It is now generally accepted that Pine Gap, a military/intelligence facility just outside of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, has played a crucial role in the Palestinian genocide and other US-supported wars in west Asia. In response to the targeting of Iran’s nuclear facilities and defences against Houthi drones and missiles, more and more people are becoming aware of and questioning the facility’s operations.
Since it became operational in 1970, the stated purpose of Pine Gap has changed several times. Initially, the government said it was a space research facility. When its military use could no longer be hidden, the site was then said to be used for the verification of arms control treaties and to provide early warning of missiles launched from the Soviet Union and, subsequently, China. With every new revelation of the true nature of the facility, the Australian and US governments have changed their line as to precisely what Pine Gap’s purpose is. 
In 2013, CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden released a trove of classified documents covering covert US military activities. Some were directly related to Pine Gap; others were about broader programs that Pine Gap may be involved in. In a publicity campaign aimed at increasing transparency about Pine Gap, a former technician, David Rosenberg, wrote a book claiming to be an exposé. But the book, Pine Gap: The Inside Story of the NSA in Australia, was vetted and cleared by the US National Security Agency before it was released. As was the ABC mini-series Pine Gap.
So although we now know a fair bit about what Pine Gap does, we still do not know the whole truth. As more and more of the US military’s operations are conducted by remote control through communications satellites, Pine Gap’s importance is growing. This is reflected in the physical growth of the base itself. New radomes (the dome-shaped structures housing and protecting sensitive antennas and radars) have been built in the last few years, and more personnel have been based there. Much of this new information comes from the excellent work of <a href="https://declassifiedaus.org/author/peter">Declassified Australia’s Peter Cronau</a>.
What we do know is that Pine Gap is the most important US communications base outside of the continental US. This is primarily due to its location. The shooting down of a US U2 spy plane during a reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union in 1960, coupled with the launch of the first communications satellites in 1962, led to the development of a rudimentary satellite-based communications and spy system by the Ramo-Woolridge Corporation (which later merged with Thompson to become TRW, which has since been acquired by Northrop Grumman—the third largest aerospace and arms manufacturer in the world).
At least three ground stations were needed to control geosynchronous satellites around the globe at an altitude of about 35,000 kilometres. (They are called geosynchronous because their movement is synchronised with the Earth’s rotation and they are therefore fixed above the same geographic point.) The first was to be in the US, and the second in Western Europe. The third would be equidistant from those and preferably in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia was, therefore, the obvious choice. In addition, the base needed to be far from the coast to avoid ship-based spying and in a remote location to keep it as secret as possible from the civilian population. 
While Pine Gap is just one of the three geographical points needed, the US and Western European bases have nearby alternatives should they go offline for any reason. Pine Gap has the distinction of being the only facility of its kind in the region: it is irreplaceable and therefore one of the most important pieces of real estate to US military interests, in Australia or anywhere. Without Pine Gap, the US cannot control the satellite operations that are now essential to the execution of war.
To our knowledge, these operations include things like the early warning systems of the US Defense Support Program (which detects missile launches), a task previously performed by the Nurrungar base near Woomera, South Australia, until taken over by Pine Gap in 1999. This forms a part of the US missile defence shield and that of US allies such as Japan and Israel. Satellites tracking heat signatures would have formed a part of the defences against Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. 
Pine Gap’s 45 satellite dishes control at least four geosynchronous satellites positioned above the Indian Ocean that monitor a vast range from the Pacific to Africa, their central focus being the area from China to West Asia. These satellites are the backbone of US signals intelligence (SIGINT) in the region. They intercept and download electronic signals across all bands, from radio to mobile phone and internet communications, which are then analysed at Pine Gap. They also control military communications between the US and its military in the dozens of bases and fleet deployments from Guam to Egypt.
Modern communications satellites are not geosynchronous and constantly travel around the globe at a much closer altitude of about 400 kilometres. These are the ones we can often see in the sky and are generally used for commercial communications. So while most of the satellite dishes at Pine Gap communicate with geosynchronous satellites, in the last decade or so, a new type of satellite dish has appeared: torus dishes. These are designed to intercept and download communications from low-orbit satellites as they pass through the region, sucking up every bit of data for analysis by the US National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
In short, Pine Gap has the capacity to control US military satellites, track missile launches, control military communications—including those to and from autonomous drones—provide all battlefield communications and intercept all satellite communications in the region. In about one-fifth of a second, information gathered from the ground in West Asia can be transmitted up to a satellite and back down to Pine Gap, where all these communications can be analysed. US military and intelligence agencies can then use the information to obtain targets, among other things.
Which brings us to Palestine.
Palestine is not Pine Gap’s primary focus, which has always been about gathering intelligence to help the US maintain global supremacy. Nonetheless, the US is providing support to Israel, including providing signals intelligence. This is not a new development. For example, we know that signals intelligence gathered and analysed at Pine Gap was passed on to the Israeli military during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In 2013, NSA contractor Edward Snowden released classified documents showing that the agency has an agreement with the Israeli military’s signals intelligence, the notorious Unit 8200, to pass on all raw intelligence data collected, including data collected in third-party countries—like Australia. The agreement began in 1999, but earlier information-sharing arrangements have existed since 1968. A top-secret memorandum advised that the intelligence sharing had been broadened from Unit 8200 and the NSA to include the Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad. It is noteworthy that this specifically includes information gathered on Australians and citizens from other Five Eyes intelligence alliance countries: Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The Israeli military obviously does not rely entirely on the US for electronic communications surveillance; it has its own satellite and surveillance capabilities. It is therefore impossible to judge where and how any particular piece of targeting information was sourced. But it would be naive to believe that, over the last two years of relentless attacks, no information from the Australian facility was used.
Pine Gap is classified as a Joint Defence Facility, but the US military, through the National Reconnaissance Office, fully funds and controls it. The Australian government’s policy is that Pine Gap operates with its “full knowledge and concurrence”, though there is no official definition of those terms. 
Along with Australia’s weapons sales, both directly and hidden as “transfers” through the US, the use of intelligence gathered by Pine Gap makes Australia complicit in Israel’s crimes in Gaza. 
Jacob Grech is a member of Renegade Activists.

Jacob Grech

What you need to know about Pine Gap

“Can I see with a show of hands—who here has walked out from work today?” A cheer ripples across the growing crowd outside the State Library of Victoria on 10 September as dozens of people, maybe a hundred, put up their hands. Somewhere around ten times that number have skipped work, used a day off, extended a lunch break or otherwise made time in our day to stand with these striking workers. 
Some strikers hold giant letters, spelling it out in red, green and black: ON STRIKE FOR GAZA. For the second time since Israel’s latest genocidal onslaught started on Gaza, community sector workers in Melbourne workplaces have done something that the whole union movement should be doing—used workers’ industrial muscle to disrupt business as usual, by going on strike and rallying in the streets. 
As one of the strike organisers, Louisa Bassini, told Red Flag: “We know we have the power as workers to do more to stop the genocide. This action has helped prove that we can use that power, and will hopefully encourage others do the same in other industries”.
The rally is a sight for sore eyes. 
Tasnim Sammak, a member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), addresses the crowd on behalf of the Free Palestine Coalition: “We can’t look at the images of the rubble and destruction and think it’s over. No. What we should think is: we need to act now, with urgency. And urgency needs to fuel us”.
A series of striking workers take the microphone. A striking worker from Inner Melbourne Community Legal points out the hypocrisy of community sector employers and peak bodies:
“Despite standing for so called justice and human rights, our peak bodies have refused to speak out—and have said ‘it’s not our core business’. Shame! That’s why we’re here today. It’s time to do the most powerful thing we can do as workers, and that’s to withdraw our labour.” 
“We’re a union shop—we’re all here!”, announces a speaker from Flat Out, an advocacy organisation for women in prison: “What’s the point of having civil society, a community sector, if it won’t stand up to the government. I know the government funds us, but at some point you’ve just got to say: stop the genocide, free Palestine!”
“We’re sick of seeing parents holding dead children in their arms”, says another striker. “We’re sick of seeing plastic bags full of body parts. And we’re also sick of seeing children playing funerals because they see people on stretchers all the time. Israel bombs Qatar and our government and media are silent, because they’re part of a genocidal machine which is hungry for profit. But we’re not silent. We’re on strike today. We’re using our power as workers to shut things down, saying we’re not going to work as usual during a genocide, and calling on other workers to strike too.”
Another striking worker puts it in the most straightforward way: “We have to strike because nothing else is working”. 
The rally features banners and flags from the NTEU, and from the Australian Services Union which covers most of the striking workers. Some at the rally are members of the Australian Education Union, others the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Many have been active in the various Unionists for Palestine groups over the past two years.
 It is living proof that despite the crushing consensus among politicians and media commentators, large numbers of workers recognise and oppose a genocide when they see one. One attendee, social worker Louie, tells Red Flag: “Today is a real demonstration of the fact that workers support Palestine and oppose genocide and they want to build forces so that their voices are heard”. Another social worker, Rachel, explains: “I’m here because I’m sick of seeing children starving, and seeing people blown up”. 
“I want to put pressure on the government to put sanctions on Israel”, says another. 
Easily the largest and most visible political group on the day is Victorian Socialists, which includes several strike leaders and rally organisers among its members. Veteran journalist Marty Hirst gives an impassioned speech about the importance of fighting for free speech on Palestine, announcing the launch of a <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/media-workers-to-launch-free-speech-campaign-for-palestine">major campaign</a> on the issue on 20 September. There are references to the current important fight to stop the Fair Work Commission from imposing massive pay cuts on community sector workers.
Some recall the proud history of workers in this country acting in solidarity with workers worldwide, connecting that to an argument that <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/why-palestine-union-business">Palestine is union business</a>. There are cheers for the dock workers of Genoa, Italy, who have <a href="https://x.com/usbsindacato/status/1962085329575313604">pledged</a> to blockade the port—and to call out other ports in solidarity—if Israel intercepts the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is currently sailing to Gaza. A pledge to rally (and if possible, strike) in support of the Genoa dock workers if and when they take action in defence of the solidarity flotilla is greeted by loud applause. 
But it’s rally co-chair Monica Campo who really brings the house down by talking about the importance of fighting for the right to strike—by striking. 
“The Fair Work Act deliberately limits our ability to organise, and to use the power that we have as workers, as a class”, Campo explains. “It limits our ability to continue that long tradition of standing in solidarity with international struggles. We should and must continue to fight these limitations in the Fair Work Act, and we’re pleased to hear that the ASU has committed to keep challenging these limitations on our right to strike. But one way to challenge the law is to break it!” The applause building through the crowd erupts into cheers. 
This is more than a propaganda point—it should be a call to action. 
Though it is right to emphasise the repressive and anti-democratic nature of Labor’s Fair Work Act, it is also the case that the sort of “demonstration strikes” that community sector workers have now taken twice against the genocide have rarely, if ever, resulted in sackings or even serious disciplinary action. Of course, the level of support in individual workplaces and within union structures, and a concrete assessment of how management are likely to respond are all important factors. But this form of industrial action can and should be much more widespread. 
Every unionist in the country owes a debt to the community sector Palestine strikers. They are showing us that we don’t have to resign ourselves to the unspeakable horror unfolding in Gaza today. And the strikers are continuing a living, breathing, organising, fighting current of solidarity—one that has played a crucial role in the history of the working-class movement. 
The official, Labor-aligned leadership of our movement have spent decades smothering the political radicalism and industrial militancy that kept this tradition of struggle and solidarity alive. But the strikers are reminding everyone of the obvious truths: that workers still have the power, that more of us need to use it, and that we still have a world to win.

Jerome Small

‘One way to challenge the law is to break it!’: Community sector workers strike for Palestine again

The decision by Australian Services Union (ASU) members in the community sector to walk off the job for the second time in support of Palestine is an important moment in Australian labour history. In a country where industrial action is tightly policed and the right to protest under threat, taking strike action against genocide is an act of courage and principle. 
The workers’ defiance stands in stark contrast to the complicity of political leaders. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s appointment of Jillian Segal as “antisemitism envoy” is a smokescreen—her role is to suppress Palestine solidarity. Albanese also refuses to impose sanctions on Israel. NSW Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly tried to ban pro-Palestine marches in Sydney. These are not security measures—they are political censorship.
In February 2025, the NSW parliament passed the Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Bill, criminalising protests near places of worship with penalties of up to $22,000 or two years’ imprisonment. The law expands police powers and exempts protests only if approved by police or part of industrial action—ironically, the very loophole ASU workers are now using to strike for Palestine. Across Australia, 49 anti-protest laws have been introduced in the past two decades, disproportionately targeting environmental and human rights activists.
Repression is happening everywhere. In the UK, protesters have been arrested for holding signs supporting the activist group Palestine Action. US students have been expelled for standing in solidarity with Palestine. Journalists have been sacked and, like Mary Kostakidis here in Australia, dragged through the courts for the crime of criticising Israel. Google and Microsoft workers have been fired for protesting against the companies’ military contracts with Israel. 
But defiance matters. The case of Antoinette Lattouf, sacked by the ABC for reposting a Human Rights Watch statement, was a small but vital win. Her legal fight exposed institutional cowardice. More powerful still was the sight of tens of thousands of Australians taking to the streets in support of Palestine, despite official efforts to stop them.
Free speech is a lofty notion, but the reality is that some voices are much louder than others. The rich speak through their control of media empires and lobbyists. The poor and the oppressed can only make themselves heard through protest, disruption, and refusal—actions they are all too often punished for. Defending free speech means defending the right to resist, to strike, and to organise. The ASU workers have shown us what that looks like.
Our side needs to be organised to defend freedom to speak out about genocide and the apartheid state of Israel. This is why Victorian Socialists members in the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance have initiated a coalition to defend freedom of speech on Palestine.
The first meeting of the coalition is on Saturday 20 September, 2pm at Brunswick Town Hall. Speakers include journalists Amy Remeikis, Antoun Issa, and Mary Kostakidis. <a href="https://victoriansocialists.org.au/civicrm-event/1652">Tickets are $10 and available here</a>.

Marty Hirst

Media workers to launch free speech campaign for Palestine

On 10 September, workers from the social and community services sector will walk off the job to demand action on the genocide in Gaza. 
The action is being led by unionised workers in the Australian Services Union across several community legal services. The key demand is for the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Victorian Council of Social Services—the industry peak bodies—to use their profiles to put pressure on the Australian government to sanction and cut ties with Israel. 
Many of the workers will be taking unprotected strike action, while others will find other ways to take time off in solidarity. At a union meeting at my workplace, which is part of the social and community sector, a motion was passed in support of the strike, and many of us will be taking leave to join the rally. This action is an example of the kind of action that can be taken by rank-and-file workers to increase the pressure on the government to go beyond gestures and end its material support for Israel. 
Almost two years into the genocide, with horrific images of starving Palestinians filling our newsfeeds and Israel openly planning the final stage of its ethnic cleansing, increasing numbers are finding it unbearable to go on with “business as usual” as if nothing is happening. This is particularly the case for those of us in the social and community services sector, whose work in these “values-based” organisations is purportedly about pursuing social justice and upholding human rights. There is increasingly a dissonance between what our CEOs and organisations proclaim about their values and their silence on a horrific genocide that the Australian government is providing ideological and material support for and that many in the communities we serve are affected by. 
As Louisa Bassini, a community lawyer and organiser of the walk-out, put it, “It’s absurd that we’re meant to dutifully work through a genocide when, as a class, we have the collective power to stop it. The strike reflects what so many of us want to do—get up, walk away from our desks and workplaces and disrupt everyday life—to stand against the horrors being committed by Israel. More than that, it shows that, with determination and organisation, it can be done”. 
This didn’t come out of nowhere—in fact it is the second unprotected strike organised in this sector in solidarity with Palestine. Workers in the community legal centres were well placed to take this action, having previously organised to fight for better pay and conditions in their enterprise agreement in 2022 and 2023. When Israel’s offensive in Gaza started, activists and unionists were already in touch and better placed to organise to do something about it. 
These strikes, as well as the growth of rank-and-file union groupings such as ASU for Palestine, have shown that there are substantial numbers of workers in a range of sectors who want to put up a fight around this issue. And when given a lead, they are prepared to act. 
Michal Kedem, an ASU delegate and strike organiser, reflected on how the strike “got people talking about historical political strikes like the Dalfram dispute [when, in 1938, unionised wharfies refused to load pig-iron headed for Japan, which had invaded China]”, adding that “rank-and-file workers across workplaces and unions are giving everything they can to organise for Palestine”.
In a positive development, the head office of the ASU has given its endorsement to the protest section of the walk-off. It needs to back these workers all the way. Social and community sector workers are showing what can and should be done in the union movement today.
For those in Melbourne—join workers on 10 September at 1pm at the State Library. For more information follow <a href="https://www.instagram.com/clcworkersunited/">clcworkersunited</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/asu4palestine_vic/">asu4palestine_vic </a>on Instagram.

ASU member

Community sector workers to walk out for Palestine again

In the last two weeks of August, thousands of students across the country came together to condemn the Australian government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to call on universities to end their ties with Israel. 
At mass meetings on nineteen campuses, nearly 5,000 students (more, if those who participated online are included) voted in the national student referendum on Palestine, organised by Students for Palestine and the National Union of Students. The motions—to censure the government and to cut university ties with Israel—both passed with the support of more than 97 percent of voters. The University of Queensland will vote on 3 September. 
The meetings were the biggest ever Palestine solidarity events on many campuses. And they were an indication that the tide of public opinion, particularly among young people, has well and truly turned against Israel’s crimes and our own government’s continued support for them. 
At Macquarie University, where more than 200 students packed a lecture theatre, one speaker related that her grandparents had been displaced in the 1948 Nakba—the campaign of massacres and violent evictions of Palestinians leading to the establishment of Israel. She was moved, she said, because she had never expected to see such numbers out to support Palestine at her own university. This growth in the Palestine solidarity movement is a trend visible nationwide. Students for Palestine clubs are now springing up even on small campuses in regional towns.
The votes were even more substantial on larger campuses with a history of Palestine solidarity activism. At the University of Melbourne, 640 students voted unanimously to condemn the Israeli government’s actions. Similarly, more than 600 attended at RMIT, and more than 500 at the University of Sydney. Hundreds of thousands across the world have now viewed footage of these referendums, some of which were broadcast from Sydney <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVUYyNoiw3A">on Al Jazeera</a>. 
In some places, handfuls of Zionist students and Liberal Party members attended meetings and spoke to justify Israel’s war on Gaza. Their arguments rested largely on the idea that pro-Palestine sentiment is making Jewish students on campus unsafe. Everywhere they spoke, they were confidently countered by students who are part of a genuinely anti-racist movement, which places the blame on Zionism and the Israeli state rather than Judaism, and which counts amongst its ranks increasing numbers of pro-Palestine Jewish students. Other speakers against the motions made the case for weapons companies, without which universities would lose funding. 
Most students, however, think their universities should conduct research to further humanity’s interests rather than to boost profit margins. For these students, the moral imperative to stand for justice far outweighs any concern about universities’ financial situations.
The national referendum initiative is part of a growing movement that aims to hold the Australian government and institutions accountable. The ever increasing horrors in Gaza have pushed larger numbers of students to get involved in activism, but students have also taken inspiration from the broader pro-Palestine movement. The 300,000-strong march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the historic national day of protests that followed, have mobilised and galvanised our side. 
While the protests have clearly put pressure on the government, nothing has been done to end Australia’s weapons trade with Israel or apply sanctions on the Israeli government. In fact, as students pointed out, Defence Minister Richard Marles has proudly declared that Australia is an “F-35 country”—part of the supply chain for the fighter jets Israel is using to obliterate Gaza. Universities have similarly refused to sever their ties to genocide. 
Our institutions say that they are committed to free thought and critical inquiry. But when it comes to criticisms of their affiliations with entities that contribute to the perpetuation of violence and occupation in Palestine, their real commitments become clear. Whether through research funding, partnerships with Israeli institutions or other forms of indirect support, universities across the country are complicit. 
Students who have spoken out over the past two years have been suspended, Palestine solidarity events have been banned, and, on many campuses, university security is more repressive than the police. Events like the referendum are helping to create more space to speak out about the genocide.
The referendum is not just about registering votes, but building momentum for sustained action on campuses and beyond. The votes in favour of the motions are an indication that, as in so many past movements against capitalism’s crimes, young people are on the right side of history. They demonstrate that we are not satisfied with promises about future Palestinian statehood while starvation ravages Gaza and the bombs continue to fall. They are a mandate for continued activism.

Yasmine Johnson

Thousands of students vote for Palestine

Today was a brilliant day of protests against Israeli atrocities in Palestine and our government’s complicity in them. 
I’ve been asked how it compares to the national rallies on the weekend of 14-16 February 2003, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets around the country in opposition to the US government’s imminent invasion of Iraq. 
Today was similar in that it was a series of nationwide protests from the biggest cities to the smallest towns (600 in Tathra!), all coming out against the government of the day. The energy was the same—the experience of turning what would otherwise have been a sleepy Sunday into mass political action that has become the key political issue around the country.
But the differences are equally striking. Today was angrier, more hostile to the government, more oppositional.
Consider the two situations. A whole section of international ruling class opinion was opposed to the US invasion of Iraq. The German and French governments came out against it. The ALP was against it because the UN did not sanction it. In 2003, Labor opposition leader Simon Crean spoke at the Brisbane rally, and the Labor lord mayor also spoke at rallies. The Age
newspaper in Melbourne editorialised against the war. 
To be against the Iraq War didn’t require people to stand on principle against Western imperialism. The stance was in tune with widespread liberal opinion. To my knowledge, no-one lost their job for speaking out against it, no-one was suspended or expelled from university for doing so, and no-one was condemned as a racist for opposing war. The only accusation the right could dredge up—that you were an apologist for Saddam Hussein or for radical Islam—was regarded as laughable. 
The very premise of the war—Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction—was thoroughly debunked even before it started. Things had well and truly moved on from the US’s 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, when standing against war put you in a small minority.
Today, we’ve got no friends in any lodge, chancellery, palace or ministry. Every Western government backs Israel. Government rhetoric in much of the West may have shifted a bit in the last couple of months, but this doesn’t disguise the fact that Israel can massacre the Palestinians without a single government doing anything to stop it. This is true of social democratic governments as much as conservative ones. 
It's not just that they’re not standing up to Israel. They are attacking opponents of the genocide. Standing up to Israel’s war takes guts. It requires a much stronger sense of purpose, because opposing Israel means opposing the entire establishment—the politicians, newspaper editors, managers and university vice chancellors who have disgracefully used the antisemitism slur to destroy careers, sack workers, withdraw funding and expel students. 
Our rulers have subjected opponents of the war to public ridicule and hatred. The “antisemitism” slur has been much more chilling than the ridiculous slurs of being a “Saddam stooge” in 2003. The Israeli genocide, by highlighting the lines of division in our society, therefore exposes the workings of our system much more clearly than the Iraq war did.
With the Iraq war, we knew what horrors it might (and did) unleash, but everyone attending rallies today has seen the barbarism that has been meted out to the civilians of Gaza, the emaciated bodies wracked by starvation, the bags of body parts being collected by grieving parents or children, the sheer horror of Israel bombing people queuing for food. The morning news bulletins tell us how many dozen civilians have been blown to pieces while we slept. 
This experience has burned itself into the minds of everyone who marched today. At least in the early stages of the Iraq war, the US was fighting a conventional army. Who is Israel fighting? It’s just massacring unarmed people. 
The Iraq war demonstrations were unprecedented in that hundreds of thousands came out before a shot was fired (although US sanctions had killed hundreds of thousands in the years preceding). That was incredible, and we hoped the antiwar movement would build as the war dragged on. But they were a rocket that lit up the night sky only to quickly fall to the earth. The US smashed Hussein’s army and quickly established control. The protests of hundreds of thousands quickly subsided. 
Today, we have been marching on the streets virtually every week for two years. And yet today was the biggest day of action yet. We’ve learned some lessons over these two years. None of us marching today has any illusions that any government will help us. All of us despise the complicity of our governments in this genocide. At the Brisbane rally against the Iraq war, a minority of us booed Simon Crean, but most gave him the benefit of the doubt. Today, we all despise the Labor politicians. Their hypocrisy, their token measures that do nothing to stop the killing are worse than Australian PM John Howard’s fawning over US President George Bush. 
And it’s been more than two decades since 2003. Australia has escaped some of the worst economic crises since that time and our political system is still less polarised than elsewhere in the world. But our government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide is another reminder that we are part of a world system of barbarism—a world in which the far right is growing, the climate crisis is getting worse, social welfare is being further gutted and inequality is becoming more extreme. 
As well, the threat of a major war in our region looms as governments throw hundreds of billions of dollars at new weapons systems. Israel’s genocide is of a piece with this: a world in which the powerful can simply destroy the common people with impunity.
The comparison between 2003 and 2025 reinforces in my mind the need for a socialist alternative to this rotten system. George Bush went. John Howard went. But things have gotten worse. They’re not going to get better. 
Today was a beautiful demonstration of the power of ordinary people when they decide “enough is enough”. We need many more of them. 
But we also need a clear vision of what we’re fighting against and what we’re fighting for. I think the movement today is angrier than in 2003, more determined, in it for the long haul. But that doesn’t mean it’s particularly politically sophisticated. Debates over how to defeat Israel are virtually non-existent; people in their desperation tend to grasp at straws.
The Israeli genocide is like a distillation of the evils of capitalism. The Israeli government has been planning this offensive for years. Its backers in the West support it. Our side, that of the working class, needs to be conscious of our tasks if we are to defeat them. That’s why, 22 years on from Iraq, and 40 plus years since I first got involved, I’m still as dedicated as ever to building a socialist alternative to this rotten system.

Tom Bramble

Fighting imperialism then and now

Sunday was the biggest nationally coordinated demonstration for Palestine in Australian history. From the centres of the major cities to the smallest of country towns, more than 300,000 people took to the streets to demand an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza—and to denounce the Australian government’s complicity.
In Sydney and Melbourne, crowds nearly 100,000 strong surged through the streets in what can only be described as a national howl of opposition to Israel’s brutality. In Brisbane, 50,000 rallied. In Perth, 20,000. Adelaide, 15,000. A remarkable 4,000 marched in Hobart—one of the largest protests in the city in years.
But just as striking was the response in regional Australia: 3,000 in Newcastle; 1,200 in Coffs Harbour; 600 in Tathra and Katoomba; 450 on the Central Coast; hundreds in Denmark, Devonport, Margaret River, Albany, Mackay, Geraldton and other towns across Western Australia. Even in Broome, Bridgetown, Mount Gambier and Karratha—dozens gathered to say: not in our name.
In Devonport, Tasmania, the organisers—Patrick, Sally, Bill and Jennie—were thrilled by the turnout of more than 300 people. The event began with a “Honk for Palestine”, followed by speeches and a haunting lament on the Great Highland pipes, played by Dave.
In Broome, organisers described a gathering led by both First Nations and non-Indigenous organisers as “the biggest Broome gathering in solidarity with Palestine” since November 2023. “Elders attended alongside newborn babies and families, with people from all faiths, including Muslim and Jewish, in attendance”.
More than 300,000 people demonstrated nationwide—a defiant mobilisation by a movement that refuses to be silenced.
And it could not come at a more critical time.
Just this week, the United Nations confirmed that famine is now a reality in parts of Gaza. The Israeli government is starving children to death. Meanwhile, the military has commenced its military assault on Gaza City—again. This, after nine months of relentless bombing, blockade, displacement and massacres.
The Australian government’s response? Lip service. Weak statements. Continued arms exports. Continued security cooperation. Continued diplomatic cover. Amal Nasser, a leading Palestinian organiser in Sydney, spoke about this in a news interview in the lead-up to the national day of action:
“Declarations by the Australian government for Palestinian recognition have achieved nothing. The week after the government said they would recognise Palestine, the Netanyahu government announced it would invade Gaza City.”
People across the country have had enough.
While people are gunned down at “aid” distribution sites, Labor refuses to impose sanctions, refuses to end the two-way arms trade and refuses to expel the Israeli ambassador. 
The Albanese government has been utterly hostile to the Palestinian struggle and the solidarity movement; it has worked with state Labor governments to repress the movement. We’ve had to weather attempts to criminalise us, to smear us as antisemites, to paint our grief and rage as a threat.
But the movement will not go quietly. Voices of resistance, clarity and defiance came from today’s rallies. As veteran Aboriginal activist Gary Foley told the Melbourne crowd: “They may kill the resistance fighters, but they will never kill the resistance”.
Palestinian organisers in Perth wept as they saw thousands pour into the streets. One said they felt like “the tide was turning”. 
Omar Hassan, chairing the Melbourne rally, captured the mood:
“They have never seen a movement as persistent and sustained and determined as this one in Australia … When you read the news of the starving children, when you see the press conferences of the chattering classes that do nothing … you will know that you stand on the right side of history.”
In towns and suburbs across the country, people organised demonstrations for the very first time. They printed flyers, booked halls, made placards, called friends. German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg once said you don’t notice your chains if you don’t move. Today, in many places, there was movement for the first time. And with it, the possibility of real, collective strength.
Importantly, this was the first time that trade unions across Australia coordinated national support for Palestine on this scale. Motions were passed, email blasts were sent to members, social media tiles were shared—sometimes for the first time. But there needs to be more. The muscle of the labour movement must be flexed. It is one of the most serious ways governments can be held accountable. A movement that can stop arms shipments, freeze exports and put political pressure on the streets and in the workplaces is the kind of movement we urgently need.
Members of Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Party played an important role in these protests across the country, continuing a long tradition of involvement in the Palestinian solidarity movement well before 2023. Our contribution remains rooted in the belief that building working-class resistance here is essential to confronting imperialism abroad.
This movement is a light in the darkness. Ordinary people—many of them young, migrant, Muslim, and working class—are standing against the genocidal project of one of the most heavily armed regimes on earth, and against the cowardly governments that enable it.
Today was not the end. It was a turning point. A national cry, from the streets of Melbourne to the sands of Broome: End the genocide. Free Palestine.

Vashti Fox

Australia rises for Palestine

“When bombs fall on Gaza it’s not just Netanyahu who is responsible. It’s also the companies who make the drones, the governments who fund them and the universities that silence dissent”: this was how Palestinian activist and La Trobe alumni Hajar Riad opened a pro-Palestine meeting on 20 August at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. 
The event was organised as a counter-panel to the Bendigo Writers Festival, which was supposed to take place the previous week at La Trobe’s Bendigo campus but which was effectively cancelled after more than 30 speakers pulled out citing concern over a code of conduct that prohibited discussion of the genocide in Gaza. 
The Bendigo Writers Festival was promoted as an event that “brings together diverse voices … sparking ideas, conversation and inspiration”. Instead, it’s highlighted the draconian attack on free speech by universities looking to stifle activism against and opposition to the genocide in Gaza.
Two days before the festival, writers and presenters in the “La Trobe Presents” sessions were sent a code of conduct that required them to “avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory, divisive, or disrespectful”. They were also told they had to abide by La Trobe University’s “Anti-Racism Action Plan”, which defines criticism of Israel as antisemitism.
The plan was implemented in May 2025 as a response to the 2024 Gaza solidarity encampment and the mass Student General Meeting for Palestine, where more than 250 students voted for La Trobe to cut ties with companies involved with the genocide. The purpose of the plan is to make it harder for students and staff to criticise Israel’s genocide, and the university’s complicity in it. 
Randa Abdel-Fattah, a Palestinian author and academic, wrote in her withdrawal letter: “At a time when journalists are being permanently silenced by Israel’s genocidal forces, it is incomprehensible that a writers’ festival should seek to silence Palestinian voices”. More than 240 journalists have been killed by Israeli military forces since October 2023. This makes Israel’s war the deadliest for journalists in modern history. While those seeking to get the truth out about what’s happening in Palestine are being killed, those trying to talk about it in the West are being silenced, by institutions that supposedly stand for “free thought” no less. 
The counter-panel was a demonstration of opposition to university management and a show of solidarity with those standing up against oppression and injustice. It attracted more than 30 students and staff and involved discussions about how best to oppose genocide and censorship in our work and studies.
La Trobe Student Union Education Officer Maeve Russack was the final speaker on the panel. She argued, “I think that there’s a key lesson to be learnt from the Bendigo Writers Festival and it’s that the university and their policy book are not an omnipotent being, but are something that can be resisted and something our side must continue to resist”.

Alicia Griffiths

La Trobe staff and students speak out against university censorship

A rank-and-file meeting of freelance journalists, perhaps the largest ever in the history of the Media Entertainment &amp; Arts Alliance, has voted overwhelmingly (without dissent) to stand up for Palestine.
MEAA members from the Victorian Socialists drafted a series of motions to support journalists being slandered by Israel’s supporters in Australia and to honour more than 270 news workers killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. The meeting, held on Wednesday, also endorsed the nationwide March for Palestine on Sunday, 24 August.
The meeting had been called to discuss an important MEAA campaign to raise freelancer rates and job conditions. Some good work has been done here. The union is trying to get individual employers to agree to a <a href="https://freelancers.org.au/charter/">Freelance Charter of Rights</a> with minimum pay rates for writers and photographers and clauses about intellectual copyright. A couple of media companies have signed on, but many more, including so-called progressive outlets, have not.
It was an important step in the MEAA campaign to have a members’ meeting endorse the freelance campaign. However, the meeting was notable for two other reasons.
First, its size. More than 300 people RSVP’d (the most ever for a freelancers’ meeting), and at least 162 people participated. Second, the timing of the meeting coincided with the historic collapse in Israel’s legitimacy in the eyes of millions of people and as public opinion has shifted firmly in favour of the Palestinians, as illustrated by the history-making March for Humanity on 3 August.
Wednesday’s meeting was an opportunity too good to miss. But it wasn’t easy. There was a significant conservative “do nothing” pushback from the freelancers’ de facto delegate committee. Despite every member of the committee saying that they supported the Palestinians and were regular attendees of Palestine solidarity rallies, they argued that union members weren’t ready to take action, that the union’s “official channels” were working on their own campaign plan and that putting up motions for Palestine would be divisive.
On the day of the meeting, I argued with the committee all day in our WhatsApp chat group. They didn’t like it. But we were confident that MEAA members were ready to take action. We were right.
The MEAA leadership has already taken a public position on Gaza. Federal officials endorsed the March for Humanity on 3 August and the 24 August nationwide March for Palestine. And they had already <a href="https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/stop-killing-journalists-australian-media-figures-take-a-stand-as-death-toll-continues-to-rise/">issued a media release condemning the murder of journalists by Israel</a> and calling on the killing to stop. That should have given committee members the confidence to support us, but it wasn’t enough.
I argued to the committee that if they supported some formal motions—in line with their private opinions—the meeting could be handled simply with a couple of speakers for and against and then a vote. This is exactly what happened in the end. There was no fuss, no drama, no blowup. It was just a simple exercise in union democracy and letting the membership voice an opinion.
We had three motions prepared for the meeting.
First, we made a public statement that freelance members of the MEAA support our colleague Mary Kostakidis, who is fighting the Zionist Federation of Australia in the federal court after the pro-Israel group accused her of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act. The federation’s attack on Mary was made at a time when Israel’s supporters felt emboldened and were attacking journalists, artists and academics daily with false accusations of antisemitism.
The MEAA head office has been sitting on Mary’s case and has refused to make any public statements for months. Mary told after the meeting that union officials were basically trawling through her social media feed to make their own determination about antisemitism. This is an appalling and stupid thing for MEAA officials to be doing. Now the union and the public know that Mary has the overwhelming support of her freelance colleagues.
Second, we added our voices to the union’s public position of opposing the genocide and the murder of news workers in Gaza. By doing so, we want to signal that there is a ground swell of pro-Palestinian sentiment inside the union.
Third, we endorsed the 24 August national Palestine solidarity demonstrations. By doing so, we’ve signalled that we don’t want to only talk about Palestine, but act.
This was a great outcome. And, like everything related to Palestine solidarity, it required a fight to get the right result.

Freelance journalists in Australia vote for Palestine solidarity

Countless mass demonstrations in cities around the world over the last two years have shown the residents of Gaza that, while governments everywhere have abandoned them, “the people” on every continent nevertheless are with them in spirit. Reports from on the ground in Palestine have confirmed that this has been important for morale, if nothing else. 
The several hundred thousand people who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge this month changed the political narrative in Australia, opening the space for more activism and less state repression and dealing a political blow to both the state government and the police. It showed that mass mobilisation is more powerful than the most radical-sounding phrases shouted by only a few people. 
Ultimately, however, nothing we have done thus far has challenged Israel’s resolve. This is not a denigration of the effort but an acknowledgement of reality: the opposition is simply not powerful enough. 
The previously widely touted Axis of Resistance—Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran—when they even bothered with a show of military force in support of the Palestinians, have proven to be, at best, minor irritants to Israel. Activists in the West still placing their hopes in these groups are deluded. 
If Israel were simply an outlier state—some middling, independent settler colonial project—stopping its grotesque violence might be easier. But Israel is not that. It is an integral part of the US-led global imperialist order. Membership in that order defines its character more than anything else and is the basis of its power and impunity. 
The global imperialist order has long since ceased to be defined by race or colonialism. It includes not only “white” Western states but also a range of regional powers and previously colonised nations. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt all play key roles in the Middle East as part of the US-led order (just as Japan, the Philippines and Thailand do in Asia). 
The ruling classes of various countries—those who control the states and most economic resources—have shared interests in being integrated into the US-led nexus of power. Some states might appear dependent or servile. But the global capitalist order is more akin to a series of exclusive golf clubs. Ruling classes sign up for the prestige, privileges, networks and deal making opportunities membership offers. In return, they agree to all the “gentlemanly” dress and decorum codes—and not to rock the boat of existing relationships. 
It doesn’t matter whether the rulers are Arab, Asian, African or Latino—what matters is that they run a capitalist state in the interests of one of the competing imperialist blocs. Indeed, the United States ruling elite for decades has been a practitioner of “affirmative action”, with a keen sense that its informal empire needs to be as multiracial as possible if it is to have any popular legitimacy in a postcolonial imperial order in which white people make up maybe 15 percent of the globe’s population. 
States like Israel and Australia need to be viewed in this light: components of the larger capitalist whole. Their governments cannot easily be disentangled from empire, which means that to defeat them, the entire edifice of global ruling class alliances must also be challenged. 
There is either victory for all the oppressed and exploited worldwide, or any victory will be short-lived as the ruling classes coordinate to nullify the gains of any one group of people. And genocide, mass slaughter, oppression and exploitation will continue, just as they did throughout the twentieth century. 
Because the abolition of capitalist imperialism is essential for securing fundamental and lasting social change, Marxists try to build revolutionary political organisations in every country. We need to build a counter-power to the elite imperialist clubs of the ruling classes—a global anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist network of revolutionary parties.
The last 150 years of left-wing political activism have shown that anything else either fails on its own terms, exhausts itself or is undermined, incorporated or smashed by the capitalist ruling classes. 
It’s true that building a revolutionary party today, as Socialist Alternative is attempting, has not stopped the carnage in Palestine (or anywhere else for that matter). But once the scale of the task is recognised, it becomes clear that simply taking a stand or bearing moral witness, though an important step in the right direction, will never be enough to defeat imperialism. 
Without the smashing of the global capitalist order, history will repeat itself again and again. If there were an easier or more realistic path, we’d take it. Unfortunately, there isn’t. We have to rebuild an international socialist movement—a network of mass revolutionary parties in opposition to the ruling classes in every country. 
We have no other choice. Join us—we have a world to win.

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