Capitalism and the arrival of modern industry in the 19th century produced a truly world market for the first time in human history and with it the material basis for global socialism.
The development of capitalism also produced the world’s first global class with common interests – the working class.
Labor Tribune supports and fights for the international interests of the working class against capitalism and its modern expression, the imperialist world order, which is the source of militarism, oppression, rampant environmental destruction and war.
Concretely in Australia that means addressing the colonial legacy of British imperialism in its drive to eradicate First Nations on this continent and it means opposing our own imperialist ruling class and its alliance with the global hegemonic power, the United States.
Further, it means active solidarity with workers and the oppressed in the Asia-Pacific region, especially against Australian imperialism.
We recognise that Australia is a junior imperialist power within the global militarised hierarchy, with Canberra acting as the regional enforcer of that order.
Imperialism is not a question of the government having the ‘wrong policy’, it is an essential expression of advanced capitalism and can only be removed by abolishing and superseding capitalism.
Labor Tribune opposes militarism, imperialism and its wars. We are for the withdrawal of Australia from ANZUS, the Five Eyes intelligence syndicate and AUKUS. And we are for the closure of all US military and intelligence facilities in Australia, including Pine Gap.
Nationalism: the ruling ideology
As far back as 1845 Karl Marx noted that the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas of that epoch.
And so, the dominant ideas of modern society support a system of profit for the rich and powerful organised around the nation state. The resultant ideology of nationalism remains the last great chain strangling the global unity of the working class.
While today nations seem immutable and ahistoric, they are a recent phenomenon in human history, ‘imagined communities’ around the dominant capitalist ruling class and its ideas.
With the historic expansion of European colonial and imperial powers, the ideologies of racism alongside nationalism arose to justify Europeans carving up the world’s natural resources and human labour.
Natural resource variation or different labour skills across the world are treated as ‘competitive advantage’, rather than collective advantages to enhance sustainable production.
Nationalism and national competition are intrinsic to capitalism and are objective fetters on sustainable global production for human need. A system of production aimed at limitless expansion means a system that our natural environment and Earth’s climate can no longer sustain.
Further, nationalism creates an intrinsic tendency to war to resolve contradictions within the capitalist system, or to expand the imperial interests of the major powers.
Global capitalism v the nation-state
The contradiction between the global nature of the capitalist market and the national organisation of the capitalist state is an objective barrier to sustainable global production for the needs of humanity.
The capitalist order is incapable of resolving this contradiction positively.
Given the global character of the working class, only our class can positively overcome this contradiction through international working-class solidarity and coordinated action for a socialist and post-capitalist society.
Only a global socialist system can use the relative and variant strengths of production and natural resources for the benefit of all and remove the root causes of war.
National cultures
Marxists are not national nihilists. With modern nations there emerges national culture alongside an emergent global culture. The nature of that national culture is subject to class struggle as much as the organisation of production and the distribution of its products.
Alongside the economic and political struggles of the working class, our class also struggles for the victory of the progressive character of national culture and its integration into a democratic global culture.
Such a positive unity of national cultures can emerge as a global culture that cherishes the natural resources of the planet and supports the solidarity of the world’s working class.
Simply put, internationalism is the best of who we can be.
Reactionary anti-imperialism
While the US is the centre of the global imperialist system, it does not mean that all forces in opposition to US imperialism are progressive or allies of the working class.
It is, in fact, inevitable that other capitalist or reactionary counter-hegemonic forces will seek to replace the United States, not with a global socialist and democratic order, but with despotism or new empires.
These alternate ‘poles’ opposing the US are not progressive alternatives. Marxists do not seek a ‘multipolar’ world to contest US hegemony. Our ‘pole of opposition’ is the global working class.
Democratic national liberation
Marxists support national liberation movements against imperialism, while also opposing nationalist ideology. We do not seek to install ‘progressive’ capitalists in opposition to empire, but express solidarity with workers’ and peasants’ movements seeking national liberation.
Australia is not ‘oppressed’ by US imperialism but is a partner to its operation. We oppose left nationalist illusions in Australia and argue that the internationalist duty of workers in Australia is to overthrow our own constitutional order and ‘our’ ruling class.
Socialism is international
The global nature of capitalism means that ‘escaping’ it in one country is not possible. A successful socialist revolution in one or more countries can only be partial until the balance of global forces has tilted decisively against capitalism.
The 20th century has shown us that an isolated revolution will lead to degeneration and defeat.
The victory of socialism must be the coordinated act of the working class in the advanced economies in solidarity with workers and oppressed classes globally.
In Australia, that means a fight for a democratic republic that seeks economic and political unity with South-East Asia and Oceania.
Immigration
Labor Tribune fights for a world without borders.
Capital moves around the world with few restrictions. We are for the free movement of people.
Therefore, we support the unrestricted right to emigrate and the right to immigrate.
All migrants and refugees to Australia should receive citizenship after six months. Immigrant labour cannot be scapegoated by racists or the capitalist class. We fight for all migrants to be employed at trade union rates and for integration into the workers’ movement. We demand the closure of offshore and onshore detention camps and fight for democratic integration of all migrants, for their right to learn English, and their right to use community languages.