- The Guardian
- Issue #2142
An address by Vinnie Molina, president of the Communist Party of Australia, to the 2025 International Anti-Fascist Forum
Distinguished delegates,
I would like to begin by thanking the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for organising the International Anti-Fascist Forum, devoted to the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism in World War II and the invitation issued to the Communist Party of Australia.
This is an important event that takes us back 80 years in history to the victory over fascism by the heroic Soviet people.
Today we live in a very dangerous and precarious situation where right-wing extremism and fascism are a threat to peace and collective security once again.
While fascism is chauvinistic and nationalistic, it is a form of colonial capitalism, an extension of the international nature of imperialism in crisis. There is no contradiction; it is a more extreme form of capitalist exploitation and oppression; where a few countries are the dominant powers in the world, through their financial system and military power, and all other countries are either auxiliaries, subjects, or opponents of this power. Fascism aspires to either continue or achieve this position for a country, in the face of the ever-nearer collapse of global capitalism. It is an expression of the violent desperation of the most single-minded capitalist oppressors.
We look to Israel; Netanyahu’s words are not the words of a madman; his moves are calculated towards a ‘greater Israel.’ Israel does not act alone. It works in tandem with the US for control of the region enveloping the Middle East, operating in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. This includes stifling Palestinian aspirations to statehood and the subjugation of any state in the region that opposes US domination.
Israel speaks of fighting an existential battle for its survival. It is a dangerous fiction. Israel consciously seeks to destroy Gaza and the Palestinian people by brutality and terror with the ‘ironclad’ support of the United States.
Israel continues to act with disdain and impunity in defiance of the International Court of Justice and UN resolutions. Israeli Defence Minister, Smotrich has stated that “we were a step away from applying sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria and now is the time to do it. The year 2025 will, with God’s help, be the year of sovereignty.” The Trump administration is aligned and means an even more terrifying future for the Palestinian people, for Lebanon, for Syria, for Iran. Trump has repeatedly stated that Israel must be able to “finish the job.”
Al Jazeera reports one in every 50 Palestinian people in Gaza have been killed and 1 in 20 injured. 90 per cent of the Palestinian population have been displaced since October 2023. Gaza has been cut in two. The north has been effectively cleared of its population. The massacres in Gaza continue to add up to ethnic cleansing. The escalation of a genocide that has already claimed casualties of 100 children each day since the ceasefire was broken on 18 March, continues as the US government resumes its shipments of 2,000 lb ‘bunker buster’ bombs to arm its ally Israel.
Netanyahu’s fascist government proclaims itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” promotes a true genocide in Gaza and is engaged in a process of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories of Palestine.
Israel’s genocide in Palestine has been broadcast to the world. The mass media is also complicit in the fascist policy carried out against the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Australia is not an exception. The Australian media has been systematically demonising Hamas and the Palestinian resistance while attempting to appear neutral or openly supporting Israel’s war on the Palestinian people.
Government and media have been at one in the attacks on activists who campaign for a permanent ceasefire, the end of the occupation and an independent Palestinian state.
During the student encampments across several universities in Australia, the media, government and pro-Israel groups have condemned the students’ actions and their right to demand their universities cut ties with the Israeli entity.
We live now in an environment in Australia where anything can be considered antisemitic and the threat of criminal prosecution lays over the heads of those who stand against the genocide. Speaking the truth about Israel’s genocide, apartheid, illegal occupation, and the impunity it is offered by its allies, is a legitimate and necessary act of resistance against injustice, not an endorsement of hate or antisemitism as claimed by authorities.
There must be only one solution – an end to the occupation and recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their justified demands. Ending the occupation and instating a just peace is in the clear interests of both peoples.
Lenin wrote of the decay of capitalism. Imperialism shows this decay clearly. Fascism follows but is not inevitable. All the working class must rise up, united against fascism and push back against the state and ruling class move to cripple the working class, politically and organisationally.
“One of the most ‘democratic’ republics in the world is the United States of America, yet nowhere is the power of capital, the power of a handful of multimillionaires over the whole of society, so crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital exists, it dominates the whole of society.”
VI Lenin, 1919.
Communists have a responsibility to lead the struggle for the establishment of a society that is fairer, more cooperative, more democratic and far more enriching for the people than the present society.
The Communist Party of Australia stands in solidarity with the Palestinian right to self-determination and demands the Australian government unilaterally recognise Palestine as an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The CPA also advocates for collective security and calls for a diplomatic and peaceful resolution of the current conflicts in the best interests of the people of the countries involved.
We firmly believe that only Socialism can save us from another holocaust.
Once again, we thank the organisers of this event and wish the very best to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, its members and the Russian people as a whole on the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism.
Moscow, 21-25 April 2025.
