by Phil Bauhaus

On 29 November, Spirit of Eureka convened an event in Naarm / Melbourne, marking the anniversaries of the Eureka Rebellion and 50 years since the Whitlam dismissal, drawing together Indigenous activists, unionists, and anti-imperialist organisers in order to assess Australia’s present struggles. The Spirit of Eureka is a group formed in 2004. The event sought to clarify how contemporary issues are inseparable from the historical pattern of US interference, exemplified most poignantly in the 1975 coup. Likewise, the genocide in Palestine was not treated as a distant humanitarian crisis, but as an expression of the same colonial and imperial structures that shaped the Australian state and continue to determine its orientation.

Speakers grounded their analyses in their various areas of struggle. Gary Foley , long time Gumbainggir activist, actor, historian and long time fighter for Indigenous Liberation, observed the renewed militancy of Indigenous youth and reaffirmed the long-standing assessment of CIA and MI5 involvement in Whitlam’s dismissal, highlighting the continuity of imperialist political intervention. Sarah Baarini,  an activist and organiser, including of the Free Palestine Sunday rallies in Naarm, traced political apathy toward Gaza to the systemic erasure of Australia’s colonial history, arguing that this cultivated ignorance enables the state’s complicity in genocide. Dave Ball of the Maritime Union of Australia demonstrated the dismantling of national sovereignty in favour of foreign capital. This was exemplified by the destruction of the Australian merchant fleet which was reduced from 150 ships to 13, as the direct outcome of policies aligned to multinational interests. His description of maritime workers refusing to handle cargo destined for Israel illustrated the concrete practice of internationalism. Kevin Bracken exposed the political character of state repression against the CFMEU, noting that its sole active legal case targets the union’s Indigenous officer, a clear indication of the racialised logic of state power and the interests it serves.

The theoretical centrepiece of the event was the keynote address from one of the Spirit of Eureka organisers, Shirley Winton. Her analysis traced a line of resistance from the 1788 invasion through the Eureka rebellion to contemporary struggles, framing Eureka as an early multinational working-class assertion of democratic sovereignty. Winton quoted a comment from Marx on the Australian event: ; “Eureka was a revolutionary movement.  It was a revolution, small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression.” Similar to Baarini’s assertion, Winton reiterated that the colonial and the anti-colonial histories have been rewritten and intentionally forgotten. Real expressions of the world historical movement towards socialism can be found in the Eureka movement where “multiculturalism and working-class solidarity were born at the Eureka stockade” from the migrants of 21 nationalities that took part.

Likewise, she characterised the Whitlam dismissal as an imperialist coup executed to defend US military and economic control, particularly regarding Pine Gap. According to her assessment, US domination remains structurally embedded in Australia’s economic system through transnational monopolies, in its military through AUKUS and force-posture agreements, and in its foreign policy through alignment with Washington’s confrontation with China. The Whitlam government was the product of working class and anti-imperialist forces in Australia at the time, and the coup still has an impact on Australian independence today.

Moving forward, Winton reaffirmed a core principle that revolutionary consciousness does not arise spontaneously but is developed through political education capable of exposing the totality of social relations. She identified the principal contradiction in contemporary Australia as the antagonism between the Australian people (primarily the proletariat and First Nations), and the foreign imperialist power dominating the country’s economic and political structures. In this sense, her analysis situated the struggle beyond narrow economic terms and as part of a totality where the national question and class question converge into a unified revolutionary process.

Winton analysis however implicitly raises tensions that are critical to consider. By emphasising the overwhelming weight of US imperialism, there is a risk of drifting into a form of vulgar materialism, reducing internal contradictions to the mechanical effects of an external force. Imperialist domination operates dialectically; through collaboration with the local bourgeoisie, through the reproduction of colonial relations, and through the formation of a comprador strata. To treat imperialism as merely an external imposition can obscure the internal class forces that stabilise dependency. Moreover, the framing of a national-liberation stage as a prerequisite for socialism can be misunderstood as a stagist approach if not paired with a clear assertion of proletarian leadership within that stage. While national independence may be an objective stage in oppressed or semi-dependent nations, the proletariat must lead that struggle with socialist politics from the outset, not defer its program to a later moment. If the national democratic stage is conceived as a broad patriotic unity without class differentiation, the movement risks subordinating the working class to the national bourgeoisie.

The Spirit of Eureka Rebellion and 50 year Anniversary of the Whitlam Dismissal event  affirmed that the fights for Indigenous justice, workers’ rights, and peace are inseparable from the struggle for genuine independence from US imperialism. The legacy of Eureka and the lesson of the Whitlam coup demonstrate that sovereignty cannot be realised without directly confronting the imperialist power structure that determines Australia’s political direction. The strategic task ahead is to transform the energy of the Palestine solidarity movement, Indigenous resistance, and organised labour into a disciplined, politically conscious movement for a sovereign, anti-imperialist, and socialist Australia.

Below is a link to 3CR live Broadcast and recording of all the speeches, with commentaries by the 3CR broadcasters.

https://www.3cr.org.au/radicalradio/episode/eureka-day-2025-spirit-eureka-anniversary-whitlam-dismissal