The World Socialist Web Site invites readers in Sydney to attend a public meeting being held by the Socialist Equality Party on Wednesday August 3 to discuss the crisis that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the highest levels of the British state.

As the scandal over phone hacking and other illegal activities by Murdoch’s News International group in Britain gathers momentum, new revelations continue to pour out, each more damaging than the last. The reverberations are being felt around the globe, including in the United States and Australia.

The response of Britain’s governing Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and the opposition Labour Party to the exposure of News International’s criminal operations has focused on protecting the international press mogul, known to many as the “Dirty Digger.” Every institution of the capitalist state—the major parties, the government, parliament, the courts, the police—is implicated. What has been exposed is not simply the moral and political depravity of one man or one corporation, but the putrefaction of the entire social and political system.

For well over 30 years, the Murdoch media has functioned as the mouthpiece for and organiser of political reaction—from the Canberra Coup in 1975, to the assault against the working class by the Thatcher, Reagan and Hawke governments during the 1980s, to the illegal wars waged by US, British and Australian imperialism over the past decade. The unravelling of Murdoch’s empire attests to the deep crisis of capitalist rule on a world scale. The SEP meeting will discuss the historic implications for the working class in every country.

Wednesday August 3, 7.00 p.m.
Charles Byrne Room, Parramatta Town Hall
182 Church Street Parramatta
(near Parramatta railway station)
Tickets: $3/$2 concession