Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church

A presentation by Len Cooper, Secretary CEPU., February 7, 2007

We live in a world of one superpower. Unlike previous periods of a certain level of temporary balance between superpowers, we now have a world dominated by the most massive economic and military power in history.

Whilst the USA, US Imperialism, is being challenged to a degree, and at certain levels, by other centres of capital, other centres driven by the profit motive (such as EEU, Japan, Russia, China and India), US Imperialism is still the superpower of the world.

The US maintains approximately 769 military sites in 39 overseas locations. It has approximately 386,000 troops deployed outside its territory. It maintains a military presence in more than 155 countries and territories. In addition it has 127,000 troops (approx) deployed on sea.

In economic terms if we look at just the area of East Asia and Oceania, our area, the fastest growing region in the world, mainly driven by growth in China. The net annual FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) is $54 Billion (US dollars), doubled in the last ten years.

The US is the biggest foreign investor in the region, surpassing even Japan in the area, and the region represents about one third of all US trade and the region’s largest trading 'partner'.
The major vehicles facilitating the US economic offensive in the world and in our region (in competition against China and Japan in particular) are the IMF, WB, WTO, so-called free trade agreements, ASEAN, (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) and APEC.

The US and other centres of capital have as their foreign policy objectives the seeking and securing of:

• Cheaper labour.
• Cheaper raw materials and material resources.
• Greater productivity.
• New fields of investment for surplus capital.
• Free markets and free trade (so-called) so that the strong can dominate the week. Free Trade Agreements are the predominant weapons used to further the imperialist offensive.
  Their military power is used to protect and defend the most favorable conditions for capital, for the owners of capital in their home base.

"The hidden hand of the market," Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer-prize winning foreign policy columnist for the New York Times opined, "will never work without a hidden fist – McDonald's cannot flourish without a McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

The administration of George H W Bush initiated a reconsideration of US national security policy in light of the changing global situation. The report, completed in March 1992 and known as the Defense Planning Guidance, was written under the supervision of Paul Wolfowitz, then undersecretary of policy ion the Defence department. It indicated that the chief national-security goal of the United States must be one of "precluding the emergence of any potential global competitor."

In recent years the US has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, and prepared the way for the invasion and occupation of Somalia by their puppet government in Ethiopia, by direct aggression and military intervention against the government of that country.

In previous years, just to mention a few - they supported Saddam Hussein's invasion and aggression against Iran in 1980, intervened in Lebanon in the early 1980s, intervened to help overthrow the Nicaraguan Government, intervened in Guatemala and El Salvador, invaded and occupied Granada in 1983, invaded Panama in 1989, and used Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait (which it did not discourage), for large scale military intervention in the Middle East in 1991.

In the 1990s the US intervened militarily in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

These are but a few examples of the US exercising its imperial ambition.

We are told constantly that the reasons for the United States military adventures are purely altruistic. To remove a tyrant, to prevent bloodshed, to spread democracy or to fight terrorism. The world's policemen they infer.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Foe example: what could be the reason for the US supporting the overthrow of the Government of Somalia, a government that had restored stability to Somalia after years of lawlessness and the rule of clan warlords. It was the first time the people of Somalia had peace in over 15 years.
The shops and airport were opened for the first time, people were beginning to be mobile again, the local business community and people supported the peace and stability, and now it is destroyed by the US and its agents. Why?

Two reasons. Oil and gas! Four US oil giants, namely Conoco, Chevron, Amoco and Philips had been granted concessions to oil and gas in nearly two thirds of Somalia by the overthrown warlord dictator just prior to establishment of the first stable and peaceful government in over fifteen years.

Now, again, their concessions are secure. Somalia is also a strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea and the gateway to the Suez Canal and the Middle East.

Afghanistan and Iraq are similar cases in point. At 11AM on September 11th, the Bush Administration had already announced that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.

This was before any indepth police investigation. At 11PM that night the 'war on terrorism' had been launched.

The decision was made to wage war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Barely four weeks later Afghanistan was bombed and invaded by US troops. How long does it take to prepare for a major war like that?

We know now of course that Al Qaeda was in fact the creation of US CIA, created to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was also a CIA asset. Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were also used by the CIA to help trigger ethnic conflict and destabilise Yugoslavia.

We must note that the US seems to have dropped all interest in pursuing Osama bin Laden. Is he still a CIA asset?

The war on terrorism has also been used as a pretext, not only to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq but to repeal constitutional rights and aspects of the rule of law in the US and other countries, including Australia.

We also now know that the Taliban Government, overthrown by the USA in Afghanistan, came to power as a direct result of US military aid in 1996.

No sooner had the Taliban taken Kabul in 1996, a delegation was whisked off to Houston Texas for meetings with officials of the Unocal Corporation, regarding the construction of Trans-Afghan oil pipeline.

It should also be pointed out that Osama bin Laden was on the FBI's most wanted list and had a multi million dollar price on his head well before September 11 because of other terrorist attacks on US Embassies.

Yet again we know now, that negotiations took place between Osama and the CIA two months prior to September 11 at an American hospital in Dubai where bin Laden was seeking treatment. This was while he was on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Enemy No.1, in a US hospital in Dubai negotiating with the CIA; the US's head of station in Dubai?
According to Le Figaro: Dubai… was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July (2001). A partner of the administration of the American hospital in Dubai claims that "public enemy number one" stayed at this hospital between the 4th and 14th of July. While he was hospitalised, bin Laden received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. During the hospital stay, the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking the main elevator of the hospital to go (up) to bin Laden’s hospital room. A few days later, the CIA man bragged to a few friends about having visited bin Laden. Authorised sources say that on July 15th, the day after bin Laden returned to Quetta (Pakistan), the CIA agent was called back to headquarters. In the pursuit of its investigations, the FBI discovered
'financing agreements' that the CIA had been developing with its 'Arab friends' for years. The Dubai meeting is, so it would seem, within the logic of 'a certain American policy'. [America’s War On Terrorism – Chossudovsky]

According to Dan Rather, CBS: bin Laden was back in hospital one day before the 9/11 attacks, on September 10, this time, courtesy of America’s indefectible ally Pakistan. Pakistan’s military intelligence (ISI) told CBS that bin Laden had received dialysis treatment in Rawalpindi, in a military hospital at Pak Army’s headquarters. [America’s War On Terrorism – Chossudovsky]
If the CBS report is accurate and Osama had indeed been admitted to the Pakistan military hospital on the evening of September 10 (local time), courtesy of America’s ally, he as in all likelihood still in hospital in Rawalpindi on the 11th of September, when the attacks occurred. Even if he had been released from the hospital the following morning on the 11th (local time), in all probability, his whereabouts were known to the US officials on September 12, when Secretary of State Colin Powell initiated negotiations with Pakistan, with a view to arresting and extraditing bin Laden. [America’s War On Terrorism – Chossudovsky]

The US war on terrorism is a sham. It is being used to try to cover up the imperial ambitions of the biggest US corporations and their government.

The people of the US, the American people have got it right, as the recent elections in the US show. How dare this Australian Prime Minister of ours criticising those who want to get out of Iraq.

The US people want out, the Australian people want out and the world's people want out. Howard knows that. What does democracy mean to him in reality when he flies in the face of world opinion?
I quote Pat Buchanan, Conservative US Politician, prior to the Iraq war.

"We will soon launch an imperial war on Iraq with all the 'On To Berlin' bravado with which French poilus and British tommies marched in August 1914. But this invasion will not be the cakewalk neoconservatives predict…. For a militant Islam that holds in thrall scores of millions of true believers will never accept George Bush dictating the destiny of the Islamic world…
The one endeavour at which Islamic peoples excel is expelling imperial powers by terror and guerrilla war. They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis out of Lebanon…. We have started up the road to empire and over the next hill we will meet those who went before."

Pat Buchanan ended his prophecy with imperishable words: "The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from history."

Let us look at our world of the one dominant capitalist Superpower. We have militarism, war, foreign military bases, aggression and occupation. We have mass poverty and starvation in the world. We have a relentless destruction of the environment. We have millions who are homeless and who have been driven from their land. We have the growth in the use of torture as Government policy, the undermining of the right to a fair trial, the right to representation, the right not to be unfairly detained, losing the right to exclude so-called evidence gained from torture and extreme pressure.

Poverty, starvation, environmental destruction, homelessness, erosion of democratic rights and human rights are not just phenomena or concerns in the third world, or the poverty stricken parts of the world.

In Australia for example the labour laws are the most undemocratic and oppressive in the OECD countries, the anti terror and sedition laws seriously threaten many democratic rights, workers wages and conditions are being driven down as we speak, the treatment of many refugees is amongst the worst in the so called civilised world, and the Federal Government has shown contempt for the most basic of human rights, such as the right to a fair trail and the right not to be detained without charge.

These are the trends and directions in most of the so-called advanced capitalist countries.
These are trends away from liberalism and pluralism to authoritarianism and even fascism
What can be done? What is being done?

Only, the world's people, united, can liberate human kind from this catastrophe. The Corporations in their drive for profit above all else, will not do it, because they are the cause of our problems. The politicians who represent big business won't do it because they have chosen the wrong side.

Only the people of the world on the move, awakening, protesting, resisting, fighting, can liberate the world and build a new world based on peace, stability, wellbeing and justice.

The people of the world are on the move. Change for the better is the order of the day in Latin America. Opposition to aggression and war in Iraq is massive and widespread in the world. It has all but finished Bush and Blair politically and hopefully it will finish Howard.

Struggles for freedom, independence and liberation are taking place in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Philippines, Colombia, Palestine, India, Nepal and many other parts of the world.
Just before Christmas I attended four international conferences in ten days, in Cebu, the second largest island in the Philippines. The conferences were on the subjects of jobs and justice, the US war on terror and the International League of People's Struggles (ILPS).

This was the first ILPS East Asia and Oceania consultative conference. There were one hundred and forty four participants from eleven countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The ILPS is a world wide body representing anti-imperialist and democratic mass peoples organisations, established to promote and develop the struggles of the world’s peoples, including workers, peasants, farmers, women, youth, professionals and others; struggles against oppression and exploitation.

It was established just a few years ago (2001) to be part of the world wide mass actions against military alliances and wars of aggression, and foreign military bases, and economic plunder and exploitation.

The origins of the ILPS can best be described from their booklet of 2001 called "Dare to Struggle for a New World".

We come from various democratic and revolutionary traditions and currents in various countries. We are a broad range of mass formations, taking the anti-imperialist and democratic line and seeking to build international united front in order to arouse, organise and mobilize the people in their hundreds of millions.

Our League is inspired by the anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles that have arisen since the beginning of the 20th century. It also reflects and draws strength from the recent anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles that have arisen since the decade of the 1990s.

Among our delegations in this assembly are those that have waged various forms of mass struggles for national independence, democracy and socialism in their own countries and on an international scale.

They have participated in international protest campaigns against US wars of aggression such as those against Iraq and former Yugoslavia, and against such US dominated multilateral formations as the APEC in Manila in 1996 and in Vancouver in 1997, the WTO in Seattle in 1999, the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC in 2000, the Group of 7 in Okinawa in 2000 and World Bank in Prague 2000 and so on.

It is appropriate and in its best interest for the League to trace its origins from the great revolutionary mass struggles against imperialism. The League seeks to attract and mobilise the broadest possible range of mass formations for the anti-imperialist and democratic struggle.
–It has a charter which supports and struggles for the following:

• The cause for national liberation, democracy and social liberation.
• Socio-economic development for oppressed and exploited countries and nations and social equity for all working people.
• Human Rights
• The cause of just peace and struggles against wars of aggression, and against nuclear, biological, chemical, missile and other weapons of mass destruction.
• Promotion of trade union and other democratic rights, improvement of wage and living conditions against all forms of intensifying exploitation of labour and the destruction of the working class organisations in their pursuit of the historic mission of fighting for social liberation.
• Agrarian reform and rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk.
• The cause of women's liberation and rights against all forms of sexual discrimination, exploitation and violence.
• Rights of the youth to education and employment.Children's rights against child labour, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation.
  Rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities.
• The rights of teachers, researchers and other educational personnel.
• The right of the people to health and the rights of health workers.
• Science and technology for the people and development, environmental protection against the destruction of the foundations of human life – the right to safe and healthy food and water, and opposition to manipulation of genetic technology for profit.
• Arts and culture, and free-flow of information in the service of the people.
• Justice and indemnification for the victims of illegal arrest and detention.
• Rights and welfare of homeless persons, refugees and migrant workers.
• Rights of aged people towards a life of dignity and secure existence.
• Rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people against discrimination, intolerance and homophobia.

It shall have a broad mass character, shall not be subordinate to any political party, government or religious authorities and shall afford equality to all participating organisations. It shall strive to realise the unity, cooperation and coordination of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles throughout the world.

The ILPS is an international rallying force for the people in their struggles.
The ILPS, arising from these pre-Christmas conferences I attended, is seeking a number of considerations by people in Australia, as well as other parts of Oceania and South East Asia.

1. .To coordinate and support and popularise the struggles of the people in various parts of the region.
2. .To coordinate and support opposition to militarism and foreign military bases in the region.
3. .To organise a major international conference or another event, to expose the real purpose of APEC, when the APEC conference takes place in Sydney in September of this year.
4. .To contribute to the research and exposure of the impact of imperialism, militarism and economic plunder on the people of South East Asia and Oceania.

To help do all of this they are hoping that Australians will establish a chapter of ILPS in Australia and ultimately throughout Oceania as an organising vehicle. As a vehicle for a mass people's movement in Australia.

At these conferences in Cebu I heard first hand of the magnificent and courageous struggle being waged in the region by the various peoples against militarism, war and plunder in enormously difficult conditions.

In the Philippines for example: from 2001 to 6th July 2006, more than 700 political killings have been documented. 300 belonged to cause-oriented organisations and the rest were civilians who have been accused of being active in, or supporting the people’s democratic movement. There were 26 Human Rights workers, 44 media persons, 16 church ministers and leaders, 20 peasants, 65 women, 60 workers, 43 children and 10 lawyers. This year alone more than 90 civilians were summarily executed, including 9 lawyers and 1 judge.

Yet there the struggle goes on, vigorously with enthusiasm and optimism.

Whilst I was in the Philippines 4 more activists were assassinated on the streets - 3 unionists and 1 Human Rights lawyer. The assassins simply walked away.

The US authorities and intelligence apparatus and the corrupt Philippines Government (a close ally of the US war on terrorism), hope to wipe out the democratic liberation movement by terrorism, assassination and oppression. They will fail; they are failing. The corrupt, fascist President of the Philippines has her days numbered because of the mass opposition movement of the Filipino people.

The Australian people are on the move also. They are beginning to see through Howard. They are demanding justice for David Hicks. They are demanding action to save the globe. They are demanding withdrawal from a disastrous and unjust war in Iraq.

Times are good for major social and political change. All it takes is organisation and commitment. The people united will never be defeated.