Global military spending is skyrocketing. The total spent on waging or preparing for war in 2024 was about US$2.7 trillion, 9.4 percent more in real terms than in 2023, according to <a href="https://www.sipri.org/publications/2025/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-world-military-expenditure-2024">the latest Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates</a>. This is the biggest year-on-year increase since the institute began tracking world military expenditure in 1988.
The United States remains the world’s biggest spender, outlaying US$997 billion and accounting for 37 percent of the global total. China was a distant second, spending an estimated US$314 billion. The top five spenders (including Russia, Germany and India) account for 60 percent of the global total. The top fifteen countries, Australia included, all increased military spending and made up four-fifths of the global total, spending a combined US$2.1 trillion in 2024.
The spending growth is part of a longer-term trend. Last year was the tenth consecutive year of increases in global military expenditures, the total being 37 percent higher in real terms than in 2015.<figure><img src="https://newcms.redflag.org.au/files/public/hax4g-annual-world-military-spending-soars-to-2-7-trillion.png" alt="" /></figure>
While US military spending is more than triple that of China, Beijing’s ten-year real increase is nearly 60 percent, about triple America’s 19 percent. As tensions increase between the two biggest powers, other countries are marching in lockstep to hold their ground.
This includes Australia, where uncompromising allegiance to the US has been central policy for Labor and Liberal governments for decades. Australian military spending in 2024 was 25 percent higher than in 2015. However, the big increases associated with obtaining nuclear-powered submarines have yet to be felt. The government is set to spend hundreds of billions of dollars that should be spent on public housing, welfare and healthcare.
Europe’s trajectory is more dramatic. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization more than doubled their annual military expenditure in the last decade. Among them is Germany, which in one year has increased its military spending by 28 percent to US$88.5 billion, making it the biggest spender in Western Europe.
These trends will only continue. And it won’t be the wealthy footing the bill—it’ll come at the expense of social services and working-class living standards.
Only a fraction of the money being spent on weaponry would be needed to end world hunger (US$48 billion a year, according to the World Food Program) and provide universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation to 140 low- and middle-income countries (US$138 billion a year, according to the United Nations).
But capitalism’s priorities are elsewhere. British conservative columnist Janan Ganesh, in a March Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/37053b2b-ccda-4ce3-a25d-f1d0f82e7989">opinion piece</a> titled “Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state”, put it plainly: “[T]he welfare state as we have known it must retreat somewhat: not enough that we will no longer call it by that name, but enough to hurt. It was never designed for a world in which living to 100 is banal”.
Every dollar added to the world’s military budgets takes us closer to a potentially apocalyptic scenario of world war. The working classes of all countris have nothing to gain from this. The war drive must be resisted.

Danica Rachel

World military spending explodes

At the end of 2024, the Australian National University announced $250 million in cuts as part of a “Renew ANU” program. According to figures published in the Australian Financial Review, this “renewal” includes $150 million slashed from salaries—the equivalent of 638 full-time jobs.
While hundreds of workers are facing the sack, it has since been revealed that new Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell was still taking an undisclosed salary from tech giant Intel well into her first year at ANU—on top of her $1.1 million university pay packet. Also, Canberra MP David Pocock revealed that Bell blew $1.2 million on external consultants to advise on Renew ANU after telling the Senate the university had spent just $50,000.
The fallout has been significant. In an unprecedented move, 800 ANU staff participated in a National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) vote of no confidence in Bell and Chancellor Julie Bishop. An overwhelming 95 percent voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Bell’s response? To smear the vote as “sexist”.
It’s not just staff pushing back. Students have launched a “No Cuts at ANU” campaign linking staff working conditions to student learning conditions. Forums, rallies and a student strike have been held throughout the first half of 2025. The demands are simple: sack Bell and Bishop, get rid of the Renew ANU project and publicly disclose the university’s financial records.
Bell is one of many university bosses overseeing a national offensive against staff and students. At the University of Canberra, ex-Labor parliamentarian turned Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten has ditched any pretence of supporting workers by axing 150 staff. Western Sydney University is gutting 400 jobs. The University of Wollongong has cut more than 100 subjects and slashed $21 million from salaries. Monash University is cramming more students into bigger tutorials while slashing staff numbers.
These attacks result from a system that treats education as a business and students and staff as cogs in the machine. With the Albanese government cutting funding and capping international student numbers, universities expect greater uncertainty in their profit margins and are making workers and students pay.
A fightback is underway at the ANU, but it is only the beginning. To defend our education, we need to take on not just vice-chancellors like Bell and Shorten, but the whole rotten system that treats our education like a commodity, and universities like businesses.

Lucy Chapman-Kelly

Fighting course cuts at ANU

“There are definitely very good vibes at this conference ... After meeting many of the young comrades, I’m honestly much more optimistic about the prospects for revolution in Australia.”—Hossam El-Hamalawy, Egyptian revolutionary at Marxism 2025. 
Organisers would like to thank everyone who bought tickets, attended sessions and contributed to the success of this year’s Marxism Conference, held in Melbourne. With more than 1,300 attendees, the conference was once again the biggest of its kind in Australia. 
Before, after and in-between conference sessions, socialists from across the world could be found discussing and debating myriad political topics in the courtyard. Leaders of the international socialist movement were surrounded by eager crowds of young radicals, inspiring and educating the next generation of fighters with their stories. We were delighted to meet many comrades who travelled significant distances to attend the conference for the first time, hailing from places like Darwin, Hobart, New Zealand and even Canada. 
One hundred and twenty-seven conference sessions spanned an enormous variety of topics. Australia’s best socialist agitators and intellectuals presented to jam-packed rooms, leading meaty discussions and conducting serious debates. 
Some of the most popular sessions were those designed for newcomers to Marxist ideas, where the fundamentals were thrashed out and lightbulb moments proliferated. Attendees also flocked to sessions analysing the lurch to the far right in global politics and contemporary issues of women’s oppression. Veteran activist and recurrent special guest of the conference, Dr Gary Foley, drew a big crowd again this year for his session on the Black Power Movement in Australia. 
Once sessions closed for the day, attendees were invited to join all-in events, including a radical walking tour around the grounds of Melbourne University led by a multi-generational team of campus activists, telling stories of student struggles from the anti-Vietnam war campaign to recent Palestine solidarity activism.
The venue’s largest lecture theatre was thrice packed out for all-in evening panels, which covered the horror show of modern capitalism, global resistance to the far right and why the world needs more socialist activists today.
If you couldn’t make it this time (or you’re just eager for more), we’d love to see you at one of our Socialism conferences later this year in <a href="https://www.socialismsydney.com/">Sydney</a>, <a href="https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1387279">Adelaide</a>, <a href="https://socialismperth.com/">Perth</a> and <a href="https://www.socialismbrisbane.com/">Brisbane</a>. Until then, we’ll see you in the struggle.

Lily Campbell

Marxism Conference 2025

Capitalism in 2025 is a horror show, both at home and overseas. The rich are waging war on the rest of us, Donald Trump is back in the White House and the far-right are on the march. Building a fightback has never been more pressing. The Marxism Conference, organised by Socialist Alternative, provides an opportunity to do just that. With more than 1,600 tickets sold, it’s set to be the biggest ever, offering up three jam-packed days of discussion and debate at Melbourne University.
The opening night panel, “Trump, War and the Capitalist Horror show”, set a theme for the weekend. The urgent need for resistance to this monstrous triad was at the forefront of discussion. As panellist Eleanor Morley pointed out, in the United States more than one million people have already taken to the streets in what is hopefully the beginning of a fightback against Trump, his MAGA cronies and the techno-broligarchs. 
Host Anneke Demanuele highlighted street movements in Greece, Serbia and Turkey, which have mobilised unprecedented numbers in the last year. Here in Australia, the Palestine solidarity movement has mobilised tens of thousands in protest against our government’s complicity in the Gaza genocide. It’s a positive sign for the prospects of the left that in this election, many Labor voters will break their habit in response to the government’s crimes, as noted by speaker Omar Hassan.
The panel reminded the audience of the many legends of the activist and socialist movement in Australia who will pack out the conference in the coming days. Veterans of every progressive movement of the last fifty years in Australia fill the programme. From the founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy Dr Gary Foley to Palestine Action Group spokesperson Josh Lees, all have important lessons to share. As well, the conference programme features an impressive line-up of revolutionaries from around the world, including Egyptian revolutionary journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy, Argentinian socialist leader Mariano Rosa, German anti-fascist organiser Willi Schulz and more.
The Marxism conference brings together hundreds of left-wing people from across the country because we want to understand the world in order to change it. It’s an opportunity to learn how the world works and how it can be radically changed for the better—there’s still time to join us this weekend.

Marxism Conference 2025 opening night: Trump, war and the capitalist horror show

The latest episode of class conflict in the NSW Healthcare system was as impressive as it was unexpected: a three-day strike carried out by public hospital doctors represented by the state branch of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF). The strike has caused cancellations of non-urgent surgeries, closures of outpatient clinics and hospital wards to be staffed at the bare minimum as junior doctors and supporters, among whom were nurses, midwives and patients, held several angry rallies outside hospitals, the Department of Health and Premier Chris Minns’ office in Kogarah. More than 5,000 doctors took part from 32 sites across the state.
The Minns Labor government was voted into power just over two years ago. It inherited a healthcare system with a workforce recovering from the trauma and disruption of the pandemic and working for pay well below our interstate colleagues due to years of wage suppression. Minns and his health minister Ryan Park have since presented insulting offers to hospital workforces that entrench us as the lowest paid nurses, midwives and doctors in the country. For doctors, the government is trying to <a href="https://www.asmofnsw.org.au/NSW/Content/News/Minns_Award_is_a_step_backwards.aspx">wind back existing protections</a> against exploitative rostering and deployment practices. This ensures that staffing shortages, overwork and burnout will remain unaddressed as healthcare workers pack up and leave to work in states and cities with lower rents, better conditions and higher pay.
The government employed similar anti-strike tactics to those used against nurses and midwives during our industrial action campaigns in recent years. They issued orders through the Industrial Relations Commission banning the strike from taking place, they threatened the involvement of the healthcare regulatory bodies to punish doctors who take part and spread lies in the press in an attempt to temper significant public support—including an egregious untruth that nearly 500 patients had their chemotherapy appointments cancelled (they have since retracted this statement).
This was the first strike action undertaken by doctors in NSW since 1997, when junior doctors supported by the Australian Medical Association undertook a week of industrial action in protest against cuts to the numbers of specialty training positions. With a handful of exceptions (such as the British Medical Association strikes in the UK), junior doctors are not necessarily known for their industrial militancy. ASMOF’s recent reorientation towards industrial action is a welcome break from this tendency. While it remains to be seen how they will follow this action up, beginning the campaign with a three-day strike is an admirable move and shows some understanding of what will be necessary to defend the conditions that they have and win the pay they deserve.
The public sector strikes of the nurses and midwives union, the NSWNMA, never extend beyond 24 hours. While these are no doubt disruptive, the state can wait them out and plan around them. One 24-hour strike every few months can be treated like a Sunday or a public holiday. For a strike to be successful, the employer must conclude that the cost of allowing the campaign to continue (whether that cost be political or economic) is greater than the cost of accepting the campaign’s demands. The employer—particularly an employer as hostile and intransigent as the Minns government—must be forced to concede. He has shown time and time again that he is not interested in good-faith negotiations. 
Unfortunately for the nurses and midwives of NSW, the union’s campaign has sunk us further into the quagmire of dead-end negotiations. Just days after the <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/nurses-and-midwives-take-historic-strike-action-for-a-15-percent-pay-rise">largest single strike day in NSW healthcare history</a> in November last year, the union officials pivoted towards engaging in an arbitration process through the Industrial Relations Court and agreed to conduct no industrial action in the lead up to or during the case. It will not be heard until September—almost a full year from when it was announced. This was passed by a membership vote in which the Association’s leadership declared that they either vote in favour of the case, or we will walk away with nothing and face hundreds of thousands in fines. The spectre of these fines was used to dismiss any suggestion of further disruptive action and the possibility of refusing to pay the fines was never proposed as an option to the membership.
This is the situation we are in; a strategy that bars us from using our only effective weapon, giving the Minns government no reason to fear us; a strategy that accepts an almost year-long delay on even the possibility of any gains; and a strategy that is non-participatory for the union’s members. For those of us who actually work on the hospital floor, demoralisation about this campaign has evolved for some into open hostility towards the union, especially following a small but poorly timed membership fee increase in late November last year.
Meanwhile, ASMOF reported on 3 April that 1,227 doctors had joined the union in the two days after the strike was announced. There is no amount of legal advice, Woolworths vouchers or free CPD (continuing professional development) classes that will build and maintain an active, fighting membership. The power of a union will always be in the ability of its members to withdraw their labour. For its tests ahead, ASMOF would do well to remember this.

A NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association member

NSW doctors’ strike shows the way forward for healthcare workers

Activists in Sydney rallied outside a Tesla showroom in Alexandria on 11 April, joining global actions against far-right billionaire Elon Musk. The protest was part of “Tesla Takedown”, an international campaign opposing Musk’s role in Donald Trump’s authoritarian government. 
As head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has overseen thousands of layoffs of federal workers and the gutting of entire departments—particularly those that protect the environment and worker and consumer rights. He’s also used his takeover of Twitter to promote far-right hate online, performed Nazi salutes and thrown his weight behind the fascist Alternative for Germany party.
The Sydney protest hit a nerve. From the moment protesters unfurled a banner reading “Honk if you hate Elon”, support from the public was loud and constant. The showroom sits on a busy main road that connects to major motorways. For the entire hour we were there, cars driving home from work honked, waved and cheered. 
Chants of “No Musk, no KKK, no fascist USA” echoed through peak-hour traffic. Placards read “Let them eat Tesla”, “Elon = Nazi”, “No space for fascists” and “The rat Musk go”.
One of the speakers, Matthew, a university lecturer who formerly lived in the US, called Musk “a megalomaniacal, power- and popularity-hungry, nepo-baby man-child who exploits his workers and pays almost no taxes to greedily hoard obscene wealth”. 
The <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/teslatakedown">Tesla Takedown</a>
protests have spread rapidly in recent months. Organisers kicked them off with weekly demonstrations outside Tesla showrooms in the US and called for a Tesla boycott. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-protests-planned-worldwide">According to National Public Radio in the US</a>, more than 250 cities worldwide joined the day of action on 29 March. Rallies took place in all 50 US states—from smaller regional towns to major protests in New York City, where hundreds gathered outside Tesla’s Manhattan showroom, and San Francisco, where crowds filled both sides of Van Ness Avenue.
The backlash is hitting Musk financially. According to new outlet <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/31/tesla-plunges-36percent-in-first-quarter-worst-performance-since-2022.html">CNBC</a>, the Tesla stock price sank 36 percent in the first three months of the year, wiping out post-election gains. Tesla has reported a 13 percent fall in car sales in the first quarter of 2025, its worst result in nearly three years. 
It turns out many people don’t want to buy cars from a Nazi-saluting billionaire.

Cherish Kuehlmann

Sydney joins global Tesla Takedown protests

Elon Musk’s central role in Donald Trump’s wide-ranging unprecedented attack on the lives of working-class people in the United States, as well as his threat to the world, has enraged tens of millions of people who face destitution and poverty. Musk, the world’s richest man and best-known Nazi sympathiser, whom no-one elected to public office, has shocked many. While he has been a public figure for nearly two decades, it is only recently that many people have discovered his dark and disturbing personal, corporate, and political history.
Here is an initial resource list, including articles, interviews, and videos on Musk. It is not a final list by any means. I hope it helps older and newer activists cope with the dangerous times we live in. I’ve also included a section on the <a href="https://www.teslatakedown.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla Takedown campaign</a> that has done so much to mobilise people worldwide against Musk and his global agenda.
The Musk family, Nazism and South Africa
Kate Conger, “Elon Musk Shared, Then Removed a Post Absolving Dictators for Genocide”, New York Times, March 14, 2025, available <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/technology/elon-musk-x-post-hitler-stalin-mao.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Rex Huppke, “Trump talks tough on antisemitism while Musk reposts vile Hitler excuse”, USA Today, March 15, 2025, available<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/03/15/elon-musk-hitler-trump-antisemitism/82408339007/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
Chris McGreal &amp; Amy Goodman, “Elon Musk’s Family History in South Africa Reveals Ties to Apartheid &amp; Neo-Nazi Movements”, Democracy Now!, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahv3IKzMdHA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Chris McGreal, “How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa”, The Guardian, January 26, 2025, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Rachel Savage, “The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him?” The Guardian, March 10, 2025, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/10/making-of-elon-musk-childhood-apartheid-south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Musk and the US far right
11Alive, “Elon Musk says Jan. 6 was ‘in no way a violent insurrection’”, !!Alive, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIb_zcbKMVk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Chris McGreal, “What does Elon Musk believe?”, The
Guardian, February 28, 2025, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/feb/08/elon-musk-politics-doge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Rick Perlstein interview, “How Elon Musk is taking over the MAGA movement”, Real Talk, Middle East Eye, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO7h_Yxm3VA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist: One tweet says it all”, The Atlantic, December 11, 2022, available <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Elon Musk and the European far right
Mason Boycott-Owen, “Elon Musk to fund UK far-right ringleader Tommy Robinson’s legal fight, supporters claim”, Politico Europe, January 21, 2025, available<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-fund-uk-far-right-ringleader-tommy-robinson-legal-fight/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
Angela Giufrida, “Elon Musk to present Atlantic Council global citizen award to Giorgia Meloni”, The Guardian, September 23, 2024, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/23/elon-musk-to-present-atlantic-council-global-citizen-award-to-giorgia-meloni" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Julianne McShane, “Elon Musk Doubles Down on His Support for Germany’s Ultra-Right Party”, Mother Jones, December 29, 2024, available <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/elon-musk-tweeet-germany-afd-far-right-party-nazi-support-die-welt-op-ed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Julianne McShane, “Elon Musk Tells Extremist AfD Party Rally That Germans Need to ‘Move On’ from ‘Past Guilt’”, Mother Jones, January 26, 2025, available <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/elon-musk-extremist-afd-party-rally-germany-past-guilt-holocaust-remigration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Julianne McShane, “Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed”, Mother Jones, February 23, 2025, available <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-germany-afd-election-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Alex Nguyen, “Elon Musk Applauds the German Far-Right Party”, Mother Jones, December 20, 2024, available <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/elon-musk-applauds-the-german-neo-nazi-party/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Christopher F. Schuetze, “Musk Calls to Congratulate Leader of German Hard-Right Party”, New York Times, February 24, 2025, available <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/world/europe/musk-afd-weidel-call.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Musk and other authoritarians: Putin, Modi, Xi and Netanyahu.
Anupreeta Das, “As Musk Makes Some Headway in India, He Is Also Suing Its Government”, New York Times, March 27, 2025, available <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/world/asia/india-elon-musk-x-lawsuit-grok.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Ashleigh Fields, “Netanyahu jumps to Musk’s defense over salute: ‘Falsely smeared’”, The Hill, January 23, 2025, available <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/5102610-benjamin-netanyahu-elon-musk-salute/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Joshua Kaplan and Justin Elliott, “How Elon Musk’s SpaceX Secretly Allows Investment From China”, ProPublica, March 26, 2025, available <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-spacex-allows-china-investment-cayman-islands-secrecy?utm_campaign=propublica-sprout&amp;utm_content=1743330465&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawJWrlVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaLfgyqLOvHu8j1j2xG6cXY3cC6YWHiLViPKjQ8uCuHPSiGOwJmTC4FHcg_aem_E3R-BvakJXIphPzrSTKZ-A" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
David Klepper and Lisa Mascaro, “Here’s a look at Musk’s contact with Putin and why it matters”, Associated Press, October 24, 2024, available <a href="https://apnews.com/article/musk-putin-x-trump-tesla-election-russia-9cecb7cb0f23ccce49336771280ae179" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
“How Elon Musk’s deep ties to — and admiration for — China could complicate Trump’s Beijing policy”, The Conversation, February 24, 2025, available <a href="https://joeallen-60224.medium.com/How%20Elon%20Musk%E2%80%99s%20deep%20ties%20to%20%E2%80%93%20and%20admiration%20for%20%E2%80%93%20China%20could%20complicate%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Beijing%20policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Tesla’s corporate history
Edward Niedermeyer, Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, 2019, BenBella Books, available from all major book distributors.
Slidebean, “The REAL story of how Elon ‘stole’ Tesla”, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oZM27yfnjM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Tesla and the environment
Kari Paul, “Eight hundred protesters attempt to storm German Tesla factory”, The Guardian, May 10, 2024, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/10/tesla-protest-germany-factory" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Nathan Robinson, “Exposing the Fraudulence of Elon Musk and Tesla”, Current Affairs, January 7, 2022, available<a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/01/exposing-the-fraudulence-of-elon-musk-and-tesla?fbclid=IwY2xjawJXf9JleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHU1dQx2UblmN2502V-cUduOV20ZCLdi_LaDzY0MDHDiQRdrxj47h5Une_A_aem_Ec3YQibIoRPFN0KdiXmKVA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here.</a>
Max Wilbert, “Tesla is Killing the Planet—and 50k People per Year”, Max Wilbert, Youtube, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ih2pCN72k" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Space X and X (Twitter)
Center for Countering Digital Hate, Toxic Twitter: How Twitter generates millions in ad revenue by bringing back banned accounts, available <a href="https://counterhate.com/research/toxic-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
More Perfect Union, We Went To The Town Elon Musk Took Hostage, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cZEZoa8rW0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Tesla and US and European trade unions
German Bender, “One year on, we know this: Sweden’s trade unions are more than a match for Elon Musk”, The Guardian, November 1, 2024, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/01/one-year-on-we-know-this-swedens-trade-unions-are-more-than-a-match-for-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
German Bender, “Tesla : the fight for collective bargaining continues”, IndustrialAll, October 22, 2024, available <a href="https://news.industriall-europe.eu/Article/1150" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Scott Budman, “Protesters call out Tesla for being only American car company not represented by union”, NBC Bay Area, September 2, 2024, available <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/fremont-tesla-labor-day-protest/3641285/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Dominic Chopping, “Tesla Workers in Germany Demand Better Working Conditions, Union Says”, Morning Star, March 21, 2025, available <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202503212587/tesla-workers-in-germany-demand-better-working-conditions-union-says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Steven Greenhouse, “Elon Musk says letting workers unionize creates ‘lords and peasants’. What?” The Guardian, December 20, 2023, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/20/elon-musk-unions-tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Andrea Hsu, “Accused of violating worker rights, SpaceX and Amazon go after labor board”, National Public Radio, November 24, 2024, available <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/11/18/nx-s1-5192918/spacex-amazon-nlrb-labor-board-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Working at Tesla
“Group Gathers Outside Twitter’s SF Headquarters to Protest Elon Musk”, Bay City News, February 11, 2023, available <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/group-gathers-outside-twitters-sf-headquarters-to-protest-mass-layoffs/3154986/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Bryce Covert, “The Toxic Culture at Tesla, The factory floors at America’s top seller of electric vehicles are rife with racial harassment, sexual abuse, and injuries on the job”, The Nation, April 2024, available<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/tesla-racism-sexual-harassment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
“Protesters Outside Fremont Tesla Plant Demand Improved COVID-19 Safety For Workers”, CBS News, June 15, 2020, available <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/protesters-fremont-tesla-plant-demand-improved-covid-19-safety-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
“California fines Tesla for heat safety violations at Fremont plant”, KTVU, February 12, 2025, available <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/california-fines-tesla-heat-safety-violations-fremont-plant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Lauren MaGaughy, “Feds fine Tesla nearly $50K after worker’s death at Austin gigafactory”, The Texas Newsroom, March 6, 2025, available<a href="https://www.kut.org/transportation/2025-03-06/elon-musk-tesla-gigafactory-worker-death-osha-fine-fines-austin-texas" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
Aimee Picchi, “Ex-Tesla worker says he lost job despite sacrifices, including sleeping in car to shorten commute”, CBS News, May 1, 2024, available <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-layoffs-employee-slept-in-car-nico-murillo-daniel-ho-rebecca-tinucci/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Dan Simon, “Tesla factory worker: Elon Musk doesn’t have workers’ best interests at heart”, CNN, May 14, 2020, available <a href="https://www.rockdalenewtoncitizen.com/news/business/tesla-factory-worker-elon-musk-doesnt-have-workers-best-interests-at-heart/article_a836c8d6-fd58-589b-99f0-3138a6e9758c.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Julie Carrie Wong, “Tesla factory workers reveal pain, injury and stress: ‘Everything feels like the future but us’”, The Guardian, May 18, 2017, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/18/tesla-workers-factory-conditions-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Julie Carrie Wong, “Tesla workers were seriously hurt more than twice as often as industry average”, The Guardian, May 24, 2017, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/24/tesla-factory-workers-injuries-higher-than-industry-average" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Julie Carrie Wong, “Tesla workers say they pay the price for Elon Musk’s big promises”, The Guardian, June 14, 2018, available <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/13/tesla-workers-pay-price-elon-musk-failed-promises" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Steve Zeltzer, “Tesla, Covid-19, Elon Musk, Cal-OSHA &amp; Gov. Gavin Newsom-Interview With Tesla Worker Carlos Gabriel”, Labor video, June 27, 2020, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx9fRymBiqk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Steve Zeltzer, “Tesla Fremont Auto Worker Quits In Protest Of Racist &amp; Fascist Musk &amp; Trump”, Labor Video, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__SK3Sz2f1U" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here.</a>
Tesla Takedown campaign
Joe Allen, “Musk’s Global War on Unions: Taking on Tesla from the Showrooms to the Plants”, Counterpunch, February 28, 2025, available <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/28/musks-global-war-on-unions-taking-on-tesla-from-the-showrooms-to-the-plants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Joe Allen &amp; Bill V. Mullen, “Tesla: An Appeal for an International Anti-Fascist Campaign”, Counterpunch, March 7, 2025, available<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/07/tesla-an-appeal-for-an-international-anti-fascist-campaign/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
Andy Rose, “A misinformation expert encouraged picket lines at Tesla sites to protest DOGE cuts. Then came the online threats”, CNN, March 26, 2025, available <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/us/joan-donovan-tesla-protests-misinformation/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Kelly Hayes, “Is March 29 the Day the World Turns on Tesla?”, Organizing My Thoughts, March 27, 2025, available <a href="https://organizingmythoughts.org/is-march-29-the-day-the-world-turns-on-tesla/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Hank Kennedy, “How I Organized a Tesla Takedown in Troy, Michigan”, New Politics, March 12, 2025, available <a href="https://newpol.org/how-i-organized-a-tesla-takedown-in-troy-michigan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Steve Zeltzer, “Hundreds Protest Fascist Musk At Berkeley Tesla Dealership-Time To Fight Back”, Labor video, available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2A7BHTnYuU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
#TeslaTakedown Mass Mobilizing Call, March 20, 2025, YouTube, available<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APHo7bea_p4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> here</a>.
Alex Winter, “Tesla Takeover: How the Protests Against Elon Musk Signal a National Turning Point”, Rolling Stone magazine, February 21, 2025, available <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/elon-musk-tesla-takeover-protests-1235276235/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
Joe Allen is a former Teamster. He has written for Counterpunch, Rebel, Tempest, Jacobin, Socialist Worker, and the International Socialist Review.

Joe Allen

Elon Musk and Tesla: A resource list for activists

Students at the Australian National University in Canberra have defeated an attempt by campus Labor clubs to abolish the environment collective. 
Almost 300 students attended a mass meeting on 26 March, at which the new ANU Students’ Association executive, representing both factions of the ALP student clubs, tried to amend the constitution to create a committee in place of the collective, strip 80 percent of its budget, place the new committee under strict executive oversight and strip students of the right to vote at meetings. 
The pretext for such a brazen assault on environmental activism came from an audit conducted by a consultancy firm last year. The firm, NFP Success, specialises in advising not-for-profit organisations on how to “reach new levels of excellence”. 
Yet student unions are not like other NGOs. Nor should they be. Student unions are activist bodies steeped in a democratic culture and shaped by leading fights for justice. The environment collective has a 50-year history of supporting campaigns such as the anti-war movement when the US and Australia invaded Iraq, the Woomera Detention Centre refugee breakout, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the climate strikes and the Palestine solidarity movement. 
Auditors like NFP Success have no sympathy for this history, as its recommendations show. While the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was still active last year, its governance review claimed that there had been “too much focus on pro-Palestine campaigning” and argued: “[I]t is crucial the president avoids becoming too involved in divisive political campaigns”. 
The new ANUSA executive has its own reasons for opposing the environment collective. The ALP student clubs are stacked with careerist apparatchiks loyally promoting party policy, such as support for fossil fuel expansion and Israel’s war on Gaza. The consultant’s report provided a pretext for them to go on the offensive. They froze the collective’s funds earlier this year and drafted constitutional changes to abolish it. This semester, they have publicly argued that students can’t be trusted to run the collective. 
Our victory was not guaranteed. The traditions of activist student unionism are not as strong as they used to be. And anti-activist arguments cloaked in legalism can always find an audience on university campuses. The ANUSA executive had the resources of the student union behind it, sending out several official all-student emails. It also had sizeable social networks through which to call in favours. Supporters of the ANUSA executive were even found to be bribing students with offers of free beers in exchange for their votes.
The fightback coalition included Socialist Alternative members, students from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, the No Cuts at ANU campaign and, of course, members of the environment collective. 
We handed out leaflets around the campus, put up posters, made announcements in lectures, called around stay-in-touch lists and built networks through WhatsApp group chats. 
We only needed 25 percent of the vote to defeat the attack, but we won 42 percent. Importantly, our vote represented students who were won to a vision of left-wing, democratic, activist student unionism. 
Those traditions are more important now than ever as we stare down historic staff cuts, the threat of a rising far right inspired by Donald Trump, and the rolling catastrophes of climate disaster and war.

Nick Reich

How we saved the ANU environment collective

A recent ABC Four Corners report (“Sacrifice”, which aired 10 March) warns that the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is in danger of being turned into “a half-a-billion-dollar military theme park that celebrates, rather than commemorates war”.
A significant renovation, commissioned by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will expand the Memorial’s gallery space by 80 percent and include exhibits of a fighter jet and other military equipment.
“I’m appalled by it. It’s a kind of Disneyland of war”, Geoffrey Watson, director of the Centre for Public Integrity, told the program.
But there’s another issue, outlined by journalist Mark Willacy: 
“Last year, at the largest defence industry event ever held in Australia, the world’s leading weapons-makers were proudly promoting their ware—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Thales, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman. Those same companies have also proudly sponsored the Australian War Memorial—an involvement that appals many who say it contradicts the mission of the memorial.”
The Memorial’s chair, former leader of the ALP Kim Beazley, told the program: “I don’t feel the slightest embarrassment with weapons manufacturers contributing”. Beazley, as it turns out, sits on the board of Luerssen Australia, a shipbuilding company. He is also on the advisory board of Lockheed Martin, one of the largest weapons corporations in the world. 
Four Corners obtained annual disclosure forms for War Memorial council members, “which revealed Mr Beazley did not list his roles with Luerssen or Lockheed Martin”.
Indeed, there seems to be a secret revolving door between the Australian War Memorial and weapons companies. Former Memorial director and Liberal leader Brendan Nelson had a paid role with French firm Thales while employed by the Memorial.
“Dr Nelson’s role with Thales, which began in 2015, wasn’t disclosed for four years, and then only because he was forced to register on the government’s foreign influence register, introduced in 2019”, the ABC found.
“It’s totally fucked”, Watson, from the Centre for Public Integrity, told Four Corners. Nelson became Boeing Australia’s president six months after departing the Memorial. 
Another member of the War Memorial council, Daniel Keighran, is also employed by Thales. “Across five annual disclosure forms, Mr Keighran does not once mention his role with Thales”, notes the ABC.
War Memorial council member Greg Melick defended taking the donations, saying that they came from “reputable weapons manufacturers”. But what makes a weapons manufacturer “reputable”? 
In the WW2 gallery, you can experience the “sights, sounds and sensations of a Bomber Command raid on Germany” in a replica sponsored by Boeing. Today, the Israeli Air Force flies Boeing F-15 Silent Eagles over Gaza and drops bombs guided by Boeing’s JDAM kits.
Perhaps Boeing is “reputable” because it sells its weaponry to the “right” war criminals. Peter Stanley, a former principal historian of the War Memorial, called the arms manufacturer funding “dirty money” and said that the Memorial “should not be accepting money from merchants of death”. 
Given the renewed militarisation worldwide, the creeping commercialisation of the Australian War Memorial should be of concern. Australia currently spends $56 billion on its military, approximately 2 percent of GDP. But that is set to increase. Defence Minister Richard Marles boasted on ABC radio that the government is delivering the biggest “peacetime increase in defence spending since the end of the Second World War”. 
The problems with the Australian War Memorial run deeper than the influence of dirty weapons funding, however. The Memorial glorifies Australia’s involvement in World War One. Immediately upon entering the gallery, you see printed on the wall: “Their spirit, our pride”. 
Further on is a statue of the Greek Goddess Nike called “Winged Victory”, erected in Sydney in 1919: “To the honour and glory of the men of Marrickville who gave their lives for God and the cause of humanity”. It is accompanied by a plaque quoting English poet John Oxenham: “All honour give to those who nobly striving, nobly fell, that we might live!” 
The implication is that Australia invaded Turkey and Palestine to defend Australia. But the First World War was not about “defence”. The war was a bloodbath of working-class soldiers who died so that empires could carve up the world. Some 62,000 Australians, primarily working-class men, were killed in the industrial-scale mass slaughter. 
Moreover, the War Memorial still houses the bravery medal of a war criminal. Ben Roberts-Smith’s Victoria Cross sits in a glass case in the Memorial’s Hall of Valor. In 2023, Federal Court Justice Besanko found there was “substantial truth” that Roberts-Smith murdered an unarmed Afghan man with a prosthetic leg. He later asked soldiers to drink from the prosthetic. The court found Roberts-Smith was involved in the unlawful killings of four unarmed Afghan civilians. 
It is a disgrace to all of the people who were sacrificed for the British Empire that their memory is commemorated in galleries funded by corporations that profit from war. On top of that, the Australian War Memorial should not keep relics of conquered peoples, house the medals of war criminals, or glorify the battles fought for imperial gain.

Nick Carlton

‘Disneyland of War’: Weapons companies fund Australian War Memorial redevelopment

On a drizzly Sunday morning in early March, around 200 people gathered in Yarraville Gardens to protest air pollution in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Kids held placards that read “Clean our air”, “Protect our health” and “Filter the stacks”. 
The protest was organised by the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG) to demand the state government and Transurban (the private company building the West Gate Tunnel) install proper filtration systems on the tunnel’s ventilation stacks. Without filtration, the ventilation stacks are nothing more than primitive chimneys releasing untreated exhaust fumes. MTAG has been organising protests like this for decades. Martin Wurt, rally chair and MTAG President, told the rally he could recall taking his now 30-year-old son to these rallies as a child.
As a transport, industry and logistics hub, Melbourne's inner west is subject to very high transport emissions, especially from trucks. The West Gate Tunnel will reroute trucks away from residential streets in the area. But the toxic diesel exhaust fumes of an expected 16,000 daily trucks will be released into Footscray, Seddon, South Kingsville, Altona North, Newport and Spotswood.
The technology and infrastructure to install filtration systems in the vent stacks already exist and could be used. But former planning minister Richard Wynne decided not to impose this costly burden on the two major construction companies building the tunnel, instead opting to gamble with residents’ health, vaguely committing to future filtration installation only “if needed”. 
Diesel fumes are a group one carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization, on par with cigarette smoke and asbestos. No exposure to diesel fumes is “safe”, and any dose causes damage. They contain a cocktail of at least 450 toxic chemicals, including arsenic, benzene dioxins, formaldehyde and the two most carcinogenic chemicals ever discovered, 3-nitrobenzanthrone and 1,8-dinitropyrene. They cause inflammation, oxidative stress, immunosuppression, and mutagenicity in cells. The ultrafine particulate matter is small enough to be absorbed through the lungs into the blood, which delivers it to our organs, including the brain.
The urgent necessity of measures that will improve air quality is evidenced by a shocking litany of health issues caused by air pollution impacting the inner west. According to Social Health Atlas data from 2019, the City of Maribyrnong has a 26 percent higher risk of premature mortality from respiratory diseases, a 41 percent higher risk of heart disease and a 40 percent higher risk of stroke compared to the national average. It has the highest rate of stroke of anywhere in Victoria, despite having a relatively young population and low smoking and obesity rates. 
Children are among the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution. A 2020 report by the state government revealed that childhood asthma rates are higher in Melbourne’s west than anywhere else in the state, and hospital admission rates for respiratory illness among children in Maribyrnong are 70 percent higher than the Victorian average. In May 2023, the Maribyrnong City Council voted unanimously to declare an official health emergency. 
Rally speakers highlighted the ongoing neglect of the western suburbs by state governments, which allow greedy capitalists to treat the area as a toxic dumping ground, leaving residents to deal with the consequences. The area sees frequent factory fires that blanket surrounding suburbs in toxic smoke, including the chemical factory fire in Derrimut last year which took four days to extinguish. Brooklyn, a suburb further west, is Melbourne’s most polluted.
The prioritisation of profit over people is doing immeasurable damage to human health. Residents of Melbourne’s west have been neglected for decades and deserve better. 
To show your support for this campaign, <a href="https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-west-gate-tunnel-vent-stacks-from-poisoning-us">sign the MTAG petition</a> to demand the installation of filtration systems on the West Gate Tunnel ventilation stacks.

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