This Spirit of Eureka statement comes on the heels of Prime Minister Morrison's spurious solutions with his 'Manufacturing in Australia' National Press Club address and the announcement of the Federal Government's Budget. Our statement aims to serve the people not profiteering corporations, which is the objective of the Coalition Government.

Introduction

The reoccurring crises of capitalism (e.g. 2000 Dot.Com crash, 2008 GFC/Sub-Prime Mortgage collapse, and the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic economic crisis) demonstrate how unstable and exploitative the capitalist market is. It inflicts hardship and destitution on workers whilst further enriching giant corporations and the rich. Over the past few decades Australia has lost sizable and vital areas of local manufacturing, leaving Australia precariously dependent on overseas supply chains. In addition, foreign owned corporations dominate the remaining biggest sectors of our economy and hold majority ownership of many major 'Australian' based businesses. This sees wealth generated here from Australian workers and the country’s resources being repatriated overseas through scams such as profit shifting and tax evasion. All this lays bare the fact that Australia is a dependent economy dominated by multinational corporations and foreign interests, in particular the United States.

Read more: An Independent and Sovereign Australian Economy

By Lindy Nolan, Spirit of Eureka NSW

After three powerful months, the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) has ended its strike against “mutual obligations” and cuts.

The strike bit, because it gave individual support and facts to those standing against lies and bullying by government and corporate agencies.

In turn, the AUWU grew to 29 branches countrywide, its Facebook pages awash with articulate and determined members and supporters. Their calls resonated far beyond the group.

One member slammed, “pointless busy work by job agencies. I’ve been advised to enrol in a literacy and numeracy course. But I topped my entire year in English four times.”

A supporter used Roy Morgan polling to show around 20 unemployed for every job available, rising to 29 if underemployment is also included.

Read more: Australian Unemployed Workers Union ends powerful strike

Independent and Peacful Australia Network (IPAN) and labour History held a commemoration meeting for the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign in Adelaide, 20th Sept 2020. The following statement was given by Stephen Darley (IPAN Sth Aust Convener and Spirit of Eureka member) to the event.

My brief is to connect the Vietnam war and the large-scale protests against it in Australia, to the present day. Obviously the US alliance still prevails, and so do the negative effects of that alliance on Australia and Australians. More on that shortly. One key result of the experience of the Vietnam war and the moratorium campaign against it was the end of mass Australian casualties in such colonial wars. The proportion between Vietnam and Afghanistan deaths and casualties is less than a tenth  in the latter war, and much less in Iraq (this bears no relationship to the deaths and injuries of Vietnamese, Afghani's and Iraqis of course – they number in the millions, civilian and military).

Read more: IPAN statement at the Vietnam Moratorium 50th anniversary Adelaide commemoration

Spirit of Eureka Statement, September 9th, 2020

Since its ratification in 1951, Australian politicians and pundits have touted the ANZUS treaty as a guarantee of Australian security. The US in signing the treaty with Australia and New Zealand did not commit to automatically supporting those countries with military forces in the event of armed attack. Rather, there is a less stringent commitment to ‘consult’. Close reading of the actual text of the treaty reveals that it is not the security guarantee that it has consistently been made out to be.

Read more: Is the ANZUS treaty a cornerstone of Australian security or merely a useful myth?