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SEP & IYSSE public meetings:

Oppose the US-Australian war drive against China!

The Socialist Equality Party will hold public meetings in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney to oppose the reckless preparations by the Obama administration and the Abbott government for war with China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Defence Department officials revealed last month that Australian aircraft and/or naval vessels may be used to conduct a so-called “freedom of navigation” operation, organised in partnership with the US, to violate the 12-mile exclusion zone around Chinese-held islands and reefs. The sole aim of such a provocation would be to force Beijing to either confront the incursion or repudiate its sovereignty claims. Any confrontation risks escalation into an open military clash between two nuclear-armed powers.

After more than two decades of invasions and intrigues around the world, above all in the Middle East, US imperialism has now placed itself on a course toward war with Russia in Europe and China in Asia. Its threats and accusations against both nuclear-armed states are being steadily escalated.

The working class of the entire region faces being dragged into a catastrophe, in order to prop up the rapidly fading global political and economic dominance of US imperialism. The Australian political and media establishment is directly collaborating with Washington’s plans, through the hosting of US bases and military assets, and through active involvement in American military operations in Asia and the Middle East.

Central to its military preparations has been the Abbott government’s unprecedented ideological offensive, aimed at poisoning the minds of workers and young people with nationalism and patriotism. Supported by the Labor Party and the Greens, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent glorifying the Anzac centenary and World War I, in order to drown out and intimidate the deeply-felt opposition to war and militarism within the majority of the population. At the same time, the ruling elite is escalating its war against the wages, social conditions and democratic rights of the working class.

Along with its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International, the SEP seeks to unite the working class of Australia, China, the US, Russia and every country in the fight to build an international anti-war movement that will avert the danger of war through the only means possible: the struggle to put an end to capitalism and the nation-state system, and establish world socialism. The SEP meetings will outline and discuss the critical historical and political issues posed before the working class in developing such a movement.

Melbourne
Sunday, June 28, 2.00 p.m.
Northcote Town Hall
Ground Floor, Room 2
189 High Street, Northcote

Brisbane
Saturday July 4, 2.00 p.m.
South Brisbane Croquet Club
91 Cordelia St.
South Brisbane
(Next to Musgrave Park)

Sydney
Sunday, July 5, 2.00 p.m.
Ashfield Civic Centre
260 Liverpool Road, Ashfield

Tickets for all meetings: $3/$2 concession

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