Welcome to the Anarchist World this Week, broadcast across Australia on the national community radio satellite. Listen to the Anarchist World this Week, Australia’s sacred cow slaughterhouse. Listen to analysis of local, national and international events, listen to analysis you’ll never hear anywhere else.

Here we go this is the Anarchist World this Week, broadcast across Australia on the national community radio satellite. My name’s Joseph Toscano. Yes we are broadcasting on the national community radio satellite across Australia north to south east to west, we’re streaming live on 3cr.org.au and if you’ve got the technological ability this program is now being podcast which means that you can pull it down and listen to it at any time at your leisure. Don’t know why you’d want to waste your life listening to somebody else when you can actually go out there and change things yourself but if you want a little bit of encouragement this is the program. Anarchist World this Week.

Don’t know what an anarchist society is? An anarchist society is a voluntary non-hierarchical society which is based on the creation of political and social structures, which are based on equal decision making power that’s direct democracy the people involved in the decision making the decision where wealth is held in common and used for the common good. Exceptionally very boring, conservative ideas really, aren’t they?

Well, it’s pretty radical to think that one human being should rule a country isn’t it? It’s pretty radical to think that 5% of the population should own 80% of the resources because somehow they are better folk than us. But that is the type of society we live in. We live in a radical society, anarchism is all about conservatism. That’s right, looking after the needs of the individual in a collectivist environment. Simple concept.

What’s the word anarchy mean? It means without rulers, not without rules. Obviously those people who currently lord over us whether it’s in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations, religious leaders, political leaders, community leaders, they know that there is no rulers, there’s no real point for them, is there? So no wonder they’re constantly arguing against what anarchists argue about, that human beings are able, capable of organising their own lives, of organising the lives of the communities and societies and nation states in the world for the import of ordinary human beings not formulating their own decisions and that is what anarchy is all about.

Now, it’s been an interesting week, well, not actually that interesting. I mean, the interesting thing about this week has been how boring predictable it’s all been, how predictable. Here we have a federal government and her majesties loyal opposition trying to carve up a little bit of space for them trying to pour their poison, their lies, their deceit into our brains so that we, at election time, will voluntarily give them a signed blank cheque to make decisions for us for the next 3 years. Whoopee doo. The pinnacle of human achievement parliamentary rule. We’ll talk about that later on.
Now Mr John Glasbrook will be coming into the studio later on and he’ll be talking about matters economical, he’ll be looking at the 5 most influential economists for the last few centuries. People whose dead hand still has a great deal of influence in society. I think this week he’ll be talking about Karl Marx that should happen in the next 10 or 15 minutes so hang in for that interview with John Glasbrook. He is an ordinary person who is looking at the economy. Because a lot of people think that the economy is difficult, that you need experts, you need economists. Well you don’t need economists, you don’t need experts. You’ve got to get through the jargon.

I’ll give you an example: now, I think the last few weeks you’ve been wondering what’s happening with this so called sub-prime mortgage disaster. And you wonder what a reserve bank is or a central bank is or what liquidity is, or what a hedge fund is. Well currently as you and I know, the world’s economy is controlled by a small population, a small section of the population. And these people have never had it so good. I mean, if you are looking for a luxury home, no price is high enough. You’re looking for that yacht or that mooring fees nothing is good enough for you. And what we’ve seen over the last 20 years is the drift of profits. In the good old days, in the 70’s and 80’s, about 60-65% of profits were redistributed to wage earners. Today, (and when I talk about wage earners I am not just talking about people who receive wages but also people in micro-businesses and people in very small businesses who don’t employ labour) but today the ratio of profits which is been redistributed to micro-businesses, small businesses and wage earners in comparison to the profits which go to the 10% of the population which own the means of production, distribution, exchange of communication has shifted from a ratio of about 30-35% to 60-65% or 70% to less than 50% of profits which are made through people’s labour now ends up in their pay packets, in their bank accounts. And over 50% of profits, which are generated by the use of your labour, is now ending up in the hands of that minuscule portion of the population, that 5-10% of the population which own the means of production, distribution, exchange of communication and that’s what the economic miracle has been based on.

Over the last 2 weeks, the world’s economic system, corporate capital, has had a bit of a blip. Those billionaire hedge fund managers, and those millionaire stock brokers, the very people who have given us this wonderful economic system, where 10% rake off more than 50% of the profits made, while the 90% who make those profits get less than 50% return. Well they’ve had a little bit of a problem. Some of their lending practises and some of their business practises, their so called smart business practises, have caused them a great deal of heartache. And we’ve heard a new word enter into the economic jargon for ordinary people: liquidity. And last week we saw $350 billion dollars pumped into the private sector by central banks. 5 billion of that was pumped into the private sector by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

So what does it all mean? Well, do you know who provides money to the Reserve Bank of Australia? Do you know who provides the money to the central banks of the world? It’s the public - through taxation revenue. It’s you and me. And when those billionaire hedge fund managers and those millionaire stock brokers stuff it up for the rest of us, we pay increased interest rates, we have to take wage cuts, or give up conditions, to tread water, while they demand and get taxpayers’ money to keep this whole ugly system continuing to function. So when you hear the word liquidity crisis, that means there is not enough money in the system for you to borrow. So in order to keep the capitalist machine ticking over, billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money is poured into that gaping hole to prevent the whole system from going belly up.

So when you hear about the 5 billion going into the liquidity markets by the Australian Reserve Bank, that could have been used to solve our hospital problems, (or public hospital problems,) it could have been used to solve public education problems, but no, it’s been given away to some of the most richest, cynical, manipulative people, organisations in our society to keep their dreams alive while destroying our dreams. So next time you hear about central banks and reserve banks putting billions of dollars into the market to maintain liquidity, that’s your taxpayer dollars being thrown into a bonfire to ensure that those billionaire hedge fund managers and those millionaire stockbrokers continue to live the life that they live through exploiting other peoples’ labour.

You’re listening to Anarchist World this Week broadcast across Australia on the national community radio satellite

Talking about birthdays. I’m really not going to mention Peter Costello’s birthday or Mr Rudd’s coming 50th birthday. I’m not even going to bother to mention the garbage that’s been put about in the media currently about Costello’s leadership challenge to Howard from 3 years ago. Boring stuff really boring stuff I mean, who do you believe? A liar like Peter Costello whose been a good apprentice to John Howard in terms of lying, or some of these journalists, who make their income by manipulating the truth, by selectively putting forward ideas. Because to me the big story is not whether Costello said what he said to the journalists, to me the big story is: what’s this off the record and on the record bullshit we keep hearing about? What’s this incestuous relationship between senior members of the media in this country and the political elite? In mean, they set the political agenda; we’re supposed to have a transparent 4th estate, aren’t we? Well obviously we don’t.

But now The Australian, they’re popping champagne corks, in Surrey Hills, when their master Ruport unveiled record profits for News Limited. Now if there is one group of people that really should take responsibility for the neo-conservative garbage we have to put up with and the consequences of their crackpot, monosyllabic ideological garbage it’s the neo-conservative commentators and the editorial group at The Australian. They’ve always frothed at the mouth at the thought of taxpayers’ money being used to subsidise public enterprises but you may find this a bit of a surprise. The Australian has never made a single dollars profit since it was launched in 1961. It was launched, not to make money, but to manipulate the political process so it serves the interests of corporate Australia. It wasn’t set up to give informed commentary and the neo-conservative bunch which currently lives or works in Murdoch’s sheltered workshop in Sydney are one of the most cynical bunch you’d ever come across. I mean the neo-conservative flotsam and jetsam that has made its home in Murdoch’s sheltered workshop at Surrey Hills have given free reign to the pubescent conservative ideological yearnings without having to give thought to one little thought to commercial reality. Here at the Anarchist World this Week, we have to think about commercial realities, in terms of our own benches, but not these people. They’re bankrolled to the hilt by the Murdoch family so they can put out this conservative claptrap to justify the economic situation we find ourselves in, where, as I said before, the percentage of profits that go to working people and micro-businesses have decreased while the percentage that go to the 10% that own the means of production, distribution, exchange of communication has increased. I mean, they fawn at the feet of Murdoch’s satrap in Australia John Howard’s singing the same tune irrespective of the social and human cost. If you want to see nasty journalism read The Australian and see how they have conducted themselves as far as indigenous Australians are concerned in this country and you will see how they attempt to implement this government’s bizarre ideological wet dream. So, while their activities are subsidised by profitable divisions of News Limited, they continue to give free reign to the 19th century ideological babble as regurgitated as 21st century natural economic laws. I mean the legacy of their privately subsidised sheltered workshop activities is a growing malaise that is quickly turning a country that was once the envy of the world into an intellectual, moral and ethical swamp. Now, yes, John has arrived, we can start off here we go.

- Well you’re back, John, back for some more punishment.
- Back again
- Back again. Now for our second series on the worlds more notable economists you’re going to talk about Karl Marx, I think a friend to some of our listeners and an enemy to others.
- That’s right
- Tell us about Mr Karl Marx
- Well Karl Marx, like Adam Smith, lived during the industrial revolution. He was a little bit later, after Adam Smith, from 1818 to 1883, and Karl dedicated his life to writing about history, capitalism and change. He wrote a lot more than Adam Smith, some of his most notable works were the 3 volumes of Capital, others included the Communist Manifesto, and German Ideology. But he was also the editor of a newspaper, wrote many, many, many articles and essays, and that was his whole life, spent in a museum or home, writing.
- How did he make money?
- Well, he had very little money, now his wife may have inherited some money, and he needed a lot of financial support, most of which he got from his friend and lifelong supporter Fredrich Engels.
- So he was a fixture in the British library was he, the local library?
- That’s right. He was also a philosopher and a political economist although economists today like to try and separate politics from economics to make it the subject or profession look more scientific.
- They don’t think politics has anything to do with economics?
- Yen, which is strange really seeing that Adam Smith was appointed to government office after the publication of his book, and that other well known economists like John Kenneth Galbray, Milton Freedman, and John Maynard Keynes were all appointed to government offices, and the…
- But not Karl Marx?
- No not Karl Marx
- Why is that?
- Well because his ideas, he was as well as being an economist and a philosopher, he was a revolutionary and he believed that the capitalist system had a very negative effect on working class people, that it was based on exploitation, massive inequalities of income, huge inequalities of power, that the capitalist system is basically based on class relations and Marx saw it as a system that contained within it its own contradictions and that was a source of change. So, unlike Adam Smith that basically saw the system as evolving, Marx saw it as something which would be developed and had huge powers of production which would change it over time so that eventually competition would be replaced by monopolies, cartels and oligopolies. And that’s what we have today, monopoly capitalism. But Marx was also concerned about, as I mentioned last time, that the division of labour in the capitalist system, which appropriates the products that are created by the workers, the workers are only paid a small margin of money for what the total products are worth so it’s a system based on exploitation and the unregulated capitalist system according to Adam Smith would find its own equilibrium but Marx saw it differently, that it wasn’t a system that found its own equilibrium at all. It was a system that contained its own contradictions, class relations, and over time it was a very unstable system. That market powers become concentrated, and competition becomes replaced by monopoly capitalism and that…
- You’re talking about 21st century Australia
- That’s right, very much the case. Well, Marx was very perceptive, and that he knew a lot about the system at the time, and as it exists today. The price mechanism and the invisible hand of the marketplace as Smith claimed, does not just rest in a market that finds its own equilibrium, power rests with those that own and control the means of production. People who own it are the ruling class and such is the influence of the ruling class that Marx made his famous statement that the executive of the modern state is committee for the affairs for the whole bourgeois.
- And what year was this? This was in the 1840’s when he was talking about this kind of stuff?
- That’s right.
- Almost 200 years ago.
- That’s right. And consequently Karl Marx was persecuted by governments and authorities whereas Adam Smith was of course embraced by business men and government officials. So Karl Marx was forced to live a life on the edge, fleeing from one country to another. And many of his ideas have been shown to be valid. There is a hugely unequal distribution of wealth, there is a profound distribution of power between those who own and control the means of production and the workers. And capitalism does go in cycles. As the supply of labour becomes fully employed the system can become unstable.
- So it was Marx saying that the system has the seeds of its own destruction of itself.
- Yeh . You can say oh well, there’s no evidence of that happening but it may be something that could happen further down the line because what we’re seeing at the present time is that there is strains on the economy, that are linked to the economy anyway through climate change. Through global warming, because capitalist system is driven by lassie-faire economics, or neo-classical economics as it is now called, is obsessed with economic growth and economic growth is based around the use of fossil fuels so we are seeing very very volatile weather patterns. But Marx didn’t have much to say about the natural environment and climate change, he was more focused on the relationships of production, class relations, and the volatile relationships between workers and the owners of the means of production. There have been some changes that have modified the behaviour of people who were angry during the early stages of the industrial revolution. A lot of workers rejected and in the capitalist system there were revolutions going on but today the proletariat has been tranquilised by growth of the media monopolies, the use of propaganda and the new opiate that has replaced religion, which is sport, AFL football. I mean if you go to the football, you’ll see that it’s not just about sport, if you go on ANZAC day you will see that AFL football is now at the forefront of political propaganda
- And I think the key is credit, easily available credit for working people to tie them in and also superannuation which also ties them into the system. Using their money to reinvest in the system to exploit them. So, in summary, what do you think Karl Marx’s greatest strengths were and what were his weaknesses?
- Well, certainly he was right about the development of monopoly capitalism, certainly he seems to have overstated the future development of working class in that he wasn’t able to foresee the way that in which the productive forces of capitalism would develop and produce large organisations and systems which would make people more submissive and more compliant and conformist. And people like John Kenneth Galbray talked about the way in which workers has become pacified by large bureaucracies in which they gave up ideals or values in return for careers in a large bureaucracies or organisation. And other institutions have grown very big in terms of their productive powers especially the media is now concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists who have the power along with governments to indoctrinate people on a systematic scale. And I refer back again to the way in which this happens through a number of institutions that receive government subsidies. I went earlier this year to the ANZAC day match at the MCG and the way in which the crowd was controlled by these ceremonies and propaganda about WW1 and how it was all about diggers who died for the cause of freedom - its nothing short of a lot of nonsense the mass ritual manipulation of peoples’ ideas and values.
- Did Marx raise the idea of co-operation in his writings as opposed to competition?
- No.
- He never raised the idea like the Crompkins, the anarchist economist, he never raised the idea of co-operation?
- No.
- No. Any ideas about replacing capitalist society with?
- He eventually thought that capitalism would destroy itself because of the internal contradictions. Because of the conflict between those who own the means of production and those who sell only their labour. So eventually the proletariat would rebel, there would be a revolution, and there’d be a transition to a socialist society, and then a communist society. So, this of course was a utopian idea, there he would have seen what he described as the full development of the individual’s powers in that society
- Well, thankyou very much for coming into the studio this week John. Next week, who will we be talking about?
- John Maynard Keynes who actually was the man who started neo-classical theory, he modified classical theory so that it could work better during the great depression.
- Thankyou very much.

That was John Glasbrook he’ll be in next week to talk about Mr Keynes. And hopefully we’re doing this for one very good reason, well John is doing this for one very good reason – to allow you to cut through all the jargon and garbage and which is promoted and talked about regarding economics as if it’s some type of science. Really economics at the end of the day as John said last week is what’s left in your pocket after they’ve taken most of it away from you.

Now, those of you who’ve got weak stomachs and don’t like strong language I suggest you switch off. No, I’m not going to use the F-word or the C-word I’m going to use the P-word. Because if there’s some thing that sends people into utter panic and confusion and disgust it’s the use of the P-word in political debate. I’m not talking about politics. The P-word, can you think what it is? It’s not the F-word, it’s not the C-word but it is disgusting in a society where everything is based on the creation of profit. Well, the P-word is public. P-U-B-L-I-C not pubic, public. Yes, you raise the P-word during the so-called current political debate before the next election and you will be howled down.

Remember earlier this week when Mr Rudd raised his ideas on how to decrease rents for a lot of Australians, say 50,000 Australian families? It was all about investment and the private sector and giving the private sector tax breaks. Did we hear the word ‘public housing’? No. When we talk about about private health care, or health care, it’s all about the taxpayer subsidising private health care. Do we hear about public health care? No. When it’s about redistributing taxation revenue, as far as education is concerned, do we hear about public education? No. And when it comes to important infrastructure that’s owned by the people of this country, do we hear about public enterprises? No. Because as far as those people who dominate the economic debate are concerned today, the P-word is the most filthy, obscene, horrible, disgusting word you could raise in the current environment. It really is a pity, isn’t it? The Labor party, as well as the Coalition, can’t bring themselves to utter the P-word when they raise possible solutions to the current housing crisis. I’m not just talking about them but the 4th estate, we never hear any discussion about the P-word because obviously it doesn’t suit their current economic model. The same economic model which has allowed the formation of monopolies in the media sector. Obviously they are going to sing the praises of the private sector.

I mean, housing process are rising, because of a lack of housing stock, because of increased immigration, and increased birth rate I understand. The government policies directly benefit investors not people who are buying a home for their personal use. Can you imagine this? If somebody’s a first home buyer they can’t get a tax deduction to get into a home although prices are escalating. But if you buy an investment property, which you rent out, you are entitled to full 100% tax deduction. For any money that you have to pay for interest. So your interest rate, as long as you rent, is less than the interest that you are paying, you get 100% tax deduction. So obviously people with a bit of extra cash are going to move into the investment market. Because government policies have created this situation when the investor is a much more important person than those people who are trying to find accommodation. Also, housing prices are raising because workplace laws that are driven down profits allocated to wage earners, makes it much more difficult for working people to compete in an open market against investors who start off with an inbuilt advantage because of the current taxation laws.

I mean, public housing, in today’s ideologically charged climate, and it is an ideologically charged climate, is largely reserved for people who require emergency accommodation. It is no longer an avenue for low income families. Public housing is not for low income families or people on pensions, they get a little bit of ‘rent assistance’ to rent in private markets but public housing has died. It is withering on the branch and what is left is under-funded. Although families and pensioners, as we see with Rudd’s proposal, will get discounted rents, if 50,000 new properties under the Labor parties proposals, rents charged would still be higher than 25% of income public housing tenants on welfare benefits currently pay -end of story. 25% of income limit income you only pay 25% of your income. There’s some secure accommodation. The big difference between public renting and private renting is security of accommodation. You know unless something goes horribly wrong, you can stay there and your children can go to the same schools, while if you’re in the private rental market you may find yourself driven from that property for a variety of reasons. The reason people want to buy their own homes or assess public housing is for the security. Now assess to housing should be a right not luxury but in our society of today and the last few decades, it has been a luxury.

When people wanting to buy a house need a combined income of a $100,000 a year, to afford to pay for the mortgage on a medium priced home isn’t it the time to examine more radical solutions to the housing crisis that many Australians are trying to grapple with? Isn’t it time we bought the P-word back from oblivion? And you won’t hear it in the current political debate and you won’t see it discussed in the pages of monopoly-owned newspapers and you won’t see it discussed on the government-gelded ABC because as far as the current monopoly capitalists is concerned, anything where people have an opportunity not to participate in the private market decreases their profits. So why would you, if you control the government of the day, if you control the ideological agenda, put any effort into providing public education, public housing, public health care? When you can use taxpayers money to subsidise private education, private health care, private housing. Is it time that serious consideration be given to imposing a housing levy, like the Medicare levy on individual wages as well as company profits? A levy of 1% on people who earn between $50,000-$100,000 a year increasing to 2% for people who earn over $100,000 a year, increasing to 5% for people earning over half a million a year? Combined with the levy of 5% on company profits, it would provide enough finances to allow governments to spot purchase properties in urban and regional centres around Australia, to provide low cost secure rental accommodation pegged at 25% of weekly income for families and individuals who earn less than $50,000 a year? Who’ve been driven out of the housing market and are currently paying 50-60% of their current income in rent.

Well, you may hear this side in the Anarchist World this Week, but you won’t hear it on the government gelded ABC and you won’t hear it on commercial radio or commercial television because currently we have a new iron curtain in this country, or a new bamboo curtain, and that curtain is an ideological curtain where those people who claim that private enterprise creates jobs and creates profits who claim those people who provide capital to create jobs should get the lions share of the profits created by your labour, currently dominate economic thinking and the media, in this country. You tell me when you last heard somebody in the public sector, somebody in government or the opposition, talk about the public sector, talk about ensuring the companies pay their fair share of profits, not divert it offseas in all these legal loopholes they can use. How many solutions have you heard raised in the community of the community over the last 2 or 3 decades regarding the extension of the public sector in comparison to the private sector? I’m sure you’ve heard none. Because their policy is to drive all of us into the private marketplace. To make the user pay. To subsidise the rich. To use taxpayers’ money to subsidise the profits of those who already have enough. And if you think I’m lying, look at the situation around you. Look at how the debate has contracted and converged. Look at the differences between the major political parties in this country, and you will find apart from a few social issues, absolutely no differences in their economic policies.

You’re listening to the Anarchist World this Week broadcast across Australia. For a complimentary copy of this week’s edition of Anarchist Age Weekly Review issue 751, 4 pages of scintillating analysis (that’s irony, folks) of local, national and international news the number is: (03) 8508 9856. You can download the weekly from anarchistmedia.org and the website has been updated. Every issue of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review from 1 to 751 is now available for your perusal. It’s a very dynamic website they tell me, I’ll have to look at it one day. You can email us at anarchistage@yahoo.com. This program is streaming live on 3cr.org.au. It’s also being pod cast tell your friends about it, if they missed the program they can always pull it down off the internet and listen to it at their leisure and remember - if you’re out there and you’re cussing and swearing and carrying on, forget about the F-word and forget about the C-word, keep using the P-word! Public. In political debate, in social discourse, in conversations with your friends, because if you don’t, nobody else will.

Alright let’s move on. The bloody check! I mean the more I see of things today the really have laugh. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. Not content with wasting $100,000,000,000 of tax revenue, to tell workers how wonderful wonderful wonderful Workchoice is, the federal is currently putting pressure on industry groups to come out cheering for the Coalition’s new industrial relations laws. Because they know that we don’t believe the advertisements, and they know they have to have a modicum of decency as far as their ads are concerned, but as far as the private sector is concerned - that’s a different matter. To add insult to injury, Howard and his merry band of political thugs, or should I say political thieves, have given industry groups the impression that gravy train will be coming to a shuddering halt if they don’t act as the Coalitions’ Work choices cheer squad. Over $40 million dollars has been poured into the industry groups over the past year. Most of this money has been used to promote the governments’ Work choices legislation through a series of seminars and meetings etc etc. Well I call it the new slavery laws, this is not about choice, this is about slavery, wage slavery.

I mean considering a federal election will have to be called sometime in the next 3-4 months, it is becoming blatantly obvious the Australian people are bankrolling the Liberal Party’s propaganda machine. Here we are, bankrolling their pre-election ads. This is nothing more than government propaganda. The government’s propaganda machine has wasted – wait for it – a billion dollars of tax revenue, telling all of us how lucky we are that we have such good economic managers, such a wonderful government in Canberra. You think of all the ads you’ve read, newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, you are paying for it.

I mean the tragedy about these Liberal/National Party funded taxpayer funded, they wouldn’t fund a bloody raffle! They wouldn’t even provide a meat tray for a pub raffle! Those misers. The tragedy about this taxpayer funded Liberal Party advertising blitz is that news organisations, yes those monopoly news organisations they are loath to offend the hand that feeds them. They have kept well away from the issue. Where’s the big debate! Where’s the moral dilemma? Where’s the ethical dilemma? About taking their filthy money to put forward their blatantly dishonest ads? Obviously most of this billion dollars has gone into the pockets of the private sector – advertising gurus, advertising agencies, television radio production houses and most importantly of all, into the pockets of people like Stokes, and the Fairfax Corporation, and the Murdoch Corporation. That’s where all this billion dollars of taxpayers’ money has gone. It’s been totally wasted. What we have is a conspiracy of silence surrounding this waste of taxpayers’ money on political propaganda.

Could you imagine if we used taxpayers’ money to raise our ideas and thoughts in the community? We would find ourselves in court tomorrow facing criminal charges! Not this government. A billion dollars in one year, funding their pre-electoral election campaign, telling us what wonderful people they are whether its environment, whether its landcare, whether it’s Workchoices and the list goes on and on. You don’t believe me, you are made of sterner stuff than I am. I’m a Peter Costello when it comes to this – I haven’t got the backbone. I don’t actually watch it, but you may want to watch it. Look, when you have one political party beating its own political drum, pushing its’ ideological wet dreams courtesy of the taxpayer, it’s hard for anybody else to make an advertising impact. What we are witnessing as I said before, can only be described as criminal behaviour. Criminal behaviour. It’s a criminal waste of money that could be used to secure or provide resources to the public sector. It is little more than criminal.

If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance and the 4th estate acts as the gatekeeper, then the 4th estate has failed miserably in its duty to the public. Not that they actually have a duty to the public, now they only have a duty to their owners’ shareholders. That’s what their duty is. Their duty is top increase profits irrespective of the human social costs. If that means getting a billion dollars of advertising revenue flooding through the private media, well why not? If people are stupid enough to allow this government to continue to waste their money, blowing their own trumpet, maybe we deserve what we have got.

Look, I can sit here all day and vent my spleen, I’m actually not venting my spleen you actually haven’t heard me vent my spleen for a long time. But, if you listen to the most erudite analysis, you can read the most fascinating witty accounts, you can look at you-tube and pull down anything you like, you can see Howard being made a fool of, but at the end of the day it’s not going to change much unless you start to take action. You need to become involved yourself. And if you can’t become involved physically because you’re sick, or you’re elderly, you can become involved financially and assist groups and organisations which are raising alternatives, which are fighting, which are acting as the prophets of the day to continue their struggles. Now there is a few things you may want to do. You may want to download the weekly from anarchistmedia.org, have a read. If you are not computer literate don’t worry, we’re quite happy to send you a copy, you can ring us at (03) 8508 9856, you can write to us at Post Office Box 20 Parkville 3052. Anarchism not your cup of tea? Then why not think about joining Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule? What does Direct Democracy want? The power of the electorate to recall non-performing politicians between elections, citizens initiated referendums and direct democracy - the people make decisions and elect delegates to carry out those decisions. Do you want to find out more about Direct Democracy and join Direct Democracy? 110 people have already done so. Look at their website www.rulebythepeople.org Rule By The People.org. You can write to them at PO Box 5035 Alphington 3078. And if you really feel seditious, why don’t you sign the Sedition Charter. seditioncharter.org and again write to them at PO Box 20 Parkville 3057. No, it’s not over yet. Not over til the fat lady sings. I haven’t heard the fat lady sing yet.

Now, I’m a little bit confused, yes, a little bit confused. I need a little bit of re-education. I don’t do much international stuff because I usually think what’s the point? I mean how can we change it? But when Australia is involved in stuff internationally you have to ask a few questions. I mean when the Coalition of the Willing stormed into Iraq, yes, I know its Iraq once again, just remember there are almost 1000 Australian troops in Iraq basically doing guard duty, that’s why we don’t hear much about them. When they stormed Iraq 4 years ago, or was it 5 years ago, they poured scorn on the Arab nations. I remember the French government who used their veto was castigated for not supporting the invasion. I mean this is an invasion for liberty, freedom, democracy (capitalism) 4 years later everything seems to have been forgiven. Bogged down in an unwinnable unpopular war, whats left of the Coalition of the Willing, and there’s not many left, are begging the United Nations to intervene.

On every available indicator the Iraq invasion has been a disaster. Iraq has become a haven for jihadists. Anybody with one functioning neuron could have told them before the invasion this would happen. They flock from all over the world to fight the Coalition of the Willing. The sheer dominated government is forging closer and closer links with the United States enemy Iran. The relationship is so cosy and chummy the US is making noise about withdrawing. The civilian population continue to take the brunt of the casualties - another 200 people were killed in truck and car bombings, in villages near Syria, just today. Tens and thousands have been killed or injured and nobody actually knows because no statistics are kept. It’s one thing they learnt from the Vietnam War we don’t keep statistics because if you do the population at home may get a little bit revolted about what’s happening in their name. So no statistics so who knows, who cares? Over 3 million Iraqis from a population of 25 million – that’s over 10% of the population, almost 15%, have fled the carnage. Most finding some type of safe haven in refugee camps in Syria and Jordan. Could you imagine if we had to cope with 3 million refugees we couldn’t even cope with 4000 asylum seekers! Obviously we’d put them all on Christmas Island, wouldn’t we? So look on every available indicator the reasons for the invasion, the outcome, all we have seen is the litany of lies and falsehoods. And now the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, I should say ‘Not so Willing’ these days, wants the UN to intervene really really…..Now if there’s one thing the Australian government hasn’t paid the price for it’s the war in Iraq. Don’t forget this is another one of the many issue you need to think about.

You’ve been listening to the Anarchist World this Week broadcast across Australia by the national community radio satellite. North to south, east to west, streaming live on 3cr.org.au. Being podcast, you can podcast to program, you can beam it down at any time, it’s up there in the ether. Talk to us, get a complimentary copy of this week’s edition of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review #751: (03) 85089856. You can write to us at PO Box 20 Parkville 3052. You can email anarchistage@yahoo.com You can sign the Sedition Charter seditioncharter.org Thankyou for listening to the Anarchist World this week. Listen in next week.

Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of deaths construction, in the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh no no….

Analysis you’ll never hear anywhere else, Anarchist World this Week. Australia’s sacred cow slaughterhouse. 10am every Wednesday, listen to the Anarchist World this week for an up to date analysis of local, national, and international events.