Peter Boyle
Once a week I have a chat to Simon, an aged pensioner, who learned the meaning of real hunger as a child growing up in a poor family in Ireland. In his working life in Australia, first as a labourer in the Snowy Mountains scheme and later for the local council, he forged a strong working-class identity.
Every Saturday morning, Simon buys a few treats for the kids in the housing commission block he lives in. He stops by the Green Left Weekly stall we run outside the supermarket, shows me the treats he's bought and tells me a story ... or six!
"Hey, you see that bank over there", he says gesturing to the building across the road, "they are the real robbers".
"I only go into a bank because the government forces me to do it to get my pension", he adds before he launches into an angry speech about the "blood-suckers in fine suits".
Simon's impromptu sermon on the banks was confirmed this week when Westpac announced an increase in fees on accounts and cuts to the interest it pays on deposits, all of which will add an estimated $350 million to its income.
Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch announced in the same week that it was revising Westpac's profit forecasts upwards to $3.35 billion, a 19% increase on last year's profit.
"What a racket! They use our money to hold us up. It is bloody daylight robbery", says Simon before shuffling up the road. Simon's humanity is a stark contrast to the greedy banks.
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From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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