Dear friends & comrades,

We’re back with a special DOUBLE EPISODE of the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin podcast. If you’ve been following the Justice for Palestine movement, you’ll know that there’s been a lot happening here in so-called brisbane over the past few weeks, mirroring a massive upsurge in Palestinian justice organising globally. From the extraordinary encampments being established by students on university campuses across the globe (including the University of Queensland, here in so-called brisbane); to growing union solidarity movements pushing for work stoppages at export ports, construction sites and factories; to the freedom flotilla desperately working to find ways to provide direct aid to the people of Gaza; and the many countless discussions, meetings, pickets, teach-ins, rallies, and blockades happening across the world: work is happening on every horizon, and there’s more still to come.

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If you’ve been listening to the podcast so far, you’ll know we focus our attention on the ways that organisers are agitating for freedom here in so-called australia. We try to draw out the links and connections between this movement and the longer histories of anti-colonial, anti-racist, Indigenous and abolitionist struggle on this continent and across the world. And one of the most consistent themes in this podcast - and in this movement - is the recognition that all oppression is connected; that practices of dispossession, incarceration, exploitation, occupation, and subjugation must be challenged everywhere if the current “colonial-racial-capitalist-heteropatriarchy” is to be truly abolished.

This kind of revolutionary, transformative work is difficult, messy, and imperfect. And one of the main reasons that we started recording and building this Justice for Palestine podcast was to carve out space to think more deeply about key sites and strategies in the struggle for a world in which every Palestinian - and therefore, everyone - might be free. In the last episode, we set out the foundational commitment to Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions as a primary part of the Justice for Palestine strategy, especially here in so-called australia. This week, in this special DOUBLE episode, we look at another key site in the global movement for freedom and justice: the military industrial complex and the global weapons trade.

In this episode, Roshan draws together speeches from protests and blockades, pre-recorded discussions and older interviews and recordings that focus on weapons manufacturing, development and trade. Through these speeches and interviews, we learn about some of the ways that australian companies are directly supporting the continuing genocide in Gaza (and West Papua, as well as the continuing targeting of First Nations people on this continent), and the role that the australian government is playing in exporting weapons and components to support Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

We also hear a lot in this episode from activists and organisers who are working to directly challenge companies implicated in the genocide in Gaza, including Ferra Engineering in Tingalpa, who are responsible for manufacturing the component of the F-35 bomber jets that enables them to drop bombs. Ferra Engineering is one of the key targets at the moment, given their role in providing essential components to some of the world’s largest military aerospace companies including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon.

But Ferra Engineering are not the only company implicated in the military industrial complex in so-called Brisbane. Companies like Heat Treatment Australia, or HTA, in Coopers Plains; L3 Micreo in Eight Mile Plains; G&O Kert in Acacia Ridge; and TAE Aerospace in Bundamba, Ipswich, are all deeply implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. You can read further details about these companies and others around the world via the Workers For Palestine factsheet:

* ‘Who Arms Israel’ fact sheet: https://www.workersinpalestine.org/who-arms-israel#australia

* Declassified Australia article: AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN THE BOMBING OF GAZA: https://declassifiedaus.org/2023/11/17/australias-role-in-the-bombing-of-gaza/

* ABC News article: Controversial Israeli weapons company awarded $917 million Australian army contract: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-28/israeli-weapons-company-awarded-australian-army-contract/103519558

Over the course of this episode, you’ll be hearing from a bunch of local organisers and activists, including: Birri Gubba & Wanjiriburra activist and film-maker Sam Woripa Watson; Palestinian academic and activist Remah Naji; Palestinian poet and activist scholar Dr. Jamal Nabulsi; Muslim community organiser and activist Binil K. Mohideen; long term peace activist Lenny & Wage Peace organiser Margie; Students for Palestine UQ member Louisa McCarthy; Papuan organiser Ronnie from the Free West Papua movement; community organiser and activist Dane; Justice for Palestine Magan-djin founder and organiser Phil Monsour; and Greens Member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather.

You’ll also be hearing excerpts from an incredibly insightful discussion between Palestinian organiser Amal Naser and Greens Senator for New South Wales, David Shoebridge, which we are grateful to be able to share with you all. We strongly recommend that you go and watch the rest of that discussion here. In Amal & David’s conversation, they dig into some of the fundamental challenges of examining the military industrial complex in so-called australia, and the damning lack of transparency around weapons exports and imports in this country. For more details:

* ‘AUSTRALIA EXPORTED $1.5 MILLION WORTH OF WEAPONS TO ISRAEL IN FEBRUARY 2024, FRESH DFAT DATA SHOWS’ from David Shoebridge’s office: https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/australia-exported-15-million-worth-weapons-israel-february-2024-fresh-dfat-data

These companies receive considerable political support in so-called australia, including through the deep relationships between weapons manufacturing companies and australian universities. In this episode, we learn a little about the ways that universities and research institutions are co-opted into the military industrial complex: “cutting edge” research put to the service of manufacturing death and destruction. You can read more about this here:

* Declassified Australia article: REVEALED: THE PENTAGON’S INFILTRATION OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES: https://declassifiedaus.org/2024/04/18/revealed-the-pentagons-infiltration-of-australian-universities/

We’ll also be following this thread further in a future episode of the podcast, which will focus more directly on the student encampments growing at universities across the globe, and the role of universities in enabling and sustaining genocide in Gaza. Remember to subscribe to our substack if you want to make sure you get notified when new episodes are released!

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All in all, another huge DOUBLE episode of the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin podcast. A reminder, as usual, that the primary purpose of this podcast is to encourage listeners to get actively involved in the movement for Palestinian liberation, in whatever ways you can. If you’d like to get in touch with us to talk about ways you might be able to support the work of Justice for Palestine Magan-djin, Shut Down Ferra, Queensland Muslim Incorporated, Students for Palestine UQ, and other affiliated groups, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We strongly recommend that you sign up to the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin mailing list, if you haven’t already, to make sure that you always hear about upcoming events. And if you have any questions, criticisms, or reflections on this episode or the podcast so far, please let us know.

This podcast is one small contribution to the much bigger and ongoing work of collective political education and solidarity building. It is dedicated to everyone who is contending with the relentless violence of colonial racial states: from the Palestinians in Gaza and worldwide who are grieving for their loved ones and for their lands, to West Papuans struggling against Indonesian occupation, to First Nations peoples across the world fighting against ever-changing forms of settler colonial violence and dispossession, to people in prisons and detention centres fighting for freedom and justice. We stand together in the fight for freedom, without exception.

Yours in solidarity,

Anna (for the Radio Reversal collective)

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