- The Guardian
- Issue #2169
Australia mostly doesn’t get sanctioned. There’s a few politicians who can’t get visas to go to Israel, but that doesn’t affect the rest of us. It’s not big news here when Australia places sanctions on other countries. More about that later.
The US dishes out a lot of sanctions. It has placed more sanctions on Russia recently, making it harder for two of the largest Russian oil companies to do business. It has had sanctions on other countries for a long time – on Iran for decades. The world record for sanctions must be on Cuba, which has been the subject of a savage US blockade since 1961. That’s right, the US has been inflicting suffering on the Cuban people for 64 years and counting.
Sanctions can ban individuals from visiting the sanctioning nation. Other sanctions bar companies from doing business with the sanctioned nation. The US extends this to third parties – it has penalised Australian banks for doing business with Cuba.
The flip side of sanctions is the carrot of lifting them. That was what was held out to Iran until Trump came back to power – if Iran cooperated with a deal on limiting its development of nuclear technology, the EU and the US would lift their sanctions.
Sanctions are mainly a practice of the West – principally the US, but also the EU and Britain, although allies join in. Australia does its usual trick of slavishly following the US. The global south wants trade and good relations, not sanctions and bullying.
As a topic, sanctions are easy to ignore in Australia. We don’t suffer from them. If you take a casual interest in the news, sanctions can seem like a painless way for Australia to express disapproval of another country, or to reinforce its relationship with the US.
Ignoring sanctions is a mistake. Australia doesn’t suffer, but other nations do. Sanctions cause deaths, starvation and severe suffering. They hit the working class hardest. When Australia cooperates with sanctions on Russia, Cuba, or Iran, we are not hurting the people at the top of those countries. Sanctions always have the greatest impact on working people.
There’s a silver lining. When overused, sanctions have the effect of making the sanctioned countries more independent. Iran is reported to have replaced 70% of the economic activity harmed by US and EU actions. Russia is motivated to explore non-US dollar trading and build relations with other nations.
Something that is not discussed when talking about sanctions is the idea that makes any of them possible. Behind all sanctions is the assumption that the West, with the US mostly in charge, gets to tell other countries what to do. Other countries have to fall in line or pay the price. Sanctions have the side effect of letting the world know that they are a weapon the West, especially the US is prepared to use. Sanctions are a bully advertising that they mean business.
The Communist Party of Australia is working for an Australia which is genuinely independent, not just clinging to the US version of “a rules-based order.” It’s possible for this country to stand on its own feet and be “a friend to all, an enemy to none.” Possible, but not easy. In this month of the CPA’s 105th anniversary, we could use some help.
