En Passant

Marx famously thought there was a difference between appearance and reality. It was what drove him to look into the real workings of capitalism, a system of exploitation of workers. Our current election campaign is showing that appearance and reality distinction up.  Now, don’t worry, I am not going to talk about deep philosophical matters […]

The Paladin Group is a small company with a shack on Kangaroo Island – until last week – as its head office. After all the media interest, as well as a PO Box in Singapore, Paladin now has an office in Canberra. The phone might even work. According to its website, Paladin is ‘… a leading provider of project support services in the Asia-Pacific.’ These […]

Ripping kids out of the arms of their mothers and putting them in cages is not an aberration — it is business as usual for Western “civilisation” I write in Independent Australia.

As the brutalisation of refugees on Manus Island becomes obvious, more and more Australians want them brought here, I write in Independent Australia

Have all the illegals invading our Parliament been sent back to where they came from yet?

‘Turnbull “humbly” served lunch to the very people he victimises. He then instructed the rest of us to “hug” them.

‘At the same time, he refused to acknowledge that his government’s policies have murdered yet another refugee, who came to us seeking sanctuary from murderers in his homeland.’

The refugee protest at Parliament House was a great display of democracy, bringing the voice of voiceless refugees to the attention of the wider public. It interrupted for a few minutes the daily posturing of the wafflers and trough sniffers in Parliament and highlighted the lives permanently interrupted on Manus Island and Nauru. This is what democracy looks like.

I have argued for some time that the refugee movement must radicalise and, for example, close down the centres of major cities to win the campaign to bring them here. Otherwise we are, like Sisyphus, trapped in the eternal boulder rolling of defeat.

Stopping the boats (itself a lie) is built on starting the torture. Turnbull, and I should add, Shorten, feel confident in their brutal refugee policies. How do we challenge them? History shows that civil disobedience has been a key weapon in the armoury of those fighting for civil rights. Stop the cities to stop the torture. Occupy to free the refugees from the concentration camps and bring them here.