Evil lies are falling apart!

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Lead Editorial

27 September 2023
Vol. 25 No. 39

This week’s AAS bears witness to one of the most exciting developments in Australia presently—the Senate inquiry into regional bank closures ratcheting down on the most powerful corporate chieftains in the land.

The Australian Citizens Party’s objective in campaigning hard for this inquiry was not principally to change the banks (can a leopard change its spots?) but to change the mentality of the politicians in Parliament. The government is the only power greater than corporations, but thanks to decades of neoliberal brainwashing, most politicians feel they do not have the “right” to tell corporations what to do. They’ve been conditioned to think that government is somehow an illegitimate entity in the economy. Consequently, for too long politicians have wrung their hands over the litany of corporate abuses against Australian consumers and the economy, but have stood by impotently, saying there is nothing to be done.

This inquiry is changing that mentality in the Senators who are participating, and it’s having a powerful impact on the banks. While from the beginning, inquiry initiator Senator Gerard Rennick was prepared to go after the banks, motivated by his personal support for the public bank solution, now it’s Labor Senator Linda White, and even the more traditional economic rationalist Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck who are bringing the heat. Under the glare of their intense scrutiny, the banks’ evil lies to justify smashing communities and forcing Australians into a dystopian digital dictatorship are crumbling. For the full-colour description of the Big Four bank CEOs and Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh squirming under the pressure of the Senators’ laser-like interrogation, read Dale Webster’s detailed summary of the 20 September Canberra hearing of the inquiry (p. 3). And for an excellent example of how this inquiry is cutting through in the mainstream media, including acknowledgement of the ACP’s role, read the reproduction of the full article by James Eyres in the 23 September Australian Financial Review (back page).

A special mention goes to Anna Bligh’s response to Senator Malcolm Roberts asking her where she stands on a People’s Bank, like the original Commonwealth Bank. “All I know”, Bligh replied, “is that state-owned financial institutions in this country have not had a great history. I’m only aware of them being successful in countries like Russia and China. I as a taxpayer would be pretty wary about Australian taxpayers buying back into banks or financial institutions when we have a thriving banking community.” (Emphasis added.)

Of course, it’s not true that state-owned banks are only successful in Russia and China; but anyway, who wouldn’t want to replicate China’s economic success in Australia? Bligh confirmed the banks’ opposition to the public bank solution, but they’re on notice—we’re coming for them.

Another evil lie that fell apart this week relates to the Ukraine conflict, which the Anglo-American war propaganda machine has twisted into a good vs evil narrative in which the Russians are pure evil while the Ukrainians are all sweetness and light—all to justify their cynical strategy of using Ukrainians as human cannon-fodder in a long gruelling war of attrition to weaken Russia for the strategic advantage of the British and Americans, not the Ukrainian people. The narrative required a mass-denial, coordinated globally through the mainstream media, of Ukraine’s Nazi influences and inclinations, even though they were widely acknowledged before the 2022 invasion, and were the reason for Vladimir Putin naming de-Nazification as one of his objectives. The narrative switched to: Ukraine doesn’t have a Nazi problem— President Zelensky is Jewish.

That lie was shattered last week when Canada’s Parliament hosted Zelensky, and the Speaker acknowledged the presence of a “Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians.” Zelensky and the entire Canadian Parliament then gave a standing ovation to a veteran of the Nazi Waffen SS! The scandal that has ensued may be the thread that unravels the evil narrative that risks global nuclear war.

In this issue:

• Banks squirm under scrutiny, but can’t get their story straight about cashless agenda
• Banks’ disconnect from regions never more obvious
• CBA bank closure ‘detrimental’, ‘unethical’
• Forty years of sanctions and war caused Libya’s dam disaster
• Leading German sinologists: China defeated terrorism in Xinjiang
• At UNGA, leaders declare a new era is upon us
• Eurasian development provides model for world
• Now’s the time: Get your council behind a public bank!
• Small towns want answers as the banks withdraw
• ALMANAC: JFK battles the military-industrial complex: Seven Days in May

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