Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/680/12420
From The Socialist newspaper, 20 July 2011
Murdoch sleaze spreads
Force Cameron out!
The News International (NI) phone-hacking scandal goes right to the top of society - and every day the crisis gets deeper and wider. NI's billionaire owner Rupert Murdoch's bullying tactics have already exposed the rotten deals and self-serving manoeuvres of Britain's ruling class.
The trail of guilt leads from the capitalist media through the tops of the police force up to establishment politicians including Tory prime minister David Cameron.
Murdoch had already been forced to close his News of the World (NoW) rag and to give up trying to totally control BSkyB broadcasting when he bought advertising space to 'apologise' for what he had done.
People who had suffered at the hands of Murdoch's press rejoiced at a 'Gotcha' moment. Next day NI chief executive Rebekah Brooks resigned and was later arrested.
Then top Metropolitan Police officers with close connections to NI, Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates, both bit the dust.
When former NoW deputy editor Neil Wallis was arrested on 13 July, details of Wallis' close links with the police, his constant wining and dining with Stephenson and Yates, came out.
Stephenson accepted £12,000 of hospitality from Champneys health spa where Wallis was a PR consultant. Isn't that bribery and corruption? Yates, who in 2009 refused to act against NI despite extensive evidence, was alleged among other things to have helped Wallis' daughter get a Met job.
Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch and his son James' appearance at the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee made it the most talked-about committee for decades. But Britain's political leaders hardly came up smelling of roses.
Former NoW editor Andy Coulson was until January David Cameron's communications director. Coulson was arrested earlier this month over "allegations of corruption and phone hacking". Cameron himself was also in Murdoch and Brooks' dinner party set.
Labour MPs were at first told not to oppose Murdoch's total takeover of BSkyB and the party's leaders have long bowed their knees to him and his reactionary anti-working class politics.
So it's no surprise that Labour leader Ed Miliband merely wants Cameron to 'apologise' for his misdeeds. But Brooks and the Met Police chiefs were forced to resign. The trade unions and left should demand that Cameron follows them and goes now!
As Linda Taaffe, secretary of the National Shop Stewards Network, said at a recent trade union-organised meeting: "The government is rotten, the media is rotten, the system is rotten; if we gather our forces we can push the damn thing over."
We demand:
- Labour MPs must call a vote of 'no confidence' in Cameron and force him and his government to resign!
- Punish all those responsible for violating the rights of individuals
- Don't trust the 'great and the good' - judges, bishops and MPs to organise an inquiry. There should be an independent workers' inquiry.
- Don't trust the capitalist class or its media. Build a new mass workers' party with its own media, democratically controlled.
- Support the Socialist newspaper and join the Socialist Party!
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In The Socialist 20 July 2011:
News International scandal
Get rid of Cameron, Murdoch and all they represent
Socialist Party news and analysis
Capitalism stuck in a blind alley
Anti-cuts news and campaigning
'No cuts' budgets or 'parallel' budgets?
Legal Aid Bill - Access to justice is under attack
Immigration Advice closure shows need for industrial struggle
Stop Swansea coastguard closure
Southampton council workers' struggle continues despite imposition of new contracts
Labour takes axe to Sure Start in Liverpool
The NHS
Privatisation and cuts undermine the NHS
A day in the life of a student nurse: Overworked - but happy to help
Socialist Party workplace news
Bromley Unison reps resign in protest at union's disgraceful actions
South Yorkshire journalists start all-out strike
Strike solid at BBC Leeds office
Renationalise Bombardier to save jobs
London NSSN meeting - 'real debate' on preparing for coordinated action
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Defending state education - Brighton academy victory
TUSC: Building an electoral challenge to Con-Dem and Labour cuts
Tolpuddle says: 'step up the action'
The Work Programme: is it only chasing people off benefits?
International socialist news and analysis
South Africa: Massive metal workers' strike
Selling the Socialist
Socialist Party review
Music review - "This place is coming like a ghost town..."
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