In the following article, Dr Kate Hudson, Vice President of Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), noting that we are now five years into the AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the USA, poses the question: how does it fit into the ongoing build-up to war on China?
She goes on to argue that while “the most immediate struggles between the US and China are currently very much taking place on the economic terrain, the longer run underlying issues are of course military… there is no doubt that enormous resources are being put into expanding US military power to give it the capabilities to confront China.”
She explains that, at its most obvious level, AUKUS is a military pact between Australia, the UK and the US, which enables Australia to have nuclear powered submarines. “These are massively more capable than their previous conventionally powered subs, with much greater reach, much greater payload and much smaller detectability. In the context of either controlling the region, or being used in war, these subs are a massive escalation and provocation. They also constitute nuclear proliferation, which adds another whole order of illegality to the initiative.”
Resistance is building in Australia, particularly from the trade union movement but also from wider circles, including former Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating. And there is common ground here in Britain: “Wages not weapons and welfare not warfare were key successful slogans at the TUC Conference last month… Let’s build the links across borders and step up our political and practical work here.”
The article, published on the website of the Stop the War Coalition, is based on the speech Kate delivered at our Socialist China Conference on October 3. The video of the relevant session can be viewed here.
We’ve just had the five year anniversary of the AUKUS pact. How significant is AUKUS for our anti-war work, and in particular, how does it fit into the ongoing build up to war on China?
While the most immediate struggles between the US and China are currently very much taking place on the economic terrain, the longer run underlying issues are of course military: US alliances, rearmament and the build up of US power and proxy power in Asia and the Pacific. While I would say that hot war is not on the immediate agenda, there is no doubt that enormous resources are being put into expanding US military power to give it the capabilities to confront China.
AUKUS is one very important example of this. To be honest, it’s not always easy to get people interested in AUKUS – anything that’s an acronym can be a big turn off. But we need to make it understandable, because it’s a crucial, massively expensive and hugely controversial cog in the process of US attempts to dominate the Asia Pacific and build its anti-China alliances.
At its most obvious level, AUKUS is a military pact between Australia, the UK and the US, which enables Australia to have nuclear powered submarines. These are massively more capable than their previous conventionally powered subs, with much greater reach, much greater payload and much smaller detectability. In the context of either controlling the region, or being used in war, these subs are a massive escalation and provocation. They also constitute nuclear proliferation, which adds another whole order of illegality to the initiative. So that’s what it means practically. Politically it’s pushed Australia into another whole ball park. Australia has previously had good relations with China, and a strong economic partnership. It used to balance its relationship with the US on the security front, and China on the trade front.
But now AUKUS has locked Australia into the US military camp, and US and UK nuclear submarine infrastructure is being embedded directly into Australian bases. Essentially, Australia has joined a hostile block against China and aligned itself with US goals.
Not surprisingly, there is a lot of opposition to AUKUS in Australia, particularly from the trade union movement, and there’s been the development of some cooperation and solidarity since the pact was signed five years ago. The Australian Maritime Union has been in the lead on this, and Warren Smith, their deputy national secretary, has been particularly prominent. Of course peace movements have played their part too, and there has been some cooperation, but this needs to be stepped up.
There’s been wider criticism too within Australia, from former Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating. They stress the massive price tag – possibly over £260 billion over the lifetime of the programme. In essence it’s a massive wealth transfer from Australia to the US and UK military industry that eradicates domestic funding for housing and other public needs. Australia will be paying half of all the design, development and research for the new subs, which Britain needed to do anyway for its own subs; and it’s also paying for a massive expansion at Rolls Royce in Derby, so they can make the nuclear propulsion units; and then it’s paying huge sums to build a new shipyard in Australia and to upgrade its naval base in western Australia.
It seems to me like a massive con trick to make Australia pay for UK submarine expansion, and new jobs in Derby. Meanwhile Australia rips the guts out of their public spending and destroys their relationship with their main trading partner.
The past year has seen more military integration: Australia routinely participates in NATO summits alongside Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand (collectively known as the IP4). Australia has also formalised an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement organisation to streamline so-called ‘defense acquisitions’. This is typical of what is happening across the region, or at least amongst a number of countries – of course not all are so compliant.
So the point is this: there is a huge amount of common ground between the campaigns and struggles that we are engaged in here, against militarisation and the war drive, and the struggles in Australia – and other countries too. The trade union links are obvious – wages not weapons and welfare not warfare were key successful slogans at the TUC Conference last month. And let’s not forget that at Labour Party conference in 2021, an anti-AUKUS motion passed overwhelmingly by over two to one. It explicitly declared that AUKUS was a “dangerous move which will undermine world peace”.
So there are ways we can take this forward and make a difference. Let’s build the links across borders and step up our political and practical work here.
