- by RJ Harris
- The Guardian
- Issue #2196
On 20 June this paper and the Communist Party of Australia Naarm/ Melbourne branch organised a charity show Metal Against War at Footscray venue Mamma Chen’s. This event raised money for Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA), an organisation which places healthcare workers from here into hospitals in Gaza, trains Palestinian healthcare workers, and organises medical aid delivery. This event was inspired by the efforts of party members in WA who shared advice early on.
The local metal scene showed strong support. Three generations of metal acts performed and a similar spread of ages was seen in the crowd. Electric Funeral and Dehumanizer opened up, followed by stalwarts Hand of Fear and Knife with Melbourne metal legends Küntsquäd headlining.
The artists were in strong agreement with peace efforts. They identified war as “big business” in various forms and the suffering of ordinary people a direct result of war fighting and war expenditure.
Explicit calls against war were made by band members. Knife front man Mark made a statement that music must be political for it to ascend from ‘lollipop nursery rhyme’ status. Hear, hear!
At least $500 was raised for PANZMA.
MC Zachary spoke at the beginning and end of the show:
War harms us. We do not benefit from war. As Immortal Technique put it: we don’t get weapons contracts and cheap labour for our companies; we are cheap labour. We don’t enjoy the spoils of rebuilding funds or join the orgy of buying the dip on infrastructure projects. Rather, we are hit by the bombs and our futures are sucked dry by militarism.
These performances comprise part of a cultural statement in opposition to war. Contributions to events like this strengthen art’s political character. Profits from today will go to the PANZMA ‘where most needed’ fund.
Calls to increase military spending in Australia to 3.5% are coming from outside the country. The majority of the money spent on defence in Australia is spent on foreign companies which are largely from the United States of America.
Increasing US infiltration of the Australian state is on display through recent contracts between AI-death-merchants Palantir and Department of Defence, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, Australian Signals Directorate, Department of Veteran Affairs and Corrections Victoria.
This is happening as the US occupation of Australia through Pine Gap in the centre, HMAS Stirling in the West, and the 2,500 marines up in Darwin continues, and looks to be expanded with the nuclear submarine base in Port Kembla, with Wollongong to come. The legislative framework for this is the 2014 Force Posture Agreement and the payment flows from us to the USA and Britain are expanding as part of AUKUS – for which we have received nothing but words.
In response to the existence of Palestine on what Israel views as its biblical property, Israel is systematically destroying Gaza, stealing the West Bank and killing a record number of children and women while doing it. Then they lie about it in international fora. We don’t believe it. In 2025 Israel took the crown for majority of global civilian casualties at 56%. Israel’s attacks comprised 90% of all documented attacks on aid operations in 2025. They have the dubious honour of ushering in a ‘new normal’ of attacking hospitals and schools (64% increase in 2025).
There is much talk of a ‘deal’ to end the war on Iran. It is not a deal but a signed ‘understanding.’ This moment signals, perhaps, a change to a lower level of conflict intensity. The impending energy cliff is the impetus. Additionally, Israel’s behaviour is included in the MOU in the first paragraph. They have not stopped attacking Lebanon. This war has been utterly senseless and damaging – remember when the US bombed a school, killing 168 young women students? Never forget.
What do we get for it? High fuel costs. High inflation. High profits at the banks, which are majority foreign-owned. The profits go overseas.
The working class are not served by support of these conflicts.
War takes the productive output of a country and uses it to kill children. That is disgusting to me. We won’t stand for it.
Metal Against War!
