- The Guardian
- Issue #2200
Australia is independent and our sovereignty is important. Or is it? A couple of incidents from the last week have cast doubt on that assumption.
The Israeli embassy tried to push the Labor party around recently, in the run-up to Labor’s national conference in Adelaide. The embassy was anxious about motions relating to – what else – Israel’s conduct in Palestine. They wanted Labor to not cast too much blame on the perpetrators of an ongoing genocide.
The embassy’s finger-wagging attracted some comment. Foreign embassies don’t usually try to tell Australian political parties what to do. Members of the government tried to pass it off as no big deal (see article ‘Israeli embassy pressures Labor over Palestine’ for more). The pro-Israel media more or less ignored it, apart from doing some fretting themselves about the possibility of Labor standing up for Palestinians.
We can only wonder what the reaction would have been if the Chinese embassy had lectured Labor on motions at the conference.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the commentary or lack of it about the Israeli ambassador’s reaction was our strong foreign influence laws. These laws are applied very selectively. It’s one law for possible Chinese influence here, and another for the US, who just assume they can do what they like.
How can we explain this inconsistency in how our laws are applied, and in how our media reacts?
There’s a one word answer – imperialism. The US behaves like an empire. We are technically independent but the people who run Australia are fully signed up to act in support of US imperialism. Once you understand that, a lot of things suddenly make sense.
For example, when Israel and Trump started an unprovoked war on Iran, Trump’s excuse was that he needed to make sure Iran couldn’t make nuclear weapons. He had already claimed that he’d destroyed Iran’s ability to make those weapons, but maybe he forgot. The war is a war of choice and Trump’s excuses are nonsense, but this country’s Prime Minister didn’t point that out. He mumbled some nonsense about preventing Iran from threatening international peace and security.
Albanese’s response makes sense if you remember that he’s a junior member of the imperialist system. He wants, as all Australian Prime Ministers do, to keep the US happy, or at least not annoy them. This attitude also explains AUKUS – a massive expense on Australia’s part which only makes sense as a way of helping the US to continue to dominate the Pacific and menace China.
This country is supposedly a democracy, but working people don’t get a vote on these things. At election time, our choice is between two parties ‘of government’ who both want to serve the US.
Waving through attempted Israeli interference in the workings of our political parties is part of this. Israel is an extension of US power in the Middle East. What Israel wants from the US, it usually gets. Albanese isn’t about to criticise Israel because he feels he has to keep the US on side. He thinks there’s no alternative.
He’s wrong. This country could be genuinely independent. We could be safer, more prosperous and have real sovereignty, but it’s not going to happen just by wishing for it. We’re going to have to change the system to one which works for working people, rather than for the US. That’s what the Communist Party of Australia is working for.
