Imperialism – with its endless wars, exploitation, structures of servitude and humiliation – is at odds with the needs of humanity and the planet. As socialists, we argue that this system can be defeated when ordinary people take power into their own hands and build a new future.

At its founding conference in August 2022, the Red Ant Collective was established with the purpose of re-building anti-imperialist Marxism in Australia. It also adopted a founding statement of principles and perspectives.

Our founding conference argued that as socialists inside Australia – the primary oppressor country in the region – we needed to organise on a consistent basis of anti-imperialism.

Exploitation of Global South countries, and the enormous wealth flowing into Australia on that basis, is the characteristic feature of Australian capitalism. That fact, and the extreme social divide between the rich and poor societies, fundamentally impacts all social classes and all social milieu in Australian society.

Every aspect of the domestic class struggle – from refugee rights and climate to the trade unions and oppression of women – are all fundamentally shaped by Australia’s position in the world.

This doesn’t mean that the Australian working class has ceased to have revolutionary potential or that socialism in this country is impossible. On the contrary, we established our group for the purpose of mobilising workers to fight for and win a new society that puts human need ahead of profit. 

We don’t consider Red Ant the vehicle for revolution in this country or as a vanguard party, but we argue for such a party and we will be part of its development. What we can do right now is better understand the fast changing world, fight for our ideas and work together with others to forge, collectively, a far stronger and more serious revolutionary grouping in the not-too-distant future.

Such a group could offer serious assistance to struggles that occur overseas and struggle against aggression by our own government towards revolutions in our region. A larger revolutionary organisation would fight for working people on the home front.

A constant focus for Red Ant is trying to think through what such a revolutionary group would do and say about today’s key social and political issues. How exactly could it start to win over broader sections of the working class? A revolutionary party will need to articulate clear and convincing solutions to the concrete problems working people face. To start to bring such a party into being we need to start that thinking process now.

Being a small group at this time, our activity is mostly focused on holding educational discussions on Marxism and contemporary issues, setting up literature and campaigning stalls, postering, producing pamphlets under the name Red Ant Publishing and writing for red-ant.org – where we report what we see as key developments and steps forward.

In the coming period, we seek to play a more active role in political campaigns, organise brigades, speaking tours, public forums and other more intense political education. Red Ant will continue building links with socialists overseas, expand our publishing as well as reach-out and re-group with like-minded organisations and individuals.

While Red Ant has begun to grow and develop – there is much, much more to do. If you would like to support or be involved in this struggle, or just to find out more, get in contact today at: redant.communication@gmail.com