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John Passant

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December 2012
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Keep socialist blog En Passant going - donate now
If you want to keep a blog that makes the arguments every day against the ravages of capitalism going and keeps alive the flame of democracy and community, make a donation to help cover my costs. And of course keep reading the blog. To donate click here. Keep socialist blog En Passant going. More... (4)

Sprouting sh*t for almost nothing
You can prove my 2 ex-comrades wrong by donating to my blog En Passant at BSB: 062914 Account: 1067 5257, the Commonwealth Bank in Tuggeranong, ACT. More... (12)

My interview Razor Sharp 18 February
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace on Razor Sharp on Tuesday 18 February. http://sharonfirebrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/18-2-14-john-passant-aust-national-university-g20-meeting-age-of-enttilement-engineers-attack-of-austerity-hardship-on-civilians.mp3 (0)

My interview Razor Sharp 11 February 2014
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace on Razor Sharp this morning. The Royal Commission, car industry and age of entitlement get a lot of the coverage. http://sharonfirebrace.com/2014/02/11/john-passant-aust-national-university-canberra-2/ (0)

Razor Sharp 4 February 2014
Me on 4 February 2014 on Razor Sharp with Sharon Firebrace. http://sharonfirebrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/4-2-14-john-passant-aust-national-university-canberra-end-of-the-age-of-entitlement-for-the-needy-but-pandering-to-the-lusts-of-the-greedy.mp3 (0)

Time for a House Un-Australian Activities Committee?
Tony Abbott thinks the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Un-Australian. I am looking forward to his government setting up the House Un-Australian Activities Committee. (1)

Make Gina Rinehart work for her dole
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Sick kids and paying upfront

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Save Medicare

Demonstrate in defence of Medicare at Sydney Town Hall 1 pm Saturday 4 January (0)

Me on Razor Sharp this morning
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace this morning for Razor Sharp. It happens every Tuesday. http://sharonfirebrace.com/2013/12/03/john-passant-australian-national-university-8/ (0)

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Archive for December, 2012

The Greens talk left but tack right

The dominant forces in the Greens are driven by electoralism and an attachment to neoliberalism (or fiscal responsibility, as they prefer to call it). Regardless of the odd press release tacking left, the Greens have just legitimised the neoliberal agenda Gillard is implementing. And as they have done so, they have further accommodated to the establishment.

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Rage against rape: Stop violence against women

‘A campaign against rape in isolation from all other aspects of women’s oppression will not serve the purpose. Rape, like domestic violence and sexual harassment, is a symptom of a deeply unequal class-based society that leads some men to think they can control women, including sexually. This is reinforced by women’s material inequality and lower status in society. We must challenge sexism and through the process of struggle will see millions of people questioning the brutal, sexist and exploitative capitlaist society in which we live and look for alternatives beyond capitalism.’

Free speech and Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian

Just to let you know how The Australian itself values free speech, here are 3 letters I have sent recently to them. None have been published. To whet your appetite, here is an entree. ‘I love The Australian as the representative of the fruitcake faction of capital. But the number of nutters you are publishing in your letters and opinion pages is getting somewhat tiresome.’

Saturday’s socialist speak out

If more radical ‘tax the rich and big business’ policies aren’t forthcoming from the Australian Greens soon then we can be pretty sure they have turned the rightward amble into a stampede to make themselves seemingly even more respectable and electable. The irony is the more respectable and electable they think they are the less support they seem to garner.

US General Norman Schwarzkopf died during the week. The 1991 Desert Storm war criminal is being feted across the country by the American elite, including fellow war criminals George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I guess the link between war crimes abroad and gun massacres at home is lost on people.

Where is SYRIZA – the Coalition of the radical left in Greece – headed?

Panos Petrou is a leading member of the socialist group Internationalist Workers Left (DEA), one of the groups that co-founded SYRIZA – the Coalition of the Radical Left – in 2004. Here he reports on what took place at its recent conference and the political debate that is taking place over its future and direction.

Boxing Day sales and Karl Marx

Marx never went to a Boxing Day Sale. He didn’t have the money. In recent years Boxing Day sales have become more popular as a way for retailers to recoup some money after flat or less than expected pre-Christmas revenue.

Turn back the yachts of the 1%

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is a race for the billionaires and multi-millionaires, the one percent. These people lead a very different life to us. They live off our hard work. They don’t and won’t mix with the rest of us. They inhabit rich ghettos. They speak a different language of finance and investment and money. They even eat different food. We don’t want them here. It’s time to turn back the yachts.

No Christmas joy on Manus Island

For the 130 Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi and Sri Lankan refugees on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, this Christmas season is an uphill battle to keep spirits up in a grim environment writes Socialist Alternative. On Christmas Day most Australian children wake up to a morning of opening presents; the 15 children on Manus Island wake up to a vastly different reality: their daily malaria pill. In this remote tropical island without air conditioning, adequate medical treatment, or privacy, the best gift the Australian government could give asylum seekers this festive season is the most basic and simple of all: freedom.

How much tax does big business in Australia pay?

Without a mass working class movement demanding and winning better wages, more jobs and price controls as well as more tax paid by the rich and big business, the rich and big business will continue to get richer and pay less and less tax.

Customs, drugs and refugees

There’d be one sure way I reckon to break the drug smugglers’ business model and all that goes with it, like Customs Department corruption. Legalise drugs and treat addiction as a health issue. They did that in Portugal and the results have been a great success. Maybe we could do something similar for refugees too […]