En Passant

Once again Gina Rinehart has topped the Forbes billionaires list, with a net worth of $17 billion. It’s been a busy year for her, not only gobbling up media assets but also telling the rest of us how to live our lives and run society writes Katie Wood in Socialist Alternative.

Australia’s richest person reckons that wages are too high, business taxes are too high, environmental regulations are stifling progress, there is an entrenched culture of entitlement and we socialise too much. In fact Australia is, according to Gina Rinehart, pretty much in the grip of socialism.
You couldn’t really make this stuff up – but she has, writes Ben Hillier in Socialist Alternative.

A good first start to independence and to building it on the ground would be for Fairfax workers to strike against the planned 1900 job cuts.

Most politics, ‘debate’ and commentary today is about discerning the difference between the shit sandwiches on offer. It doesn’t deal with the obvious. It’s still a shit sandwich, whether it is Gillard or Abbott selling it.

Media diversity now involves picking over the carcasses of the two parties to debate differences in their rotting entrails in detail. The best way to retain independence and some form of capitalist (ie narrow) media diversity, would be to strengthen unions.