Green Left Weekly fighting fund: The Packer name to live on — thank god!

February 6, 2010
Issue 

James and Erica Packer have just had a baby. Luckily this time it's a boy.

Some, including Packer's mates in the corporate media, were starting to get really worried the Packer fortune might be passed on to someone without a penis.

But it's okay — everyone can now breathe easy. The news of Jackson Lloyd Packer's birth has prompted elated headlines such as "James Packer finally gets his male heir" and "Packer name to live on in new arrival". Well, thank god!

The February 3 Sydney Morning Herald said: "The Packer dynasty has been run by the male heirs for generations, with the family business passed down from son to son."

This bad news for Jackson's big sister, Indigo, was made worse by a reminder in the Herald Sun the same day: "James inherited the running of the empire from his father Kerry after his untimely death, even though his sister Gretel was older."

The investment decisions made by James since then have clearly vindicated this move too — not!

That's the capitalist boys club for you, a club that owns its own compliant and sycophantic mass media. Green Left Weekly is one of the few media outlets that are independent from Australia's big capitalist families like the Packers and Murdochs.

We will proudly continue to support and struggle for real social equality and justice — including women's liberation — and won't celebrate the next male heir to capitalist mega-fortunes.

But to take on the corporate mass media we rely on donations from our readers and supporters.

We simply couldn't survive without your help.

Please consider donating online today to our fighting fund at www.greenleft.org.au/donate.php. Or direct deposits can be made to Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992.

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