively closed, and with no end to the war in sight, prices are likely to continue rising, in particular as shortages develop.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is creating another problem for Australia – lack of fertiliser for agricultural crops. Australia has next to no production of urea, a key ingredient in the manufacture of fertiliser. Its price has already risen 25%.

Australian farmers, about to plant winter crops, are uncertain as to whether to go ahead. They face a double whammy – the threat of shortages a well as rising prices.

These developments raise the prospect of shortages and outrageous prices for consumers, a reminder of the $12 lettuces that we experienced during COVID.

Australia once had domestic production of fertilisers but the last significant producer of urea closed in 2021 because high gas prices would eat into profits.

The anarchic system of capitalism does not take into consideration the needs or interests of people. Its only concern is where to make the largest profits. For-profit corporations go where they can make the largest profits.

Incredibly, Australia has fuel reserves estimated at 36 days for petrol, 32 for diesel, and 29-32 for jet fuel thus relying heavily on imports. Its strategic oil reserves are located in the US, in Texas!

War in the Middle East is creating panic-buying of fuel and could see massive shortages. Imagine what impact the US/Australia’s planned war against China would have.

Australia is far from self-reliant as we discovered during COVID with huge logistic problems including the unavailability of critical medications.

This cannot be allowed to continue. Key industries including fuel, energy, and communications must be nationalised. Government has a responsibility to develop industries such fertilisers and pharmaceutical products.

Australia must have its own merchant fleet. We don’t need nuclear submarines. They amount to a gift to the US military of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Australia is heavily reliant on shipping for exports and imports. Submarines threaten our security. A merchant fleet enhances our security.

The RBA policy of inflicting more pain on working people and their families by raising interest rates when they are already hurting from inflation only serves the interests of the banks and big business.

The RBA is NOT independent. Yes, it can act independently of an elected government. But its decisions and board membership reveal whose interests it serves. Some have backgrounds in finance and others have held or hold directorships in industry.

 

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7. DINGO

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has condemned Searoad Ferries for boasting about new wharf investments while refusing to address serious safety failures affecting ferry workers and passengers across Victoria’s ferry network.

The company has been quick to issue press releases celebrating infrastructure upgrades at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, but it has remained silent on disturbing safety incidents involving crew and passengers that have yet to be properly addressed or reported.

Maritime workers know that flashy announcements about terminals and wharves mean nothing if the people who operate the vessels and serve the travelling public are being put at risk.

The Victorian Branch of the MUA is particularly concerned that serious incidents – including falls and violent assaults against ferry crew – have allegedly not been properly addressed or in one instance not reported to the relevant safety regulators.

An incident in 2024 occurred in which a passenger allegedly attacked crew members during a voyage, placing workers and passengers in immediate danger.

Victorian MUA Assistant Secretary Aarin Moon said the failure to transparently report and respond to such incidents raises serious questions about the company’s commitment to maritime safety and its legal obligations.

“Maritime workers have the right to a safe workplace. When serious incidents happen on vessels, they must be reported, investigated and responded to,” stated Moon.

The union says ferry workers have raised concerns about the company’s handling of those incidents, including failures to escalate matters to safety authorities despite clear obligations to do so. “These ferries are part of Victoria’s public transport system. They carry members of the public every single day,” Moon said.

“If there are serious safety incidents taking place and they are not being reported to regulators, that is a matter of enormous concern.”

The union is also calling on safety regulators including AMSA and WorkSafe Victoria to examine the company’s reporting practices and ensure that maritime safety obligations are being upheld.

“No ferry worker should have to go to work wondering whether their employer will back them when things go wrong. Instead of LinkedIn self-promotion, Searoad should get the basics right: protecting workers, protecting passengers, and complying with safety laws,” Moon added.

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PARASITE OF THE WEEK: Businesses like Coles, whose failure to implement appropriate security standards has left the Victorian public with a failing security sector, and more than 1,700 workers out of a job.

The collapse of MA Services Group in December followed months of serious integrity concerns and public scrutiny. The collapse occurred more than a year after the Victorian government was warned by United Workers Union (UWU) about adding MA Services and other companies to its official procurement panel for government security work.

MA Services provided security services to the AFL, Aldi, Coles, and Dan Murphy as well as the Victorian government – including Melbourne landmarks Southern Cross Station and Federation Square.

United Workers Union is calling on the Victorian government to:

Conduct an urgent review of regulatory settings for the security industry, including its own procurement practices.

Adopt stronger integrity checks and consistent enforcement of security sector standards.

Live up to its own policies to provide better security for Victorians and a better security sector.

United Workers Union National President Jo Schofield said public safety and workers’ jobs are put at risk when governments and big businesses such as Coles fail to apply strong standards to companies delivering security services.

“Big businesses like Coles and governments who use security services have an obligation to the safety of their customers and the public,” Schofield said.

“The impacts on the work force are also severe. When proper standards aren’t enforced, good companies are pushed aside and the worst actors are rewarded. The collapse of MA Services demonstrates the consequences of failing to act on warning signs.”

 

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8. Anti-Imperialism protest in Canberra

AC

On 4 March between 50 and 60 people turned up outside the US Embassy in Canberra with flags, banners, and even an anti-AUKUS truck, to protest the latest uptick of US imperialism on multiple continents. Canberrans of all political persuasions are increasingly aware of the desperation of the situation and Australia’s role in it.

MaryClare from the Canberra Branch was MC, and wove commentary and narrative between each speaker. Speakers were Tim Dobson on Iran, Rob Parnel (ACFS) on Cuba, Andy Carruthers on Cuba and Venezuela (including reading the CPA 15th Congress Special Resolution on Cuba), and Adam from National Organiser of the Southern Cross Brigade and Community and Public Sector delegate.

The protest was fierce. Speakers focussed on the sheer evil and criminality of the Trump regime. Speakers also expressed outrage at the way the Albanese has effectively condoned the Trump regime’s actions.

Next steps will be deeper engagement with the ACFS, Australia-Cuba Friendship Society in Canberra, and the ongoing postcard writing campaign to free Maduro and Flores.

Yankees go home.

Down with US imperialist running dogs.

No more war, no more death, no more destruction and sorrow.

Hands off Venezuela!

Hands off Cuba!

Hands off Iran!

 

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9. Free Palestine, Iran and Lebanon rally Boorloo/Perth

Richard Titelius

With the US and Israeli governments attack on Iran barely a week old, Friends of Palestine Western Australia held a rally on 6 March, also International Working Women’s Day. MC for the Rally was Janet Parker from Jews for Palestine. With women often bearing the brunt of the wars started by and for the interests of patriarchy, Parker said that on this day, “we celebrate difficult women,” recalling Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s characterisation of Australian of the Year, Grace Tame for speaking out about Palestine on Australia Day.

Hiba Farra Vice President of Friends of Palestine and Mothers for Palestine spoke of freedom and resistance being fuel to female strength. Hiba spoke of a mother carrying her child twice in her life; once when she holds her child when they are born and again when authorities bring the corpse of her child after being returned from being killed in war. The Australian government is complicit in the war against Iran and Lebanon through its eager acceptance of the US pretext for the attack.

Diana Bayan a descendent of Palestinian settlers in Jenin on the West Bank. Bayan said that neither she or her parents have the right of return. She was born in a refugee camp in Jordan before moving to the United Arab Emirates and eventually Australia. Bayan spoke up for those who are battling Israeli repression in the West Bank and also her two Palestinian sons who she hopes one day will be able to reclaim their Palestinian identity and homeland. Since 7 October 2023, over a thousand Palestinian people have been killed in the West Bank while thousands have also been arrested as part of a calculated plan to weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people.

What brings us together said Bayan is unity and sacred anger – the anger of the righteous.

Roisin from Iran spoke of the colour of the sky there being blood red. Of bombs raining down on Tehran and other cities, morning, noon and night – often on civilians and civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. Roisin said these attacks on Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine exposed the bare face of Western imperialism – its quest for control and greed for resources through death and destruction.

MC Janet Parker spoke of the large rates of imprisonment of Palestinians by Israel and the 99% conviction rates of those Palestinians who are charged by Israeli authorities. Now, said Parker, the Israeli government has passed a law to provide the death penalty for Palestinians only.

One in seven women in Gaza now heads a household because the man has been killed while out looking for food, while life expectancy has also decreased by 30 years for Palestinian women.

The next speaker was Randa who spoke of the protest and petition fatigue which many in the activist movement are now facing – but many of us press on knowing that we speak for those less free to do so than ourselves and also more burdened by scarcity.

Palestinian spoken word poet Hannah said “We did not choose this fate. US and Israel chose this way. We cannot be silent until the women of Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Sudan are free.”

 

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10. Women’s Day picnic

On International Working Women’s Day (IWWD) the Canberra Branch held its first ever picnic. MaryClare led speeches which touched on the importance of women in CPA history and the need to keep fighting for women who are suffering around the world under brutal US imperialist attacks, against Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela.

Strong women are vital to the progress of the CPA. Having powerful, pioneering women’s voices lead our struggle brings in the dynamics that is necessary to mobilise the whole working class and build strong and stable branches. Women and LGBTQIA+ people have spearheaded the Party’s growth in the new era, and the Party is united in forwarding the struggle for gender equality as a core component of the class struggle.

The CPA played a special role historically in the Militant Women’s Group who first introduced IWWD to Australia in 1928. They used this occasion in 1929 to support striking timber workers.

The weather stayed good and we went down to the lake to take some pictures, with our now very well-worn Hands Off Venezuela banner.

 

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11. Adelaide: Anti-war protest

Maximus M

More than 200 demonstrators assembled in Adelaide when the Coalition Against the United States Empire held a rally in opposition to the US and Israel’s unprovoked war of aggression against Iran.

The coalition called for the Australian government to rescind its backing of the United States and Israeli war on Iran and immediately stop the involvement of Pine Gap intelligence in the attacks.

It also called for Australia to impose sanctions on the Israeli state which includes the supply of weapons components and for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

Protesters demanded that Australia sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), end the Australian alliance with the US, to scrap the AUKUS and  Force Posture Agreements and close all US bases on Australian soil!

 

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12. Congress Resolutions

Every Communist Party of Australia Congress discusses and passes a Political Resolution as well as Special Resolutions moved by delegates. The Political Resolution will be publicly available soon. We reprint here two of the Special Resolutions passed.

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15th Congress Resolution on Cuba

The Communist Party of Australia stands in solidarity with Cuba, its socialist government and people. The 60 year-long US blockade has been strengthened by the Trump regime with the imposition of an oil naval blockade, as well as threats to third countries that supply oil and other goods to the island.

The attacks on Cuba amount to an act of war with the objective to inflict pain and extreme pressure on the people that could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and genocide.

The Trump regime’s egregious attacks on Cuba and Venezuela in recent months require us to step up our solidarity efforts this year. The kidnapping of President Maduro and Parliamentarian Flores is an international crime. It goes against all norms of international law. Similarly, the total oil and trade embargo against Cuba is thrust on the Cuban people by fascist polices advanced by Trump and Marco Rubio. It has been described by the Cubans as genocidal.

The Trump regime got at Venezuela in order to go for Cuba, and is going after Cuba in order to destroy Venezuela.

Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and others have expressed solidarity with Cuba. Presidents Claudia Sheinbaum and Gustavo Petro have stood up against the US imperial Monroe Doctrine, which is enforced by military means, tariffs, and other unilateral coercive measures.

International solidarity with Cuba has been activated worldwide. Russia, China, and Vietnam are playing a crucial role with donations of oil, solar farms, and rice. Solidarity groups have come out in force. Mexican president Sheinbaum who has sent ships with humanitarian aid has openly defied Trump. The Latin American community has resoundingly stood for peace against war. The unity of Latin America is at risk, and we need to assist in building that unity.

Cuba’s socialist revolution will survive by the strength of its people. Cuba chose its own destiny in 1959 and they have a right to decide their future. Cuba has achieved unparalleled gains for the people over more than half a century, under the guidance of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and now Miguel Díaz-Canel, through the continued leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba.

This genocidal blockade is costing the Cuban people dearly every day. The resilience of the Cuban system, and the faith the people have in it, is extraordinary, but the noose is tightening like never before. Ordinary working class Cubans will lose their livelihoods, all their protections and indeed their cultural confidence, if the Cuban socialist system is strangled to death and sovereignty is lost.

Moreover, the deep historical and fraternal ties of the CPA with the Communist Party of Cuba render us as one in blood and in spirit. Their struggle is our struggle. What affects them affects us. We stand with hands linked together and will never abandon them to the fascists and imperialists.

For that reason, our Congress must urgently adopt a nationwide campaign in support of Cuba with these priorities in mind:

For every Branch around the country to simultaneously work within their respective Australia-Cuba Friendship Societies (ACFS).

To work well within them and in a non-sectarian manner, calmly, professionally, openly and generously, with an eye to bridging gaps between generations and building unity around concrete campaigns, i.e., getting things done in support of Latin American solidarity.

To ensure that some campaigns are centrally coordinated within the Party and across all Branches (a simultaneous Day of Protest, film screenings, etc.).

A CPA Cuban solidarity fraction to be set up nationally to coordinate the campaigns.

To join and lend support to international campaigns, and especially to bring in the trade union movement where possible in order to strengthen the effort towards forging working-class solidarity between the workers of Australia and Cuba.

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15th Congress Resolution on Venezuela

The US attacks on Cuba and Venezuela in recent months require us to step up our solidarity efforts this year. The kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his Parliamentarian wife Cilia Flores on 3 January 2026, which resulted in a hundred deaths and the destruction of residences, healthcare and educational facilities, is an international crime. It goes against all norms of international law.

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Miguel Díaz-Canel, has described Venezuela as a “sister nation,” memorialising the heroic deaths of 32 Cubans who lost their lives defending Bolivarian Venezuela. Trump’s attempt to undermine Venezuela is designed to also undermine Cuba, and the current attacks on Cuba are likewise designed to destroy Venezuela.

The US attacks have implications for the survival of the Bolivarian national liberation movement in Venezuela. The imperialist attack on the Bolivarian government and attempt to divide Venezuela risks destroying the Chavez-era gains made in the barrios (communes), and social programs that have materially improved the lives of working-class Venezuelans over several decades. The US has always wanted to restore ruling class government in Venezuela.

For that reason, our Congress must urgently adopt a nationwide campaign in support of Venezuela with these priorities in mind:

For Party members and Party organisations to support the Hands-off Venezuela campaign, bringing diverse forces together to demand the release of President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

To work to build a credible Venezuelan solidarity campaign, and get concrete actions done in support of Latin American solidarity like postcard writing and other practical initiatives.

To ensure that some campaigns are centrally coordinated within the Party and across all Branches (a simultaneous Day of Protest, film screenings, etc), and for at least two-per-year national-level CPA meetings to be called, to update comrades on coordination for these campaigns.

To hit the streets in support of the Bolivarian revolution with Venezuelan flags (subsidised by the Branches or by the Party) so to make a sustained, visible presence of Venezuela solidarity in our respective cities, and especially to prioritise protests outside consulates and embassies.

To join with international movements where necessary and lend support to the international solidarity movements for Cuba and Venezuela.

 

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13. Union backs call to scrap anti-discrimination exemptions

The union representing teachers and support staff in non-government schools in NSW and the ACT backs Sydney Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s call during Mardi Gras to scrap religious exemptions that make it legal to discriminate against school staff and students.

“We welcome Mr Greenwich’s commitment to end the exemptions that permit non-government schools to target and punish LGBTQIA+ teachers and students,” said Independent Education Union of Australia (IEU) NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Carol Matthews.

“However, the problem is even worse than Mr Greenwich has identified.”

At present, the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act allows faith-based schools to discriminate against people because of their gender, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity, marital status, pregnancy and even if they undergo fertility treatment.

“Teachers, support staff and school leaders have shared heartbreaking stories with the IEU of the discrimination they’ve experienced in the workplace,” Matthews said.

“This includes teachers in Catholic schools being excluded from leaderships positions if they are divorced and staff in Christian schools sacked for allegedly being in a de facto or same-sex relationship.”

Matthews said staff who don’t meet these outdated rules are constantly at risk of disciplinary action, forcing them to hide personal details from their employer.

The NSW government is currently reviewing the state’s anti-discrimination law, but there are no guarantees this long-running review will recommend protections for teachers and school staff in faith-based schools. Nor is there any guarantee the NSW government will legislate recommendations arising from the review.

“Discrimination is unwelcome in schools and would be unlawful in every other industry,” Matthews said.

“School employers have nothing to fear from modern community standards – they can still thrive without the need to discriminate. Changes to the anti-discrimination law could still allow religious schools to build communities of faith central to their ethos and character.”

Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch

 

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14. How to fund tax cuts for battlers

New research by The Australia Institute reveals rural and regional electorates, particularly those currently held by the National Party, would be the largest beneficiaries of proposed reforms to the Low-Income Tax Offset (LITO).

The LITO is an automatic tax refund – currently capped at $700 per year – which low-income earners receive when they lodge their tax returns.

Increasing the cap to $3,000 would ensure the nation’s lowest-income earners stay ahead of inflation. Those earning between $32,000 and $46,000 would receive a tax cut of more than $2,000 per year.

The reforms would help those who’ve been hit hardest by inflation: workers and families whose nominal wages may have risen, but whose real wages have fallen, as a result of surging prices, particularly on essentials like food, energy, and rent.

The analysis shows the cost of increasing the LITO would be $11.98 billion per year. This revenue could be replaced with a gas export tax – as suggested by the ACTU – which could raise $17 billion.

Recent polling also shows widespread support across party lines for a 25% tax on gas exports, with particularly strong support among One Nation and Greens voters.

Independent Senator David Pocock has thrown his support behind a 25% gas export tax.

“This is the engine room of the cost-of-living crisis – the current tax settings mean that Australian families on low incomes are not keeping up with price rises,” said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

“This problem is easy to fix – targeted tax breaks for low-income earners paid for by ending the giveaway of Australia’s gas resources to multinational exporters.

“The economics is easy. The politics is easier still.

“It is clear the federal government is increasingly out of step with voters when it comes to taking on the gas industry.

“Australians have clearly had enough of our governments giving our gas resources away for free and failing to tax the gas industry properly.

“The big winners would be regional electorates, which have the most low-income earners and, therefore, the most to gain.

“Battlers in regional NSW, Queensland and Victoria are likely to be really important in upcoming elections and this proposal would provide real benefit to those electorates.”

The Australia Institute

 

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15. Goodbyes – and hello to RAFFWU union action

Goodbyes has six secondhand resale stores across Australia, including three stores in Naarm/Melbourne. The business sells clothing, shoes, and accessories on consignment for members of the public. Workers are required to select or reject items brought in by members of the public, as well as operate the busy retail stores.

Earlier this year, Goodbyes notified workers that they were changing the way they roster shifts, with less workers to be rostered on each day. Casual staff were told that there would be fewer shifts available for them in future. Many of these casual comrades have worked for the company for five years or longer.

While Goodbyes seeks to expand and open stores in new locations, staff at the existing stores have been dealing with understaffing and a high turnover of management. At the same time, staff have been facing an increase in customer abuse which left us feeling unsafe and unsupported at work.

For the first time ever, workers decided that enough was enough, and that they needed to unionise. Workers from all three Naarm locations presented the company with a petition demanding that security guards be deployed at all locations, that all stores be deep cleaned to remove health hazards, and that the company take the physical and mental health of their workers into account by adequately staffing their stores.

Goodbyes haven’t yet agreed to all the demands but staff have had some wins. The company has brought in specialist cleaners to do a deep clean of all of the stores and hired technicians to clean and fix the air conditioning units. The company has also agreed to a ‘trial’ of store safety guards.

Much more needs to be done to fully address staff concerns. With so many new workers now united in RAFFWU, Goodbyes staff are now planning the next step.

Retail and Fast Food Workers Union

 

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16. GREEN NOTES

Mosquitoes, a climate change warning in Iceland

Graham Holton

Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time, thanks to climate change making the environment more hospitable. The three specimens of Culiseta annulata so far found are cold-resistant and can survive by sheltering through winter in basements and barns. Until now Iceland was one of the few places in the world that did not have a mosquito population, but mosquitoes can establish in breeding habitats such as marshes, ponds, and buildings. Iceland is warming at four times the rate of the rest of the northern hemisphere. Glaciers are collapsing and fish such as mackerel from warmer, southern climes are now found in national waters.

It’s not just Iceland. As the globe warms, species are on the move world wide. Numerous mosquito species have been found outside their historic areas. As well as the three mosquito species already found in Iceland, eggs of the Egyptian mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito have  been found in the United Kingdom. These invasive species can spread the West Nile, Sindbis, and Usutu viruses, and spread tropical diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika virus and even malaria. A temperature warming of 5 °C+ over summer could introduce a breeding population of the European mosquito Anopheles atroparvus.

The impact of climate change on Iceland is complex, multifaceted and real. Iceland has hundreds of glaciers, including Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest ice cap by volume. In 2019, the country held a funeral for the Okjökull Glacier, its first glacier to be declared lost to climate change. As glaciers retreat, they reveal barren landscapes that are prone to erosion. Now trees are being planted to help stabilise the soils.

The loss of ice fields upsets the isostatic equilibrium allowing the land to rise. Iceland is on the mid-Atlantic ridge. The changing load on the Earth’s crust can trigger more frequent earthquakes and increase volcanic activity, as the lower pressure on the mantle generates a release of pressure increasing magma flows.

Climate change has brought milder winters and warmer summers to Iceland, which sounds good until you look at the effects. Rainfall has become more intense. Changes in the snowpack affect river flows and water cycles with knock-on effects for local species. Glacial meltwater is increasing the flow of some rivers. However as the glaciers disappear the glacial rivers will see their flow reduce dramatically. Rivers fed by rainfall and groundwater will become more dominant upsetting country’s ecosystem.

Iceland seems to be taking the matter seriously. In November 2025, it became the first country to declare a climate-related issue as a national security concern.

In Australia the government talks about taking climate change seriously but won’t stop approving extensions to fossil fuel projects. We too are affected by warming-driven species movement. At the moment, dengue fever, which can incapacitate or kill, is found in north and central Queensland, but as the weather gets warmer, the two species of mosquito which transmit the virus could move with the weather and spread the virus to NSW and Victoria.

 

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17. The choice before humanity

Speech by Warren Smith at the opening of the Communist Party of Australia’s 15th National Congress.

Comrades, friends and honoured guests,

Tonight we meet not only to conduct the formal business of a congress, but to reaffirm our confidence that only a revolutionary, working‑class party, armed with Marxism‑Leninism and rooted in struggle, can open a path to peace, democracy, and social progress in this country.

We gather on stolen Aboriginal land, and I pay my respects to the Traditional Owners and to Elders past and present. The first and most enduring resistance on this continent has been the resistance of First Nations peoples to invasion, dispossession and genocide. Their struggle for land rights, sovereignty, self‑determination and treaty is inseparable from our struggle against capitalism and imperialism. A socialist Australia must be built on justice for First Nations peoples, not on the continuation of colonial theft. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Comrades, our party has a proud history that no one can wipe away. For more than a century, communists have stood in the front lines of every major struggle for justice in this country. When the ruling class demanded unquestioning obedience and silence, it was communists who spoke out against war, against fascism, against racism, and against exploitation. When employers and governments combined to crush unions, it was communists who organised on the wharves, in the mines, on the building sites, in factories and offices, to build strong, militant, democratic trade unions.

It was communists who played a central role in the great battles of the twentieth century: the fight against conscription and imperialist war, the struggle for shorter hours and improved conditions, the building of the peace movement, the anti‑apartheid campaigns, support for national liberation movements, and the struggle for Aboriginal land rights and equal pay for women. Our party’s fingerprints are on every serious gain the working class has made. Even when our name was not on the banner, our ideas, our organisers, our cadres were there, doing the hard, patient work of building unity and resistance.

We say this not to congratulate ourselves, but to make a crucial political point: without a communist party, the working class fights bravely but in fragments. With a communist party, the working class can develop strategy, organisation and consciousness – it can link the immediate fight for better wages, decent housing and public services to the long‑term fight for power and socialism. No other party has ever shouldered this responsibility in Australia, and no other party is willing to.

Today, the need for such a party is greater than at any time since the 1930s. Around the world and here in Australia we see a dangerous drift towards the extreme right. Reactionary forces are trying to channel the anger and insecurity created by capitalism into hatred of migrants, First Nations people, Muslims, LGBTIQ+ people, women, and the organised working class. They peddle conspiracy theories instead of confronting the real conspiracy of capital against labour. They call for “strong leaders” and more police powers while quietly backing big business and war.

Fascism does not fall from the sky. It grows out of a decaying capitalist system that can no longer offer stability or real improvements to most people. In times of crisis, sections of the ruling class are prepared to abandon even the limited democratic rights we have if that is what it takes to protect their profits and their power. The seeds of fascism are visible in the normalisation of racist and xenophobic rhetoric, in attacks on the right to protest and organise, in the expansion of surveillance and repressive laws, and in the glorification of the military and police.

We must be absolutely clear: the parties of capital will not stop this slide to the right. They created the conditions for it. The Liberal–National forces champion privatisation, union‑busting, climate vandalism, and racism. The Labor Party manages the same system with slightly softer rhetoric, but it wholeheartedly defends capitalism, still locks in anti‑union laws, like with the CFMEU, still supports wars and alliances that serve imperialist interests, not the interests of the people.

The Greens, for all their good words on climate and social issues, cannot provide the revolutionary leadership needed to break the power of capital.

None of these parties challenges the ownership of the mines, the banks, the major corporations, or our integration into imperialist war blocs.

Only a communist party can consistently fight fascism, because only a communist party attacks its root: the capitalist system itself. Only a communist party can unite the working class across all divisions of race, gender, sexuality, nationality, and religion, and give it a perspective that goes beyond defending yesterday’s gains to winning a socialist future. That is the historic and current role of the Communist Party of Australia. When we say that no other party is capable of bringing peace and social progress to Australia, we are not boasting – we are stating a political fact.

What does this mean in practice? It means we must be a party of action. Over the past period, our members have been active wherever the class struggle has flared up. In workplaces, comrades have helped organise industrial campaigns, recruit to unions, resist casualisation and wage theft, and fight for safer, more humane working conditions. In communities, we have been part of campaigns to defend public housing, to oppose privatisation of essential services, to resist cuts to health, education and social welfare, and to support refugees and migrants.

Our comrades have marched for climate justice, understanding that capitalism’s drive for profit is destroying the planet, and that the transition we need is not to “green capitalism” but to publicly owned, democratically planned renewable energy and sustainable production. We have stood in solidarity with Palestine and other oppressed peoples, exposing the hypocrisy of those who talk about human rights while arming and backing occupations and wars. We have supported First Nations struggles, from rallies against deaths in custody to campaigns for land rights and community control of services.

Every leaflet handed out, every meeting held, every picket line joined is part of an ongoing effort to rebuild a fighting working‑class movement and to give people the confidence that things can change. But comrades, we must be honest with ourselves: it is not enough. The crises we face – the cost‑of‑living crisis, the housing crisis, the climate crisis, the war danger, the rise of the far right – demand a stronger, larger Communist Party of Australia that is more deeply connected with the working class.

Our congress has to answer some key questions. How do we build bigger and more active branches in workplaces and local communities? How do we deepen our work in unions, helping them become more militant and democratic, instead of passively accepting restrictive laws and “partnership” and class collaboration with employers? How do we reach young workers and students, who are facing insecure work, crushing rents, student debt and a future of climate chaos, and show them that communism is not an old slogan but a living, relevant alternative? How do we ensure that women, First Nations comrades, and LGBTIQ+ comrades are fully represented at every level of our party?

We must also sharpen our ideological work. The extreme right is active online, in workplaces, in youth culture, poisoning minds with racism, misogyny and anti‑communism. We cannot answer this with silence or with vague liberal appeals to “tolerance.” We need clear, accessible Marxist analysis of what people are experiencing: why housing is unaffordable, why wages are stagnant, why mental health is in crisis, why wars keep breaking out. We need to explain, patiently and persistently, that the problem is not “foreigners,” not “welfare cheats,” not “woke activists,” but the capitalist system itself and the class that benefits from it.

Our press, our pamphlets, our online presence, our educational work – all must improve and expand. We have to become the recognised voice of working‑class resistance and socialist politics in this country. When workers look for answers, when communities look for leadership, when young people search for an alternative, they should find us. That is not a dream; it is a task.

Central to all our work is the struggle for peace. In a world bristling with nuclear weapons, with great‑power rivalries sharpening, with military alliances expanding and war industries booming, the fight for peace is not a “single issue” – it is a class issue. Our rulers are tying Australia ever more tightly into imperialist war plans, spending billions on weapons while hospitals are understaffed and schools are under‑resourced. They talk of “security” while making us targets and undermining our real security: jobs, homes, health care, education, a liveable environment.

We stand for a different kind of security: the security that comes from cooperation, from respect for sovereignty, from disarmament, from turning resources away from war and towards meeting human needs. We say: no to foreign bases, no to aggressive alliances, no to wars of intervention, yes to friendship and solidarity with peoples and nations struggling for independence and socialism. Again, no other party is prepared to take this stand consistently, because all the others accept the framework of imperialism. Only a communist party, freed from the illusions of “national interest” and capitalist patriotism, can place international working‑class solidarity at the centre of its politics.

Comrades, we do not underestimate the forces against us. The capitalist class controls the media, the major parties, the state apparatus, the schools of economics, the think tanks. They will continue to lie about us, to ridicule socialism, to criminalise protest, to sow division. But we have something they do not: a scientific understanding of society, a strategy for change, and a deep connection with the working class and oppressed.

Our history proves that even a relatively small communist party can play a decisive role when it is disciplined, united and rooted in struggle. The question for this 15th Congress is: will we be that kind of party for the struggles of the twenty‑first century? Will we leave this hall as a stronger, more confident, more active organisation, ready to confront the rise of the extreme right, to resist fascist tendencies, to fight for peace and to lead the fight for a socialist Australia?

To do that, we need every comrade to take responsibility. We need every branch to grow, every member to be active, every supporter to take the step of joining and participating. We need to build alliances with unions, community groups, and progressive organisations, without ever hiding who we are or diluting our politics. We must be, in practice and not just in words, the most determined fighters for democracy, for workers’ rights, for Aboriginal justice, for women’s liberation, for LGBTIQ+ equality, for migrant rights, for climate action and for peace.

Tonight, as we open this 15th Congress, let us be inspired by the generations of communists who came before us – those who faced police batons on picket lines, who endured persecution and surveillance, who stood up to fascists, who built unions and campaigns from nothing, who never gave up the fight for a better world. Let us honour them not with nostalgia, but by continuing their work in today’s conditions, with today’s tools, among today’s working class and youth.

Comrades, the choice before humanity is becoming stark: socialism or barbarism. Either we move towards a society based on collective ownership, democratic planning and solidarity, or we sink deeper into inequality, environmental catastrophe, war and the rule of the far right. In Australia, as across the world, there is only one kind of party that can lead the way out of this crisis: a communist party.

The Communist Party of Australia is that party. Let this congress be a turning point in its renewal and growth. Let us leave here determined to expand our ranks, deepen our roots, intensify our activity, sharpen our analysis and raise our banner – the red banner of working‑class power and socialism – higher than ever.

With that spirit, I declare the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Australia open.

Long live working‑class solidarity. 

Long live peace and social progress. 

Long live socialism. 

Long live the Communist Party of Australia.

 

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18. Growing crisis needs communist activity and solutions

Daniel Fisher

When the war in the Ukraine began in 2022 a wave of inflation swept across the world as international energy and raw materials prices rose and international trade was disrupted by both the direct effects of the war, and sanctions imposed by the west in a misguided effort to strangle Russia. In Australia the inflation spike coalesced into the ‘cost of living’ crisis where prices of all necessities rose while wages remained stagnant, becoming a dominant feature in Australia’s national politics.

The bourgeois efforts to contain inflation through central bank interest rate rises, admitted as being a blunt tool, blames inflation on Australian workers for spending too much. The solution to this problem is to take money away from the Australian people by making debt, particularly mortgages, more expensive and by increasing unemployment. Interest rate hikes during the ‘cost-of-living crisis’ sought to make the Australian people foot the bill for the years of COVID and a global commodities and energy price shock produced by imperial intrigues and struggles. Why should workers pay for a crisis that they have not caused, and whose pain does little to resolve the root cause of the crisis?

With the commencement of the imperialist war against Iran, the spectre of another far larger shock in energy and commodity prices looms. Trump’s USA has been cynically beguiled by the genocidal Zionist regime in Israel with false promises of an easy victory and a reshaped Middle East that has crushed all credible resistance movements to imperial exploitation. In doing so he has not only fulfilled one of Zionism’s most hungered for outcomes of the joint destruction of Iran by American military might. He has entered into a no-limits war of survival with an enemy that both anticipated and planned for this possibility, and which is determined to draw as much blood as possible. No matter one’s views on the system that came to power in Iran in 1979, only the Iranian people have the right to change their government and system. War from outside can only ruin and destroy the people and legitimise the existing system in its resistance to national ruin.

Iran, under crippling sanctions for decades, cannot directly match US military power nor can it take the fight back to the US homeland. Instead, it has prepared for an asymmetric response that targets the vulnerabilities of its enemies. It aims to impose crippling costs on its enemies for launching the war. With the relatively cheap drone and missile bombing of economic and military infrastructure owned by the US, and by closing of the strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf – a narrow waterway where most oil produced in the middle east must pass through, Iran is fighting back against the US by attacking the global economy. Already oil and gas prices are spiking in international markets as it has become clear that Trump and his minions have no plan for the war and are unlikely to easily succeed in their efforts to induce regime change. A long, costly and protracted regional war that spreads further, draws in major powers, and consumes life and wealth is becoming established.

Australia, and workers within Australia are highly exposed to the consequences of this growing imperialist war. The scale of the price shock from this war will be far larger than the Ukraine war due to the material destruction and halting of the flow of vast quantities of critical energy resources from the middle east. Australia imports almost all fuels used in the transport and movements of commodities from supermarket groceries to mineral exports and core industrial inputs. Australia remains dependent upon a ‘just in time’ logistics system – exposed during COVID – that is vulnerable to shocks and disruptions. Australian governments have neglected to build or develop sovereign reserves for decades. Private companies are subsidised to export almost all of Australia’s prodigious gas production. The cost of production of all commodities will increase both domestically and internationally with rises in energy prices. The costs in the movement of these commodities will rise with fuel costs.

The costs of almost all items on supermarket shelves will rise. Central banks internationally and within Australia will once again seek to make workers pay for this crisis by making debt more expensive and through the loss of their jobs. This will be politely described as raising interest rates to combat inflation.

Trump having damaged the international credibility of the US financial system in his efforts to decree interest rate cuts to the federal reserve is likely to achieve a substantial own goal through lifting international interest rates and making US debt more expensive as a result. These acts of war are bringing US debt and the health of the American financial system into play while its credibility has been eroded and is suspected to be riddled with speculative asset bubbles. Are we primed and set for an international unwinding of the global economy? Can a global economic crisis be averted?

For workers different questions are posed. What does consumer spending have to do with a crisis generated through imperialist war? Why should workers and the oppressed pay for a crisis made by the folly of the rich and powerful? Trump and Netanyahu’s war on the people of Iran really is a war on the wallets of every worker in the world, and war on the living standards and way of life of billions across the world. Imperialism and war is responsible for the growing danger to the lives and living standards of billions.

It will take months for the consequences of recent actions and those being undertaken today and in the coming weeks to become fully apparent. Communists and progressive allies must get ready to position themselves for the struggle that is coming to decide who will pay for the coming crisis. We must be ready with popular solutions that defend people’s lives and livelihoods, and which extricate ourselves from the tangle of imperialist alliances.

The mass movement in solidarity with Palestine could be transformed into a movement against imperialism in all its forms, and for an Australia run by and for its people.  National independence and self-reliance, a renewable energy-based economy, and hitting back at the monopolies and corporate power are urgent and necessary tasks. This time we must make it so it is the rich that pay for the crisis.

 

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19. Japan: Slush fund culture remains unchanged

Noka Rokku

Every Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member who won a seat in the 8 February general election received a gift worth around 30,000 yen (around $300 Australian) from Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. Takaichi also nominated LDP lawmakers tainted by a previous slush-fund scandal to key party posts. This behaviour has led the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) to accuse Takaichi of continuing the “money politics” that brought down one of her predecessors.

This time last year, in March 2025, it emerged that then Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru gave 100,000 yen’s worth of gift certificates to 15 LDP Lower House members who were first elected in the 2024 general election. Facing fierce public criticism, Ishiba offered apologies in the Diet.

In a recent policy speech, Takaichi talked about her determination to “restore more trust in politics.”  However she has shown no remorse at repeating Ishiba’s way of doing things, and merely said that her action “poses no problems under the law.”

It’s also come out, in an extraordinary Diet session last year that Takaichi’s own LDP branch has accepted political donations exceeding the legal upper limit set under the Political Funds Control Act.

Although the revelations have led to mass discontent and Ministerial resignations, no preventative measures have been taken. The JCP is calling for a ban on corporate and organisational donations, which it calls the root cause of corruption and bribery-driven politics.

 

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20. GLOBAL BRIEFS

GERMANY: Thousands of students protested against a recently adopted law that could reinstate compulsory military service. The ‘School strike’ against the draft brought out more than 50,000 students to the streets across Germany. Slogans read “Dying is not in the curriculum,” “Friedrich Mertz to the front,” “A smart head does not fit under a steel helmet,” “Never, never, never again conscription,” and “The rich want war, the youth want a future.” One of the organisers remarked: “With the historical responsibility, the Federal Republic should advocate for peaceful solutions and democracy – not for rearmament”.

LAOS: Party Secretary General Thongloun Sisoulith has addressed the 2nd Plenary Session of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. He called for swift action on the resolutions of the recent National Party Congress, including spurring rural development, and continuous development on the path to creating an independent economy.

US: The US-Israeli war on Iran is estimated to have cost US$3.7 billion so far for its first 100 hours, according to research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). According to the analysis, US forces used more than 2,000 munitions of various types during that time. Replenishing those weapons is estimated to cost about $3.1 billion, with replacement expenses increasing by roughly $758.1 million per day. Apart from the financial impact, the war has already caused significant human casualties. The Iranian Red Crescent reported that more than 1,332 people have been killed in Iran since Israeli and American bombings began. According to UNICEF, at least 181 children have been killed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has verified 13 attacks on healthcare infrastructure. “An estimated 100,000 people have left Iran and in Lebanon, more than 60,000 people have been displaced,” said WHO’s Director General.

HUNGARY: Hungary has detained seven Ukrainian citizens on suspicion of money laundering, including a former general of the Ukrainian Special Services responsible for transporting US$40 million, 35 million euros and nine kilograms of gold from Austria to Ukraine. “We demand an explanation of why Ukrainians have been transporting such a large amount of cash through Hungary. What are they using this money for, whose money is it? We demand immediate answers and explanations from the Ukrainian side on these serious issues,” said the Hungarian Foreign Minister.

AFGHANISTAN: The UN’s International Organisation for migration warned that “escalating cross-border hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan have a growing humanitarian impact on civilians and people on the move.” According to the UN, nearly 66,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan amidst continuing heavy shelling and explosions as fighting continues along the country’s border with Pakistan.

ECUADOR: The US has announced that it’s collaborating with Ecuador to combat “terrorists” there. US General Francis Donovan said: “On 3 March Ecuadorian and US military forces launched operations against designated terrorist organisations in Ecuador.”

CYPRUS: Protest actions and demonstrations against the presence of US bases are taking place in many countries. The UK retains two sovereign bases on Cyprus – Akrotiri and Dhekelia. the bases have served as launch points for British military operations in the Middle East. Aircraft from RAF Akrotiri supported campaigns in Iraq and Libya, while recently assisting Israeli operations in Gaza, where 70,000 people have been killed. More than 600 surveillance flights linked to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza have taken off from Cyprus so far. Two days after the US-Israeli unprovoked attack on Iran, a drone struck RAF Akrotiri, putting the locals at risk and strengthening their determination to fight against the presence of foreign bases on their land.

 

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21. WEASEL WORDS

Work through

Foreign Minister Penny Wong likes to be non-committal. Is Australia sending any military support to the war our ‘security ally’ has started in the Middle East? Rather than just admitting that they haven’t decided yet, Wong has said “We will work through [the request for assistance].” Much classier than ‘dunno’ or ‘not telling.’

Pro-growth

This word gives away its weasellishness by being uncontradictable. Who’d want to be anti-growth? Well, it depends what’s involved in growth. In this case, it’s the Australian Financial Review’s usual bosses wish-list of reduced rights for workers and lower pay. Employers and their stenographers at the AFR call for lower wages and worse conditions on any day with a ‘y’ in it. In this case, it’s the economic disaster flowing on from Trump and Israel’s attack on Iran.

If only, we’d been more pro-growth, they explain. Specifically, that means dumping ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ and abandoning any push to re-unionise the Pilbara. The AFR never wastes a crisis.

Community sentiment

It’s exhausting to find out what large numbers of people think, and it’s a bit too much like hard work to think about why people might have particular opinions. Much easier to just read other journalists, notice that One Nation has done alright in the polls and conclude that there’s a “community sentiment” that immigration rates are too high. If you’re columnist Jennifer Hewett, you can also cite Coalition Leader Angus Taylor’s tired anti-immigration rhetoric as though that’s a fact about the national mind.

Pragmatism

We’re not saying ABC commentator Patricial Karvelas has just come out of a decades-long coma, but given her comments on Albanese and the war, we’re not ruling it out either.

PK, as she likes to be called, has described Albanese’s decision to support an obviously illegal war as ‘pragmatism’ despite him once being “of the left” (this means having said some pro-peace things back in the day). Pragmatism is almost always a good thing – it means you’re practical and realistic. It certainly sounds nicer than ‘servility.’ In the short term, it’s easier for Albanese to make noises about joining in on Trump’s rampage. Whether it’s realistic or desirable we’ll leave the survivors of the war we’re about to help out with to decide.

‘The action’

From PK again; “the call to back the action is also more than sucking up to Trump for the sake of the US-Australia alliance.”

‘Action’ sounds so much more limited and decisive than ‘illegal and almost certainly disastrous attack.’ It’s easier to say too.

Narrow

We all know what ‘narrow’ means, but we can’t quantify it. We certainly know when something is not narrow. Former head of the UK’s army, a guy called Richard Dannatt has told a far-right tv show that UK PM Keir Starmer was “standing on a narrow legal point” when he refused to let the US use British airbases to attack Iran. The legal point in question was that the war is illegal by international law because the US has attacked a nation that was no threat to it at all. If the legal point was that “narrow,” Starmer could have stood on it comfortably and even bought some friends.

Erasure

Like most weasel words, ‘erasure’ is a real thing. The role of women in the advancement of science over the years was often erased, first by collaborators taking all the credit, then by text books following the ‘great man’ approach to history. The role of unions in Australia’s history has been erased or ignored, and this paper does its best to un-erase it.

For US Vice-President JD Vance and his ideological buddies, ‘civilisational erasure’ doesn’t describe a real thing that happened. Rather it’s a clumsy code word for “more non-white people than we’re comfortable with.”

 

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22. United and forceful

Communist parties condemn attack on Iran

Marcus Browning

Communist and workers’ parties from every part of the globe have issued a united and forceful condemnation of the joint US-Israeli military aggression against Iran, warning that the strikes threaten to ignite a wider regional war with catastrophic consequences.

The unprovoked attacks, which began in the early hours of 28 February, have been met with a wave of solidarity for the Iranian people and denunciations of what many parties are calling a “flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter.” The statements, circulated via the Solidnet platform of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP), echo the sentiments of parties in the immediate line of fire, including in Iran, Israel, and the United States, who were among the first to speak out.

The Tudeh Party of Iran slammed the “blatant aggression” of the “extensive missile and air strikes,” warning it would result in the loss of life and destruction of the country. The party condemned the attack as an attempt by US imperialism and Israel “to destroy Iran as a capable regional country and replace the current government with a dependent and despotic regime,” and called on all national and freedom-seeking forces to mobilise against the assault.

In Israel, the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) denounced “the war of aggression launched by Israel … against Iran,” warning it “may ignite a large-scale regional or global war.” The CPI framed the attack within the broader context of US imperialist aims, stating, “Israel is not only an instrument of global American imperialism, but also a partner in its efforts to impose American imperialist hegemony over the world.” The party further expressed fear that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu would use the war as cover to “intensify massacres and crimes of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

The Communist Party USA also “strongly and unequivocally condemns the Trump administration’s current war on Iran,” pointing out it was the ninth country bombed by the president. In a call to action, the CPUSA urged mass mobilisation: “If there is no organised peace movement near you, build the coalition! If your town hasn’t held an anti-war rally, organise one! We will not stop until this war against Iran is ended.”

In India, both major communist parties spoke out. The Communist Party of India (CPI) condemned the “unilateral military attacks” as a “grave violation of international law” and part of a “dangerous strategy aimed at imposing regime change in Iran.” The CPI called on the Indian government to “categorically condemn these attacks,” noting the aggression came immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) echoed this, stating the attacks were carried out “in flagrant violation of Iran’s national sovereignty, the UN Charter and all international treaties,” and labelled the US “a belligerent bully” for its recent attacks on Iran, Venezuela, and threats to Cuba.

From neighbouring Pakistan, the party there questioned who had granted “the American imperialist rulers and the fascist, racist, and Zionist rulers of Israel the right to interfere in different countries around the world through the use of force.” The Communist Party of Pakistan expressed solidarity with the people of Iran and also Cuba, appealing to all “conscientious and humanist forces worldwide” to raise their voices against the collusion of the US and Israeli imperialists.

European communist parties also registered their strong protest. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) described the attack as a “reprehensible and criminal act” bringing the world closer to a generalised war. The KKE warned that the New Democracy government in Athens had “entangled the country in US-Israeli plans” by turning Greek military infrastructure into a “launching pad,” putting the Greek people at risk.

The Communist Party of Britain demanded “no UK military support for the US premeditated attack on Iran,” specifically calling for the base at Akrotiri in Cyprus not to be used. The party called on all those “who support peace and oppose imperialist war to attend the emergency protest called by the Stop the War on Iran coalition,” which took place that afternoon.

The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus also condemned the US-Israeli war on Iran, calling it “patently hypocritical.” The party also issued a statement that their “fears have been confirmed” regarding the semi-occupation of their country by British military bases.

“The recent attack on the British bases on our island confirms the dangers that their presence poses to Cyprus and our people. We call on the government to convey to the British government that Cyprus and its people oppose any kind of military involvement of the bases in any conflicts in the region.

“In any case, our people’s demand for the dismantling of the British bases on our island is once again proving to be timely and enduring,” the Party said.

The German Communist Party (DKP) said that the US and Israel “behave like robbers toward their adversaries and toward international law, proving that their words are worthless in negotiations.” The party said that the reaction of the German government is “reprehensible, as it sides with the aggressors while other governments demand adherence to international law.”

The party called on the workers’ and peace movements to protest against their government’s support for the war against Iran and demanded the withdrawal of all US troops from Germany.

The French Communist Party (PCF) condemned the bombings and expressed solidarity with the Iranian progressive forces, “including our partners in the Tudeh Party.” The Communist Party of Norway (NKP) stated the attack “cannot be viewed in isolation from the ongoing genocidal policy against the Palestinian people,” and called on the labour movement to mobilise against “NATO imperialism.” The Communist Party of Ireland demanded that the Irish government “roundly condemn these military actions by the US and Israel and demand an immediate ceasefire.”

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) issued a sharp warning that the aggression targets not only Iran but all peoples in the region, including Turkey. “At this point, Turkey must not, under any circumstances, be used as a launching pad for these attacks,” the party stated, demanding the closure of US bases on Turkish soil. “There is no room for ambiguity in the face of this barbaric aggression. Beginning with ‘but Iran …’ is to align with US and Israeli aggression.”

The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) issued a comprehensive condemnation, framing the attack as “a broader plan by US imperialism to try to impose, by force, its hegemonic dominance over the Middle East.” The PCP highlighted the complicity of NATO allies and specifically denounced the Portuguese government for allowing the use of Lajes Air Base in the Azores by US forces. Recalling the lies used to justify the Iraq War, the PCP noted that Israel remains the only country in the region with nuclear weapons while the US brandishes false pretexts against Iran.

Across the Atlantic, the Communist Party of Chile expressed its “profound concern and condemnation,” warning that the attacks “not only aggress against a country, but jeopardise the entire region and bring the world to a potentially critical situation for world peace.”

Beyond communist parties, the government of Cuba issued an official statement through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemning the attacks “in the strongest terms” as a violation of the UN Charter that sabotages diplomatic efforts. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called for “an immediate stop to the military actions and a return to dialogue.”

The overwhelming sentiment is that a call for an immediate halt to the aggression is needed, including a defence of Iran’s sovereignty, as well as a sharp warning that US-Israeli militarism is the primary threat to peace in the Middle East and indeed the entire world.

This article includes reporting from Morning Star, People’s World, and Socialist Voice.

 

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