May 15, 2006

The Age campaigns for free public transport

[Green Left Weekly, #668, May 15, 2006]

For the past two months Melbourne's Age newspaper, owned by the Fairfax media group, has been energetically campaigning for free public transport in the city. Former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett — who privatised public transport in 1999 — revealed in an interview that he argued within his cabinet for a simple universal gold-coin fare system. He said his biggest regret in public life was that he failed to stick to his guns in the face of bureaucratic opposition. Kennett's cabinet colleague Robert Maclellan canvassed the idea of making public transport completely free until leading officials talked him out of it.

Apr 26, 2006

Crime and punishment II

[Green Left Weekly, #665, April 26, 2006]

Every society deals with crime and punishment in its own special way. Modern capitalism, for all the ludicrous claims of its media hacks and propagandists, is a class-divided society based on the exploitation and oppression of the many by the very few. It ceaselessly generates crime at all levels.