 www.araustralia.org |
Alternative Radio (Aust.) PO Box 780 Morwell Victoria 3848 Australia tel. 61-3-5134-8556 mob. 61-413-597-828 inquiries@araustralia.org |
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www.araustralia.org |
Alternative Radio (Aust.) PO Box 780 Morwell Victoria 3848 Australia tel. 61-3-5134-8556 mob. 61-413-597-828 inquiries@araustralia.org |
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Capitalism is a racket of enormous proportions. The global dealmakers and multinational corporate captains are members of the most exclusive club on earth. They use political institutions as nothing more that the shop fronts to legitimate the global exploitation and plunder of natural and human resources. Divisions between the developed global North and the underdeveloped global South are presented as the inevitable outcome of the capitalist imperative. Unemployment, underemployment, poverty and suffering in the Western nations are presented as personal failures while 'success', wealth and high office are presented as the result of personal effort. All the while unequal power relations are obscured by a language designed to play down the ruthless nature of the capitalist quest. The obsfucation of the power of capital has worked so well that capitalism is us. It is both wholly outside us and wholly inside us. Only when we are prepared to develop a new relationship to the historically created needs and desires which capitalism has created within us will we be able to lay the foundation of new just and equitable society for the future.
Humphrey McQueen is Australia's foremost dissident historian. For over 30 years he has been interpreting Australian society from a Marxian perspective. From his first ground breaking book A New Britannia to The Essence of Capitalism, McQueen has methodically and thoroughly examined the way capitalism has shaped the Australian consciousness. Humphrey McQueen spoke at the Socialist Ideas Conference held in Trades Hall, Melbourne in November 2003. ** CD only |