The Australian state has identified two more of its working-class dead, Private Archibald "Blue" Hanley and Lieutenant Hercules William Crawford, who perished in imperialist conflicts 108 and 84 years ago respectively. Their identification, after decades in graves marked "Unknown Australian," serves to manage the historical narrative of wars fought for capital, not for the common good. These men were part of the vast human cost of global power struggles, their individual stories now brought forward by the same state apparatus that sent them to their deaths.
Private Hanley, of the 30th Battalion, was killed in the Battle of Amiens near Villers-Bretonnux, France, on August 8, 1918. For over a century, his remains lay in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, a forgotten casualty of the First World War, a conflict driven by competing colonial ambitions and the scramble for global markets. Lieutenant Crawford, from the 39th Battalion, Citizens Military Forces, went missing on the Kokoda Track near Pirivi on August 8, 1942, during the Battle of Kokoda in Papua New Guinea. He was buried at the Bomana War Cemetery, another life consumed by the Second World War's brutal contest for resources and geopolitical dominance.
The Cost of Empire
The identification efforts, spearheaded by the Australian Army's Unrecovered War Casualties team in consultation with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Office of Australian War Graves, highlight the state's selective memory. While individual names are now affixed to headstones, the systemic reasons for their deaths remain unaddressed. These soldiers, many of them conscripted or economically compelled into service, were cannon fodder in conflicts that ultimately enriched a select few. The "sacrifice" lauded by state officials was, for most, a forced contribution to the expansion and protection of capital.
Veterans' Affairs Minister Matt Keogh issued a statement, declaring, "When we say, 'Lest We Forget' at the end of the Ode we re-commit to remembering them in perpetuity." He added that the formal identification "reflects our enduring commitment to accounting for Australia's wartime missing, no matter how much time has passed." Such rhetoric attempts to sanitize the violence and exploitation inherent in these wars, framing them as noble endeavors rather than brutal extensions of economic policy. The state's commitment is to its own legitimacy, not to a fundamental reckoning with the causes of war.
State Rituals and Forgotten Lives
Chief of Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle echoed this sentiment, stating the identification provided "long-awaited answers to their families" and "demonstrates that time does not diminish our determination to account for our missing and ensure their service and sacrifice are properly commemorated." These pronouncements, while offering solace to families, simultaneously reinforce nationalist narratives that obscure class conflict and the true beneficiaries of war. The focus on individual commemoration deflects attention from the fact that over 30,000 Australian soldiers from World War I and II still lie in unknown graves. This vast number underscores the disposability of working-class lives in the pursuit of imperial objectives.
DNA breakthroughs are now enabling more families to search for their ancestors' graves. This technological advancement allows the state to continue its ritualistic acts of remembrance, offering symbolic closure without ever challenging the economic foundations that produce such widespread slaughter. The identification of Private Hanley and Lieutenant Crawford is a small, belated gesture, a footnote in the larger, ongoing history of capital's wars and the working class that pays their ultimate price.