En Passant

One element missing in much of the discussion about the Murdoch Empire is Wapping. The destruction of media unions gave management untrammeled power. The result is the culture of criminality at some of Murdoch’s outlets.

The fundamental obstacle to a sustainable energy policy goes to the core of how our global economy is organized. Chris Williams is a long-time environmental activist and author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis. He talked to Jon Hochschartner for the US magazine Socialist Worker about the prospects for saving the earth before it’s too late.

Under capitalism it is one law for the rich; one law for the poor. Not just for Wendi Deng but for Rupert Murdoch too.

You don’t jail such a rich man for using his power to influence politics for his own advantage.

You don’t jail the Prime Minister for corrupt appointments of influence in his own office or the heavies in the police force for doing the same. You don’t jail the head of the police force for taking freebies worth $20,000 from someone who has a connection with Murdoch.

You don’t jail the son of the mogul for paying hush money.

You don’t jail Murdoch even though his plausible deniability excuse sounds implausible.

Welcome to justice under capitalism.

David Mpatsi’s death should be sheeted home squarely to the Mugabe government. Not only should David not have been thrown in jail, but the conditions of his imprisonment only worsened his health. David was one of 17 of those jailed who was locked up in solitary confinement. While suffering from the horrible conditions that lie in store for all those jailed by the Mugabe regime, David suffered particularly acutely because of the lack of decent medical care while he was locked up. As the Zimbabwean comrades say, David was killed by the Government as surely as if it had placed a noose around his neck.

Of course we should be disgusted when bourgeois politicians lie to us. But we shouldn’t be surprised. That is their job.

Bourgeois politicians are the political equivalent of The News of the World. Full of shit, where lies are a dime a dozen and bent coppers and politics fearful of the fear mongers evidently are too.

The International Socialist Organisation in Zimbabwe has announced that David Mpatsi has died. They said in part: The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) Zimbabwe announces with a heavy heart the death of Comrade David Mpatsi who passed away in the late hours of the 14th of July 2011 at Chitungwiza General Hospital. He succumbed to a lung infection […]

The News of the World scandal shows the corruption at the heart of the system. Only a thoroughgoing democratisation of the system can create a truly free media and society.

The political liars for capitalism are in bed with the media liars for capitalism. Surprise surprise.

Social media is a tool. One that has changed how revolutions happened, but not one that, in and of itself, incites them.

I was on a panel today and had a good debate with Andrew Leigh MP, Shane Rattenbury MLA, Senator Garry Humphries and Jack Waterford from the Canberra Times. There were about 45 people, and some even agreed with me that a carbon tax is a neoliberal attempt at solving a problem the market created. My call […]