THE CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SECTION
The Australian Section of the Fourth International held • National Conference on the 22nd and 23rd of Aprile, 1962. Reports were delivered on the political situation, the Australian economy, the crisis of stalinism, the colonial revolution and the organisatinal tasks of the section. publish some extracts from the colonial resolution.
We must fight vigorously all aspects of Australia's in. volvement in the imperialist military alliance, we must fight every attempt to send Australian troops out of Australia to be involved in any of imperialism's counter-revolutionary wars in Asia. In this, we should struggle to have the principle of the historie ALP Conference's victory on "No Troops For Malaya" (Hobart) extended to cover Vietnam, Laos and all Asia.
We must expose all aspects of Australian capitalism's role as a colonial power, particularly in New Guinea, and to a lesser extent, Fiji. Throughout the South Pacific, the colonial revolution is on the march. Radically inclined independence movements are taking shape quite spectac.
in Fiji, and in the French Dependencies of Tahiti and New Caledonia (we have examined these from time to time in "International"'). Due to the involvement of Australian capital in those colonies, and their geographical location relative to Australia, Australia will inevitably be. come more and more involved in their capitalist "defence". We must resolutely espouse the principle of self-determination for those territories, and fight for the Australian labor movement to give the maximum solidarity and assistance the emerging independence and labor movements in these areas.
In New Guinea, Australia's "Congo", the signs of the headlong development of the nascent native independence movement have been multiplying for years. The first stages of this process of developing native political awareness are, of course, the movements maligned by the imperialists as "cargo cults", which have been universal throughout the South Pacific area for many years and which, in many cases, develop into embryonic nationalist political formations. (This process has been studied by the British Marxist anthropologist, Peter Worsley, in his fine analysis of the cargo
"The Trumpet Shall Sound").
The next stage, already developing in many areas, is in the quite politically advanced nature of such ventures as the independent-minded natives co-operatives which Brian Cooper was framed for assisting, and the recent spectacular tax resistance movement whose leader was so sophisticated that the panicky Australian bourgeois press dubbed him a "native Castro".
The Australian Government has shown an awareness of these developments, and is trying to head them off with a two-pronged campaign, one prong being brutal repression against all authentically nationalist leaders, such as the Buka Islanders and their sympathisers, such as Brian Cooper; the other prong being the attempt to create an "Uncle Tom"
"elite" among the natives, tied to imperialism.
We must devote great attention to the developing struggle in New Guinea, the colonial freedom struggle in which the Australian labor movement is most intimately involved. We must demand the right of Australian unions to assist formation of genuine unions in New Guinea, opposition to the Government's tame-cat unions plan. must campaign against every incident of Government re pression of authentic native leaders and movements. must raise the alogan and campaign for genuine self-determination for Australian New Guinea nom.