En Passant

The US presence in Haiti is not an intervention; it is an invasion. It has nothing to do with helping the Haitians; it has everything to do with restructuring Haiti in the interests of the bonus bludgers in Wall Street and their ilk across the country.

Alistair Hulett – singer, songwriter, socialist – died overnight. Chris Harman, Daniel Bensaid, Howard Zinn and now Alistair. Farewell comrades.

The Woodside workers deserve to be treated like human beings, rather than animals. They have every right to strike for as much as they can get.

The interview in the Australian Women’s Weekly gives a pretty good pointer to what Tony Abbott as Prime Minister would be like – socially reactionary and economically a let the market rip sort of guy.

Imperialism is the competition between the major economic states. That competition is economic, political and military, but ultimately rests on military strength and often resolves itself militarily.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to limit its UK partners’ pay and bonuses to 1 million pounds. That sounds about right – one million pounds into their money grubbing greedy guts.

Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry has backtracked from his recent comment that detention centres are breeding grounds for mental illness. He now says he was criticising past government policies. Ah, that explains it. Howard and Keating detention centres bad; Rudd detention centres good. Shame, McGorry, shame.