ANZAC Day is Nothing to celebrate

greece / turkey / cyprus | imperialism / war | opinion / analysis Wednesday April 27, 2005 19:44 by Sally Darity - MACG macg1984 at yahoo dot com dot au PO Box 2120 Lygon Street North East Brunswick 3057

Australian anarchists on the invasion of Turkey in 1915

The attempted invasion of Turkey by the ANZACs and other Alied forces in 1915 was a typical episode in World War 1. "Defending Australia" had nothing to do with it. The war was fought between two rival imperial alliances, each out to gain territory, colonies and markets.

No to war - No to Patriotism

ANZAC Day is Nothing to celebrate

The attempted invasion of Turkey by the ANZACs and other Alied forces in 1915 was a typical episode in World War 1. "Defending Australia" had nothing to do with it. The war was fought between two rival imperial alliances, each out to gain territory, colonies and markets. Tens of thousands of young men were sacrificed, on both sides in the trenches, for the wealth and power of rich capitalists and the great houses of Europe.

IWW opposed WW1

The IWW, a revolutionary syndicalist workers union, opposed the war from the start. Against the wave of patriotic propaganda, the IWW proclaimed the War was a capitalist crime and that a bayonet was a weapon with a worker at each end. They were prominent in the succesful campaign to stop the labor Government introducing conscription. By fighting against the war, the IWW did more good than all the ANZAC's whose sacrifices were for a cause not their own.

All Wars are Wrong.

All wars are wrong because they are the results of the conflicts between the ruling classes of different countries. The working class has no interest in these conflicts. They are a tool of the ruling class to divide workers and others in society against wrokers in other countries. We must oppose war on principle by opposing both sides. Instead, we must struggle for our interests, trying to establish solidarity ties with the working class of the "other" side.

A World without War requires a world without capitalism.

Our capitalist system is built on the theft of worker's labour in the form of profits.

Capitalists compete fiercely with other capitalists for an ever larger share of the wealth that workers produce. Nation states are the machinery for protecting capitalist interests within each state. When they come into conflict, war is the result. To end war, we must end capitalism. Together, we can produce enough for all to share, so the old days of competition and division will end.

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ELSEWHERE

Meanwhile ten of thousands of Corporate media conscripted amnesiacs went to War Memorials and waved the Bosses flags and followed the Prime Monster, his Loyal "Opposition' & crooked politicians, sky pilots, stay -at-home patritic editors and other money maggots.

LEST WE REGRET?

When The time came to remember the Australaina and New Zealand dead; plaques were placed where new trees were planted in "Peace parks".

Alarmed at this "peace scare" the Stock Exchange & War industrialists sponsored Militaristic War Memorials instead, thus the legacy which we are suppsed to honour ?

Of course the many indigenous sites of resistance during the continuing Colonial WAR to steal Australia from the aboriginal peoples are not "honoured" by any memorials.

The Returned Services League in collaboration with the National Governent has condemned those diggers who survived East Timor in World War 2 and the 1999 "Peace-Keepers" who through TV advertisements called for the oil revenue to be given to the Timorese.

The RSL has also opposed allowing members of the Turkish community in Australia to march in commemoration of their relatives deaths, along with the "Australians", although they are also citizens

Sally Darity Melbourne 25th April 2005

Report on event

"Praise Boss when morning work bells chime,
Praise Boss for bits of overtime,
Praise Boss whose wars we love to fight,
Praise Boss , fat leech and parasite."

Ah Hell.
Doxology of the IWW
(satire to the tune of Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow)

10.30am on Monday April 25th at the old Melbourne Australia Industrial Workers of the World headquarters, 171 Little Bourke Street (cnr little Bourke and Russell)

Some fifteen friendly folks assembled to celebrate the anti-conscription and antiWar movement during the ANZAC/First World War catastrophe.

SPY vs SPY Dept.

In an echoe of the past repression of anti-war activists theme an agent of State surveillance appeared.

He identified himself as monitoring anti-war protesters and wanted to know if we would be trying to disrupt the media event and "digitaries".

We declined to collaborate with his questions.

Otherwise the State's uniformed Police ignored our small event.

A scout out of nearby parked cars revealed no obvious camera monitoring of those gathered.

IWW anti-war greeting cards produced the Melbourne IWW were distributed.

Classic solidarity chants Union Maid and "Praise Boss" were sung.

A "war Tree" with profit roots & skull fruits of death, disease, poverty, and misery was built and displayed. "strikelets" red-food-dyed pancake mixture cooked and served up.

A poster produced by the organiser Jeremy Dixon jeremytrewdixon@yahoo.com.au announced:

In Australia, and Australia alone of all the First World War belligerents, conscription was not enforced against the people in that war. In large part this was due to the militants of the Australian IWW, revolutionary unionists who played a crucial spearhead role in the campaign which defeated the conscription referendum in 1916.

Vilified, hunted and imprisoned, IWW militants were responsible for saving hundreds and thousands of Australians from death and maiming, perhaps your won grandfather or great-granfather. Now more than ever we need to remember their legacy."