Today protestors across the globe coordinated a series of economic blockades and protests as part of the A15 Action in solidarity with Palestine. Free Palestine Geelong targeted Deakin University over it’s ties to weapons research and development being used in Israel’s war against Palestine. The following text is a transcript of the speech delivered by Geelong Anarchist Communists member, Levi H.
In periods of collective struggle we find the power to pursue a better world in ways that are impossible when we are isolated. In one another we gain a perfect compliment to the natural human desire to progress, not just in a technological or economic manner, but as a society. We can reach out and grasp what is possible, and fashion for ourselves the foundations of a kind and generous way of life for all.
A15 is an example of this practice. Across the country, at this moment, thousands upon thousands of our comrades are fighting the same fight as us. They share the same dream; an end to the genocide, persecution, and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Whether they’re demonstrating as we are here today, or blockading arms manufacturers, or taking to the streets; whether they arrive home safely or under a hail of rubber bullets and pepper spray; on this day we are united with them. The free Palestine movement has grown, month on month, from a trickle to a flood of righteous anger. We can see that in the reaction of the state: violence, intimidation, and the erosion of democracy.
But a movement is not built on the actions of a single day. For the better part of a century the Palestinian people have stood against the rising tide of colonialism and modern empire, and when they have called, people across the world have answered. However, it has not yet been enough. No amount of petitions, letters, rallies, blockades, die-ins, or submissions to the ICJ have been able to tear away western support for the apartheid state of Israel. I believe there is a reason for this – that being the nature and function of our economy, and the state that will uphold it at any cost. That is why today is important: because across the country the businesses that profit from this genocide are being held to account. I firmly believe there is no other avenue left to us. The Palestinian people have been asking for human decency, for some sort of justice, for the last 76 years and all they have ever received in return were bullets and bombs lovingly crafted by us or with the support of our government and institutions.
Deakin University is no stranger to the defence industry. As an institution it has close ties with the Australian Defence Force, and runs several training, research and development programs jointly with the ADF. At least, that’s what they’d like you to know. The less comfortable piece of the picture is this – and I quote from Free Palestine Geelong’s open letter to Deakin, Richard Marles, the Advanced Fibre Cluster, and the City of Greater Geelong Council:
‘Deakin University hosts companies on campus such as Quickstep that are linked to the IDF through the F-35 joint strike fighter, which is currently in use bombing civilians. Quickstep supplies vertical tail parts to BAE Systems for the F-35 through Marand Engineering Geelong (who themselves manufacture parts and trailers for the F-35), as well as fuselage components for the same aircraft to Northrop Grumman. I’d also like to add that Marand Engineering is the distributor for F-35 parts made in Australia; most if not all parts manufactured across the country go through them. Quickstep is also part of the Advanced Fiber Cluster, which focuses on the development and manufacture of composite and carbon fibre materials for industries including defence.
In 2023, the Advanced Fiber Cluster – which Deakin University helped to establish and fund – welcomed BAE Systems as a new partner. According to BAE, the work of the Advanced Fibre Cluster will complement BAE Systems’ work in the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordinance (GWEO) Enterprise, which is aimed at developing and producing guided weapons and their systems in Australia. BAE Systems itself is integrated into the Israeli military’s main weapons systems supply chain for fighter jets, drones and warships, providing components for combat aircraft, munitions, missile launching kits, and armoured vehicles.’
This information is all publicly available, but it’s buried and obscured behind the image that Deakin would like to project – one where their defence involvement is limited to the ADF and various other minor projects. This has been the same tactic for much of the Australian arms industry, as well as the government; obscuring what work is being done, and where, and who it is eventually for, all the while spruiking the massive investment boom in weapons manufacturing as a boon for workers in tough economic times. But Labor and Marles’ deal to bring Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems to Avalon has well and truly torn the mask from that charade. $917 million awarded to a company complicit in numerous war crimes, who proudly boasts that their products are ‘battle-tested’ – code for “tested on Palestinians”. With this, Labor has made it clear that they stand firmly alongside the murderers and colonisers of the Israeli state and the IDF. This is a profoundly disgusting position to hold.
Tensions have risen to breaking point across the Middle-East in recent months as a result of the actions of the Israeli state, and especially between Israel and Iran in the last few days. The fundamentally destabilising influence of Zionism mixed with the callous self-interest of Western powers threatens to plunge us into a regional conflict that has the potential to escalate into a global one. This begs the question: if businesses and institutions stand to profit from the escalation of hostilities, what is the incentive for them to behave according to any kind of morality and withdraw their support for the war machine tearing its way through the innocent of Gaza? After all, the more these F-35’s see combat, the more likely they are to need replacement parts from companies such as Quickstep and Marand Engineering. The more these companies profit, the more their production capacity will grow. As this occurs, Deakin is able to funnel more and more of its STEM graduates into guaranteed local positions in the arms industry, improving their reputation to prospective students, and collect more secure profits from the facilities and real estate that companies such as Quickstep make use of on university grounds. Where is the evidence that any of these parties have the incentive or desire to act with integrity? I see absolutely none.
The conscious decision to profit from warfare is one that our government and local businesses should never be allowed to forget. What does it say about the character of our political and educational institutions that they see in the arms industry a way to provide experience and employment to current and future generations? What does it say about how they see the people of Geelong? Are we simply unthinking, unfeeling labourers to be corralled into despicable, soul-degrading occupations that give nothing to our community but capital, and provide nothing to the world but death? Our engineering and manufacturing industry – by far the largest employer in the region – collapsed as our economy was pushed through a neoliberal transformation. Now, after years upon years of wasted potential and missed opportunities as the tech and renewable industries boomed, it has been decided without any consultation that we are to become the armoury of genocidal regimes and warmongers. Where was this investment when we actually needed it? Where was this passion for local jobs when hundreds if not thousands were losing their livelihoods?
Deakin University claims to have six values that it implements as an organisation, but I feel four of them are particularly relevant to this topic:
- Brave: We make bold decisions, demonstrate courage and ambition, and we support personal responsibility and accountability.
- Dynamic: We are innovative and entrepreneurial, solving problems with creativity and flexibility.
- Sustainable: We care about our shared future, integrating economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability in all we do.
- Ethical: We conduct our business with the highest standards of professional behaviour and integrity.
If Deakin is brave, why then does it seem incapable of making the difficult but necessary decision to separate itself from arms production, especially in the context of the Palestinian genocide?
If Deakin is dynamic, why does it apparently lack the capacity and will to alter its trajectory as a close friend to the worst of the arms industry?
If Deakin is sustainable, how then does it not see the impact of this war on the economic, environmental, and social equity of the planet?
If Deakin is ethical, how then can it stand to support the supply of the tools of genocide and mass murder?
As Deakin Professor Chris Mayes pointed out in his speech to IPAN and FPG actions at Deakin recently; if Deakin can make an ethical decision in the past to separate itself from the tobacco industry and integrate that decision into its identity, then surely it can make the same choice when it comes to the children of Gaza. My addition is this: if that is not a decision that Deakin University leadership has the conviction to make, then the value of Deakin University as an educational institution disappears. If the most basic standards of ethics and morality cannot be upheld, then Deakin shows itself to be no more than another opportunistic institution capitalising on the now-ingrained demand for higher education within our economy.
To commit to such harmful and destructive practices without any real community or faculty consultation is profoundly undemocratic on the part of Deakin and the local and federal governments. Without asking, both have committed the money we provide to fund them to the cause of colonisation and dispossession that is being pushed by those authoritarian regimes that benefit from their connections to the so-called leaders who hold a monopoly on decision-making in this country. That is not a dynamic that provides any sort of confidence in those who currently hold the reins, and further proves the argument that no-one should gain such a complete and utter control of the levers of power within our society. Until very recently, the majority of Australians have been asleep at the wheel. However, this dynamic is already changing.
We must organise, in our unions and in the streets of every city, to tear down the mechanisms of oppression which turn on the complacency and ready money of people who would disregard every instinct of love and humanity which lies latent in the soul of each human being. We must work to undo the harm that has been perpetrated by those soulless individuals who happily place their greed before the welfare of their fellow peoples. We cannot do this alone. As individuals we are powerless, but as a movement, united in one cause, we are incomparable in strength. No amount of rubber bullets, or pepper spray, or state violence can dissuade us from our cause. History will record each and every action in this fight as a drop in the torrent of change which sweeps all complicity before it.
I speak not just to all those here today, but to all of Australia; to each and every person who has the capacity to act: your strength lies in your labour. If we organise, as teachers, students, labourers, engineers and lecturers – as workers – we stand every chance of halting this bloodbath before it soaks into the fibres of our society. Your trade unions are the strongest organisations you could possibly be a part of, but they will not act unless you demand it. Their leadership is too tied to the government, too in love with the idea of the Labor Party to take up this fight. As we have seen, the groundswell of the rank-and-file has been the primary driving force behind every unionist action for Palestine in this country. Do not let this opportunity go to waste. The weakest point in the armour of the establishment is ALWAYS economic. That is the source of their power. But if we target it as those who provide the whole of the profits and advantages that they enjoy, then they will have no choice but to do the right thing.
The hope that we hold close to our hearts can be fulfilled, but we must act on it. The people of Palestine are begging for aid, for any kind of reprieve from the campaign of extermination waged by the IDF. We can lend our strength to their voices, but we must be prepared to act in ways that we are not used to. We must be militant within both the economy and society as a whole, unafraid of those in power who tell us to sit down, shut up and clock in.
This is just one second in a fight that has lasted generations, but we are here, now, in this moment. Deakin, Quickstep, Marand, the Advanced Fibre Cluster, and many others will learn today that even the most downtrodden of peoples has a voice. We are that voice, calling over the oceans for freedom and justice for all. From Geelong, to Bendigo, to Melbourne, all the way up the east coast to Sydney and Brisbane, across the desert to Alice Springs, Darwin and Perth, and back around to Adelaide and Canberra, people like you and I are taking the fight to those who deserve it. Not an inch of ground can be given, and not a scrap of deference can be shown. History has a long memory, and we will make sure it records the names of those complicit in this atrocity.
No more weapons for genocide! No more blood money!
Free free Palestine!
Always was, always will be!
Geelong Anarchist Communists 