The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally condemns the Australian government’s commitment of jet fighters and troops to combat operations in Iraq, and the unprecedented police raids and sweeping anti-democratic laws that have accompanied it. The claim by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, with bipartisan support from Labor, that the deployment is a “humanitarian mission” to protect the Iraqi people from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is an outright lie. The real goal of this latest US-led criminal war is regime-change in Syria and total US domination over the oil-rich Middle East. The entire political and media establishment is attempting to silence the widespread opposition in the working class by manufacturing hysteria about terrorism.
Behind the unending series of imperialist wars and political intrigues is the breakdown of the capitalist system. Governments around the world have responded to the most disastrous financial collapse since the 1930s by turning to militarism abroad and, at the same time, deepening their assault on the jobs, wages and social conditions of the working class, while establishing the conditions for police-state rule at home. The ruling elite is utilising completely unsubstantiated allegations about terrorist plots in Australia as the pretext for extending immense new powers to the intelligence agencies and stripping away fundamental civil liberties from the entire working class.
One hundred years after World War I, and 75 years since World War II, international tensions and rivalries once again threaten humanity with a global catastrophe. The Socialist Equality Party is holding meetings in cities around Australia to clarify the fundamental political issues facing the international working class in the fight against war and the capitalist profit system responsible for it.
Melbourne
Sunday, October 19, 2.30 p.m.
Arts House Meat Market
5 Blackwood Street North, Melbourne
Liverpool, Sydney
Sunday, October 19, 1 p.m.
Liverpool City Library
Orange Room
170 George Street, Liverpool
Auburn, Sydney
Sunday, October 19, 2.30 p.m.
Auburn Civic Precinct
Auburn Town Hall, Sommerville Room
1 Susan Street, Auburn
Dulwich Hill, Sydney
Sunday, October 19, 2.30 p.m.
Seaview Street Hall
6-14 Seaview Street, Dulwich Hill
Opposite Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design
Buses 418, 426 from Marrickville Road
Buses 428, 445 from New Canterbury Road
10 - minute walk from Dulwich Grove Light Rail
15- minute walk from Dulwich Hill station
Newcastle
Monday, October 20, 7 p.m.
Joy Cummins Centre
Corner of Scott and Pacific Streets, Newcastle