May Day Rally Transcript ‘24

The events of October 7th and the genocidal violence of the illegitimate Israeli occupation has drawn the world's attention to imperialism and resistance. It is important to remember that this violence and aggression, this exploitation and oppression, is not restricted or isolated to one place, and that it originates in the West.

When we look around the world, we see a common struggle. We see Indigenous people being displaced, having our natural resources stolen, our governance systems couped or perverted into puppet systems, our cultures and way of life being attacked and destroyed.

We see our people being ethnically cleansed, subjected to genocide, and slaughtered with impunity.

These are not separate issues. These struggles across the world are linked. While our enemies might take various names and faces, it is ultimately the same enemy we share.

This enemy is western imperialism and settler-colonialism.

What is imperialism, no doubt you’ve all heard the word but what actually is it? Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, it is the stage at which a nation and its corporations use their military, their culture, and their laws to rob another nation of its resources and autonomy.

While it may be true that there are different powers and forces across the world who engage in imperialism, it is paramount that we, here in the west, recognise our own position on a global stage and act accordingly.

To aid genuine liberation struggles is to combat their primary obstacle: today, this is western imperialism - the interference in other nations' sovereignty to advance western economic and political interests. Once western imperialism is defeated and our states are no longer militarily and economically dominating other nations, once they are no longer actively preventing or co-opting uprisings around the world, these liberation struggles will actually have an opportunity to advance.

Right now the best way to materially support liberation struggles is to remove the threat of western interference that looms over the potential collapse of non-western states.

As it stands, western imperialism orchestrates instability in nations that it seeks to cripple, not so that a workers' revolution can take place, but so that western players can be put into positions of power to advance western interests. Western imperialism is the primary contradiction in the world and is the primary threat to all liberation struggles. Those of us who reside in the imperial core must be accountable to the rest of the globe.

It is us, who reside in the west, who are responsible for using our agency to dismantle the power structures of our own nations.

The public condemnation of enemy nations of western states legitimises demands for war and western intervention, despite our intentions or substance of our criticisms. This not only distracts from the primary issue at hand but empowers it. To talk about the two side by side - western imperialism and Chinese or Russian or other imperialism - allows for a false equivalence in the minds of the masses.

The denouncement of western enemies not only serves the empire, it creates a false illusion that regional powers are comparable to the largest global powers in history. These global powers have unparalleled corporate monopolies and wield the largest and most powerful militaries in world history. They operate from thousands of military bases located right across the globe, and control major trade routes, interfering with the sovereignty of hundreds of Nations, exploiting their resources, harming their workers and puppeteering their governments.

Make no mistake, the western imperialists maintain a near-monopoly on this imperialism. No other nation comes close to the destruction, pain, theft and genocide committed by the west. Criticisms of western enemies are not only unhelpful at a time when accurate, coherent and precise analysis is critical - they are counterproductive. The single greatest impact you can have in support of Palestine and the Middle East, of West Papua, of the Congo or Sudan, of so-called South America or Oceania or anywhere else imperialism and colonialism exists, is right here in your very own backyard.

So-called Australia supplies arms, resources and logistics to occupations like Israel and Indonesia. Australia is currently stealing natural resources from some 35+ African Nations. Australia houses the most important military installations outside mainland USA. It is Australia that continues to police the Pacific ocean. And it is this colony that occupies some 250+ unceded Aboriginal Nations of this continent.

It is not enough to symbolically stand in solidarity with the victims of western imperialism. Symbolic gestures make little to no difference to the material conditions these people struggle under. It costs nothing to symbolically stand with Palestine or West Papua or elsewhere. It makes little to no difference to the everyday life of settlers on this continent, it makes no impact on the imperialist war machine, and it doesn’t help the material conditions of those struggling in the global south.

Challenging the occupation here, from inside the belly of the beast, would actually require effort. It would actually require sacrifice, it would require tangible and material action. It would require challenging the status quo that everyone lives with.

Until we confront the one nation we have the power to impact most, nothing can truly change here or anywhere else.

Naarm May Day Poster 2024