Contributed by Joe Montero

Wonder how many realised that 11 November is Armistice Day. We have very good reasons to take note of it and wear our poppies, each year that it comes by.

It commemorates the end of the First World War. This was supposed to be the war to end all wars. We all know this is not the way it went. So many died during this time, and so many soldiers were never reunited with their families, and they still want answers. It is a good thing that censuses – https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/census/1920-records can be accessed for those who want to know what happened to their loved ones, but I digress.

War had been brought about by old colonial powers trying to redivide the world among themselves. This is the real lesson.

Australia got sucked in because we were still tied to the British empire, despite having achieved formal independence at the turn of the century

Unfortunately, this subversion to foreign interests has continued.

Remembrance Day also marks the 1975 coup against the Whitlam government, in which both the British establishment and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were involved.

Like with the First World War, this coup organised against the Australian government exposed the ongoing subversion of foreign interests over the nation.

Evidence of this comes via disclosures of former CIA operative and whistleblower Christopher Boyce and the investigative journalism of John Pilger. There is more.

We know that big factors were the Whitlam government’s shift to an independent foreign policy, which included the closing down of the Pine Gap military facility and the “buy back the farm” policy to bring the economy into Australian ownership.

This led to the Khemlani Affair. The government had been approached with a promise to raise funds from other but the American owned banking institutions. The source was to be the Middle East. It turned out that Khemlani was a CIA operative and that the affair was a set up to undermine the government.

There was the Nugen Hand Bank affair. Partner Michael John Hand was a former American Green Beret and worked for the CIA. The bank was used to srir up a story that smelled as corruption.

The Governor General himself, John Kerr, had a close association with the CIA. During the 1950’s he was an executive member of the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, directly linked to the CIA established cold War organisation the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

In documents release by Boyce, the CIA often describes Ker as “our man.”

Coincidentally, 11 November is also the day Ned Kelly was hanged. His real crime. Being a rebel against the landed gentry associated with the British colonial power.

This is an important date for Australia. For two reasons.

It marks important parts of our history that makes who we are as a nation. And it shows that there is still unfinished business. Australia is still locked into a reality where foreign powers stand in the way of developing as a truly independent nation where the Australian people are the deciders of our future.