The assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), Max Boddy, released a video Monday March 9, opposing the criminal US-Israeli war on Iran, denouncing the complicity of the Anthony Albanese Labor Government, and calling for a socialist anti-war movement.
The text of that statement is published below. You can watch and share the video on X, Instagram and TikTok.
This attack on an oppressed nation by the US and Israel is wholeheartedly supported by the Australian Labor government of Anthony Albanese.
Not only was the Australian government one of the first and most vociferous adherents to this criminal and genocidal war, it is also directly implicated in it.
In what will be remembered as an international war crime, on Wednesday March 4 a US submarine sank the IRIS Dena, an unarmed Iranian naval frigate, killing at least 140 sailors.
The attack was carried out without warning in international waters near Sri Lanka, almost 3,000 kilometres from the Persian Gulf. The vessel was not engaged in hostilities, having just participated in a joint naval exercise hosted by India.
Prime Minister Albanese has now admitted that three Australian naval personnel were on board the submarine during the attack.
Their presence as part of the AUKUS alliance is the graphic reality of Labor’s support for this war. Albanese’s declaration that the Australians on board did not participate in the strike, and that Canberra had no prior knowledge of it, beggars belief. It is a transparent attempt to conceal the extent of Australia’s involvement.
Within hours of the first US-Israeli strikes on February 28, senior Labor ministers issued statements endorsing the attack and repeating Washington’s lies that Iran poses a “nuclear threat.”
This follows the same pattern of the past three decades, in which Australian governments have functioned as loyal attack dogs of US imperialism.
It also makes clearer the purpose of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia in February, against which thousands protested in opposition to a war criminal touring the country. Laws banning protests and providing for the illegalisation of oppositional organisations, were rushed through parliament and used to justify unprecedented police brutality against the protesters. In addition are the expanded surveillance powers and unprecedented restrictions on social media and political expression.
The purported reason for Herzog’s visit was to mourn the 15 victims of the December 14, Bondi Beach terrorist shootings. In fact, it was clearly to ensure the Australian government was fully behind the upcoming war against Iran.
Labor is once again aligning Australia behind Washington’s wars because the interests of Australian capitalism are bound up with those of US imperialism.
Millions of lives are at risk. The conflict threatens to ignite a catastrophic regional war and escalate toward a confrontation with China, which US imperialism sees as its chief strategic rival. The Australian landmass and its population of 26 million are being prepared as the staging ground and as fodder for this upcoming war.
The same Labor government that claims there is no money for hospitals, education or social services is pouring hundreds of billions into submarines and missiles.
We call on workers in Australia and internationally to mobilise against this imperialist conflict. Your allies are not the capitalist governments of different political persuasions in Australia, New Zealand, the US and globally. Your allies are the Iranian, Chinese, American and international working class.
No appeals to Labor, the Greens or the trade union leaders will stop this war. All defend the US alliance. All defend the capitalist system which is the source of war. They stand with the warmongers.
Workers around the world share a common interest. They have no stake in conflicts fought for oil, profits and global domination. United internationally and based on a socialist program of opposition to all capitalist parties, the working class has the power to stop this descent into catastrophe.
Contact the Socialist Equality Party. Join us in this fight.
The struggle must begin now.