HAVANA—On the sidelines of the 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, held in Havana in early August, representatives of the Communist Party USA, the Communist Party of Britain, and the Communist Party of Australia sat down together and emerged with a three-nation demand: Scrap the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact.
The trilateral meeting, the second of its kind since the three parties first denounced AUKUS shortly after it was announced in September 2021, brought together Anita Waters, CPUSA’s organization secretary; Alex Gordon, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain; and Vinnie Molina, national president of the Communist Party of Australia.
Their parties issued a joint statement branding AUKUS “the largest act of nuclear proliferation this century” and a “U.S.-led offensive military pact” that serves the interests of arms manufacturers and empire rather than the working people of any of the three countries.
The statement pointed to the staggering price tag attached to the deal—by some estimates as much as $268 billion to $368 billion in Australian spending by 2055—and argued that money could instead fund health care, education, research, and public services, or create “tenfold the number of quality union jobs” if invested in the civilian economy.
The three parties rejected what they called “military Keynesianism,” insisting that pouring public wealth into submarines does nothing to address the climate crisis or human needs. They pledged a coordinated campaign across their three countries, promising joint briefings for trade unionists and peace activists and vowing to make “Scrap AUKUS” a central theme of the global weekend of action against militarism and conscription planned for Nov. 21-22.
AUKUS was unveiled in September 2021 by President Joe Biden, then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and then-Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who cast it as a step to secure a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” Few bothered to name the real target, but British MP Tom Tugendhat put it plainly at the time: “The reason for all this is clear—China.”
Under the pact, Australia walked away from a more than $90 billion submarine contract with France to instead buy nuclear-powered boats from the U.S. and U.K., a deal now projected to run past $100 billion with delivery not expected until around 2040—terms so open-ended that, as People’s World previously reported, “the cost, details of the submarines, the builder, and the time of delivery are unspecified.”
The submarines are only part of a broader buildup. Under the 2014 U.S.-Australia Force Posture Agreement, Washington has secured a launchpad for a future war on China: unimpeded U.S. access to Australian bases, a Marine rotational force in Darwin, and an upgraded Tindal airbase capable of hosting nuclear-capable B-52 bombers within range of Chinese territory without refueling.
Critics, including former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, have warned the arrangement leaves Canberra dependent on Washington and exposed to retaliation, since China’s long-range missiles can reach Australian soil. Meanwhile, Australian exporters already face Chinese tariffs and quotas linked to the deteriorating relationship, even as Canberra’s own defense spending is set to climb from 2% toward 3-4% of GDP—a burden opponents say will be paid for with austerity in pensions, health care, and education.
When the three communist parties first spoke out against AUKUS in October 2021, the CPUSA called it “a mini-NATO against China in the Indo-Pacific.” Nearly five years on, with submarines still not built and costs still climbing, the parties say the case for scrapping the pact has only grown stronger.
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