NATO annexes Libya
"Before the war ended Libya's key
strategic natural resource (oil) was
being handed over to foreign capitalist
enterprises", Frieda Park writes in
her article, "Libya: bleeding hearts,
gushing oil".
The justification for the NATO intervention
was "to protect civilians"
but the real aim of the massive air
bombardment was regime change
and to gain control of Libya's oil.
This has been achieved but the
cost to the Libyan people will be
enormous and they will be paying for
a long time to come. The celebrations,
by some but not all Libyans, at
their "liberation" may well be shortlived
as their new rulers take power.
Imperialism is attempting to blunt
the progressive Arab Spring and turn
it to its own advantage. The lack of
protest in Europe and the USA
against the military action in Libya
made it easier for NATO to carry
out its bloody mission.
Debt "crisis"
While spending millions on recolonising
Libya, capitalism is introducing
drastic austerity measures at
home in the name of paying off government
debts.
However, as Leslie Masters points
out, "the finance capitalists love government
debt" and "much of the 'crisis' is a deliberately generated
panic designed to increase short-term
profits on the bond markets".
The cuts in health and education
budgets and offering hitherto public
services to the private sector create
investment opportunities for capital.
As Leslie Masters argues, "Greece ..
is an example of how the financiers
can keep a country 'artificially on the
verge of bankruptcy', defraud it by
creating an equally artificial panic
about its credit-worthiness, buy up
cheaply privatised public enterprise
and services, and force down living
standards for the majority in order to
ensure high profits from those same
sources".
The arguments over how to deal
with Greece (and Portugal and Ireland
and Spain and Italy and..) are
a reflection of inter-imperialist rivalries
as the different players vie to defend
or extend their interests.
News Corps and the Hacking Scandal
Simon Korner writes that "the phone
hacking scandal .. has exposed .. the
workings of capitalist democracy: with
elected 'representatives' terrified of the
rich and powerful, and the police
hand-in-glove with ruling class lawbreakers".
This article analyses the rise of Murdoch's
News Corps to be one of the
big 5 global media corporates, documents
its vast profits, explores its future
ambitions and exposes its criminal
and corrupt nature.
Korner likens the Chipping Norton
set (News Corps social grouping) to
that of the Cliveden set of an earlier
period in Britain and outlines the Murdoch
media's consistent support for
imperialist wars, the fostering of racism
and the promotion of radical rightwing
politics.
So, not only does Murdoch's empire
make huge profits but it also plays a
crucial ideological role in maintaining
and reinforcing capitalist ideas.
Fox, Werritty and their sponsors
Interestingly it was the London
"Times", one of Murdoch's titles,
which was given the information about
the bank account of the company, Pargav,
in the presence of Lord Bell,
which spelled the end for Dr Liam Fox
as a Cabinet Minister. Lord Bell was
Baroness Thatcher's Public Relations
adviser for three elections and an old
friend of Fox.
The revelations which led to the resignation
of Fox as British Defence Secretary exposed, yet again, following
the Murdoch hacking scandal, the
web of connections between government,
big business and a right-wing
political agenda stretching across
continents.
Pargav was set-up days before
Fox's charity, Atlantic Bridge, was
closed down by the Charity Commissioners.
Pargav's bank account
showed that it was funded by
Michael Hintze (billionaire hedge
fund manager), who had also funded
Atlantic Bridge; Jon Melton (venture
capitalist); and Poju Zabludowicz,
chairman and major donor of Bicom
(Britain Israel Communication and
Research Centre). Adam Werritty,
Fox's unofficial adviser, had free desk
space in Hintze's company office in
London and his extensive travels
were funded by Pargav.
It has been reported that Werritty,
who speaks some Farsi, visited Iran
several times for discussions with
opposition leaders and that he was
involved in a plot with Israel to
topple Iran's President Ahmadinejad.
Werrity enjoyed close relations with
the Israeli secret service, Mossad. It
has been reported that MI6 cautioned
Werritty about his freelance
meddling in Iranian affairs.
Keorapetse Willie Kgositsile
We devote a section of this issue to
the South African Poet Laureate, Keorapetse
Willie Kgositsile. His poems
are of great artistic merit and at the
same time are anti-capitalist and antiimperialist.
This is a difficult thing to
achieve.
The section is in three parts: Pallo
Jordan's speech at the inauguration
of Kgositsile as South Africa's Poet
Laureate; Brian Filling's interview
with the poet about his influences
and his views on the current situation
in South Africa; and two of Kgositsile's
poems.
We hope that this profile and the two poems reproduced here
introduce Keorapetse Willie Kgositsile to a wider audience.
His poems are of universal significance.
