IPAN Conference 2024: Sleepwalking into War

Written by: Allan M. on 9 October 2024

ETU Queensland Branch presentation at IPAN Conference

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network's (IPAN) 2024 conference took place in Perth on October 4-6. The conference, titled Sleepwalking into War, focussed on combatting the increasing subservience of the Australian political class to the military, political, and economic demands on the United States of America. 

Opening with a peaceful protest at the entrance of HMAS Stirling naval base, the epicentre of our government's ambition to become a nuclear vassal state, the conference continued into a three-day program where speakers and attendees from around the country gathered to discuss Australia's involvement in the violent U.S imperial system and formulate actions to build an independent and peaceful nation. 

With speakers ranging from First Nations leaders, student activists who led university encampments, and to Senators such as Fatima Payman and Jordan Steele-John, the conference heard an incredibly diverse range of voices and perspectives on the impacts of the U.S led imperial capitalist system. 

The talks laid bare the reality of Australia's situation on the international stage. The Australian capitalist class, and their politician collaborators, are willing hostages to U.S interests. Our government has sold out our sovereignty in exchange for a handful of board positions, meagre investment in a select few Australian companies, and the empty promise of some killing machines. 

The U.S has now received political assurance that Australian industrial capacity will be increasingly folded into the U.S military-industrial supply chain, without any say in how their outputs will be used. 

Our government would be hard-pressed to back out of this deal and regain our national self-determination, not that they have any interest to do so. Speakers clearly articulated how our government's willing subordination to the U.S results in their complicity to the crimes perpetrated by the imperial regime. Australia's involvement in the F-35 fighter jet supply chain, and our participation in the revolving door of import and export contracts for weapons, means our government has allowed our country to participate in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the destructive war being inflamed in the middle-east. This is despite the Australian people clearly wanting an end to this brutal, criminal conflict and wanting our country to make free and independent decisions. 

Many speakers presented alternative pathways for Australia that demonstrated how our country can be safe and secure without relying on the U.S. 

An independent future was shown as not only easily attainable, but vitally important in allowing us to develop the things important to Australian communities, such as health, education, and meaningful employment. Organisers facilitated discussions to formulate future actions in building a movement to end Australia's role in imperialism and lead an independent and peaceful country. 

The organisations comprising IPAN will be drawing lessons from these discussions and putting it into practice. 

What is immediately clear, as always for our work, is that the capitalist political cartel of Labor and Liberal will not change the violent status quo. It is people power that will provide peace and independence for our country. 

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