The Greens, Marxists, CFMEU – Violence.

The Australian Left are at 'war' with themselves. This is 'exploding' core assumptions about Australian political and social structures.

Of late there has been a series of events on the Left of Australian politics that could appear unrelated, but which I believe demonstrate a distinct and coherent picture.  

First, there has been a major shift by the Greens from being an environmental party to being a Marxist party. I’ll explain this below. This has been accompanied by the Greens initiating a new aggressive targeting of the Labor Party in key electorates which the Greens think they can win from Labor.

Second, the dramatic administrative takeover of the construction union, the CFMEU, by the Albanese Labor government, coupled with the CFMEU splitting from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Related to this is the further split from the ACTU by the Electrical Trades Union (CEPU) and that union’s funding of the High Court challenge to the CFMEU administrative takeover.

Third, the violence witnessed at the week-long Land Forces defence expo in Melbourne last week (9–13 Sept).

The linkage between the three is best demonstrated by the facts that:

·      The Greens publicly endorsed the Land Forces demonstrations and refused to condemn the violence. Greens Senator David Shoebridge attended and spoke at the demonstrations.

·      The Greens criticised and did not support the Albanese government’s takeover of the CFMEU in parliament. The government’s CFMEU legislation only passed with the support of the Dutton Opposition. A further linkage (speculative on my part) is that it should be anticipated that significant amounts of CFMEU, ETU/CEPU and other unions’ money and resources will flow to the Greens before and during the next federal election campaign (due by May 2025). 

Competing shades of Marxism

Close to 70 years ago (1955) the Australian Labor Party suffered a major split that effectively left them floundering in opposition until 1972. That split resulted from a ‘war’ between the anti-communist forces/unions in the ALP and the ALP communist factions/unions. The Labor Hawke/Keating governments (1983–96) were largely successful because Labor shifted to the ‘middle’ ground in which the communist/anti-communist split was largely ‘managed’.

My observation is that the Hawke/Keating ‘middle ground’ has been dumped by the ALP and replaced with various shades of Left/Marxist beliefs and agendas (ranging from hard to soft Marxism). (Bill Shorten’s  resignation last week from the Labor government and parliament is arguably the final death knell for Labor’s middle ground.)

The events I describe above are arguably a public exposure of a new massive split within the ALP and the Labor movement—this time between different factions of Marxist believers both inside and associated with the Labor movement. History tells us that when Marxist believers fight amongst themselves for power, those fights are particularly vicious.

I have not made these observations and come to these views overnight. Rather, they are based on what I’ve seen over the last two years in particular. These have been heavily influenced by my deep dive into Australian Marxism when I attended the peak Marxist conferences of 2023 and 2024. My series of articles on the Modern Australian Marxist Movement is here.

But take a step back to the Labor Party itself while in government. The Albanese government is a government of a socialist Left persuasion. It states that itself. In the Marxist context its members are ‘soft’ Marxists. This Labor movement ‘soft’ Marxist faction is huge and powerful. The primary reason for its power is the fact that it has primarily become the dominant capitalist network in Australia through its control of workers’ savings in Industry Superannuation funds. I explained this in a series of articles in 2023: The socialists Capture of capitalism. (January) and others (see the links in the article).

My conference attendances and analysis of modern Australian Marxism gave me a good understanding not only of the agendas of modern Marxists but also their marketing techniques. I explained the professional sophistication of the Marxists’ marketing in Unmasking Marxist Marketing (May 2024). The demonstrations and violence at last week’s Melbourne Land Forces defence expo should be seen as a modern Marxist marketing exercise. Again the Socialist Alternative was active in the organisation of the demonstrations, as evidenced by its banner ‘advertising’ (see picture).

The modern Marxists are of the hard extreme version of Marxism. Their central agenda is the destruction of capitalism. This was discussed constantly at the Marxist conferences in almost every session. It’s the central theme on their website and in their publication Red Flag. It was front and centre at the Land Forces demonstrations (see picture).

Here’s where I can now pull some threads together.

The Australian Labor movement (the Albanese government, the state Labor governments, the ACTU, and the Industry Superannuation capitalist arm sector) is of a soft Marxist persuasion. It has substantially taken control of Australian capitalism, believing that it can then direct Australian capitalism to benevolent and good socialist outcomes.

Modern Australian Marxists subscribe to a hard Marxist agenda. They seek to destroy capitalism. And how they would do this is clearly laid out in Red Flag and so on. This is where the ‘battle’ now becomes extremely interesting. Through their organisational structure, Socialist Alternative (SA), modern Marxists are having considerable political success. This became most evident in the 2022 Victorian state election where SA’s political party, The Victorian Socialists, scored solid first preference votes in the 22 seats in which they stood.

The Marxists takeover of the Greens

But what became clear to me at the Marxist conferences in 2023 and 2024 was the extent to which Socialist Alternative was targeting the takeover of the Greens and the penetration of the ALP. The targeting was openly and passionately discussed and debated at repeated forward strategy sessions at the conferences. What has surprised me, however, is the speed with which the Marxist takeover of The Greens has occurred. This became most evident in a report in The Age this year: ‘Wreaking some destruction’: The schism in the Greens driving out Jewish members (8 June 2024). I’ve included longer extracts from the article at the end of this Substack post, but here are some key quotations:

“The Victorian Greens is administratively controlled by a 15-person state council. A month ago, elections were held to decide half the positions. Shortly before nominations were opened, the constitution was changed to remove a requirement to be a party member for at least two years before serving on state council, and a further requirement to be a member for a year to vote in state council elections.

... The result was the elevation of a group of predominantly young, inexperienced political activists into positions of responsibility within the party.

…The elected state councillors will take their seats on July 1. When they do, the party will see an exodus from the council of long-serving Greens members, each with decades of organisational and life experience

…The influence of this shift in the Greens is evidenced by the party’s embrace of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that, in the eight months since October 7, has progressively adopted slogans, chants, dress and symbols favoured by Hamas and other militant Palestinian organisations.”

But it’s not simply this Pro-Palestinian position that shows the takeover of the Greens by the hard Left Marxists. It’s also evident on many other issues. These include the Greens’ campaign against landlords in favour of ‘renters rights’. It’s the Greens’ position to take over housing construction by the state. It includes unrestricted immigration as this contributes to the destruction of the capitalist nation state. It’s the campaigning against the mining sector under the guise of environmental and indigenous ‘rights’. The Greens federal leader, Adam Bandt, is up front about this. In an expose´ on 18 July this year, Adam Bandt’s plan for Greens to usurp Labor on left  explained that

Mr Bandt revealed the minor party would “take a Robin Hood platform to the election”.

“We’ll tax the big corporations that are price gouging and making people’s lives a misery,” he said. “We will make big corporations pay tax so that everyday people can have a better life. There’ll be a focus on universal services for people, like getting dental into Medicare, like making childcare free – funded by making these tax-dodging, price-gouging big corporations pay their fair share of tax.”

The Greens’ full agenda and political strategy aligns tightly with the Socialist Alternative’s hard Marxist prescriptions. They can be understood this way:

Capitalism is evil and must be destroyed. Therefore

·      The state of Israel must be destroyed because it is a capitalist warmonger.

·      Jews oppress others because they are successful capitalists and capitalists oppress the people.

·      Businesses that manufacture weapons must be closed down because they are capitalists who feed the war machines.

·      Landlords must be suppressed because landlords are capitalists who oppress renters.

·      The state must build homes because capitalist builders oppress home buyers.

·      Mining must be stopped because miners are capitalists who make money from exploiting and oppressing the environment and indigenous people.

And on and on the list goes. If you want to understand the full (exhausting) list, just read Red Flag and compare this with the Greens’ policies. You’ll find a remarkable consistency.

The Marxist/Greens CFMEU alignment v Albanese Labor

Enter the CFMEU. The CFMEU has long been a criminal organisation. No surprises there. The evidence from repeated official inquiries, media coverage and so on shows the CFMEU has consistently conducted or facilitated blackmail, violent enforcement and drug trafficking on worksites. But it has done this because it has had political protection from the Australian Labor Party and associated entities. Many construction firms have willing engaged with the CFMEU because the CFMEU’s activities have suppressed, almost eliminated competition in the sector. That is, being ‘friendly’ with the CFMEU is a pathway to making money in a monopolistic-style environment. As always follows the money!

Things changed, however, when the now-ex head of the CFMEU, John Setka, declared that he was going to take over the ALP. I explained this in CFMEU – What the heck is going on? (21 August 2024). Under Setka and others the CFMEU has been a long-time funder of hard Left organisations both within the Labor movement and at the fringes. In the past at least The CFMEU has also directly funded the Greens. This was tolerated by the broad Labor movement because the CFMEU was also a big funder of the ALP. But Setka’s move to take over the ALP this year changed all of that.

What was (and still is) occurring is that the criminal, hard left Marxist CFMEU directly challenged the might of the capitalist soft Marxist Labor establishment which in many respects now runs Australia. This could not be tolerated by the capitalist soft Marxist Labor establishment.

The Albanese government’s administrative takeover of the CFMEU has now landed it in trouble with the Electrical Trades Union (CEPU). This union has long been aligned with the CFMEU, as both cooperate to control the commercial construction industry in Australia. The CEPU has always been more politically savvy and less ‘colourful’ than the CFMEU, but still wields huge commercial power. (Building sites stop if the power goes off!) The CEPU is now upset that its ‘bruthers’ in the CFMEU have been upset. The CEPU has moved in support.

Speculative predictions

Here's what I suspect is now happening. Setka and his affiliates, along with the CEPU and other unions, will continue to fund the Greens. Money doesn’t need to go directly to the Greens, but major resources (people, etc.) can be allocated. Huge amounts of money are likely to flow into Socialist Alternative and associated Marxists groups for example. These money/resources flows are entirely speculative on my part, but I reckon I’m not far wrong.

In essence the battle now raging between the capitalist soft Marxist Labor establishment and the hard Marxists (now spearheaded by the Green)s has entered a new phase.

There’s much more to unfold in this saga but most events will be behind closed Marxists doors and masked from the public.

What I think we are witnessing in Australia just now is a massive seismic event with profound implications for political alignments on the Left of politics in Australia.

-------------

Excerpts from  ‘Wreaking some destruction’: The schism in the Greens driving out Jewish members.  The Age 8 June 2024

The Victorian Greens is administratively controlled by a 15-person state council. A month ago, elections were held to decide half the positions. Shortly before nominations were opened, the constitution was changed to remove a requirement to be a party member for at least two years before serving on state council, and a further requirement to be a member for a year to vote in state council elections.

The change removed a perceived anomaly within the constitution. The result was the elevation of a group of predominantly young, inexperienced political activists into positions of responsibility within the party. One has just started work as a school teacher. In a campaign statement, she said she wanted to convince the public that it’s possible to live in a socialist utopia. Another is a young ACTU campaigner who said the party needed to do more to provide a home for politically active socialists.

Another is a university student who described themselves in their campaign statement as a secular Jewish person and is now in charge of the Jewish Greens in the state party. Last month, the student formally endorsed the regular pro-Palestine protests outside the State Library of Victoria.

There is also a new state councillor, AJ Judd, who tweets under the handle ‘Non-binary “terrorist”’. Two years ago, Judd advocated “wreaking some destruction” within the party to reconstruct it in a new, hard left image.

At the time of the state council elections, there were 125 active misconduct complaints by Greens party members against each other. “This is not healthy, and as a result many members have quit,” another newly elected state councillor warned.

The elected state councillors will take their seats on July 1. When they do, the party will see an exodus from the council of long-serving Greens members, each with decades of organisational and life experience. “The new guard doesn’t have any experience or wisdom, they don’t understand the importance of playing the longer game,” a Greens member lamented. Another Greens member said the changing face of the party’s organisation was crushing internal debate. “In the Greens, as in society more broadly, there is a strong element of young radicals who are quite absolutist in their view of the world,” they said. “There has always been radical young people but that tendency has seized dominance in the Greens.”

The influence of this shift in the Greens is evidenced by the party’s embrace of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that, in the eight months since October 7, has progressively adopted slogans, chants, dress and symbols favoured by Hamas and other militant Palestinian organisations.