Oct 16th FAIN Forum: Privatisation Backfired – Military Expenditure Impact on Essential, Shirley Winton

Cover Photo by Nati

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this forum. I hope my talk on military spending will be of some use in building the fight for justice and equality.

I’m on the land of Wurundjeri people of Kulan Nation. I pay my respects to traditional owners of this unceded county. I stand in solidarity with the First Nations people in their long fight for justice, sovereignty and Just treaties. Always was always will be Aboriginal land.

I want to start my talk by briefly putting this period of rapid global militarisation in a broader context. Worldwide, capitalism is in crisis of overproduction. Goods are flooding markets, remain unsold as people’s incomes shrink, jobs disappear, resulting in many not able to buy even necessities of life. Government funds for social services are drying up as corporations demand more government funding for their profit making.

For example, in Germany today some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers are closing down, or dramatically cutting back their production lines. Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off mainly as a result of competition from China’s cheaper vehicles flooding the European markets.

Finance capital, that is the multinational global assets management corporations, control trillions of dollars of world’s assets and make decisions that ensure the trillions are invested in industries where profit returns are maximised, biggest and fastest. Not for a secure and dignified life of all people.

At the same time, more wars are breaking out. The main drive for most of these wars is competition between big powers for control of shrinking markets and resources. The military industrial complex makes huge profits from wars and destruction.

In today’s world, weapons manufacturing industries are the most rapidly expanding profitable sectors of the economy. It is in these industries that many of the world’s finance corporations, or assets managers, are investing billions and trillions of the world’s wealth.

For example, Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest weapons manufacture is owned and controlled by the world’s 3 biggest assets managers. BlackRock, State and Vanguard. Governments are the biggest customers of weapons corporations, ploughing billions of people’s taxes into the war machines. Lockheed Martin’s biggest customer is the US government.

The Australian government has contracted Lockheed Martin S500 million for weapons manufacturing, that’s half a billion of people’s taxes taken away from the urgent needs of the people, public housing, public education, community services, to build the US war machine. And this is only one of top global weapons corporations to whom the Australian government is gifting people’s taxes. Elbit, Israeli weapons company involved in the Gaza genocide, has been awarded $917 million contract by the Victorian government.

BlackRock, the world’s largest assets management worth $10 trillion, is one of the main investors in Lockheed Martin. It has enormous power in decision making. BlackRock controls pension funds, private health and medical companies, construction companies – wherever profit can be made, BlackRock will be found. I’m only stating this to illustrate how the wealth created by the labour of ordinary people of this country is being parcelled out to a handful of financial and weapons corporations. This enormous wealth, created by millions of Australia’s working people, must be taken out of the hands of these parasitic corporations, and used for the urgent needs of the people.

The world’s top 5 weapons corporations are embedding themselves in Australia’s economy, industries, education. Australia’s economy and industries are being militarised, jobs are becoming more dependent on weapons corporations. Weapons manufacturing is now a growth industry in this country, integrating Australia’s economy and industries into the US military industrial complex.

Under US direction Australia has removed all barriers to the export of arms. By being part of the US weapons supply chain Australia will have no control over where and how these weapons are used. Sovereignty over our self-defence industry has been surrendered.

The Australian government’s military expenditure has nothing to do with defence of Australia. Only turning Australia into a weapons production expanding line, US military base, and a launching pad for US war with China.

As well as enormous costs of embedded multinational weapons corporations in Australia’s economy, the demands of AUKUS and the US-Australia alliance on public expenditure are eye watering. Just to name a few:

AUKUS Pillar 1 Expenditure

AUKUS is locking Australian people into US imperialist wars.

Australia’s defence policies and military infrastructure are indistinguishable from the US military machine, with the US in command. Our taxes feed the US war machine. AUKUS is complete integration and subservience of Australia’s defence, military and foreign policies into the US war machine.

The US is demanding Australia increases our military defence budget to fund the hugely expanding US militarisation of Australia and in Asia-Pacific. (Taking away public funds from urgently needed services for the people – health, education, public housing, developing sustainable industries and secure jobs for all.)

AUKUS has nothing to do with defence Australia.
It is a US war machine to instigate war with China.

The US-led AUKUS is militarising Australia’s economy, industries and education. Syphoning off billions from public health, education, aged care, social services, environment.

The world’s top 10 multinational weapons corporations – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE, Raytheon, Northrop, GE, Thales – are embedding themselves in our schools, universities, defence and military establishments, infiltrating and advising governments, political parties and government bureaucracies. They have strong influence over government policies that benefit only their profit making.

This extensive US militarisation of Australia is a burden on the people of Australia. Australian government has committed to purchasing 8 US and UK nuclear powered submarines at a cost of more than $368 billion. That’s $33 million a day of peoples’ taxes at a time of cost of living crisis, more people living in poverty, housing crisis, underfunded struggling public health, education and social services, unaffordable child care and aged care, and devastating climate change.

In addition, under pressure from US and UK, the Australian government has committed $10 billion more to US and UK shipyards to build nuclear submarines, but without any guarantee from US and UK that they will be delivered on time or delivered at all. The $10 billion of our taxes will be used to prop up ailing US and UK shipbuilding yards, and the US and UK economies.

This is the extent of the Australian government’s subservience to major imperialist powers.

The cost of militarisation of Australia as a US base and its proxy in an imperialist war with China is a major burden on Australian people.

AUKUS Pillar 2 Expenditure

The Australian government has committed to spend $765 billion in military spending between 2024-2034. The $368 billion on nuclear powered submarines is not included in this $765 billion.

The $765 billion is for upgrading and building new ports and military air bases to host giant US war ships and submarines, F35 and B52 bombers, some carrying nuclear weapons, missiles. Expanding and building new military facilities, installations and spy bases; hosting thousands of continuously rotating US marines stationed in Northern Territory. The Northern Territory is being turned into a major US military base under US command.

It is predicted that the lifetime cost of AUKUS 1 and 2 is likely to be $2 trillion to $3 trillion.

In the meantime – the rising cost of living is throwing more people into poverty, homelessness; underfunded public schools and hospitals are bursting at the seams; dignified aged care and child care are unaffordable for many, pensions and social services can barely make ends meet.

Australian people get nothing out of this. Only being dragged into a war they don’t want. The only benefactors are the US imperial power and the military industrial complex – weapons corporations.

The system is geared to make profits, not for meeting needs of the people and the environment.

The cost of militarisation of Australia as a US base and its proxy in an imperialist war with China is a major burden on Australian people.

Workers not only face the day to day hardships of rising cost of living, housing crisis, but the threat of a major war. We carry the main heavy burdens of these imperialist wars. The cost of AUKUS, nuclear submarines and the Australia-US military alliance will deepen the economic recession in Australia, worsen hardships for the people, climate crisis and accelerate the march to war. It will be a war of aggression led by the US, with Australia, its deputy sheriff, an expandable nuclear target.

This is the price we are paying to be in the US-Australia military alliance.

The government is telling the Australian people a big lie that AUKUS, military spending and wars will ensure security for us. But nothing could be further from truth. AUKUS, US-Australia military alliance and climate crisis are the real threat to our security and people’s wellbeing.

The only security for the people is decent and dignified housing for all, properly funded public health and education, high quality aged care and child care, secure and dignified jobs for all, social and community services and an independent foreign policy.

And while we meet here the people of Gaza are being wiped out by these same masters of wars.