Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of (Marxist-Leninist)

Vanguard For an Independent and Socialist Australia Volume 57 #3 www.cpaml.org | [email protected] June 2020 Economic Crisis Shows Need For Planned Economy

By Ned K. (17 May 2020) he economic crisis in Australia, and indeed the T whole capitalist world, magnified by the shutdown of industries due to COVID-19, has been a big shock to millions of people. Millions of people thrown out of work, millions more on reduced hours. This situation forced the Morrison Government in Australia to introduce Job Keeper. Thousands of businesses applied for it and hundreds of thousands of workers are receiving $1,500 gross payments a fortnight under the scheme. An inadequate relief measure for most, but the Government hoped it was enough until it was time "to get couple of countries for their export social needs instead of disappearing in people back to work again", code for markets. "Diversification" is to be the to the bank accounts of multinational a return to the free market economy saving grace for the Australian people! corporations. Imagine also if the of capitalism so employers could The Australian people are means of production could be resume chasing maximization of questioning the whole system, as well converted (as occurred in wartime) to profits again. they might. They hear a lot from produce what was needed for the A return to the chaos of the free individual captains of industries and people in times of crisis such as this market of capitalism is all the capitalist from politicians about planning. Ah pandemic? class rulers can envisage. However, the yes, "planning'"! Ask any CEO how A planned economy with masses of people in Australia are important planning is for their production and services for the needs learning through their own experience company. of the people is something that people just how fragile this market economy They are right but they never say sense is needed and also possible. is and how quickly it can destroy their that planning of the whole economy of That possibility requires private, living standards and way of life. production and services for people is competitive ownership of the means of People also saw how reliant the needed. production to cease. It has to be capitalist economy in Australia is Why not? Surely if planning is good replaced by public, cooperative on the decisions of multinational enough for their own business it is ownership vested in a new form of corporations and the governments who good enough for society as whole? people’s state power. serve them. Whole industries shut The problem is, their planning is in The only problem is that the ruling down and many more stagnating due to order to maximize profit, whereas the minority class and their state apparatus their reliance on overseas markets to planning the people want and need is are standing in the way. sell their services or products. planning that drives an economy In the course of time, the people The media commentators and some serving the people and not profit will find a way to overcome this politicians of various persuasions cried maximization. historically obsolete class with out that the solution to this problem Imagine if all the wealth created by experiences like the COVID-19 was for business in Australia to working people that was in excess of pandemic providing rich lessons of become less reliant on one country or a daily needs was held in common for why this is needed. ■ 2 Vanguard June 2020 Beware proposed legislation to strengthen state power

Contributed (24 May 2020)

very brief article in an Australian mainstream A media outlet about proposals to extend state power has provided evidence the Morrison coalition government in Canberra is committed to implementing draconian powers with the bare minimum of publicity. As it seeks to strengthen state powers, the issue of security vetting These include the question of character defects, which included: has received virtually no accountability of state power. While 'drunkenness, addiction to drugs, media coverage. It has, official procedures are in place homosexuality or any loose living'. however, potentially far-reaching for accountability of government Later amendments to the scope of implications for ordinary Australian departments, they are, at best, the Cabinet Committee were to working people. extremely difficult to access. The establish whether those under The track record of federal procedures also often require months, investigation were 'that wider body of governments when dealing with if not years, to reach completion. Most those … sympathetic to '. internal security assessments, ordinary working people would lack Still further amendments included historically, has raised serious the necessary resources or time. references to 'fellow-travellers' and questions about safeguards for civil A further matter for serious 'anyone with left-wing or radical liberties and other problems. consideration is the prevailing political views.’ The Australian newspaper in mid- climate. Later obsessions amongst vetting May provided four short columns Hardly a single day passes without officers were directed against those about proposed amendments to present reference to China's supposed who had access to sensitive documents security laws. Using blanket-type espionage against Australia. Evidence and the ability to leak information to terminology intended to deal with would appear to have become left-wing media outlets through small threats of terrorism, espionage and unnecessary in the shadowy and political groups. political violence, Australian security perverted world of the far-right and Readers of 'The Spycatcher' by personnel will not require legal their endless conspiracy theories. Peter Wright, will no doubt, be aware warrants for placing surveillance The COVID-19 pandemic brought of the direct implications of the further devices for tracking suspects. Other out legions of conspiracy theorists amendments concerned. Amid the parts of the same amendment restrict whose main preoccupation was hundreds of pages of scurrilous the rights of lawyers to represent demonising China, its political system allegations and innuendo written by a clients and lower the age of consent for and those of Chinese ancestry and their former spy with an axe to grind, questioning of minors to 14 years. The associates in general. numerous examples appear whereby anyone, including Roger Hollis the amendment, if passed and contained in Long history of security vetting the wider legislation, will mean Head of MI5 itself, were considered security personnel will only require Such behaviour has a long history. threats to national security. internal approval for what are regarded In the immediate aftermath of the Guilt, in the eyes of those around as official duties at the behest of the Second World War the then Attlee Peter Wright, was established and highest echelons of the Australian government in Britain introduced signed, sealed and delivered by mere state. security vetting as a standard association either knowingly or This is serious curtailment to what procedure. It was directed primarily unknowingly. No further evidence was the bourgeoisie calls its “rule of law”, toward anyone who was, or had been, required. by which class society is supposedly a member of the Communist Party. The role of the Cabinet Committee held together. Operating through the Cabinet ushered in a wave of tale-telling within At face value the proposed Committee on Subversive Activities, British society, from the very bottom amendment might appear sensible the system was extended in 1952 and to the top. The fact MI5 was also when taking into account the lengthy again on numerous occasions in later responsible for establishing an legal procedures involved in acquiring years. The committee was involved in Australian counterpart, ASIO, at the warrants. That is, until other criteria scrutinising the backgrounds of those same time would indicate they also are studied and considered in detail. regarded as employed in sensitive exported the whole model to Canberra. positions and looked for evidence of And it exists to the present day. June 2020 www.cpaml.org 3

Studies of the problem in Australia In the UK a study conducted by the have revealed widespread Trades Union Congress (TUC) EDITORIAL discrepancies and other problems. established a majority of British Hard or Soft? Two Tactics Serious shortcomings have not been workers believed their employers were difficult to establish. systematically spying on them. The of the Ruling Class The fact workers can subsequently findings rest upon earlier studies lose employment by either failing a conducted in the early 1980s where it Since the beginning of the economic vetting clearance or being swept up in was established US intelligence crisis triggered by the COVID-19 an investigation of someone agencies routinely spied on British pandemic, the peak union leadership of attempting to seek clearance has been trade-unions. the ACTU has been in close talks with given credible publicity elsewhere. The recent period in Australia has the LNP federal government. Vetting procedures are been marked by three highly The usual hardline anti-union commonplace in the Australian significant factors, revealing “thugs” and “law breakers” vitriol of defence industries with implications discrepancies and their linkage the government and business class has for those employed in what are between state and society: been replaced with “dialog” and considered vital supply-chains. Just “working together” to achieve “the best what is the position of a trade-union • an intensification of US hostility outcomes for workers and businesses”. delegate with an active interest in toward China has been increasingly Asian history and politics in such a played-out in Australia; The government has reportedly even supply-chain? Would they, for • police raids on journalists to shelved its second bid to pass its anti- example, be considered a threat? And specifically suppress information and union Ensuring Integrity Bill, in what capacity? silence whistle-blowers capable of supposedly as a sign of “good faith” Recent studies in both the US and embarrassing government officials (more likely they still couldn’t get the UK, likewise, have also provided a have been deemed incompatible with numbers), wanting to sit down with the chilling insight into downright usual legal processes; unions to reform the country’s incompetence in the hands of well- • a systematic failure by security industrial relations system. A new placed government officials and organisations to correctly identify recruit to the ACTU’s Change the Rules employers seeking to compromise Brenton Tarrant, an Australian citizen Campaign perhaps? workers. and close associate of far-right Unlikely. While the bosses and the A recent study in the US established political groups, who spent sixty days governments that represent them may a large number of files used by the FBI in the country prior to carrying out the have been forced by the economic crisis to monitor US citizens 'suspected of Christchurch terrorist atrocities in New having links with foreign intelligence Zealand; why was he never identified? to shift their tactics, the goal remains or terrorism' contained numerous the same. Just as a leopard never errors. An investigation found an With developments such as these changes it spots, so too the capitalists average of at least twenty errors per taking place, we need to remember the never change their drive for ever greater application, with a total of 65 recorded Eureka oath and fight to defend our profits at the expense of the working in one case. rights and liberties. class. Sometimes it can get them with The fact the files were potentially an open attack on workers’ rights and used to justify surveillance raise For independence and socialism! ■ conditions – the hard tactic. Sometimes serious concerns about civil liberties. it takes a little flattery and co-opting as it sets a surprise attack – the soft tactic. Follow CPA(M-L) & Vanguard The ruling class chooses its tactics depending on what it thinks will give it Communist Party of Australia Marxist- Leninist the best outcome in the situation. What will come out of the round

@cpaml_vanguard table talks on industrial relations still remains to be seen. But Australian workers have an important historical www.cpaml.org lesson in the Prices and Incomes Accord of the 1980s to see the price

paid for class collaboration between [email protected] unions and big business. As workers we should have no Comments, contributions, and membership illusions that the interests of our class enquires welcome! can be served by walking hand in hand with the bosses. The economic crisis is Want Vanguard emailed directly to your inbox? threatening their profits. Working Join the mailing list. Send “Subscribe” to people must be organised and prepared [email protected] to defend their rights and conditions.

4 Vanguard June 2020 MARXISM TODAY Capitalism Develops and Expands in Ironic Ways

By Ned K. (9 May 2020) he COVID-19 pandemic has caused illness and death on a scale not seen in developed Coffin makers in Brazil work hard to keep up with demand due to increasing T number of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic capitalist economies for a hundred years. The shutdown of industries professor compendia and so on. A The effects of the criminal on the resulting from it has caused further criminal produces crimes. If we take a development of productive power can misery for millions of working closer look at the connection between be shown in detail. Would locks ever people thrown out of work for who this latter branch of production and have reached their present degree of knows how long. Despite this society as a whole, we shall rid excellence had there been no thieves? capitalism inevitably must find ways ourselves of many prejudices. The Would making bank notes have to extract surplus value and expand criminal produces not only crime but reached its present perfection had there sometimes in unexpected ways. also criminal law, and with this also the been no forgers? For example, in Millicent South professor who gives lectures on And if one leaves the world of Australia, the paper mill owned by US criminal law and in addition to this the crime, would the world market ever multinational Kimberley Clark was inevitable compendium in which this have come into being but for the contracting with local workers fearing same professor throws his lectures on national crime? Indeed, would ever the the place may close altogether. Then to the general market as nations have arisen?" along comes COVID-19 and the paper 'commodities'...The criminal moreover mill is working 24/7 just making toilet produces the whole of the police and of Now the captains of industry in paper. Boutique breweries, faced with criminal justice, constables, judges, Australia and the USA with Morrison no sales to closed pubs, found a new hangmen, juries, etc; and all these and Trump faithfully following their way to make profits by producing different lines of business, which form commands want their capitalist alcohol-based hand sanitiser. just as many categories of the social economies to again generate maximum On a larger scale the Chinese- division of labour, develop different profits no matter what the cost of American Mr Yuan who owns Zoom capacities of the human mind, create human life from a second wave, or conferencing for virtual meetings new needs and new ways of satisfying third, or fourth, of COVID-19. announces $4 billion profit in the last 3 them. Will this call to arms by capital months. How ironic that a Chinese- Torture alone has given rise to the create the conditions for another surge American heads up Zoom while most ingenious mechanical inventions, in previously low volume production Trump escalates the war of words and employed many honourable such as coffin making or worse still against the rising world power China! craftsmen in the production of its more front-end loaders to bury the That capitalism expands and creates instruments. The criminal produces an dead from COVID-19 outbreaks, or whole new industries and occupations impression, partly moral and partly even worse a catastrophic war of was pointed out by Marx in this tragic, as the case may be, and in this aggression by the US against China? amusing and brilliant example in way renders a 'service' by arousing the These and similar possibilities will Theories Of Surplus Value, or the moral and aesthetic feelings of the occur as long as the system of fourth volume of Capital as it is public. capitalism remains and that is what sometimes called. The quote from He produces penal codes and along Marx's brilliant work of Capital in all Marx is lengthy but worth the read. with them legislators in this field, but its Volumes is really all about. ■ also art, novels, and even tragedies, as "A philosopher produces ideas, a poet not only Mullner's Schuld...but poems, a clergyman sermons, a Oedipus and Richard The Third. June 2020 www.cpaml.org 5

Mundey and Gallagher, two lives in working class struggle

By Lindy Nolan (16 May 2020) Federal intervention into the NSW Commission’s high-rise housing BLF led by BLF General Secretary program. But the Victorian BLF won ack Mundey, former Norm Gallagher in the mid-70s. Ms its first successful environmental black NSW Builders Labourers Burgmann refrained from attack, ban in the 1940s. It also saved the site J Federation leader and Sydney though she has been vocal in the past. of the Eureka Stockade from Green Bans’ champion who died on An article by James Lesh in The development. May 10, won huge praise in Conversation went much further. Lesh calls Norm Gallagher a capitalist and progressive media. Lesh, who “received funding from “Corrupt unionist” who As former Labor MP Meredith the Australian Government Research “notoriously clashed” with Mundey. Burgmann stated in the Sydney Training Program”, basically credits Morning Herald, through 54 green “Mundey and his fellow unionists Joe The intervention into the NSW BLF bans, “It is not exaggerating to say that Owens and Bob Pringle” with battles the NSW BLF is responsible for the which took place around Australia, A number of issues led a large shape of Sydney as we now know it." including in Melbourne. group of high-profile NSW builders Her weighty list includes what were He states the Kelly’s Bush battle in labourers (BLs) who had worked once working class areas: The Rocks Sydney in 1971 was the first . closely with Mundey to break with and Woolloomooloo saved from high Certainly, it was the first using that him. The most prominent were Johnny rise; Glebe and Ultimo from name. But Norm Gallagher was jailed McNamara and Joe Ferguson. Mundey expressways; Centennial Park from a in late 1970 for assisting Carlton had been best man at McNamara’s sporting complex; Street, residents in a victorious black ban that wedding. Kings Cross; parts of Surry Hills plus turned commercial land into a public While many BLs supported the State Theatre, the Pitt Street park. Mundey, Joe Owens and Bob Pringle, Congregational Church, the Colonial He led the Victorian BLF and many others thought Mundey was too Mutual, National Mutual and ANZ resident action groups to save “the City close to residents and not close enough bank buildings as his and his union’s Baths, Mac’s Hotel, Victoria Market, to them. The sheer numbers of bans legacy. Gothic Bank, Regent Theatre, Windsor were cutting people out of work, The alliance of environmental Hotel, Princess Theatre, Collins Street especially as the 1974 recession hit the groups and workers led by Mundey and the Rialto precinct, and Tasma construction industry. was powerful and important. But it is Terrace”, all of which Lesh appears to National BLF campaigns were not not the whole story. credit to the then NSW BLF and Jack implemented by the NSW branch. In a eulogy to Mundey, one speaker Mundey. Lesh does credit Gallagher More importantly, Mundey proposed attacked “Australian Maoists” for the with stopping the Victorian Housing allowing residents to vote on bans. Prominent members siding with national policies and opposing Mundey, like McNamara and Ferguson, were blacklisted. On top of this, the BLF was deregistered nationally in 1974, pushed by the Master Builders Association largely in retaliation to “excessive” industrial action by the NSW BLF, including worker control of job sites, as well as green bans, all of them laudable! But the Federal branch leadership understood that prolonged deregistration meant the risk of losing coverage of builders’ labourers to other construction unions, the AWU and BWIU, particularly in NSW where the branch didn’t have a state award to protect builders labourers’ classifications. A tactical retreat was chosen. Gallagher pointed out that the being arrested during a Green Ban action in Sydney NSW leadership failed to appreciate (continued pg.6) 6 Vanguard June 2020

(continued from pg.5) the BLF was “only a small union and could not fight for the whole of the working class in Australia.” (Sadly, Gallagher failed to take his own advice when bosses were gunning for the BLF in the 1980s.) The NSW branch maintained its line, pushing on alone. A takeover of the NSW Branch was supported by all other states. By this stage, Joe Owens, who ignored offers to talk, was BLF leader, not Mundey, who may have taken a different stand, despite fiercely opposing the intervention.

Unions belong to their members Norm Gallagher leading Builders Labourers in a union rally

Numerous articles, speeches and Mundey himself tracked this By the 1970s, the CPA focussed on books have alleged Norm Gallagher writer’s then partner, a former BLF what would now be called “identity used thugs to enforce a takeover of the media official, to the back alley exit of politics” and issues like the NSW branch in 1975. his office, and threatened to have him environment. (This isn’t to suggest that We are talking builders labourers killed for acting as returning officer in issues like gay liberation, which here, workers in one of the toughest, a union election. Mundey vocally supported, were most dangerous and historically most Despite this, when one of Mundey’s unimportant, especially when being violent industries in Australia. The most prominent officials turned up at gay carried risk of gaol or murder.) The source of most of that violence was the Johnny McNamara’s site looking for CPA was “mass party”, aligning itself clique of developers who variously work, McNamara did not apply the with ideologies and with sought to bribe, intimidate and same treatment he’d received. He was Eurocommunist parties that focussed physically coerce construction workers given a job. McNamara, always a rank on parliament as a way to socialism, and their leaders. The BLF in NSW, and file worker, was BLF President at though there was struggle within it for and elsewhere, was for many years run the time. a deeper analysis. It attacked the CPA by gangsters who worked with Joe Owens and Bob Pringle worked (M-L) as “Maoist”. The CPA employers against their members. in the industry for years after the dissolved itself in 1991, against the Communist members of the union intervention after a period when they wishes of many of its members. fought to rid the BLF of these thugs. and others were denied BLF Mundey, by then an environmental On both sides of what later became a membership. socialist, soon helped found the NSW split in Communist ranks, were men There were some in the new NSW Greens. who’d wrested control of the union BLF who were not as accommodating The CPA (M-L) used Marx’s term, from those violent gangsters in the as McNamara. When Joe Owens “revisionist”, to attack the CPA. Our 1950s. rejoined the union he was sacked from party’s name tells our allegiances. Violence and threats occurred after a job at the old Moore Park While every person makes mistakes, a split in the ranks of Communists in Showgrounds. An organiser ensured the ruling class inflates those of the building industry, but it was not he was reinstated. Union secretary communists to a fabricated frenzy, one-sided. Joe Ferguson’s home was a Steve Black demanded to know why equating leaders like Mao with fascists boat he’d built at the quiet southern the organiser supported Owens, who like Hitler. While some use the term suburb of Como, when it was bombed was generally well regarded by “Maoist” as an insult, we hold Mao as and badly damaged. He ended his days workers and organisers alike. "Because a great leader, equal in stature to Marx living in public housing in Malabar. he's a member," the organiser replied. and Lenin. His methods in leading the An organiser for another union was Owens kept his job. Chinese people to socialism, in the shot in the stomach at a Sydney pub, Underlying all this was a bitter split face of Japanese invasion, civil war mistaken for a BLF organiser. He died in the communist movement. Mundey and foreign intervention, taught our of his wounds after terrible suffering, was a member of the Communist Party party that a communist party worthy of but too long afterwards for his attacker, of Australia (CPA). Ferguson and the name needs to do more than gain who had been drinking with Mundey McNamara were members of the leadership of trade unions and supporters immediately before the Communist Party of Australia celebrate the achievements of foreign shooting, to be charged with murder. (Marxist-Leninist) (CPA (M-L)). socialist countries. We have to apply

June 2020 www.cpaml.org 7

detailed Marxist-Leninist analysis to knew the union was militant and hated Australia in its myriad of practical by the ruling class. Chips and Barley struggles, in order to serve the people Again, and again he led them to effectively. We seek to build a Leninist corporate headquarters demanding Wars Hotting Up vanguard party, with the indissoluble multinational insurance companies pay links to the masses described by Mao up, or stopped concrete pours to ensure By Ned K. (23 May 2020) as being “fish in a sea of people”. workers’ wages, conditions and safety There is no doubt this all played out were guarded. He was gaoled ustralian farmers grow in the bitter dispute leading to, during numerous times for failing to bend his potatoes and barley which and after the national intervention. knee to the bosses, once gaoled for A give us hot chips and beer But the lessons are clear. While crediting his members’ struggle for his among other products. Now both are communists seek to lead the workers release. caught up in the intensifying trade and help them sum up lessons they Jack Mundey leaves a very strong wars within the chaotic worldwide learn in struggle, unions must belong legacy. He turned his back on capitalist "free trade" economies. to their members. communism, but not on struggle. He China, a major importer of barley At their worst unions have been continued to fight for working class from Australia, slaps an 80% tariff political play things of the Labor Party. housing all his life. Like all of us, he on imports of barley from Australia, But mistaken views of unions as was a human being affected by the accusing Australia of dumping revolutionary vehicles rather than as capitalist system in which he lived. cheap barley in China to the part of the capitalist system, tolerated Likewise, Norm Gallagher had his detriment of barley producing only while it suits capitalism, have faults. His time in gaol, ill health, a farmers in China. done enormous damage on all sides. waning revolutionary movement, his At the same time, Australian potato reputation trashed by an avalanche of growers are "digging in" for an anti- Corruption double standards ruling class lies, and finally isolation dumping fight with another big power, from the workers he had served all his the European Union, which threatens Now, let’s look at corruption adult life, saw him hit out at Marxist- to flood the Australian market with allegations. Norm Gallagher lived in a Leninist leaders like John Cummins. potatoes in the form of frozen french flat above the union office. With his Our party should not have interfered in fries. AUSVEG, representing the own and friends’ labour, he built his internal union business to back potato growers, claims that the only home and one for his son, on what Gallagher. It is testament to Cummo’s dumping of frozen french fries from was then a very cheap block of land. generosity of spirit, and his deep European Union countries is part of the He made a huge error in accepting commitment to communism and the Union's assistance package to farmers loads of bricks and sand and loans revolutionary working class, that he worth Australian $1.08 billion. of equipment from construction overcame this to remain one of our AUSVEG estimate western Europe companies. This was normal practice standout leaders. has about 2.6 million tonnes of excess throughout the building industry, but it Once a Vice Chairperson of the potatoes due to the economic downturn left him vulnerable to allegations of CPA (M-L), Gallagher left the party during the Corona Virus period. Potato taking bribes to build a “beach house”. not long before he died. Yet he never farmers in South Australia and the Low angle camera shots on countless rejected his adherence to communism. Riverina would be hit hard if the front pages converted a relatively He leaves a lifetime of struggle that dumping of french fries goes ahead. It modest home into a mansion. will long be remembered by the will also affect workers' jobs in potato The attacks were unrelenting. In people, and hated by the ruling class. processing plants which are mainly 1981 Liberal Prime Minister Fraser located in regional areas where full instituted a Royal Commission against Correction: this article originally time jobs are hardest to find. the BLF (one of a dizzying number omitted the fact, that Joe Owens and The pro-US media in Australia has against construction unions over the Bob Pringle and others were denied made a bigger story out of the 80% years). The Hawke Labor Government membership of the NSW BLF for some tariff by China on Australian produced deregistered the union in 1986. years after deregistration. It also barley than the potential dumping of Compare this with the inaction over wrongly intimated that Joe Ferguson french fries from western Europe. No corruption costing people billions by ended his days in public housing surprises there. The pro-US media has banks. Unlike bank CEOs, none of because his boat was destroyed during gone further and claimed that the 80% whom have been charged, Gallagher the violence of the intervention. It was tariff put on barley is a political act was sentenced to prison for eighteen badly damaged, but he was able to in retaliation for the Morrison months, though he served less. rebuild it. The author would like to Government colluding with the Trump Never was evidence provided of apologise for these errors. ■ administration in the blame game on Gallagher selling out his members in who is responsible for the Corona return. He retained their support. They (continued pg.8) 8 Vanguard June 2020

(continued from pg.7) back to China's poorer interior" (AFR Virus and the Morrison Government’s 22 May). demand for a so-called "independent This situation is repeated across inquiry" in to the origin of the virus. industrial areas of China with the AFR The 80% tariff announcement was claiming there are 50 million more out followed by a fear campaign by the of work since the onset of the Corona media that soon there will be tariffs on Virus and the already existing trade imported iron ore, coal and even wine war with the USA. imposed by China. So, no surprise really to see the Maybe that will occur, although Chinese try and quell rising anxiety in unlikely on iron ore, as there is still a the population about the sluggish high demand for it in China. economy by announcing protection of Underlying these latest trade farmers against barley dumping and skirmishes is the on-going instability now protection of its own coal industry of the world capitalist system in its ahead of imported coal. advanced but declining imperialist to try and address its own internal The timing of the 80% tariff on stage. Despite all the nice words about economic crisis. The Corona Virus barley and the reduction in coal trade for mutual benefit between crisis caused among other things a imports also came on the eve of the countries sprouted by China, the EU, reduction in orders of goods CCP Congress within which there are Australia and others, the reality is that manufactured in China for export. competing regional and economic the biggest capitalist powers in For example, “in Guangdong, a sectional interests, as indeed there are particular act the same way. They look southern coastal province that alone in political houses of the bourgeoisie in after the economic interests of their would stand as one of Asia's top five Australia. own ruling class first. economies, the situation is getting dire Marx said in his essay on Free With respect to China this point has in some labor-intensive sectors that are Trade words to the effect that if he been hidden somewhat by the media more China's past than its future. In the was asked which he preferred, blowing up the political motive behind dank back alleys of Dongguan, a protectionism or free trade, he went for China's 80% tariff on barley. metropolis with about as many people free trade because it laid bare all the There is an arguable case that the as New York city, small textile makers contradictions of capitalism. We are tariff on barley by China and the very are struggling to survive. Thousands of seeing an example of this before our recent reduction in its import of coal is migrant workers have already headed very eyes. ■ Agribusinesses Still Dominate Australian Agriculture

By Ned K. (31 May 2020) controlled by the finance capital CRED is WA's biggest landholder, centres of world capitalism. with extensive cattle stations in the wnership and control of According to the May 2020 edition Kimberley and the state's goldfield agricultural land in of AgJournal, the agribusinesses in region and farm ownerships on the O Australia is an important Australia have continued to prosper edge of the Wheat Belt. part of the people's struggle for during the Corona Virus period while However, contrary to the China- independence and socialism, other sectors of capitalism in Australia bashing pro-US mass media, Chinese especially with climate change likely have shut up shop. ownership of agricultural land is minor to contract the total amount of Old money, family-owned compared with agribusinesses owned agricultural land in Australia and agricultural empires in Australia are and controlled from North American indeed the whole planet. fast disappearing. A symbol of this and Western European finance capital In the 1960s and early 1970s the trend was the sale of Kidman family's interests. First Peoples won a great victory 12 cattle stations to the T he AgJournal May edition regarding ownership and control of Outback Beef/Hancock Prospecting contained a list of the top 10 agricultural land with the seven-year conglomerate. This agribusiness is agribusinesses owning land and food Walk Off at Wave Hill against British 65% owned by Gina Rinehart and 35% processing in Australia with a few cattle baron Lord Vestey. Vestey and owned by Shanghai CRED, which surprises in it. another cattle baron, McAlpine, had trades in Australia in the name of Top 10 In Order of Asset Value: seized control of about half the Zenith Investment Holdings. 1. Public Sector Pension Investments Northern Territory's agricultural land. Gina Rinehart's track record as a (PSP) from Canada. A superannuation In 2020, corporate ownership of "respectable corporate citizen" is well management fund for Canadian police agricultural land has expanded across known. Less known is that Shanghai and other public servants. Asset value all States and Territories with the CRED breached an Indigenous Land in Australian agriculture is $3 billion modern day Vesteys called Agreement on a cattle station in 2. Macquarie Agriculture. A division 'agribusinesses’. Many of these are northern Western Australia. Shanghai of Macquarie Financial Services. Asset June 2020 www.cpaml.org 9 value of $2.7 billion in agriculture in agriculture is $650 million. This The crisis proves Australia agribusiness was started in 1877 and is 3. Teachers Insurance and Annuity majority owned by the Queensland public ownership Association of America and College Government's Queensland Investment Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA - Corporation. is needed CREF). This New York based investor 9. Consolidated Pastoral Company is the biggest investor in agriculture (CPC). Assets value in Australian By John S. (12 May 2020) globally. Asset value in Australian agriculture of $600 million. It is owned agriculture is $1.7 billion. by a private equity company from the he COVID-19 crisis has 4. Rural Funds Group. Asset value in UK, Terra Firma Capital Partners. It is exposed, yet again, the Australian agriculture is $950 million. in agriculture for speculative purposes, Tcomplete failure of the Major shareholders appear to be selling off properties to the highest capitalist economic system to meet Australian based. The Group has large bidder. Recently it sold cattle stations the needs of the Australian people. scale investment in cotton, almond in WA and Queensland to a company Virgin Airlines has collapsed. orchards, beef and vineyards across calling itself Clean Agriculture And Politicians whine about the potential International Tourism which is a four states. lack of competition, and about how Vietnam based investment group. 5. Warakirri Asset Management. regional centres will be serviced, Manages agricultural investments for 10. Hancock Agricultural Investment because the transport system only major superannuation funds, include Group. Assets value in Australian services profitable routes. agriculture of $600 million. This the retail workers' fund REST. Asset World oil prices have temporarily Group manages $US3.1 billion worth value in Australian agriculture is $800 collapsed, but petrol prices still million. It has extensive property of farmland globally including substantial holdings in California, fluctuate wildly, and the full savings ownership in the dairy country of have not been passed on to consumers. western Victoria and the south east of Mid-West and Mississippi Delta The multinational oil companies South Australia. It is also one of the regions. forever price-gouge. largest grain-growing owners in the There are another ten country. agribusinesses not far behind these Globalisation has meant that multinational companies export capital 6. Outback Beef/Hancock Prospecting. Top 10 by asset value. By land mass and jobs to the lowest wage countries Asset value in Australian agriculture is value, the pecking order changes in the chase for maximum profit. $800 million. These interests slightly but the players are the same. complement Gina Rinehart's extensive The corporate nature of agriculture Countries like Australia are left with an mining interests and mineral exports to ownership has created a large rural emasculated manufacturing industry, China in particular. First Peoples led working class which and are at the mercy of international creates the surplus value and profits for supply chains. We can't get what we 7. Australian Agricultural Company. these agribusinesses. As can be seen in need, especially in a crisis, when, in Asset value in Australian agriculture of the Top 10 list, a lot of the wealth $738 million. This British owned reality, we could easily produce things created ends up overseas, following here if people's welfare, not profit, agribusiness was started in Australia in the pattern of Vestey in the days when were the motivation. 1824 by a British Act of Parliament. It British imperialist interests were The transport of needed goods is at still "owns' 1% of the Australian land dominant in Australian agriculture. mass with cattle stations sprawling The struggles at Wave Hill by First risk in any crisis, because 98% of the across the NT and Queensland. Australians with their seven-year shipping to and from Australia is 8. North Australian Pastoral Company strike to win back their land is very foreign-owned. We don't even control (NAPCO). Asset value in Australian relevant today. ■ our international transport system. For years, the multinational natural gas producers have sold our gas overseas to the highest bidders, leaving Australia short of gas, even though we are one of the world's biggest suppliers. For years, Australians have been ripped off by big companies price- gouging our power and water supplies. Privately-owned power companies continue to use polluting coal and drag their feet in investing in renewable energy. The world needs to use less energy and use it more efficiently, yet our system is run by companies that (continued pg.10) 10 Vanguard June 2020

(continued from pg.9) want to sell as much power as possible, People’s War – People’s Movement: 50 Years On as expensively as they can get away By Alice M. (8 May 2020) rebellion against imperialism and with. capitalism in that period. th May 2020 marks the 50th Australia’s banking system is Organisation of the nationwide 8th Anniversary of the Vietnam privately-owned, run solely for profit, May Moratorium mass rallies across War Moratorium mass rallies and at the mercy of intentional 8 Australia was the culmination of years across Australia during 1970. financial capital and its prices. of mass work, protests, and wide The Vietnam War Moratorium We clearly need these fundamental ranging activism by broad cross mass movement was a united front of services under Australian control, and sections of Australian people. Mass Australian people from many different run for the public good, not for profit. resistance and civil disobedience, walks of life, opposing military In the past, there were many state- defying and breaking laws; arrests and conscription and Australia’s owned enterprises providing power, imprisonments; strikes and stop work involvement in US aggression against water, banking, rail and airline meetings by workers, unions, the people of Vietnam fighting for services. While their main purpose was university and school students; national liberation and self- to oil the capitalist system, they did militant protests outside US embassies determination. It was an anti- enable governments to provide some and corporations; occupations of imperialist movement. better basic services to the people. universities, US chemical and weapons The Vietnam War movement In the recent decades, these have companies and magistrate courts; emerged in 1962 and grew from a been steadily privatised to give private signing petitions, letterboxing millions handful of activists into a nationwide capital the opportunity to make more of homes, street meetings and public mass struggle throughout the 1960s and more money. protests, passionate discussions and and early 1970s. In 1970 under The upshot is worse and more arguments in homes, workplaces and immense pressure and persistence by expensive services for Australians. in the community, characterised a the majority of Australian people the These basic services should be vibrant and dynamic people’s Liberal government started to nationalised – run by the public, for the movement. public. This could happen now if withdraw Australian troops from governments were willing. And they Vietnam. In 1972 the newly elected The Vietnamese people’s struggle could be very efficient and effective if Whitlam Labor government finalised for national liberation and socialism run by the workers rather than just by the withdrawal of all troops and ended The Vietnamese people’s war bureaucrats. conscription. against US imperialism was an However, we know that capitalists The unyielding resistance of the extension of their long revolutionary will not accept their cash-cows being Vietnamese people under the struggle for national liberation from taken away and brought under public leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the French colonialism and Japanese ownership. Their mouthpieces in the Communist Party of Vietnam inspired militarism. In the early 1950s, the US, media will scream about 'big and mobilised struggle against US alarmed at the French defeats at the government', “inefficiency”, “the imperialism around the world. The hands of heroic Vietnamese people, sanctity of private property”, “the global struggles against the Vietnam intervened to help the French superiority of private enterprise” etc War and US imperialism were part of colonialists to crush the national And, while some publicly-owned the worldwide movement and liberation struggle. In early 1954 the services would be an improvement, the rest of the capitalist system would continue to operate purely in pursuit of profit. Workers would still be exploited; jobs would be insufficient and insecure; capital would be invested in the most profitable speculation rather than productive endeavours; the planet would continue be exploited beyond its sustainability. In the end, we need a total change of system – an economic system based on meeting the needs of the people and the planet, not based on the pursuit of profit. Social ownership – socialism is imperative. Not capitalism – the 2020 marks 50 years since the mass mobilisations of the dominance of private capital. ■ Moratorium Campaign against the Vietnam War June 2020 www.cpaml.org 11

Vietnamese people, led by Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam, overthrew French colonial rule. The US saw an opportunity for themselves to replace the French as the foreign power controlling Vietnam. Vietnam was temporarily divided into two zones at the 17th parallel, with elections scheduled within two years. However, the US and its puppet South Vietnamese governments ensured no elections were held. Instead, for the next 20 years the US installed and bankrolled a succession of corrupt and brutal puppet regimes unleashing a reign of terror on the people of Vietnam. Fighters of the National Liberation Front fly the flag during the capture of “US leaders had no intention of Saigon marking victory for the Vietnamese people in 1975 allowing a free election because they countryside to uncover and flush out Struggle, unity, resistance knew - President Eisenhower actually the NLF guerrilla fighters. The and mobilisation against made the admission – that more than defoliants included the most poisonous 80 per cent of the population would chemicals Agent Orange and Dioxin. the Vietnam War have voted for Ho Chi Minh against In ten years nearly 400,000 tons of The 8th May 1970 Vietnam War former emperor and pro-Western napalm was dropped on the Moratoriums are mainly known for the puppet Bao Dai. Washington swiftly Vietnamese people. mass rallies that drew between wheeled in a new stooge, Ngo Dinh 150,000-200,000 people into the Diem, a Vietnamese aristocrat living in “All the way with LBJ” – Australia streets of cities and regional centres New York with absolutely no follows Uncle Sam across the country. They were the following in Vietnam. Diem, described In 1962 the Australian government, biggest protests in Australia’s history by President Johnson as the ‘Churchill a compliant and loyal ally of the US up to that time. of Vietnam’, immediately cancelled since WW2, dispatched 30 military The 8th May mass mobilisations the elections promised for July 1956.” advisors to serve alongside the US were the culmination of many years of (Joan Coxsedge, Background to the army and its South Vietnamese puppet organised work and struggle by tens of Vietnam War) government forces. In 1964 the US thousands. It was a broad and diverse In 1960, Ho Chi Minh and the called again on its most obedient “ally” anti-war movement engaging and Communist Party of Vietnam provided to start sending combat troops to South uniting people from different walks of political leadership for the formation Vietnam. The Australian government life, political views and backgrounds. of the National Liberation Front of jumped to the US command and, even The political direction of the anti- South Vietnam. The NLF was a united before parliament officially declared war movement was constantly front of many groups in South Vietnam war on Vietnam in 1965, the National discussed, vigorously argued and – peasants, urban and rural workers, Service Act (conscription) was tested in practice. Calls for the defeat health workers, teachers, doctors, legislated in November 1964, making of US imperialism and support for the engineers, Buddhists, patriots, it compulsory for all 20-year-old males National Liberation Front and the Communists, liberals. Guerrilla to register for national service to fight Vietnamese people’s armed struggle resistance by the National Liberation in Vietnam. for national liberation were widely Front to US occupation and the brutal On a visit to the US in June 1966 explained, promoted and acted on. puppet government strengthened and the Australian PM Harold Holt With experience, and increasing intensified. pledged Australia’s servitude to the US exposures of US aggression and By 1967 the US had sent 485,600 and its President Lyndon Johnson, growing respect for the heroic soldiers and military personnel to proudly declaring Australia was “all Vietnamese people, calls to end US crush the Vietnamese people’s fight the way with LBJ”. imperialist aggression and Australia’s for national liberation. The US Between 1965 and 1972 about subservience to US imperialism were dropped more bombs on Vietnam than 60,000 Australia ground troops, naval more widely accepted. the overall number of bombs dropped and air force men were sent to fight in Many in the anti-war movement on Europe during WW2. The US South Vietnam. 521 Australian understood the necessity for principled sprayed more than 21 million gallons soldiers were killed and 3,000 unity to build a broad mass movement of toxic defoliants and herbicides over wounded. (continued pg.12) South Vietnamese villages and 12 Vanguard June 2020

(continued from pg.11) on key demands. In the unity and struggle within this broad united front, anti-imperialist working class politics were vigorously promoted. Opposition to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War had started in 1962 and built up almost immediately after parliament passed the National Services Act (conscription) in 1964. At first a small number of women set up Save our Sons, a national network of women opposing conscription. A few young men started to refuse to register or declared themselves conscientious objectors. By 1972 more than 100 draft resisters and conscientious objectors were in hiding or served time in gaol under the Crimes Act. Many were on the run for years, protected and hidden Some anti-war activists took explicitly anti-imperialist positions openly in people’s homes and union offices. supporting the victory of the Vietnamese people against US imperialism Hundreds of active grass roots anti- Vietnam War groups and organisations Workers’ and unions’ call to Stop economic questions, they confine sprung up across the country in Work to Stop the War echoed across themselves in a very narrow sphere. It workplaces and unions, schools, the country. Wharfies, seafarers, metal is necessary to go further than mere universities, religious organisations, workers, plumbers, printers, economic questions. For myself, I communities and neighbourhoods. electricians, shearers, mining workers, believe you must end capitalism Organising local discussion groups, food workers, teachers, meat workers, altogether…It is all coming to a great public meetings and rallies in railway and tramway workers, public fight. And I believe the workers and workplaces, communities and servants stopped work to attend rallies. working people must prepare for this.” In factories, offices, schools and neighbourhoods. There were millions The power of mass movements of homes letterboxed and poster paste universities motions and resolutions It was a truly broad united front ups during the night. Anti-war calling for an end to conscription and mass movement. People joined in concerts, performances and street the Vietnam War were enthusiastically activities at all levels from signing theatre in the suburbs and shopping supported. Hundreds of thousands petitions, attending local suburban centres. signed petitions. As early as 1966, builders’ meetings and rallies, holding meetings Stop Work to Stop the War! labourers, wharfies and seamen, led by in workplaces, people’s homes and The core and backbone of the anti- Communists, regularly walked off the streets. For years angry and militant Vietnam War movement in Australia job in opposition to conscription and protests were held outside the US was the organised working class and US imperialism. embassies and consulates, calling out militant unions without whom the Wharfies and seafarers in “Yankee Go Home”. US flags were movement could not have grown in Melbourne and Newcastle refused to burned and public declarations of numbers, militancy and strength. load and crew the military cargo ships independence from US imperialism Militant workers and unions led Boonaroo and Jeparit bound for were made outside US Consulates on and inspired the anti-war movement. Vietnam. In Sydney, seafarers placed a the 4th July. Occupations in ban on U.S. warships. The nation wide universities, schools, government Penal Powers struggle led by Clarrie offices and even a Melbourne O’Shea and the Victorian Tramways Magistrates’ court. Union members in May 1969 inspired Defying the Crimes Act and the and instilled confidence in workers, threat of long gaol sentences, workers unions and many others. and students publicly collected funds The working class was active in the for the Communist led National political class struggle against Liberation Front of South Vietnam. imperialist wars, echoing Clarrie By 1969, the majority of Australian O’Shea a year earlier that “[i]f the people were calling for our troops to be workers confine themselves merely to brought home from Vietnam. More June 2020 www.cpaml.org 13 young men refused to register or Moratorium rally led to the 4th July declared themselves as conscientious becoming an annual expression of anti- objectors. imperialist action. In Sydney tens of In early 1970 a national Vietnam thousands of workers, teachers and Moratorium committee was formed. It students walked out and marched was an organisational expression of the through city streets and sat down in the united front mass movement of middle of the city. hundreds of grass roots and official The peaceful rallies on 8th May organisations (unions) united on were in stark contrast to Moratorium immediate demands to end rallies held later in the year with police conscription, withdraw Australia from removing their badges and viciously the war and end Australia’s support for attacking protestors. US imperialism and the US-Australia By 1972 the Vietnamese people alliance. were winning the war against US On 8th May close to 200,000 people imperialist aggression, bolstering The Moratorium marches were the poured into the streets of major cities confidence of the anti-war movements largest protest mobilisations in and regional centres demanding an end across the world, including Australia. Australia’s history at that time to the war. In Melbourne 100,000 took The consistent and patient mass over the streets of five city blocks and work over the years amongst workers Vietnam War. sat down in the centre of the city. The and in communities laid the The 1960s and early 1970s Vietnam sheer numbers of protestors from groundwork for significant growth and War struggles galvanised the fight to different walks of life shocked and success of the campaign against end US imperialist control of paralysed the 1,000 police hiding Australia’s involvement in the Australia. The legacy of the anti- behind state parliament, on standby Vietnam War. It was the independent Vietnam War campaign and mass ready to provoke and attack the mass movement of tens of thousands movement holds many lessons for us protestors, make mass arrests and relying on mass mobilisations, not today in the unfinished struggle to end break up the march. parliament, that ended conscription US domination in the fight for an In Adelaide the 8th May and Australia’s involvement in the independent socialist Australia. ■

Australian Communist Journal of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

AUTUMN 2020 EDITION OUT NOW!

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The Role of the Revolutionary The Independent Fight Vanguard Party of the Working Class Building a Marxist-Leninist From the Archives: Party Requires Perseverance E.F Hill on the Seventh and Commitment Congress of the Albanian Party of Labour

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Interested in Marxist-Leninist theory? Want to contribute to the discussion? A.C welcomes articles for submission. Email [email protected] to get in touch. NEXT EDITION RELEASED: SPRING 2020 14 Vanguard June 2020 ICOR Resolution: 75 Years Victory Over Fascism

n 8 May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe. The Red Army of the socialist Soviet Union defeated the fascist O “Third Reich“ and was the driving force for the liberation of millions in the occupied countries, concentration camps and prisons. It made the liberation of entire peoples possible and the construction of people's democracies in Eastern Europe. On 8 May 1945, German Hitler-fascism capitulated. The Second World War had wreaked havoc on all continents for six years and claimed over 60 million lives, and still years after the end of the war, it left immeasurable misery and death. However, the result of the heroic struggle and victory over fascism was that the peoples in the countries under capitalist rule stepped up their struggle for national liberation against imperialism, and in the countries of people's democracies intensified the struggle for building up socialism. So, one-third of humanity was liberated from imperialism and capitalism, and people's democracies and socialism were constructed! For anti-communist reasons, the capitalist Western Allies had hesitated for a long time to enter this war against Hitler because they wanted the aggressive German imperialism to fight against and defeat the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union and its allies among the workers and broad masses all over the world. They had not succeeded in this with the War of Intervention from 1918 to 1920 supporting the White Terror. Again, they had not reckoned with the working class and the broad masses in the Soviet Union. They struggled and defeated Hitler together with the heroic resistance of the communists and partisans of the European countries in the firm conviction of constructing socialism in their own country. Fascism is the deadly enemy of the working class and the peoples of the world, of socialism and communism and their organizations. Imperialism and colonialism are the womb out of which fascism always emerges anew. In the lee of the present Corona crisis too, the fascist and proto-fascist governments, as in Hungary, Brazil, Israel, India and Turkey, are attempting to organize the transition to fascism or have built up a fascist system. In further imperialist countries like the USA, Germany, France or Great Britain the rightward development of the governments is also continuing to develop and has attained acceptance for proto-fascist ideas among certain parts of the population. At the head of this development is US imperialism. In different parts of the world fascism has increased under the cover of the Corona crisis. May 8/9, August 6 (Hiroshima Day) and September 1 (beginning of World War II) are the international days of struggle against fascism and war for the ICOR. "Every nation can celebrate this day in its own way. But the essence remains the same: Down with fascism! Down with capitalist wars!" (from a call by KSRD Ukraine) As revolutionary world organization, the ICOR promotes the socialist revolution and the construction of socialism, democracy and freedom in the entire world. Celebrating 75 years of the victory over fascism and learning from this today means putting all our efforts into strengthening the revolutionary movement in the world, as is stated in the Founding Resolution: “The desire and search for a society liberated from exploitation and oppression has to become a force for changing society which overcomes the basic evil of the imperialist world system.“ Onward with the construction of the anti-imperialist and antifascist united front! Onward with the construction of strong revolutionary parties and organizations worldwide! Onward with the construction of the ICOR! Onward to democracy, freedom and socialism! The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) is an affiliate of the ICOR (International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organisations). The CPA (M-L) signed on to this resolution along with 28 other organisations around the world.