s Australasian .. Number 138 September/October 1990 ~o cents ALP Govt: Bush's Dogs of War Once again, Australian imperialism has proven to expansionist tendencies." Because of the "unique be the most slavish junior partner of the U.S., with aloneness of Australia's position," argues Sheridan, the Hawke government being among the first of "it is overwhelmingly in our interests to promote Bush's allies to enlist in imperialism's grab for oil in genuine multilateralism and to maintain the one the Persian Gulf. Two frigates, the Adelaide and truly significant alliance we have, that with the Australia .. AUSTRALIANI Darwin, and a supply ship, Success, have now arrived United States" (25-26 September). in the region to join the imperialist armada enforcing Hawke was widely ridiculed as "the president's ~ Phil!ppine U*S. TROOPS the blockade of Iraq. The government wanted to poodle" for apparently making the decision after just send two more frigates, but discovered it lacked one phone call from Bush. He was in such a hurry II.. lnd,anOct OUT Of the capacity. he didn't bother with the formality of a Cabinet --Defend th Hawke typically pontificated that "big countries decision. But the haste came from Canberra, not cannot invade small neighbours and get away with Washington, it la ter emerged. According to the Syd­ Soviet Un;, THE P£ RSIA it"-when aU Australia's wars have been fought in ney Morning Herald (1 September), "the Government someone else's country-raved jingoistically against lobbied long and hard in Washington from the very nd Vie tOOl GULF! "appeasers," and worked himself into a lather over early days of the crisis for Australian involvement" the "hostages." In the course of the flap over what and "before the U.S. had made any request, formal role the ships would play, Foreign Minister Gareth or otherwise." The Australian ambassador even had Evans ventured: "just steaming round in circles, to request Bush's phone call. This is just like bristling and operating as a general deterrent in the Vietnam, in 1965, when Menzies pressed the U.S. to abstract." What it's about is anything but abstract­ arrange a "request" from its Saigon puppets for blood, oil and the U.S. alliance. Lackey Australian Australian troops. And just as Menzies couldn't even imperialism has rushed to offer its services to its wait for the "request" to arrive before announcing military protector and "great and powerful friend," he was sending troops, so Hawke's announcement just as it did in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. preceded the arrival of a letter requesting aid from TheAustralian's Greg Sheridan advised Hawke to be the deposed Emir of Kuwait by a full three days. "completely candid" about this. "This is the first The Cold War Hawke government has supported crisis of the post-Cold War world" in which "regional every U.S. war move from Grenada to Libya to heavyweights might feel freer to indulge historic continued on page 2 Garden Island, Sydney, 13 August. Break Blockade of Iraq! The following article is reprinted from American invasion is setting the stage for The bipartisan U.S. crusade against Meanwhile as Gorbachev prates about Workers Vanguard, fortnightly paper of a new world war. former U.S. ally Saddam Hussein is "collective security," Bush has used the the Spartacist League/U.S. No. 509, 7 The consequences of Bush's war hardly about resisting aggression or fig leaf of UN sanctions as a green light September 1990. moves are incalculable. Perhaps a quarter "making the world safe for democracy." for a massive U.S. military operation less SEPTEMBER 4-What's going on in million U.S. troops are in or heading for Certainly not coming from the people . than 700 miles from the Soviet border. the Middle East right now is a bald the Persian Gulf region right now. Ships who recently slaughtered thousands of A deadly noose is tightening around the attempt by the United States to seize are being taken out of mothballs, and civilians to install a puppet regime in USSR. We call on the Soviet Union to control of the world's oil supplies. tens of thousands of reservists are being Panama. Bush says it's about defending rescind its arms embargo against Iraq. Having lost its economic predominance, called up from civilian life. It's a war "our way of life." What he means is a The trip wires for World War III are Washington is now trying to reassert its mobilization on a scale not seen since the war to make the world safe for the feu­ pulling taut in the volatile Near East. role as imperialist global policeman height of the Vietnam War. Now they're dalism of the oil sheiks and the profiteer­ French president Mitterrand declares, through brute military force. That's what talking of launching an air war in a mat­ ing of Big Oil. "We have entered into the logic of war." George Bush means when he talks about ter of weeks, and Bush is to meet Soviet After proclaiming victory in the Cold The deranged Zionist rulers inJerusalem a "new world order," echoing Adolf leader Gorbachev in a hastily called sum­ War, U.S. imperialism is now seeking to are itching for a pre-emptive strike Hitler in the 1930s. But in fact, the mit in Helsinki next weekend. dictate terms to its imperialist rivals. continued on page 4 Reuters Vacationing Bush orders war mobilisation from his golf cart. Is this the face of World War III? Imperialist Oil Pirates Out of the Persian Gulf! Registered by Australia Post-Publication No. NBF0710 imperialist forces out of the Gulf! Down Dogs of War ... with Australian lackey imperialism! (continued from page 1) Hawke Hits the Vietnam Syndrome Panama, as well embarking on an ambitious military build-up to be the Hawke was hoping to reap a "Falk­ imperialist bully-boy of the South Pacific. lands factor" from his Gulf commitment, And while they're raising a hue and cry but instead he ran into the "Vietnam over Iraqi chemical weapons, the Hawke syndrome." The memory of Australia's government has gone out on a limb to part in the dirty losing war in Vietnam is defend the U.S. chemical weapons depot still deeply embedded in the minds of on Johnston atoll. They've threatened to working people. Hawke's farewell to the invade Vanuatu, ran a dirty little "boys" at the Garden Island naval base "counter-insurgency" on Bougainville, in Sydney on 13 August went down like sent troops for UN "peacekeeping" in a lead balloon. Many of the sailors' wives Namibia, and are committed to send and families, interviewed that night on troops to Cambodia for the proposed TV, weren't cheering, and a few were UN occupation force. Evans has been outright opposed. Morale was reportedly the front man for this U.S.-inspired plan low, and "peace" Senator Jo Vallentine for counterrevolution which opens the claimed in parliament that 40 sailors had Australian Foreign Affairs Record way for the despised mass murderer Pol deserted the Adelaide. No wonder, with HMAS Adelaide foreground, part of Hawke government's contribution to Pot to return to power. Nor is this the commanders like the senior naval officer Imperialist Persian Gulf 011 grab. first time Australian troops have been who declared that asbestos was harmless used as imperialist dogs of war in the and even edible! A militant Spartacist media rapidly disappeared, after showing however, such a mood is very brittle­ Near East. After World War I, contingent (see photo, page one) at a massive (in some cases, a majority) op­ and is likely to disintegrate once war Australian troops took part in the brutal protest outside Garden Island the day the position to Hawke's Gulf commitment. breaks out. suppression of the 1919 nationalist ships left was widely covered by the Criticism ranged across the bourgeois Peace Protests: "Little uprising in Egypt by British colonial press, including the West Australian, the parliamentary spectrum, from the Aus­ Australia" Nationalism authorities. And when Hawke came to Sydney Daily Telegraph, the Townsville tralian Democrats, ex-Prime Minister power, he continued the commitment of Bulletin, the London Evening Standard, Gough Whit lam, ALP "lefts" like George The fight against imperialist war Australian troops to the U.S.-led force the French Communist Party daily Crawford and Tom Uren, Arabic news­ abroad is inseparable from working-class in the Sinai, which secured Israel's I'Humanite, the New Zealand Herald and papers and community groups represen­ struggle against the ha ted Hawke govern­ southern border when it invaded the German Suddelltsche Zeitung. ting most of the Arab community, and ment's war on the unions and the poor Lebanon. We say: Australian and all The opinion polls in the capitalist even the National Farmers Federation, at home. However the social-democratic which was worried about Australia's left and the nationalist "peace" move­ Near East tr.ade. Most of this opposition ment see it as an opportunity to revive was limited to criticising Hawke for not the "broad" popular-front anti-war To the Memory of Leon Trotsky waiting for UN approval, and the ALP movement of the Vietnam Moratorium Fifty years ago, on 20 August 1940, Leon "lefts" caved in when the vote was taken days. They have set up single-issue Trotsky was strock down by the blows of an in parliament, pleading only for more coalitions like the Sydney "Bring the "consultation." assassin acting on Stalin's orders. Co-leader Frigates Home Coalition" and the Mel­ with V.I.