Pine Gap: spy base with a vital role in the US war machine
The base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs plays a key role in US surveillance and military operations, as well as the Australia-US alliance, writes Feiyi Zhang
Why Australian troops went to the Solomons—an inside view on Australian imperialism
With the 20th anniversary of Australian intervention in the Solomons this month, Michael Wesley’s new book is a useful addition to our knowledge of how Australian imperialism works in the region.
Australian subimperialism—Submarines, sovereignty and class
Clinton Fernandes’ new book explains how Australia works as a subimperial power alongside the US, but still argues for a nationalist policy, says Robert Stainsby.
Resisting the draft: lessons for anti-war activists
We can draw inspiration and a dose of realistic expectations from the early resisters and peace activists, writes Steven Kwon.
Weapons of death—Australia’s growing arms industry
Australia is pushing to develop a much bigger local military manufacturing and arms industry as part of its effort to confront China writes Feiyi Zhang.
Is China really a threat?
Expanding military spending and locking Australia further into cooperation with the US war machine only inflames the prospect of war in the region, argues Adam Adelpour.
Labor’s Pacific charm offensive aims to shore up Australian and US domination
Labor’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has spent her first weeks in government shoring up Australia’s sub-imperialism in the southwest Pacific across the arc of Australian strategic interests.
Red lines and imperialist rivalries—Australia is no friend of the Pacific
The Australian government’s record in the south Pacific shows it is a bully and a thief that wants to maintain its own domination of the region argues James Supple
Billions wasted on weapons—stop the march to war on China
The Morrison government remains stuck behind in the polls and is relentlessly trying to take us into a khaki election.
Australia’s own imperialism behind hysteria over Solomons-China deal
China’s security treaty with the Solomon Islands, finally signed this week, has caused hysteria in Australian ruling class circles.
The turn to America in 1941: Using US power to push Australian imperialism
Just over 80 years ago Prime Minister John Curtin made a dramatic declaration shifting Australia’s allegiance from Britain to the US. Miro Sandev examines the motives
Australian troops no solution in the Solomons
Australia’s efforts in the Solomons are aimed at preventing rival powers from establishing a presence and to advance Australian imperialist interests.
Australian troops return to Solomon Islands to keep out China
Last week the Australian government rushed troops, AFP riot police and a navy patrol boat to the Solomon Islands within a day of political protests there, which turned into rioting.
AUKUS and ‘national sovereignty’: Why Australia’s rulers back the US
Ruby Wawn argues that the Australian government is not surrendering sovereignty to the US through the nuclear subs pact but pursuing its own imperialist interests.
Adelaide ‘no nuclear subs’ campaign sets sail
A rally in Adelaide has kicked off the campaign against nuclear-powered subs and the AUKUS alliance for war.
Morrison’s US pact is a plan for war
The Coalition’s new military agreement with the US and Britain, known as AUKUS, brings war with China a big step closer.
ANZUS and the US alliance—A plan for war and regional domination
The ANZUS treaty has been key to Australia’s efforts to secure US backing for its own imperialist interests in the local region, writes Miro Sandev
Australia outbids China on vaccines as contest for Pacific influence grows
Vaccine diplomacy has become the latest front in Australia’s cold war with China, as the two governments battle for influence in the Pacific islands.
Australia and US brought 20 years of horror and war to Afghanistan
After a 20 year occupation spanning four US presidencies, Australian and US forces are finally withdrawing from Afghanistan. But there is little to show for 20 years of war.
War crimes—why Australian troops bring terror
The ongoing reports of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan are the latest in a long history of terror. Sophie Cotton explores why Australian troops carry out these atrocities
Alternative to the anti-China xenophobia and militarism
David Brophy’s book China Panic is a timely intervention into the growing nationalist hysteria about China.
Australia beats the drums of war and fuels confrontation with China
Australia’s rulers are feeding a conflict that could see war between two nuclear-armed powers, the US and China. It’s madness.
Invading Afghanistan was a war crime
Nineteen current and former SAS soldiers are facing war crimes trials, after Scott Morrison agreed to appoint a special investigator to pursue prosecutions over the Afghanistan war.
Australia and the New Caledonian independence vote: keeping the ‘sons of Gaul’ in the Pacific
The defeat of the second vote for independence in New Caledonia was a setback for the indigenous peoples. But the increased vote in favour of independence still has alarm bells ringing in Noumea, Paris and Canberra.
Morrison’s belligerence behind escalating Cold War with China
Tensions with China are the result of the Australian government’s enthusiastic backing for the US’s Cold War.
Morrison’s military billions fuel conflict with China
Australia will spend $270 billion over ten years to recalibrate its military strategy and project more power across the Indo-Pacific region, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison says is now “the focus of the dominant global contest of our age”.
Afghanistan invasion is the war crime
The allegations of Australian SAS soldiers committing war crimes in Afghanistan have been around for years. But the Four Corners footage showing an Australian soldier executing Dad Mohammad, an unarmed father, leaves no doubt.
After decisive vote, no more excuses on delivering independence for Bougainville
The people of Bougainville, a province of Papua New Guinea, have voted for independence by a huge 98.31 per cent, in their long-awaited referendum held in November.
Versailles—How Australia demanded colonies of its own as spoils of war
Tom Orsag looks at Australia’s rotten role in the Versailles Peace Conference 100 years on
Exposing state secrets—and the danger of the US alliance
Journalist Brian Toohey has spent decades investigating the secrets of Australia “security state”, embarrassing ASIO, Defence officials and successive governments.
Australia backs Trump’s aggression over Iran
Scott Morrison has added Australia to what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls a “global coalition” against Iran.
Glorifying the butchery of the Vietnam War
There are a lot of books written about the Battle of Long Tan that try to portray the battle as a victory for the Australian military. Now there is a film, Danger Close.
An imperialist outpost in Asia
Clinton Fernandes spoke to Solidarity about his new book on the history of Australian foreign policy, Island off the coast of Asia
Your
book covers a broad sweep of Australian history...
Rabaul 1929—Papuans’ first strike against Australian colonialism
In 1929, around 3000 Papua New Guineans in the town of Rabaul staged their first ever industrial strike
Australia ‘steps up’ efforts to counter China in the south Pacific
November’s APEC summit in PNG saw the Australian government increase its efforts to buy influence in the Pacific, with a raft of announcements designed to counter China.
A mine worth killing for: Australia’s bloody war in Bougainville
Thirty years on, Tom Orsag looks at how Australia funded the PNG government’s ruthless war to crush resistance to the Panguna mine in Bougainville
Australia wants to keep control as China encroaches in south Pacific
Since the beginning of 2018, the Turnbull government has renewed efforts to assert Australian control and dominance in the Pacific.
The rise of China—a dilemma for Australia’s rulers
China’s rise poses a dilemma for Australia’s rulers, writes David Glanz. The left needs to oppose both imperialist powers, as well as Australia’s own imperialist bullying
Jim Molan—war criminal, now Senator
There is now a first class war criminal in the Senate, with the Liberals’ Jim Molan taking the seat vacated by the Nationals’ Fiona Nash, due to her dual citizenship.
Strikes against O’Neill over corruption and cuts in PNG
The political crisis in PNG over Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s alleged corruption continues to escalate. Workers staged strikes in July and O’Neill faced down a no confidence motion in parliament.
Australian neo-colonialism and corruption in PNG
The legacy of Australian colonial control has left PNG underdeveloped and prone to political corruption, writes James Supple.
Calls for freedom grow louder amidst repression in West Papua
THOUSANDS OF West Papuans have joined demonstrations in Papuan cities and Highlands towns to demand an end to Indonesian occupation. The protests come as a push for the United...
‘It was like a war zone’: PNG activist speaks on student strikes
Police have shot students at the University of Papua New Guineu this morning, leaving at least 23 injured, some critically. Solidarity spoke with UPNG academic, Patrick Kaikua, about the background to the strike a few days before the shootings.
10,000 in Dili say hands off Timor’s Oil
Thousands rallied in Timor-Leste in March to demand the establishment of a permanent and fair maritime boundary. Australia’s ongoing theft of Timor-Leste’s oil and gas exposes Australia as the imperialist bully that it is.
Turnbull spends billions on war despite budget austerity
Massive investment in new weaponry aimed at containing China, a commitment to more war, and more intervention in the South Pacific—that’s the Turnbull government’s vision for a “capable, agile and potent” defence force in the 2016 Defence White Paper.
How Australian workers helped Indonesia end colonial rule
Seventy years on, Lachlan Marshall explains the important role strike action by Australians unions played in assisting Indonesian independence
Why australia wanted war in Vietnam
Australia has been an enthusiastic partner of US imperialism in an effort to advance its own interests in the region, argues Vivian Honan
Groomed for war
In 1914 Australia was a nation that had been grooming and schooling its young males in military skills, and introducing their families to martial experiences, since 1911, writes Rowan Cahill.
Pacific plunder: Australia’s WWI grab for colonies
Tom Orsag looks at Australia’s seizure of German Pacific colonies during WWI and how this motivated Australian involvement in the war
Australia, China and the US pivot to Asia
Tom Orsag looks at the US military’s efforts to face China, and the implications for Australia
Nauru: Australian colonial control never really ended
Today, Nauru is as a pliant micro-state ready to warehouse and imprison asylum seekers. Its willingness to do Australia’s bidding is the result of a history of colonial exploitation.
Retreat from Afghanistan shows disaster of occupation
In December Australia’s last combat troops in Afghanistan left after 12 years. According to Tony Abbott the withdrawal was, “Not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here”, in an effective admission that the West has lost the war.
Australia’s Timor oil grab exposed in spy scandal
Following Abbott’s arrogance over the Indonesian spying scandal, there have been fresh revelations of a disgraceful Australian government spying operation in East Timor. This is part of Australia’s grab for access to the impoverished nation’s oil and gas.
Australia’s Timor oil grab exposed in spy scandal
Following the Abbott government's arrogance over the Indonesian spying scandal, there have been fresh revelations of a disgraceful Australian government spying operation in East Timor. The operation was a...
West Papua, Australian complicity and the fight for freedom
Australian support for repression in West Papuans is driven by foreign policy, says Tom Orsag
Australia’s brutal history of colonial rule in PNG
Australia is again imposing its wishes on PNG today through having it warehouse refugees. Australian direct colonial control of PNG lasted from 1906 to 1975. Like European colonialism everywhere,...
Australian imperialism, aid and the PNG solution
One of the appalling aspects of the PNG solution—and the entire Pacific Solution—is the way the Labor government has coerced poor, small Pacific countries to be complicit with Australia’s...
Ten years since Iraq rallies: When millions marched against the war
Jean Parker looks at why the massive February 2003 global weekend of action didn’t stop the Iraq war—and the claim that this proves protests don’t work
Australia joins the “thieves’ kitchen” at UN Security Council
Julia Gillard and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr are basking in Australia’s victorious bid for a place on the United Nations Security Council. Carr said the win, “reflects Australia’s positive...
West is withdrawing because Afghans hate the troops
By the end of next year, most Australian troops will be out of Afghanistan. All US and NATO combat troops plan to quit the country by the end of...
Gillard lines up billions for drone warfare
With the Obama administration embroiled in controversy over civilian victims of drones in the borderless war on terror, the Australian government is following Washington’s lead in expanding Australia’s drone...
US desperate to get its hands on Assange
Julian Assange remains holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy awaiting a decision on his bid for political asylum as we go to print. The United States continues to build...
PNG political turmoil ignites mass protests for democratic rights
As many as 15,000 people joined a trade union organised rally in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG, in mid-April to protest against Parliament’s vote to defer elections by...
Australia waiting in the wings of PNG’s political crisis
The political crisis in Papua New Guinea split open in mid-December as two men both claimed the right to be the Prime Minister. The current PM, Peter O’Neill, was...
Afghanistan, an unwinnable war with no end in sight
After ten long years of war, Afghanistan is no safer, nor is an end date for the conflict any more certain.
The deteriorating security situation and the failure of the...
Nationalist myths of Australia’s war in the Pacific
Australia’s Pacific War: Challenging a National Myth
By Tom O’Lincoln, Interventions $20.00
As Tom O’Lincoln’s new book points out, WWII is held up as a “good war”, when Australia fought alongside...
Australia in lockstep with the US in war on Wikileaks
Julia Gillard has mounted a vicious attack on WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, echoing the line of the US administration that he is a criminal. Both Gillard and her Attorney...
Australian meddling part of agenda to dominate Fiji
The Gillard government’s continuation of the old Rudd and Howard policy of meddling in Fiji’s politics saw the Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, Sarah Roberts, expelled from the country...
