Labor Party members joined leftists and peace activists to speak out against militarism, AUKUS and the Quad at a protest organised by Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition on May 24.
Speaking on behalf of Labor Against the War, journalist Marcus Strom said that the Quad and the G7 鈥渟eem to be suffering mission creep鈥.
鈥淔rom collaborators on trade and economic development, they鈥檝e become bodies set on containing China and beating the drums of war,鈥 he said.
鈥淔or them to do this in Hiroshima 鈥斅爐he first city to suffer a US nuclear attack 鈥斅爄s both astounding and appalling ... Australians do not want to be dragged into another US-led war.鈥
Video:聽Sydney rallies against nuclear subs, AUKUS and militarism.聽.
Speaking on behalf of Young Labor,聽James Miranda said thousands of young people across the country refuse to accept the AUKUS pact and 鈥渞efuse to accept a Labor government that is willing to trade away their futures to prop up the ambitions of a dying US empire鈥.
鈥淭he wealthiest in this country 鈥斅爐he capitalist class who have been banging the war drums and actually have the capacity to pay 鈥斅爓on鈥檛 be the ones asked to tighten their belts and cough up the money for these submarines,鈥 Miranda said.
鈥淣o, they鈥檒l be offered giant tax cuts while the working class men and women, on whose backs their empires are built, will be forced into austerity and have their safety nets ripped out from underneath them.鈥
Gem Romuld, Australian director of聽 and an activist with said she had hoped the Anthony Albanese government would not follow in Scott Morrison鈥檚 steps.
Instead, she said, Labor is 鈥渢aking us in the opposite direction of what so many of us want: a nuclear free, independent foreign and defence policy鈥.
鈥淭his government鈥檚 actions are inviting war, but the people want peace.鈥
Romuld said that the hundreds at the rally were just聽the tip of the iceberg of a new movement that is building against militarism.聽She emphasised that people organising together can change the shape of the future.
She called on the government to sign the聽Treaty聽on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as Labor had previously promised.
The rally was timed to coincide with a meeting of the Quad leaders in Sydney. However, the week before United States President Joe Biden announced he would not make it,聽and the Quad happened on the sidelines of the G7 in Japan.
Protesters聽chanted 鈥淣o to AUKUS; No to war鈥 and 鈥淣o base, no waste, on Aboriginal land鈥 as they took to the CBD streets.