Melbourne’s anti-war mob wants peace, but disarmament won’t achieve that

Anti-war activists protest the Land Forces 2024 International Land Defence Exposition at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

There’s a whole set of political and ethical issues wrapped up in whether protesters, like the ones gathered against Melbourne’s Land Forces defence industry conference, are right to confront police with anger, volleys of horse manure and even fire to make their point.

My view is that violent protests achieve little, while peaceful, impassioned protests are a valuable part of our society that can cause positive change. The work to promote peaceful protests needs to be done by their organisers and participants, with a commensurate police response that does not push people along the path to violence on our streets.

But there is also another side to the protesters’ logic and motivations that doesn’t make any sense. The protesters are deeply anti-war. That’s good; I suspect most of us are. They regard the arms industry as fuelling war and think that if these companies stop making weapons, peace will be the ­result. This is where I disagree.

On Wednesday, the protesters carried signs bearing the slogans “Capitalism Kills”, “No $ for War” and “War: It’s costing the Earth”.

Many of the protesters were pro-Palestinian and want an end to the war between Hamas and Israel. They link the arms companies to that war and seem to think that by stopping the companies, you will stop the war.

There’s a giant blind spot here, rooted in self-deception and wishful thinking. Besides, the Israel-Hamas war is not the only brutal conflict raging right now.

Vladimir Putin’s war against 38 million Ukrainians is brutal, with Russian missiles, drones and glide bombs deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and power stations. Likewise, there are many smaller active conflicts and several “frozen” ones, including across the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.

Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine because of the resistance of the Ukrainian people, as well as its military’s courage and resourcefulness. But there is another crucial reason: the Ukrainian military has been provided with a flow of weapons and defensive systems by arms companies, many of which are currently gathered at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Javelin anti-tank missiles that destroyed Russian forces advancing on Kyiv at the start of the war are made by Raytheon. The Patriot anti-missile system that has been intercepting Russian Kinzhal ballistic and hypersonic missiles flying towards Kyiv is made by Lockheed Martin. The NASAMs air defence system that has been shooting down Russian missiles and drones is a made by the partnership of Raytheon and Kongsberg.

Volodymyr Zelensk

General Dynamics makes the F-16 fighters that are starting to equip the Ukrainian air force, as a well as making the M1A1 tanks for Ukraine’s ground forces. And, here in Australia, Thales makes the Bushmaster protected vehicles that have saved the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

Ask Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people if they want the companies in Melbourne to be shut down, and you’ll hear they want the opposite. In fact, these arms companies need to produce more, and Western governments need to get this military equipment into the hands of Ukrainian soldiers as fast as possible to end the war.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that the protesters got what they wanted and Western arms companies were closed, with countries such as Australia, the US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Finland, France, the Philippines, Ukraine – and Israel – dismantling their militaries and giving peace a chance.

The Ukraine war would end, and so would the war in Gaza. But certainly not in the way the protesters would think.

In Ukraine, it would lead to Russian conquest and destruction. In the Middle East, Hamas terrorists would climb out of their remaining tunnels and roll into Israel to do what they were founded to do: exterminate the Israeli state. Hezbollah, the Houthis and numerous other Iranian proxies would join in the violence and killing. When the initial slaughter ended, Hamas would govern the conquered and their own people brutally and violently – as they have done since seizing power in Gaza in 2007.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Closer to home, Kim Jong-un would see a demilitarised South Korea as the perfect opportunity to unify the Peninsula on his terms, executing traitors who foolishly believe in democracy, personal freedom and free markets. Likewise, Xi Jinping would gratefully accept US and Japanese pacifism by subjugating 23 million Taiwanese, and send thousands to re-education camps and prisons as he has done to the Uighurs.

What this picture depicts is the obvious nasty truth, which the protesters in Melbourne need to deny: violent regimes led by brutal people exist in our world and they are restrained by others who have the military power to do so.

They will not turn from goals of conquest to gathering flowers and frolicking with men and women of peace if we and other democratic nations close down our arms industry and chant “peace not war” while wrapped in keffiyehs and carrying signs about how we don’t like baby killers. One fundamental reason the protesters can demonstrate against the Australian government and the arms companies is they live in a country that is kept safe by the work of people in these arms companies. That’s something which shouldn’t be forgotten.

Democracy has to be defended to survive and to deter all those who would otherwise use force against us.

Michael Shoebridge is director of Strategic Analysis Australia.