For A Workers' Inquiry Into The Police And Media

Two years ago in my blog Open The Books On Bourgeois Democracy, I wrote,

"If the Torygraph have raised a moral panic over the issue of MP’s expenses they have done a great service by opening a Pandora’s box on the whole gamut of abuses that constitute the functioning of bourgeois democracy as a whole. Finding out what MP’s are claiming is only the start. We need to demand the same kind of opening of the books of the whole system of bourgeois democracy that is now being demanded of MP’s.

We should have all of the expenses and other payments to the top Civil Servants, the judges, the Police Chiefs, the Military and all those other Governmental and Quasi-Governmental bodies set out in full detail, for all to see, and checked over by committees of inquiry under the control of Trade Unions. We should see all the payments and claims made by the Royal Family and their hangers-on. Similarly, the head Vicar has come out and criticised MP’s for greed, which is a bit rich from an institution, which for the last 2,000 years has leached off the poor by various means, and whose spokespeople today are wholly dependent upon the income derived from the huge wealth so obtained during that period, and on the current generosity of strangers, as well as a continuing support from the State! Let’s open the books of the various Churches and see how much wealth they have stored up on Earth, and what the expenses claims of ITS top bureaucrats are getting too.

But, more than that workers should be able to see how much of the profit of the companies they work for, are being drained in similar expenses by their top bosses, and the various Board members of those companies too. And bourgeois democracy, is about more than just the people who are elected to Parliaments and Councils, its about the whole structure of the society we live in, including those who provide the information on which the politicians are judged.

Its all well and good journalists shaming MP’s, but we should also have full disclosure of THEIR salaries and expenses too. Certainly, we should know how much these rags are being paid by the bosses in one form or another to run stories, and how much they are paying out to obtain stories.

The Torygraph may have started something it didn’t anticipate. But, workers anger should necessitate a thorough investigation into the functioning and corruption of the bourgeois state as a whole."

The revelations about the extent to which the News of the World was involved in hacking into the phones of hundreds of people shows just how necessary such a deep cleaning of the Augean stables of bourgeois democracy is.

Its not just the fact of hacking into phones, but the other charges that have been levelled, by people like Tom Watson MP, involving connections with the criminal underworld, and what appears to be a routine paying off of police in return for information about innocent individuals, and victims of crimes.

What has been seen in the last almost 10 years, that this affair has been going on, is the extent to which both the police, and politicians have shied away from any kind of real investigation into News International and its companies.

In large part that appears to be because they were both being paid off by the Murdoch Empire, and because they were afraid of upsetting that Empire for fear of not just being given a bad press, but of it organising a campaign against them based upon digging up any kind of dirt, using almost any kind of method, that was necessary.

Under those conditions, Cameron's emphasis on a Police investigation is laughable. Not only is Cameron damaged goods because of his close association with the Murdoch Empire, and the principal players in this affair, but who can trust the Police to investigate what they have clearly failed to investigate for the last ten years, especially given that we do not know which Police have been paid off by News International, and which the Evil Empire has dirt on, to pressure them into keeping quiet.

But, nor can we have any kind of faith in a Public or Judicial Inquiry either. After all, Judges too are part of that ruling elite within society that the Evil Empire has focussed its attention on.

Is it not likely that Darth Murdoch's clone army will have dirt on many of these Judges - after all nearly all of them went to Public Schools with all the kind of practices that go with that environment - and that if they don't now, they would soon dig some up? Moreover, just as the MP's scandal opened a Pandora's Box, its likely that any serious investigation into News International, and the wider Media, would expose further nasty aspects of the way bourgeois democracy really works as a means of the rich and powerful controlling society. Judges, who are thoroughly entrenched within that system, are not going to shit in their own back yard.

If we want a real investigation it has to be a Workers Inquiry. The TUC and LP, and all other Labour Movement organisations, should set one up, and demand that it be given official sanction. It should be made up of experienced Trade Union activists, and Labour Movement politicians from a rank and file level, and be provided with all the necessary legal and technical support required from within the Labour Movement.

It appears that, even now, the Emperor believes that he can play the people for fools. It has been proposed to close down the News of the World. But steps have already been put in place to establish a Sunday Sun in its place!!! What this further demonstrates is the need for a mass circulation Labour Paper owned and controlled by the Labour Movement itself. It should be linked to the development of an online version, and we need the establishment of a Labour Movement TV Channel. New technology has made that possible for many years. If Manchester United can have their own channel then so can the Labour Movement. We have plenty of creative talent within the Labour Movement to produce good quality programmes, films etc., and thereby to challenge the dross put out by the Capitalists.