- The Guardian
- Issue #2199
Peace work – right next door to you
It’s easy to look at missiles going off in the Middle East on your TV or the internet and conclude that if anyone’s going to make peace, it’ll be the people in charge of those missiles. At the moment that would be US President Donald Trump and his advisers. In Europe the cast of characters includes Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, as well as the NATO countries that are fuelling the Ukraine conflict (so Trump gets a look-in there too). As the Israeli genocide continues, the US is involved, backing Israel to the hilt with money and weapons.
All very remote from you, right? Wrong!
Australia is involved in pretty much all of the above, and there are things you can do. While it’s true that this country can’t wave a magic wand and end any of the wars going on, it could at least stop making things worse and could help end wars sooner rather than later.
Take the US war with Iran. Australia is involved in several ways.
The Pine Gap military surveillance base has four satellites that cover half the Earth’s surface. Intelligence sourced there is used by the US to strike targets across the planet. Intelligence is also passed on by the US to Israel, making a mockery of any Australian claims to neutrality or non-involvement in US and Israeli aggression in the Middle East.
Still feeling like you can’t take action? A large group of brave Australians are doing just that at time of writing, at the Close Pine Gap Convergence. This paper has run interviews with veteran activists (see Guardian #2176 and #2196 for more). We’ll report back.
As one activist, Nathalie Farah said of the Convergence “whether it works or not, the alternative is for us to sit back and just see these catastrophes unfolding … the alternative is not to do anything, and in all honesty that is not really an option.”
If you couldn’t make it to the Convergence – many people couldn’t – there are definitely local options. Naarm/Melbourne’s heavy metal community recently turned out for a ‘Metal Against War’ event, proudly sponsored by this newspaper. As well as getting into some top class heavy metal, the event raised much needed funds for PANZMA, a charity that assists with medical workers and training in Gaza.
War is not remote, it’s right here and now. For working people it’s a disaster. As a speaker at Metal Against War pointed out, we aren’t the ones profiting from the rise in military shares. We’re the ones watching fuel prices skyrocket and the cost of living go up while our taxes are used to pay the likes of Raytheon and Elbit.
War is with us now, but so is peace work. If you’re not taking action, check out what organisations like IPAN (Independent and Peaceful Australia Network) and the CICD (Congress for International Co-operation and Disarmament) are up to. They could use a hand. 6 and 9 August are Hiroshima Day and Nagasaki Day respectively – keep an eye out for commemorative events near you.
Of course, keep reading this paper. Peace is a priority for the Communist Party of Australia. We’re working for a peaceful and independent Australia.
