En Passant

Priorities eh? Scrap the school kids bonus and increase the superannuation tax on those people earning less than $37000 while at the same time saving multi-millionaire superannuants about $20,000 in tax a year and multinational companies $600 million a year. Class war anyone?

The one percent are the only ones who profit from the competition. You can bet on that. Maybe it is time for a Boxer rebellion to end the rat race and farm out the benefits to all. It has to be better than flogging a dead horse.

If there is any hope it lies in the proles. The most important battles in the weeks and months to come are likely to be by unions, in particular building unions. The Abbott government has signaled a brutal crackdown on the CFMEU and other building unions in the near future, especially through its soon to be revitalised Australian Building and Construction Commission.

To drive back the repressive state, we must join together with building unions to help them win their fight against repression and in their victory create the space for freedom to blossom.

Haven’t heard about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a neoliberal and imperialist wet dream? Not surprising since it is being negotiated in secret and Abbott will try to spring it on us soon enough. I have written about it in the next Red Flag, due out on Wednesday. Subscribe now. And yes, we have digital subscriptions [...]

We need to be clear. Afghanistan is a defeat for US and Australian imperialism.

Let’s call a spade a spade Scott Morrison.

Me in Independent Australia. ‘Academic John Passant has been subjected to vile threats after writing about a recent demonstration against education cuts — and has traced some of them back to Victoria Police.’ http://www.independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/victoria-police-threaten-academic,5857

Given Campbell Newman’s public direction to judges to harden the fuckup (or words to that effect) why isn’t he in the slammer for contempt of court? No trial necessary, just a decision by a judge that he is in contempt and off he goes for a few days or weeks or months in jail. No trial, no jury, no evidence. Sort of doing a Newman to Newman.

Yesterday a worker from one of Samsung’s semiconductor plants in South Korea was found dead at 5am. It appears that he was subject to months of adverse action and management cut his pay because he was in the union. It is suspected that he committed suicide due to management bullying.

In breaking news the NSA has confirmed it has hacked Rupert Murdoch’s private phones for eleven years. ‘The fight against terrorism knows no bounds,’ spokesthing Joseph Dzhugashvili said.  Barack Obama said ‘Of course.’ Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott denied Australia’s spy agencies had broken any AUSTRALIAN laws in helping the Americans.