En Passant

If the Fairfax bosses win this round, we’re on the way to almost complete mainstream media Murdochisation in Australia, writes John Passant in Independent Australia.

From ACTU Secretary Sally McManus: Do not cross the Fairfax picket line. No buying, sharing, clicking Fairfax while journalists are on strike.

It would be good to see the Labor Party, the ACTU and the Greens unite to defend these workers and to mobilise their members to do just that.

How then can we show solidarity to these brave unionists? Other unionists could ban supplies to Fairfax.

If there are picket lines, join them. If there are protests, attend. Send messages of support and money to the MEAA if they ask for it. If there are any striking Fairfax workers who want to publish their story, email me at en.passant@bigpond.com I will print your stories (with you remaining anonymous if you want) on my blog to get the truth out there about the sackings.

At 8.46 am on Tuesday 1 March I sent the article below to the opinion editors at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times. It is about the Paul Sheehan affair and his repetition of lies from Louise about a rape in Sydney she blamed on Middle Eastern men. It was untrue. I got an automated response for the SMH and the Age saying they received lots of submissions and if they hadn’t got back to me in a few days consider it rejected. (My words.) Sixty hours later and not one of the opinion editors has got back to me about what I thought was an OK article highlighting the liberal racism of the Fairfax newspapers. Here is what I sent them. It is an edited down version of an earlier article on my blog. I just can’t for the life of me figure out why they won’t publish it, can you?

Australia’s mainstream media is a bit like Australia’s politics. It gives the impression of difference but in reality the two major newspaper outlets – News and Fairfax – disagree only on the detail. They agree on the overriding message and practice of neoliberalism and austerity. They agree too on creating a distraction from austerity. For Fairfax disguised and now not so disguised Islamophobia and liberal racism are good ways to do that.

Until an anti-austerity mass movement and its political expression arise we will continue to have bad government after bad government in Australia. That new formation will I suspect only happen when we decide to take action as the working class against whoever is in power, the Liberals or Labor.

I sent this to the Sydney Morning Herald in response to an article quoting me. What chance? John Passant My thanks to Gareth Hutchens for using me as an example of those who have condemned the Greens’ shift further to the neoliberal right. (‘Meet the new Greens economics team preparing to shake up Australian politics’, […]

A variety of opinions? A contest of ideas? Only those writers imbued with the capitalist ethos are published in the mainstream media.

Almost everything we are reading about ‘terror Australis’ is bullshit from Team Australia and the compliant media to further a particular goal – to unite us with the warmongers, racists and Islamophobes in yet another blood soaked certainly doomed adventure in the Middle East. It may also be a temporary distraction from the economic terrorism the Abbott government has unleashed on us.

The fight for Palestine is the fight for a treaty and sovereignty here. The fight for a treaty and sovereignty here is the fight for Palestine. One struggle. One fight.