- The Guardian
- Issue #2037
This first issue of the Guardian for 2023 gives me the chance to talk about the Party’s priorities for 2023: the struggle for peace, the environment, housing, working people, youth, and Indigenous demands.
2023 is an important year as a referendum on the Voice to Parliament will be held before the end of the year. In 2023 the Party will continue to support the demand for a treaty, truth telling, and land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The struggle for well-paid unionised jobs and the right to strike continues but also the call to repeal the Fair Work Act that is heavily weighted in favour of the employers. Better rights are needed for workers, unions, and union officials. Under current laws employers decide if a union official can visit a workplace. Workers must have the right to representation by their union at any time during working hours.
Workers must have the right to withdraw their labour, not only to advance their industrial interests but also to protect safety on the job. All comrades in the Party are called on to be active for workers’ and union rights.
The floods, pandemic and fires have shown we have reached a critical stage for the environment. The media continues to report recent weather events as once in a lifetime or once in one hundred years but we need to see them as the result of climate change which will become more frequent and severe. Workers must have a say and be active participants in the transition to an environmentally friendly future. All comrades in the Party are called to get active for climate action.
The struggle for peace has become a priority at home and abroad. The militarisation and nuclearisation being adopted by the Albanese government has a real danger of taking us to war in our region and the wider world. Recent decisions include the purchase of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HMARS), expansion of US troop rotations in Darwin, stationing of nuclear capable B52s at Tindal, the construction of eleven giant jet fuel storage tanks in Darwin to support US defence operations in the region and a major expansion of the US Pine Gap base. These preparations did not just happen in the last 12 months, they have been in the making for at least a decade.
Northern Australia is being militarised and US marines are now rotated permanently in Darwin. Preparing for war has never brought about peace. All comrades in the Party are called on to get active for peace.
The offensive US wars that Australia in its alliance commits in its role as deputy sheriff to the big imperialist power makes Australia a target as the stepping of base for launching attacks against our neighbours in the region, and takes away funding from basic needs such as health, education and housing.
Of great concern are the renewed attacks against Medicare. We can expect our public services to continue to be degraded as our taxpayers’ dollars are siphoned off to support the US military. Solutions to the housing crisis will not be found until the government prioritises people’s needs.
The list is long, the contradictions abound. People power can make the difference but we need your support. Get organised in your workplace and community. Get active, read our weekly paper the Guardian, and of course join the Communist Party, the Party of the working people for peace and the environment.
