It has been some time since a Marxist like Vijay Prashad has toured Australia. Prashad is a historian, journalist, executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and among the most important living Marxists today.

Prashad’s national speaking tour spanned four cities, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth. It featured eight speaking events, including a full-day teach-in in Melbourne and meetings with trade unionists, activists and ambassadors. Before visiting Australia, Prashad visited New Zealand, in large part to help forge regional ties between anti-imperialist activists.

The Australian tour kicked off at the University of Technology in Sydney. A public talk, “On the Far Right of a Special Type,” was followed in the evening with “On Cuba: Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Struggle,”co-hosted with Red Ant by the Australia Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS). This was important to help defend both Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions from ongoing imperialist pressure and interference. The event was based on Prashad’s latest book, On Cuba: Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Struggle, co-authored with Noam Chomsky. ACFS activists Chela Weitzel and Patrick Newbold stated afterward that:

The ACFS appreciated the opportunity to work alongside Red Ant to organise the event as part of our joint work to show solidarity with Cuba in Australia. The solidarity support of the NSW Teachers Federation was also essential to the success of the event. Prashad’s analysis of Cuba’s ongoing revolution was wide and rich…his presentation functioned as a call to action in defence of a bastion of anti-imperialism and self-determination.

In Canberra, “On Cuba”was again the topic of discussion at the Australian National University (ANU), part of an event Cuba and Imperialism: Past and Present, which wasco-hosted by Red Ant, the ACFS, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), the Cuban Embassy in Australia and the ANU Latin American Students’ Association (LASA). The Palestinian Ambassador to Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, attended along with the Venezuelan Chargé d’Affaires, Luis Laya, and Cuban Ambassador, Tanieris Dieguez, who thanked “Vijay for his kindness and Red Ant for their collaboration.”

The Melbourne leg of the tour began on 1 November with “There Will Be No Modi 3.0 in India,” co-hosted with the Melbourne South Asian Studies Group. Prashad gave a wide-ranging overview of Indian politics, arguing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot simply be thought of as fascists, but rather as belonging to a new far Right of a ‘special type,’ a reference to his recent analysis in the Triconinental newsletter.

Later that day, Prashad spoke on “National Liberation Marxism & Western Marxism,” co-hosted with the Critical Research Association Melbourne, a part of the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts. Prashad stressed the importance of the “national liberation” tradition of Marxism, which he distinguished from the dominant forms of Western Marxism in the Global North. This national liberation tradition, which includes revolutionary leaders like Ho Chi Minh, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral and Thomas Sankara, places an emphasis on developing a systemic analysis of the current conjuncture with an aim to act, rather than simply contemplate.

On 2 November Prashad hosted a day-long teach-in on the topic of Socialism and Anti-Imperialism. He and writer Rjurik Davidson started by analysing the rising influence of the far-right the world over. Davidson argued that decades of neoliberalism had produced a crisis of capitalist legitimacy, providing space for so-called “anti-establishment” forces. Prashad reprised his argument that these new Right formations are not fascist but instead a Right “of a special type.”

Max Lane spoke on the need to rebuild a revolutionary Marxist party. Prashad strongly promoted this perspective during the tour and suggested that Red Ant was an example worthy of support. Indeed, he accepted Red Ant’s invitation to visit Australia in large part to provide such support to the project.

In the afternoon, Red Ant leaders Nandini Shah and Brendan Duncan-Shah spoke on the imperialist division of the world, into oppressed and oppressor nations, and this division’s worldwide effects. This set the stage for Prashad’s keynote address, which situated Australia within this world system and highlighted its role as a junior, but important, partner in the U.S.-led imperialist alliance. Throughout the tour, Prashad emphasised this theme, pointing to the ties (intelligence and military) between the US, Australia and other imperialist states currently targeting China with increasing military aggression. He proposed ongoing collaboration to research Australia’s role and called on the Australian Left to campaign against the Tindal Air Base extension, AUKUS, Pine Gap and the new “Squad” of allies which includes the United States, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines.

Prashad arrived in Perth on 6 November and spent the day speaking with trade union activists. He visited construction sites and spoke with workers onsite. That evening he addressed a celebration dinner in honour of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, an event co-sponsored by the Communist Party of Australia and Red Ant.

On 7 November, Prashad spoke on Palestine, Hyper Imperialism and the Global South at the Boorloo Activist Centre, a new venue hastily arranged after the University of Western Australia prevented the event from taking place on campus and the City of Perth subsequently refused to allow the use of their community facilities. This repressive behaviour received considerable publicity and helped make the event a notable success, with over 60 people attending, remarkable for a mid-week event held during working hours.

That evening the Indo-Pacific Studies Centre at Murdoch University hosted a repeat of Prashad’s presentation on There Will Be No Modi 3.0 in India, again to an audience of over 60 people.

To conclude the day, Prashad met with Red Ant members to discuss the organisation of a Marxism Summer School to be conducted over the university summer break.

Vijay Prashad’s tour was a big step forward in re-popularising anti-imperialist Marxist ideas in this country. The task to continue to cohere these ideas – and all who support them – into an organised political force able to consistently fight for them.