The train draws in to another station; a button is pressed and the doors slide open. Three boys step aboard, they can't be much older than fourteen. They stand near the doors, grasping the polished steel poles for balance. They chat about the football, laugh about last night's episode of Futurama and make plans for the weekend.

At first they seemed like any other kids, riding the train to Fremantle for a day at the Markets. But when I looked again, I noticed they were the latest casualties in the silent war, the battle between Australia's fledgling national identity and America's greatest export - its culture. All three boys wore T-shirts by Polo Sport, the letters U-S-A emblazoned across their chests.

America has slowly been staking its claim in the Australian cultural identity - infiltrating our lives like the most efficient of spies, walking undetected in our midst. These three innocent boys made it startlingly clear to me. 'Australian' as a concept is dying, being replaced by the mass consumerism and global corporations that have been spawned from the US free-for-all market economy.

Australia has a history of invasion. In 1788 the British imperialists decided that our shores were ideal for their next colony. They set about establishing their presence in the area with a vengeance - literally. Aboriginal culture was all but destroyed as the settlers introduced policies ranging from - as David Malouf poignantly describes it in Remembering Babylon - "dispersal ... too slight an affair to be called a massacre" to the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their parents.

These efforts to destroy the indigenous culture and replace it with its 'civilised' European counterpart were blatantly wrong, and we like to think that we won't allow anything similar to happen in future - after all, we're still dealing with the consequences over two hundred years later.

The sad fact is, however, that we are heading for a repeat performance, albeit a more subtle one. While America is yet to use military force against Australia, it is certainly expanding its cultural empire across our borders. Large corporations are the new sovereigns, and they are intent on expanding their territory into Australia. Peter J. Anderson argues in The Global Politics of Power, Justice and Death:

"The communications revolution also has facilitated greatly the global interfusion of certain cultural values and trends. This has been alleged to be particularly true with regard to [American culture], due simply to the worldwide distribution of American films and television programmes disseminating, intentionally or otherwise, the US vision of the good life."

Anderson addresses the key issue of cultural imperialism - the imposition of "the US vision of the good life" on other nations. However, film and television are not the only means to this end. The proliferation of American brands in Australian society, as well as the effects of an increasingly American music industry, has subdued Australia's identity in a more dangerous way than the British colonials in 1788. They are using advertising to turn Australian citizens against themselves. While the Aborigines put up a fight, modern society is doing nothing to oppose the American invasion.

No longer is a quality product foremost in the mind of the consumer. More important than comfortable apparel is clothing with market presence. You must be seen to be wearing the latest brand, the newest style. And American corporations have played this game to perfection. Australians have fallen victim to global peer pressure, to international bullying. If kids these days don't wear the shoes Michael Jordan tells them to wear, they're not cool. If they don't have the shirt that Nike advertisers tell them is the next big thing, they're not cool. Australian kids are wearing American clothes, playing with American toys and eating American food. And if they don't - they're not cool.

It is not just kids, though, that have succumbed to the playground tactics of American corporations. Increasingly, Australian adults are playing the same childish status games. Heineken and Budweiser have made a move into Australia, and are marketing themselves as boutique beers. Our Olympic athletes have announced how happy they are with their new uniforms, despite the presence of a Nike 'swoosh' as big as the Australian coat of arms. We have fallen for cheap marketing tricks, to the detriment of our own culture.

But the swoosh on the Olympic uniforms is only a minor issue compared with the rest of the event. To my mind the biggest Olympic farce returns to those boys on the train. They will watch our athletes compete and probably cheer for them. I have no doubt that they will discuss how great Ian Thorpe's gold medal performance was, or the great finals match of the Hockeyroos. But on the weekend they will put on their USA T-shirts, oblivious to their hypocrisy, and support the American team.

Sydney 2000 has been billed as a chance for Australians to show their talent. We will be centre-stage, with the rest of the world gazing intently at the best we have to offer. At least, that was the theory. All the Olympics will do is allow American corporations to increase their stranglehold on the Australian public.

Think about those companies that "proudly support the Olympic Games". The majority of them are foreign to Australia - Coke, McDonalds and other global corporations based in the US. America has bought out our Olympics. How can Australian talent possibly be showcased in Sydney when it is covered with American logos?

To be fair to the Olympic management, there was not much choice. They certainly need the money, for capital works, advertising and distribution - not to mention the fat salaries of the management team. But beyond that, there are no Australian companies to consider. America has for years been poaching Australian talent and handing it over to Uncle Sam.

Unfortunately, many of those great Aussie icons that we hold in esteem as part of our national identity have been surrendered to the United States. Arnotts, Vegemite and more recently looksmart.com have been transferred to the hands of Americans.

But it is not only Australian brand names that have succumbed to the lure of US cash. Our talent in areas outside the sphere of business (though the lines are increasingly blurred these days) has also steadily flowed away from Australia to the "land of opportunity" as American propagandists describe it. One need only look to recent films to see this - The Patriot, a film glorifying American history and the violent foundations of its democracy, starred two Australian actors, Heath Ledger and Mel Gibson. The irony is clear: Australian actors used to glorify the United States. It is a microcosm of the wider problem.

Sport has not been immune to Americanisation, despite its proximity to the average Australian's heart. Greg Norman, our own 'Shark', can really only be considered an American. Luc Longley, too - he was unable to be at a Boomers game earlier this year, despite his coaching position, due to commitments to an American basketball team.

A recent television show underlines the power of America to draw Australians away from their homeland. The Dream Factory's premise is that fledgling actors move to Hollywood in order to make their fortune. Apart from their obvious inadequacies as performers, they show that America dominates the aspirations of many Australians. None are content to succeed in Australia - they would rather fail overseas. And this is not something that has been lost on Australian institutions.

A recent advertisement by the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle was based on the slogan "Would the President of the United States recognise your university?" The implication is clearly that a degree is worthless unless it can be associated - rightly or wrongly - with an American institution. Quality of education is of secondary importance to the veneer of Uncle Sam's approval, in exchange for cheap holidays for American exchange students.

American-style democracy has gradually permeated Australian politics. The recent Labor Party national conference has shown this. Historically, the conference would play a major role in determining the party platform. This year, though, it resembled the extravaganzas held by US political parties. Carefully orchestrated debates led to predetermined outcomes, and there was little room for dissent. Big money, too, has become increasingly important. Labor backbencher Dr Carmen Lawrence recently announced her plan to limit donations to political parties in an effort to prevent Australian politics from taking an American-style turn for the worse. Unfortunately, her idea does not look likely to succeed, and the United States will probably take yet another indirect foothold in Australian society.

The position of Australian culture looks bleak in the face of American imperialism. There are, however, ways we can make some small investments in the preservation of "Aussie" as a recognisable concept. None takes much more effort than it does to recognise the tragic situation.

Spell-check dictionaries

Make sure they are set to Australian English. There is a difference between "Americanisation" and "Americanization" - the second is the result of itself, and it contains a Z rather than an S.

Support Australian artists

Australian films are just as good, if not better, than the rubbish Hollywood churns out. Support movies like The Castle, Blackrock and Chopper.

There is little difference between Limp Bizkit and 28 Days, except that the latter is Australian. Why not support them? They're more likely to visit your area than a foreign band is...

Speak like an Australian

Don't fall for American slang just because you see it used on TV. Australianisms are a lot wittier and more entertaining. Those Seppos (Septic tank = Yank) are unoriginal and think that saying "dude" makes you cool. "Mate" and "ba***rd" are far better alternatives.

Support Australian companies

It can be hard to tell which companies remain in the possession of Australians, but it is worth finding out. Why should you pay the salary of an American wage-slave when we need the jobs right here?

Unfortunately this may mean you have to give up Vegemite for its genuinely Australian counterpart - Dick Smith's Something or Other Extract.

Essentially, we must recognise that America is slowly strangling our fledgling national identity. There are things we can do to slow the process down, but in the end we can only hope the process is not inevitable. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!