Adelaide rally demands “Hands Off Iran!”

Written by: Mike Williss on 6 March 2026

 

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Around 200 people gathered at Parliament House last night to condemn the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.

At least half the crowd were Shia Muslim Iranian-Australians, and the second speaker was Iranian woman Habibah Jaghoori.

Other speakers were CPA (M-L) supporter and Spirit of Eureka member Mike Williss, Australian Friends of Palestine’s Mike Khizam, Independent and Peaceful Australia’s Derek Burke, Socialist Alliance’s Markela Panegyres, and Liam Ellis from the Communist Party of Australia.

The rally endorsed the following demands, put by MC Eileen Darley:

We call on the Australian Govt:

To rescind its backing of the United States and Israeli war on Iran and immediately stop Pine Gaps involvement in the attacks.

Impose sanctions on the Israeli state which includes the supply of weapons’ components  and the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

Sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

End the Australian alliance with the US. Scrap AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement and close all US bases on Australian soil.

We reprint the talk by Mike Williss below.

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Comrades and friends,

Well, the man who demanded the Nobel Peace Prize is at it again.

Perhaps led on by the genocidal bloodlust of Netanyahu, the US has attacked Iran even as negotiations between it and Iran on Iran’s nuclear program were in progress. Pearl Harbour anyone?

Within weeks of declaring again that Iran’s nuclear capacity had been obliterated by his previous bombing of its facilities, Trump tried to justify the current aggression by saying that it was necessary to protect Americans from Iran’s nuclear threat.

Netanyahu also declared that the attack was pre-emptive in nature, and required to remove Iran’s threat to Israel.

However, the only basis for a real international rule of law is the UN Charter. Article 2(4) of the Charter prohibits states from using force against the integrity or political independence of any state. This, in effect, makes pre-emptive strikes illegal.

No wonder the man who is so bored with peace, tried to create an alternative to the UN with his Board of Peace.  It’s Orwellian, isn’t it?

I want to say a few words to our friends in the Iranian diaspora in Australia.

We condemn the assassination of Iran’s leaders, including Ali Khamenei, but acknowledge that many in the diaspora have welcomed it. We remind them of the ancient saying to “beware Greeks bearing gifts”.

The phrase comes from Virgil’s Aenid, and refers to the Trojan horse, presented by the Greeks to their enemy, the Trojans, inside of which were hidden Greek warriors who opened the city gates at night to the Greek army outside, which destroyed Troy.

The US imperialists and genocidal Zionists have presented you with a gift – but please, beware.

The death of Khamenei will be welcomed by all who suffered under his regime. Women, progressive peoples and working class activists in their thousands have all been jailed and killed.  

Others will acknowledge Khamenei as a leader of global resistance seeking to break American hegemony and liquidate the Zionist project.

These are divergent views, and need to be correctly handled, non-antagonistically, as contradictions within the Iranian people. It is for the Iranian people to decide the best way forward in a complicated situation.

They must take charge and exercise leadership over their own liberation. The alternative is to have anti-democratic rulers favoured by the US and Israel impose further disaster on Iran.

But there is more to the US gift of Khamenei’s killing.

A pre-emptive strike against Chinese imperialist rival?

The year began with the US abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife – another illegal act.

Both Venezuela and Iran are closely connected to US imperialism’s main rival, China.

Iran is a member of BRICS, the intergovernmental organisation created by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009. It now has ten member states, comprises more than a quarter of the global economy and nearly half the world's population, and has challenged the US-led financial world through the New Development Bank and proposals for de-dollarisation.

Iranian cooperation with China through the Belt and Road Initiative includes infrastructure, logistics, energy and trade links, reflecting broader Sino-Iranian partnership beyond BRICS itself. 

Much of Iran’s oil export goes to China.

Venezuela is not a member of BRICS, largely as a result of Brazilian opposition. However, it had close ties with China and has expressed support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and signed Memoranda of Understanding with Beijing on BRI cooperation, especially related to infrastructure, energy, and broader strategic partnership. 

As with Iran, much of Venezuela’s oil exports went to China.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the two countries subjected to illegal US aggression so far this year both had strong ties to China.

So, if Netanyahu’s crime is motivated by his regional expansionism and desire to create a “Greater Israel” – his term – then Trump’s has a more global motivation, and that is, to try and weaken China in the event that the Orange Idiot decides to go to war with the Middle Kingdom.

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And Australia was involved, despite Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s claim that Australia “did not participate in the strikes”. It was involved as a joint participant in the activities of the US war base at Pine Gap which not only intercepts communications, but sends targeting information to the US for the strikes it conducts.

The Australian government rushed to endorse the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.  This is to be expected of a government which itself is enmeshed in an economic, political, military, diplomatic and cultural web of US domination and control, and is incapable of representing Australia as a peaceful and independent country.

We must demand that Pine Gap be closed along with all other US military facilities in Australia, that the AUKUS arrangements be scrapped and the Force Posture Agreement with the US be cancelled. And if our government is going to cheer an illegal pre-emptive strike over an alleged nuclear weapons threat, why hasn’t it signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

Just as we fight for our own independence and freedom, we hope that the Iranian people can turn current events to their own advantage, unite under a correct anti-imperialist and socialist leadership, and win genuine freedom and independence.

 

 

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