The general line of this draft report was adopted by the Political Committee of Red Ant in September and October, 2024. It is now part of the discussion by Red Spark’s members as they assess their political perspectives leading into their next national conference.

The report is divided into three parts. This is the third and concluding section (Part One available here, Part Two here).

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Ideas for Rebuilding the Revolutionary Left

By far the most important political campaign today is the struggle in solidarity with Palestine.

We are not in a position to know or elaborate a comprehensive picture of the state of Palestine Solidarity organising in Australia. We are still too small to participate in the key organising committees, actions and groups that make up this campaign. Therefore, the characterisation given here is necessarily provisional, an initial hypothesis and subject to ongoing involvement, investigation and reconsideration.

Since late 2023 Israel’s commencement of far more open forms of genocidal attacks on the Palestinian population and its increasing military belligerence has been a powerful catalyst to opposition inside Australia to the Australian (and US) state’s support for genocide in Palestine.

THE IMPACT OF THE GENOCIDE

Large numbers of people in Australia have been made aware of world imperialism’s utter indifference to human life in the Global South and the preparedness of Australia, the US and other imperialist states to continue active collaboration and military support even with an openly genocidal regime. The genocidal character of Israeli imperialism has become clear to almost everyone.

In Australia the major parties, the political establishment more broadly, and the mass media immediately fell in behind all key Israeli narratives and propaganda lines. For weeks the massacres in Gaza were not reported by the Australian media except as “according to figures by the Hamas run health ministry”, until that became unviable. We were asked to fear a wave of anti-Semitism and reminded that Hamas is, supposedly, “a terrorist organisation” (i.e. it is designated as such by the Australian state). To this day mainstream media still clings to the absurd notion of equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism – though it seems unlikely this is widely believed anymore. The obvious hypocrisy just goes to further alienate the working class from the establishment.

Support for Israel has the effect of de-legitimising the major parties, mass media and the Australian state as any sort of defenders of democracy, human rights, international law and so on. These key pretences of bourgeois democratic legitimacy, at least inside the imperialist states, lie increasingly exposed.

The ALP has not avoided being stained by their support for genocide. Labor has not broken diplomatic nor military ties with Israel. Even the ALP’s statements have refrained from any real criticism of Israel. They call for a ceasefire without exposing Israeli genocidal aggression or exposing the US support, upon which the whole thing relies. The ALP does call for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, while recognising the apartheid state of Israel. It doesn’t even oppose the bombing of Lebanon. It just expresses concerns about the “manner” of Israel’s (bombing) response.

Australia’s essentially uncritical support for Israeli genocide is in line with all the other major imperialist states, which have fallen in line behind defence of Israel’s “right” to defend its apartheid system – unlike South Africa and much of the Global South.

The pattern of imperialist state support for Israel, and widespread Global South condemnation or opposition is something observed by millions of people across the world, including in Australia. It has the effect of increasing the number of people coming to understand the nature of imperialism more generally, as a system that divides the world between a small number of oppressor and large number of oppressed societies. The Palestinian struggle is increasingly viewed by many as a core part of a broader anti-imperialist struggle along those lines.

PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE AND THE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

While the oppression of Palestinians is exposing the brutality of imperialism, the campaign in Australia to defend Palestinian rights is not directed by an anti-imperialist leadership. There are likely variations between different locations in Australia but it seems the principal approach of most organisers and speakers is to appeal to the sensibilities, or the sense of shame, of the ALP and other political leaders.

There is a focus by speakers at protest actions on the extent and severity of humanitarian suffering by the Palestinians and numbers of deaths. This is necessary, however, in the absence of any clear strategy for how this suffering will be effectively fought against, repeatedly recounting it does not provide an orientation for those present. The absence of a clear and agreed strategy to end the suffering of the Palestinians, or win demands made on the Australian state that can bring that goal closer has a demoralising effect. The implied strategy is that detailing the atrocities may be enough to pressure Albanese, Wong and Plibersek to change course.

Many of the key Australian policies in support for Israel – such as diplomatic and military ties – are regularly raised by speakers at Palestine actions. But so far there does not seem to be any sort of focused strategy on how to force the repeal of this support. In part, this is because there is no unified national campaign organisation.

Internationally, there are forces that are fighting to defeat Israeli apartheid such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People’s Party, Yemeni fighters, the Iranian state (in some ways), South Africa and, to various degrees other Global South governments. But there is a disconnection between that international movement and the solidarity movement here, with its principal focus on Israeli human rights abuses.

The military resistance to Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran and other forces seems to be a key factor affecting Israel’s ability to get away with its genocidal policies. It is not for nothing that Israel’s military censor and the imperialist mass media effectively prohibit systematic reporting on the resistance and setbacks suffered by the IDF.

Exaggerating the power and dominance of one’s own side in war is an age-old propaganda staple. It is necessary for maintaining morale and inhibiting enemy morale. Yet the focus within the Australian campaign on Israeli atrocities without any popularisation of the significant achievements of the Palestinian, Lebanese and other military resistance leaves this whole field of propaganda entirely to Israel to dominate. The imperialist bourgeoisie is not making the same mistake (either in Palestine or in Ukraine). Israel has a military censor over its media. It falls to alternative sources to do their best to document the blows being inflicted on the empire,  at least in the military sphere.

The Palestinian military resistance to Israel is every bit as heroic and worthy of respect as the non-military civilian resistance of which it is an inseparable part. Obviously, the violence of the occupation leaves Palestinians no choice but to resist militarily. This is true not just for the military wing of Hamas, the Al Qassam Brigades, but also the military wings of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad and every other part of the Palestinian resistance. The cadres of these groups are deeply committed and courageous fighters, who routinely risk their own lives. They display a great deal of military acumen and creativity and continue to wage bitter armed struggle even inside occupied Gaza today with no sign of defeat. The young men blowing up Israeli tanks with handheld rockets, and killing IDF personnel as they are taking fascistic selfies among the rubble, are seen as heroes across the Arab world. But they remain largely unspoken about within the liberal narrative of Palestine solidarity organising in Australia.

Partly that is because Hamas and Hezbollah are listed as terrorist organisations in Australia, making it illegal to support them. We recently saw the NSW police take action against people holding a few of Hezbollah’s yellow flags at the Sydney action on 6 October 2024. But has there been any effort made by the broader campaign to defend them, or to fight for the de-listing of Hezbollah or Hamas? Those are necessary fights that would help to further expose the pro-Israel and pro-genocide stance of the Australian state and the ALP.

Israel has failed to take military control of Gaza. Nor has it been able to carry out a ground invasion of Southern Lebanon. The first Israeli incursion into Lebanon appears to have been a debacle – resulting in a huge medivac operation. There were reportedly eight dead IDF soldiers and three destroyed tanks, presumably having been confronted or ambushed by Hezbollah close to the border. These kinds of concrete political-military facts powerfully contribute to the developing crisis in the Israeli state itself.

There is a lot happening politically in West Asia, however, most developments are not discussed within the Palestine movement or at actions. Rather, there are often quite boring speeches that repeat familiar talking points over and over, usually the moral culpability of our rulers – “shame Albo shame”.

Socialist Alternative contributes significantly to this boring and demoralising atmosphere. Socialist Alternative has a perspective that no progress towards Palestinian liberation can be achieved without revolution inside the imperialist countries. They tend to see things like fighting to win demands made on the Australian state as theatrical at best. Angrily shaming politicians without any strategy has the simple purpose of SAlt profiling itself. Having a weak, dead-end movement is conducive, in a certain sense, to channelling recruits into an organisation that purports to take things further and offer a solution. “Shame Albo Shame” is the banal, do nothing chant unifying the liberals and the ultra-lefts alike. Peter Camejo would be turning in his grave.

Ultimately, Australian or US support for Israel seems unlikely to be defeated just by exposing it as unjust. Imperialism deals in power. To force it to change policy it is necessary to defeat its policy: to make it unworkable. Ultimately that means defeating the Israeli state and Israeli apartheid.

While the radical wing of the anti-Vietnam War movement supported the Vietnamese people’s right to militarily resist imperialist occupation, so far the same support is not given to the Palestinian Resistance or Lebanese resistance to imperialist occupation of their land, at least not openly or forcefully. This is perhaps partly due to the different political outlook of the liberation forces then and now. Historical defeats for left wing forces in Palestine (and worldwide) has meant that the initiative in resisting Israel has fallen to forces that are not from the left, that may come from more socially conservative traditions.

However, the principle reason for the lack of a more open support for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance from the solidarity movements inside the imperialist states is probably due to the puritanism that infects liberal and left circles there. If a liberation force is not in agreement with the general social outlook of leftist or progressive milieus inside the imperialist core states, that is taken to mean it should be kept at arm’s length, even when supporting commonly held goals, like defeat of Israeli apartheid.

This imperialist-chauvinist outlook fails to recognise that mass consciousness inside Global South societies is not formed in the same conditions as those inside the imperialist societies. Different outlooks are inevitable. It also ignores that, for example, the Palestinian resistance is a mass movement of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people.

FOR DEFEAT OF ISRAEL

Anti-imperialists within the Palestine solidarity movement should adopt a position of advocating for the Defeat of Israel. The Israeli state and the IDF must be politically and militarily defeated and broken up – smashed. All consistent democrats must be for the defeat of Israel because it is an apartheid state. A democratic secular state of Palestine – from the River to the Sea – is the only way to end the bloodshed. Like South African Apartheid Israeli apartheid is also militarily expansionist. South African Apartheid was also supported by imperialism, with the ANC listed as a terrorist organisation in the US and UK. So, anybody who is for peace should support the defeat of Israel. There is no prospect of lasting peace in the region until that is achieved.  It becomes easier to make these arguments the more Israel’s situation is seen to be unsustainable. 

Defeat of Israel is only foreseeable in conjunction with a defeat of US policy towards Israel, as a consequence of a wind back of US support, especially military aid. It is in this context that the Australian solidarity campaign has a special importance. While Australian solidarity will not be the decisive factor in terms of what happens in Palestine, Australia is an important imperialist state and close ally of United States imperialism. Australian imperialism also has many similarities to the US in terms of its interests, position within the world system, policies and alliances. Australia is also a military power: it is the 13^th highest military spending country in the world, which puts it ahead of Israel.

Most importantly the Palestine solidarity movement inside the US – which does have the power to destroy the Israeli state if it can force a change in US policy – will be strengthened if it is connected with strong solidarity and anti-militarist movements in other imperialist states like Australia and across the world.

It is possible that the Australian state could be forced to change its policy. For example it could be forced to withdraw its diplomatic recognition of Israel. Such an outcome might not be possible without a broader political realignment, for example a change in the composition of the parliament.

One possible role for anti-imperialist socialists within the solidarity campaign in Australia is to help forge an anti-imperialist wing. That is, a wing within the broader campaign that openly advocates defeat of Israel. Some of the basic propaganda positions include the Palestinian people’s right to resist: that includes military resistance, and so includes October 7, opposition to the neo-colonialist and undemocratic listing as proscribed terrorist organisations of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as Hezbollah and Ansar Allah in Yemen.

All resistance to and attacks that weaken the Apartheid state coming from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq or Iran are to be welcomed. It’s not the case that we or other anti-imperialists need to advocate political identification with this or that section of the resistance. Rather we are for defeat of Israel and we are against any sort of sectarianism towards, or fear of, all popular forces that are taking an anti-imperialist stance. That is, regardless of what other disagreements we might have with this or that group on some issues that from a strategic point of view are secondary.

It’s not the case that anti-imperialists should insist that the broader Palestine solidarity campaign be conducted on an explicitly anti-imperialist basis (even though all demands that would weaken Israeli apartheid are objectively anti-imperialist). An approach advocating explicit anti-imperialist politics from the whole solidarity campaign would be a sectarian stance as it would effectively exclude from rallies people who are against the genocide but don’t agree with slogans like “defeat Israel!”. Rather, the unifying basis of the movement must remain around concrete demands on the Australian state to “break military ties with Israel” and “break diplomatic ties”. These demands have been routinely raised already. The issue has been a lack of focus and clarity of strategy.

The question of overall unity and focus on the campaign around key agreed priorities and goals is a question that that, once again, requires “the ability to apply Marxism in the current situation”. It will also require working with people in the campaign over time to develop a shared outlook and perspective. As noted, we have so far been too small to do that in any consistent way. It is not possible for us to solve the problem of creating a movement, we are still getting to know the situation.

What is proposed here is a way for us to enter further into Palestine organising by bringing ideas and proposals that we see as both strengthening the campaign and highlighting the sort of highly political contribution that we aim to make. Such an approach that is focused on politically strengthening the campaign will also mean that we can grow through this involvement.

SUMMARY

On the one hand, there is a fairly rapidly maturing historic crisis, at least of the legitimacy of bourgeois politics in Australia. Internationally, the imperialist system is becoming increasingly chaotic and exposed. On the other hand, the long downturn in social movements and left political organising means that, despite the increasing chaos no big change or crisis has occurred here yet. Australian imperialism keeps tottering onwards without any immediate, foreseeable threat to stability.

Within this framework, the escalating violence and injustice alongside the bankruptcy and paralysis of the main bourgeois parties and institutions means that incremental changes in the balance of forces seem to be gathering speed, perhaps soon reaching some tipping points that could open up the political situation further and make possible some realignments.

In the current situation there is already ample opportunities for socialist groups like ours to grow. Many, or most of them, are growing – including ours.

The most urgent need is the re-establishment of a revolutionary socialist party that can begin to systematically harness the ongoing radicalisation of a minority, especially of young people by educating and organising a new generation in Marxist political action. This would establish an organised base of cadres to take full advantage of the various cracks and openings as they occur, and that can play a leadership role in rebuilding broader social struggles.

Re-growth of social struggle in Australia and the establishment of anti-imperialist and socialist leaderships among them will be critical to weakening the Australian state as a bastion of the global imperialist system which exploits and oppresses the overwhelming majority of humanity and is destroying the planet. The weakening of Australian imperialism is an important part of weakening global imperialism. It is a contribution we can make to its defeat.