Where to now?

The 19 January ceasefire between Israel and Hamas marks more than a year of heroic Palestinian resistance to the relentless, brutal Zionist assault on Gaza. Palestinians have every right to celebrate their successes, as they have done. However, while failing in its stated aim of eliminating Hamas, Israel has advanced its historic objective to expand its borders, stepping up its offensive in the West Bank and leaving Gaza in ruins. It is clear that Palestinian oppression is far from over. In Australia, as elsewhere, pro-Palestinian activists must use this reprieve to regroup, draw real lessons and prepare for the next stage of the conflict. The Zionist onslaught propelled thousands in this country onto the streets. Despite this, and a plethora of union motions and solidarity statements, the Palestine movement has been unable to effect any change in Australia’s support to Israel. Instead, it has become moribund, with weekly protests shrivelling while the remnants have increasingly fractured. Taking advantage of this, Albanese and various state governments have upped the ante against activists, meting out increased state repression (see defence statement).

How did we get here? As we wrote in RB No. 1 (Autumn 2024), the imperialist ruling classes have a material interest in maintaining Israel as a crucial outpost, one whose basis is the denial of Palestinian national existence. The US pours billions of dollars a year into Israel to maintain it as a key base to project US power in a volatile region. It is a vital component of the US-led world order, something that the US clings ever tighter to as its hegemony declines.

For Australian imperialism, backing the US-led world order is integral to its interests. The ruling class’s existence has long depended on playing junior partner to its American big brother. With US hegemony slipping, the Australian ruling class has desperately sought to prop it up. This is the context of Australia’s ironclad backing of Israel. Australia is not going to end its support to the Zionist machine unless pressure is brought to bear on this junior link in the imperialist chain. What is required is to strike a real blow against the Australian ruling class. The only force with the social power capable of carrying this out, through withdrawing labour and stopping production, is the working class. It is the working class that holds the cards in breaking Australia’s support to Israel. For the pro-Palestine movement to succeed it must tie itself to struggles of the working class and fight to unleash this social power.

There is every reason for these two struggles to be fused. For one, it is in the objective interests of the Australian working class to fight for a free Palestine. All imperialist machinations to uphold the dying US-led world order, from Palestine to China, have been and will be paid for by the proletariat and oppressed. Working-class anger at Albanese has been percolating as the government continues to put the squeeze on workers, presiding over deteriorating living conditions and social decay. The working class delivering a serious blow to this hated government through a hard-fought strike to defend and advance its living conditions would do more to challenge Albanese and co than all the impotent weekly protests combined.

In turn, a successful strike against the government’s backing of Israel would be a huge boon for the working class, strengthening its position and opening the door to further advance its interests. There is clear sentiment in the workers movement for actions in defence of Palestine, as attested to by the size of past demonstrations, as well as the number of motions passed and statements proclaimed in unions and Labor Party branches. However, to date, in spite of all the popular support, all the mass protests, all the motions, nothing has happened. No mass strikes against the government’s support to genocide, no black bans on war matériel going to Israel, nothing. Why?

It is the same reason there has been no serious working-class struggle against this rotten government more generally: the entire union movement is shackled by a leadership subordinate to capitalism and beholden to the Labor Party administering on behalf of the ruling class, turning the screws on the oppressed at home while being slavishly loyal to its US big brother overseas. This union leadership includes the so-called “Friends of Palestine” bureaucrats who declare their support to Palestine but do nothing to mobilise their base to make this a fighting proposition. Such “Friends of Palestine” wax lyrical about international solidarity but at the end of the day kowtow to the pro-imperialist lackeys running the Labor government, refusing to chart an independent class-struggle road forward.

Instead of the head-on confrontation that is needed, the strategy of the “Friends of Palestine” amounts to begging and pleading for the capitalists and their Labor government to change course on something that they are fully committed to. Spreading illusions that Australian capitalism can peacefully “opt out” of American diktats only weakens the working class and transforms sentiment for action into harmless Sunday speeches and empty motions. These union leaders are key in rendering the workers movement impotent and are the main roadblock to any serious class-struggle fight against the government’s backing of Israel and its attacks on the working class alike.

As for the leaders of the Palestine protest movement and their left tails, they imbibe in the same worldview as these “left” bureaucrats. Instead of fighting for a class-struggle course they engage in liberal speechifying and small-time stunts, pushing appeals to the very imperialists who created and need Israel. This mirrors the futile strategy of their liberal co-thinkers in the union bureaucracy of begging the ruling class to change their mind. Their impotence leads to hysterical actions such as the protest against the Myer Christmas windows which attempted to “shame” families for simply celebrating Christmas, ultimately only serving to engender more repression and further alienate workers from the Palestinian cause. This liberal strategy has strangled the Palestinian movement.

To cover for their inability to effect change, protest leaders turn to their “Friends of Palestine” mates, with whom they share a symbiotic relationship. By pointing to their union “friends in high places,” and the myriad empty motions and solidarity statements that they peddle, they can claim that they are successful in their bid to slowly change the “hearts and minds” of Australians which will “pressure” the government to change tack. In turn, the union tops get a pat on the back and gain kudos for their “Friends of Palestine” pretentions without lifting a finger. Instead of fighting to break the working class from the labour bureaucracy, protest leaders have transformed the movement into a vehicle to promote it. Today, in their bid to rebuild the movement they have only doubled down on this course.

The Palestine movement will remain dead in the water unless it is tied to the same causes that have animated proletarian struggle throughout this country. Over the past period, workers from construction and maritime, to Sydney trains and Woolworths warehouses, have been sparked into action against anti-union attacks and their deteriorating living conditions under Albanese’s Labor. Activists must look to turn each expression of proletarian unrest into a fight that can strike a blow against the bosses’ machinations against Australian workers and Palestinians alike. This, in turn, necessitates a ruthless struggle to expose the role of the “left” union traitors in crippling both the Palestinian and workers movements. A line must be drawn in the workers movement against all supporters of the Albanese government as well as their left-talking conciliators in the unions. Only this offers a road forwards to bring the Labor government and its support to Israel to heel.

Left cover for “Friends of Palestine”

Instead, the left has remained wedded to the movement’s existing course. A prime example is TU4P, which was set up by left groups and is the vehicle through which much of their work around Palestine has been carried out. For all the differences between participating groups and individuals, they have been united on the basis of “rank-and-file activism,” not as opponents of the “Friends of Palestine” bureaucrats but as their promoters. An early example of this was the TU4P-initiated “community picket” against Israeli ZIM ships at Melbourne’s Webb Dock in January. While activists bravely stared down police repression, these “community pickets” only temporarily stalled a couple of Israeli ships with no effect on continued support to the Zionist war machine while acting as a cover for the maritime union (MUA) bureaucrats’ refusal to black ban war matériel to Israel (see “To defend Palestine: Break the U.S. connection in the workers movement,” RB No. 1, Autumn 2024).

In this sense, TU4P, like the left more broadly, embodies the very problem that has plagued the Palestine movement and, as a result, has suffered the same fate. Today, it has splintered and is a rump of what it once was. For all the debates and frustrations within TU4P, most prominently seen between Socialist Alternative (SAlt) and Solidarity, none of the major participants have broken from their fealty to the left Laborite union bureaucracy.

Take for instance one of the main debates that has raged within TU4P: what approach to take towards the ALP. Some, such as Solidarity, have been much more eager to maintain good relations with Labor and the union tops in order to pressure them. Others, like SAlt, who channel the petty-bourgeois moral outrage of the movement, denounce Labor from top to bottom. The toiling masses of Australia and the world do indeed have every reason to hate Albanese’s Labor! But what is needed is not empty vitriol against Labor as some monolithic enemy, but a program to break the workers movement from the chains of the Labor government and their conciliators in the trade-union bureaucracy. For all the huffing and puffing, neither side of the debate does this. Rather, they converge over support to the “Friends of Palestine” bureaucrats. This was on full display at the small TU4P rally in defence of Palestine outside the Victorian ALP conference in May.

The conference, attended by hundreds of union delegates, was occurring at a time of rising unrest within the union movement and in the ALP itself over the Labor government’s continued support to the genocide. This was an opportunity to connect the shrinking weekly Sunday protests to the workers movement and exacerbate the fissures that Albanese was trying so hard to contain to avoid a “Gaza split.” With dissatisfaction in the workers movement threatening to break to the surface at the conference, Albanese demanded of his Victorian counterparts that any potential split get sorted pronto. What was required was to heighten these tensions, drive through the feared “Gaza split” and throw a wrench in the plans of Albanese and those who refuse to break with him. This is the perspective that the SL/A fought for. As our banner outside the conference declared: “Defend Palestine! Chuck the U.S. Lackeys Out of the ALP/ACTU!”

Instead of this perspective, TU4P and the reformist left moulded the protest into a vehicle to promote the “Friends of Palestine” union bureaucrats and express moral outrage. While Solidarity’s attempts to cosy up to ALP delegates were sabotaged by SAlt’s blanket denunciations of Labor as they heckled and jostled attendees, for all the bristling tension, they both championed then-head of the CFMEU, Christy Cain, who spruiked from the platform how he was fighting the good fight. They wilfully ignored the fact that he hadn’t lifted a finger to mobilise the powerful union he led to give the ruling class the gut punch it needs. Emblematic of their impotence was the “finale” of the Saturday rally which saw protesters storm the conference in what amounted to little more than a publicity stunt aimed at “shaming Labor.” In part as a result of the demonstration’s impotence, the Labor tops had an easy road patching up any potential “Gaza split,” allowing the “Socialist Left” inside the conference to push through motions proclaiming support to Palestine—enough to appease critics within Labor and the unions but with no effect on the federal party as it continued to back Israel without hindrance.

TU4P’s subservience to the union bureaucracy was further exemplified after their 28 June meeting was banned from Trades Hall. The ban by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) was in response to a mooted call by TU4P’s Coordinating Committee (CC) that the Police Association be disaffiliated from Trades Hall following heavy police repression against Palestine protests. In a bloc with the police, it was the very bureaucrats that TU4P was formed to promote that brought down the hammer on them! This provoked a bitter wrangle within TU4P over the CC. On one side, the Solidarity-led bloc fought to dissolve the CC, condemning it for having poisoned relations with Trades Hall. On the other side, the SAlt-led bloc fought to defend the CC. But their shared subservience to the union bureaucracy ensured that when faced with such a belligerent attack by the VTHC union tops, both sides sought to bury the Trades Hall ban. None dared to publicise it, some even tried to pretend there was no ban at all!

This was the context of our intervention to defend TU4P against the VTHC and to chuck the cops out of the workers movement. The fact is, the same bureaucrats that prevent the unions from taking any action in defence of Palestine are the ones that banned TU4P for merely suggesting that the cops be kicked out of Trades Hall. We drew a line: are you on the side of Palestine or the police? In doing so, there was no burying the ban behind the CC wrangle. It motivated others to push forward with a motion at the large TU4P public meeting in July that included the call to end the police affiliation to VTHC.

When it came to voting for this motion, some, including Solidarity, outrageously voted against it while others, including SAlt, supported it. The motion passed—good! However, no sooner had it passed than it was buried. Having a motion pass is one thing, but to put it into effect would put TU4P up against the “Friends of Palestine” officials they promote. It would mean breaking from the very framework that TU4P was founded on and guided by. Kevin Bracken, the former head of the Victorian branch of the MUA, captured the perfidious role played by TU4P declaring, as one Red Battler supporter reported, that “If you want to organise to get the police out of Trades Hall go form your own group. That is not what TU4P was set up to do.” Since the vote on that motion nothing has been done by TU4P to drive the cops out of Trades Hall or even to defend themselves! To this day the ban persists. The result of this act of seppuku was predictable. Today, TU4P is a shell of what it once was.

A path forwards

What was clearly posed for TU4P to defend itself is what is posed for the Palestine movement as a whole: the necessity to break from the liberal leadership and its subordination to the trade-union bureaucracy. For the movement to rise from its collapsed state, it needs to be rebuilt on the solid foundation of class struggle. The working class has continued to raise its head in the face of declining living conditions. It has been propelled into action against the same force that has ensured Australia continues to support the Zionist regime—the Albanese government and the bosses he bats for. Pro-Palestine activists must break from their program of liberal moralising and small-time stunts and fight for the working class to wield its immense social power and strike a blow against the common enemy. If successful, this could terminally weaken the Labor government and threaten the ruling class’s ability to support Israel. What is required for this is a determined struggle to break the workers movement from today’s union “leaders”—most especially the left-talking false “Friends of Palestine.” Those who crawl to these bureaucrats only help to chain the Palestinian and workers movements to the very roadblock that has crippled the class-struggle fight necessary to advance the interests of both Palestinians and the proletariat here.

The past few months has seen the Labor government continue in its attempts to keep a lid on proletarian discontent, further tightening its vice on the workers movement. The increased suppression against the Palestine protests, and the ban on TU4P, occurred just as the government was moving to impose a state takeover of the CFMEU—one of the most substantial attacks against the working class in generations. For the “left” leaders of the trade unions and their tails, the chickens have come home to roost. They spouted off against AUKUS, declared their solidarity with Palestine, and spoke some defiant words in defence of the CFMEU. But when push comes to shove, when what was required is to break their unity with the ALP tops and confront the ruling class and its Labor government, they crumbled again and again. This has now led to the most militant union in this country being put under direct state control. As one Spartacist comrade argued in the TU4P chat group: “How to get unions to defend Palestine if they don’t even defend themselves? There needs to be a break with the union tops’ unending attempts to appease the Labor govt.” Only a fight to break workers from all wings of the union bureaucracy offers a road to working-class action against the Albanese government and in defence of Palestine. Only this offers a way forward for the movement.