We have published below an edited transcript of the address Nick Dobrijevic gave on the panel “Debt, Tariffs, and the New Economic Siege: Sovereignty Under Assault” at the IPA’s Hands Off Asia conference, held from 16-18 July 2026 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was asked to speak on the internationalist solidarity perspective—providing a view from inside a key US ally embedded in AUKUS, exploring how economic and military alignment is manufactured domestically, and highlighting the role of solidarity movements within the core. 

I want to thank the organisers of this conference for the opportunity to address this gathering. Unlike all the other speakers at this gathering, I come from one of the imperialist powers that is threatening the region.

While Australia is not the premier imperialist power, it remains a powerful and constant source of imperialist oppression over nations in Asia and the Pacific.

So, I will attempt to explain some of the history behind Australia joining with the United States and Britain in their attempted encirclement of China. 

The newest manifestation of this imperialist hostility is the AUKUS agreement, through which Australia will obtain nuclear-powered submarines for the claimed purpose of deterring China.

The view from inside a key US ally embedded in AUKUS

For at least 150 years, Australia has been integrated into this network of countries—the Global North—whose wealth is primarily drawn from colonial and modern imperialist exploitation of what is now called the Global South. 

Much of Australia’s initial wealth was accumulated in the 18th and 19th centuries through a genocidal invasion of the Australian continent. A colonial settler outpost of British capitalism was established, which, by the late 19^th century, was one of the richest territories in the world.

Understanding that heritage explains the recurring racist tendency in Australian politics towards fear and hatred of Asia.

For its entire history, Australian foreign policy has always been determined by its membership within the small group of imperialist powers that dominate the world economy, as well as by its ‘junior’ status within this club. While putting the interests of Australian capital at the forefront, it has had to do so from a position of relative weakness vis-à-vis the largest powers. 

Until the middle of the 20th century, Australia played the role of junior partner of British imperialism. Following the 1942 British-led military disaster at Singapore, in which nearly 15,000 Australian soldiers were captured by the Japanese, the Australian government made a dramatic pronouncement that the country had a new strategic alliance as a junior partner of American imperialism.

It was, in fact, the Australian Labor Party prime minister, John Curtin, who proclaimed on December 27, 1941: “Without any inhibitions of any kind, I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom.”

The Australian state and the majority of the capitalist class it serves have always shared the same strategic interests of the imperialist bloc. This means that understanding Australian foreign policy is to understand that it is fundamentally aimed at securing the stability of the imperialist system as a whole. 

A contemporary focus of Australian imperialism is the campaign of aggressive containment and warmongering against China. This follows a long history of imperialist hostility to many Global South societies that have either rejected capitalism for socialism or have at least tried to take an independent path. 

In 2011, Obama addressed the Australian parliament and said, “After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia Pacific region.” 

Under Trump, Obama, and Clinton’s “Pivot to Asia” gained greater weight as the “War on Terror” was formally replaced with “Great Power Conflict”. 

As well as the expansion of NATO into Asia and the revival of the QUAD, the “Turn to Asia” culminated in AUKUS, a military alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US, announced in September 2021. 

A hallmark of this deal is for Australia to acquire a fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines with a budget of at least $360 billion over the next 30 years. Through AUKUS, Australia has already paid 3.1 billion Australian dollars to support the US nuclear submarine building capacity.

It is worth pointing out here that China—the target of AUKUS—is Australia’s largest trading partner, accounting for nearly a third of Australia’s exports. Australia primarily exports raw materials like iron ore, petroleum gas and coal to China, while China sends manufactured goods, vehicles, and electronics to Australia.

How is economic and military alignment manufactured domestically?

Australia has a long history of racism, particularly racism towards Asia and the Pacific. An entire genre of literature concerned with an Asian invasion of the country became dominant, particularly from the 1880s, and continues in the 21^st century. In the year of federation, the first Act passed by the Australian parliament in 1901 was the “Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act”. 

More popularly known as the White Australia Policy, it gave the government the ability to prevent all non-European migration to the country. A symptom of the ‘decay’ inside imperialist countries, trade unions were among the most dedicated supporters of the Act. 

In recent decades, the strength of Australian imperialist capital has grown relative to the organised progressive movement—particularly through the decline of Social Democracy and trade unionism since the 1980s. This has allowed the ruling class to embark on a fierce propaganda campaign of racism and xenophobia without significant pushback. 

This is particularly evident in the propaganda war against “boat people” and refugees, the “war on terror,” and a mass campaign promoting xenophobia towards the Chinese nation. None of this has happened by chance. Rather, it is created, promoted, and reproduced. 

The stability of the imperialist system is greatly strengthened when workers in the Global North can be won to a nationalist, even racist and chauvinist, perspective—otherwise there is the danger of Australian workers realising their comradeship with exploited workers everywhere. 

Solidarity with all oppressed and exploited people is crucial for a deepening commitment to change inside Australia. Strengthening the struggle against all the injustices is impossible without a deepening commitment to solidarity with all the oppressed and exploited people.

Introducing the voices of the peoples’ movements of Asia on these questions to the Australian public, and especially among Australian youth who are beginning to raise questions, is one factor that may help this process. 

More visits to Australia by our friends in the region would challenge and educate people with an imperialist perspective about the destabilising impact of US and Australian policies. Of course, building strong ties and links is one way for ordinary people here to realise their comradeship with exploited people everywhere. 

Internationalist histories  

There is also a fairly rich tradition of internationalist struggle in Australia. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or “Wobblies”—formed in Australia in 1913—were an early example of internationalist industrial militancy and waged fierce resistance against the First Imperialist World War and White Australia Policy.  

A decade later, a “Hands off China” campaign was initiated by trade unions, community groups, and activists from the late 1920s, which grew after the 1931 invasion of Northern China by Japan. Maritime workers in ports across Australia refused to load materials bound for Japan that could be used in the war against China. 

In November 1938, the Dalfram [cargo ship] arrived in Port Kembla on the East coast of Australia to be loaded with 300,000 tonnes of pig iron for Japan. Port Kembla wharfies refused to load the ship, instead joining with others to actively campaign in solidarity with China. 

The government used draconian anti-union legislation, and BHP sacked 4000 workers, but it was only when assurances were given to the union that no further shipments to Japan would happen that Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) members agreed in January 1939 to lift the ban. 

After Indonesian independence was declared on 17 August 1945, a plan to paralyse all Dutch shipping in Australian ports was put into action. The first boycott was in Queensland on 24 September. 1,000 members of the Brisbane Branch of the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) voted to support the black bans and declared: 

To assist the Dutch in any way is to assist avaricious Dutch Imperialism against Indonesian democracy. The workers of Australia are solidly in support of Indonesian workers. Gaol and worse fail to frighten the people of Indonesia. We must demand that the people of Indonesia be allowed to select their own Government. Keep out the Dutch Imperialists! Long Live Freedom!

Black bans were soon in place in Sydney, Melbourne, and Fremantle, and over 30 Australian trade unions joined the campaign. From September, 559 vessels and 1,000 land crafts in Australia were under union boycott, preventing or seriously hampering Dutch supplies and war materials. Indonesia’s first President, Sukarno, called them, “a magnificent, freedom-loving stand”. 

In the 1990s, campaigns in Australia were built in solidarity with the movement against the New Order dictatorship in Indonesia and for Timor Leste’s independence. Marches, sit-ins, occupations, public forums, conferences, and rallies were organised throughout the 1990s. 

In 1999, tens of thousands mobilised in Sydney, and large demonstrations occurred across the country as violence spread throughout Timor-Leste before, during, and especially after the referendum on independence. 

At the same time, the struggle against Suharto’s US and Australia-backed New Order dictatorship in Indonesia was also intensifying, and sections of the Australian Left and independent activists formed close relations with the pro-democracy movement.  

The role of solidarity movements within the core

The anti-imperialist, revolutionary left needs to grow in Australia. The international solidarity movements mentioned earlier were only possible because the organised left was much stronger in Australia. It was the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in the 1920s to 1940s and the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) in the 1990s. The stronger the left, the less free the Australian ruling class is to do whatever it wants in Asia. 

Another important consideration is whether there is a revolution elsewhere, especially in the region. In a situation of revolutionary crisis that puts a country in the balance, or an actual revolutionary seizure of state power, the role of capitalist Australia would be crucial in attacking, repressing, and defeating the revolutionary power overseas. 

In that case, not just the size of the political left in Australia, but its degree of anti-imperialist orientation combined with the degree of organisation and combativeness of the Australian working class (even if still far from being ready to challenge for power), would be critical in preventing Australian imperialism (in alliance with the US) from strangling any new revolution in its cradle. 

Even if the socialist movement and working-class organisation here in Australia were still weak, it is still perfectly conceivable that we could play enough of a role to prevent imperialist intervention from tipping the balance decisively in favour of counter-revolution. 

The revolutionary overthrow of capitalism in Australia would cause a massive shift in the global balance of power. While Australia is not the premier imperialist power, it remains a powerful and constant source of imperialist oppression over nations in Asia and the Pacific. 

Over a century ago, the revolutionary Third International provided analyses of how the super-exploitation of colonies and semi-colonies impacts the consciousness of workers in imperialist countries. Leaders like Lenin, drawing on Marx and Engels, argued that the enormous profits encouraged social conservatism, class collaboration, and chauvinism in oppressor countries like Australia.

It is important to remember that nowhere does this theory assert that revolutionary change is not possible in the imperialist core. It is true that, according to any measure of income and social development—such as GDP per capita, Human Development Index, etc.—the Australian working class is better off than workers in the Global South. This does not mean, however, that Australian workers have no revolutionary potential. 

All generations of leftists in Australia have had a section that, demoralised, retreated from battle, declaring that socialism is not possible in a rich, conservative country like Australia. Socialism in Australia is not only possible, but completely necessary. 

A crucial way we can tip the balance of forces in our favour is for the progressive movement inside imperialist countries to get stronger and develop alongside the movement in the Global South. 

Revolutionary social change in the United States would be the most significant factor in tipping the balance of forces globally in favour of all those who fight for a future based on humanity, equality, and social progress. 

In our US Hands Off Asia campaign, how can we also link with progressive movements in the US? What could we do to assist our comrades to weaken and ultimately defeat the imperialist ruling class in the US? How can we build collaboration between the Global South and Global North to fight on the frontlines and also behind enemy lines?