Why the right hates the ABC
The Australian government and its right wing, big business backers despise the ABC. If this wasn’t already well established, the recent leadership saga at the organisation has clarified it. The first sign of trouble came when managing director Michelle Guthrie was sacked by the ABC board o...CONTINUE READING
How corporate power hijacked democracy
You don’t have to be a radical to think that what passes for democracy in capitalist society is a fraud. Politicians are so obviously influenced by extra-parliamentary networks of power that only the most blinkered ideologue would argue that the average Australian has as much influence on...CONTINUE READING
No emissions reduction target, but $444 million for corporate greenwashing
The Liberal leadership spill has drawn attention away from what should rank among the biggest scandals in the history of Australian politics: the government’s gift of almost half a billion dollars to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), an organisation whose barely concealed role is t...CONTINUE READING
Gangsters for capitalism: Downer, Woodside and ‘Witness K’
It says everything you need to know about the connection between big business, politics and national security. In 2004, then foreign minister Alexander Downer presided over an Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) operation to install listening devices in the offices of the governm...CONTINUE READING
US establishment rattled by socialist’s primary win
The victory of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic Party primary in New York’s 14th Congressional District on 26 June has put the US political establishment in a spin. It is one of the biggest political upsets in recent US history. Her opponent was Joe Crowley, a 10-term c...CONTINUE READING
The $600 billion multinational tax scam
The big picture is easy to see. The world’s richest few are expanding their fortunes at the cost of the vast majority. The combined wealth of the world’s 2,754 billionaires increased by US$1.8 trillion – or 24 percent – in 2017, to US$9.2 trillion. The richest 1 percent now own as much as...CONTINUE READING
Climate change an ‘existential risk’, but Australia continues to do nothing
It seems like a win. There appear to be some parliamentary representatives without their heads buried firmly in the sand on climate change. That members of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee – a mix of Coalition, Labor, Green and independent senators – wou...CONTINUE READING
Police massacre environment protesters in Tamil Nadu
On 22 May, 13 people in the city of Thoothukudi in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were massacred by police on the 100th day of continuous protest against the expansion of the giant Sterlite copper smelter. Sterlite is a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, a multinational with operati...CONTINUE READING
Daniel Andrews is no left winger
Going by the coverage in the Murdoch press, you’d think Victoria under Daniel “Red Dan” Andrews is socialism in one state. On the left too, Andrews is regarded as an outlier among recent Labor leaders. In a 2016 Guardian article, Gay Alcorn claimed, “Daniel Andrews’ government is unashamed...CONTINUE READING