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John Passant

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May 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 May, 2012

A turning point in Syria?

The revolution will be won by Syrians themselves or it won’t be won at all.

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Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!

When Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne and Warren Entsch (I think it is Entsch) realised that Thomson was voting against the gag order and thus with them, they jumped from their seats and made for the exit.

Entsch went to a door that wouldn’t open. Pyne hid in an adviser’s box. Abbott was too late – the doors had been locked. Strategic geniuses.

It just shows what a farce Parliament is. With all the real challenges facing society isn’t it time we had a truly democratic institution instead of this sand pit for intellectual pygmies?

Yes to Chinese workers; no to ‘Aussie’ nationalism

The ramifications of the collapse in class struggle are clear for all to see – growing inequality, more wealth being shovelled to the wealthy, long working hours, high levels of disguised unemployment and politically a cowered trade union movement meek in its mildness and terrifying in its timidity, with a Labor Party whose raison d’etre appears almost indistinguishable from the Tories.

Instead of attacking Chinese and other ‘foreign’ workers we should welcome them and fight for them. In doing that can we begin rebuilding our capacity as a movement to defend all jobs and help keep at bay the nationalist flag of racism.

Tax – making workers pay

There is a thread that runs through the Henry Tax Review and the thinking of O’Dwyer and perhaps Bartos. It is that the state should take less out of the earnings of capital, earnings created by the labour of workers.

It may be this ‘tax capital less’ mantra is a response to a systemic problem, the tendency under capitalism of the rate of profit to fall. Cutting tax rates won’t address that threat to capitalism. Paradoxically it might increase it in the long term.

A tale of two mass murderers

Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Syria, has killed another 100 people, overwhelmingly women and children. Western leaders are ‘outraged.’ Barack Obama, the butcher in Washington, authorised another drone bombing. It killed a family of 8 in Afghanistan. Western leaders are silent. Zionism continues its genocide against the Palestinian people and the West enthusiastically supports the […]

Return the right to strike

The right to withdraw our labour is basic to defending wages and conditions, otherwise we will be powerless.

Short break

I will be taking a short break for a few days. Just a reminder too that all comments close after an article has been on the site for 7 days. You are not able to post comments on pieces older than 7 days.

Saturday’s socialist speak out

To conjure up racist images of Chinese workers marching into Australia, as Doug Cameron has done, is the desperate cry of a political and industrially bankrupt politician and unionist on a path to nowhere.

Doug Cameron’s world of class collaboration is collapsing around him as the bosses’ demons he and his ilk unleashed consume him. So instead of class struggle to defend jobs he raises race as the defining issue. Shame, Doug Cameron, shame.

The Greens embrace business

The Greens have not become a left wing alternative in Australian politics. A genuine left wing alternative has to be built by building fighting movements in the workplaces, on campuses and on the streets.

Such an alternative has to reject all the “common sense” ideas of capitalist politics to which all the major parties, the Greens included, are committed and must argue instead for socialist solutions to the problems of the working class and the oppressed.

Such a perspective is a world away from the likes of Peter Whish-Wilson.

ASIO checks destroy refugee lives

The ASIO security checks are designed to create hysteria writes Benjamin Solah in Socialist Alternative. The government wants us to believe that those coming to our shores to seek protection are a threat. We should be clear that refugees are the ones under threat – not just from the countries that they flee, but from our government.

The only solution is to demand a complete scrapping of these checks and to demand that refugees inside detention are released into the community.