Posted on Monday, 16 June
At the Victorian Socialists Members' Conference in June 2025, the following statement was adopted.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been one of the defining political issues of recent years. We have been shocked by scenes of men, women and children being bombed to oblivion for 21 months, with well over 50,000 people killed so far. Those lucky enough to survive have been sent on repeated forced marches through the rubble, faced artificial famines imposed by the Israelis, and being operated on without anaesthetics.
In the last two years Israel has bombed and/or occupied Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Its latest attacks on Iran represent yet another major escalation of its imperial thuggery, and risks engulfing the entire region in war.
These atrocities, and many more, are a searing indictment on the international capitalist system, where countries and corporations thrive on war and destruction. We particularly blame the US and its allies, including Australia, who continue to back Israel despite its well-documented war crimes. Far from being a rogue actor, Israel has received well over $18 billion dollars in US aid since October 7. This is a genocide sponsored and backed by Western elites.
The Albanese Labor government has attempted to justify its failure to stop Israel by arguing that Australia has no influence on the Middle East. This is a lie. Australia is deeply implicated in the historic and ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people, going right back to the ANZAC attacks on the village of Surafend al-Amar during World War 1.
And Australia has played no small part in the Gaza genocide. Our government, led by Labor, has defended Israel at every step of the way. Even their most critical noises have remained just that, words, while the Australian government - as well as various corporations and entities - continue to do business with the genocidal regime. Particularly shameful is the fact that there are companies based here in Melbourne who play a vital role in serving the international military supply chains feeding the killing in Gaza.
Victorian Socialists have always stood on the side of the Palestinians. We have never shied away from condemning Israel and Zionism as the root cause of the oppression that the Palestinians face, both in occupied Palestine itself and as refugees and migrants in the diaspora. We have always rejected the lie that opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine is somehow antisemitic, and defend those facing repression for their antiwar stance.
We call on the government to end all political, military and economic ties with Israel, helping to isolate them in the international community. We also demand that they place sanctions on the Israeli state as a whole, as well as on a range of Israeli institutions and figures, and end Australia’s role in the international arms industry.
Most fundamentally, we call on Australia to withdraw from both AUKUS and the US alliance, and expel all US military and surveillance bases from Australian territory. Far from token gestures, these measures would make a real difference to the fight for justice in Palestine and the world over.
Unfortunately, we cannot expect an Australian government led by any of the major parties to do such things willingly. The US alliance underpins Australia’s relationship with Israel, and all the major parties - including the Greens - support it.
Given the importance of Western support to Israel’s genocidal policies, socialists in Australia and around the world have an important role to play in achieving justice in Palestine. We therefore commend VS members for supporting or helping to organise the vast majority of the many demonstrations and pickets organised across Victoria in the last two years. We call on members to recommit to this movement going forward.
We also call on Victorian Socialist members to keep fighting to build a socialist movement that can mobilise workers and students on the streets and in their workplaces, so that we can ultimately defeat imperialism and capitalism altogether.