#rackettheory — Public Fediverse posts

The national disability insurance scheme
From privatised service delivery to organised crime

"Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program."

“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/20/ndis-infiltrated-organised-crime-gangs-australia

NDIS changes to be unveiled on Wednesday will provide budget’s biggest cuts
"Cutting compliance costs is a big focus of the government and a big focus of the budget as well.” >>
https://theconversation.com/ndis-changes-to-be-unveiled-on-wednesday-will-provide-budgets-biggest-cuts-280584
#disability #NDIS #insurance #privatisation #OrganisedCrime #governance #VulnerablePopulations #BigCutbacks #AusterityMeasures #RacketTheory

The national disability insurance scheme
From privatised service delivery to organised crime

"Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program."

“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/20/ndis-infiltrated-organised-crime-gangs-australia

NDIS changes to be unveiled on Wednesday will provide budget’s biggest cuts
"Cutting compliance costs is a big focus of the government and a big focus of the budget as well.” >>
https://theconversation.com/ndis-changes-to-be-unveiled-on-wednesday-will-provide-budgets-biggest-cuts-280584
#disability #NDIS #insurance #privatisation #OrganisedCrime #governance #VulnerablePopulations #BigCutbacks #AusterityMeasures #RacketTheory

The national disability insurance scheme
From privatised service delivery to organised crime

"Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program."

“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/20/ndis-infiltrated-organised-crime-gangs-australia

NDIS changes to be unveiled on Wednesday will provide budget’s biggest cuts
"Cutting compliance costs is a big focus of the government and a big focus of the budget as well.” >>
https://theconversation.com/ndis-changes-to-be-unveiled-on-wednesday-will-provide-budgets-biggest-cuts-280584
#disability #NDIS #insurance #privatisation #OrganisedCrime #governance #VulnerablePopulations #BigCutbacks #AusterityMeasures #RacketTheory

The national disability insurance scheme
From privatised service delivery to organised crime

"Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program."

“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/20/ndis-infiltrated-organised-crime-gangs-australia

NDIS changes to be unveiled on Wednesday will provide budget’s biggest cuts
"Cutting compliance costs is a big focus of the government and a big focus of the budget as well.” >>
https://theconversation.com/ndis-changes-to-be-unveiled-on-wednesday-will-provide-budgets-biggest-cuts-280584
#disability #NDIS #insurance #privatisation #OrganisedCrime #governance #VulnerablePopulations #BigCutbacks #AusterityMeasures #RacketTheory

The national disability insurance scheme
From privatised service delivery to organised crime

"Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program."

“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/20/ndis-infiltrated-organised-crime-gangs-australia

NDIS changes to be unveiled on Wednesday will provide budget’s biggest cuts
"Cutting compliance costs is a big focus of the government and a big focus of the budget as well.” >>
https://theconversation.com/ndis-changes-to-be-unveiled-on-wednesday-will-provide-budgets-biggest-cuts-280584
#disability #NDIS #insurance #privatisation #OrganisedCrime #governance #VulnerablePopulations #BigCutbacks #AusterityMeasures #RacketTheory

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing." - Rebecca Solnit

"The work continues." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/22/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-epstein-files-trump
#patriarchy #crime #violence #RacketTheory #RadicalInequality #nature #EnvironmentalDestruction #HumanRights #movements #transformation

Image: "Smash Patriarchy" graffiti seen in Bellingen

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing." - Rebecca Solnit

"The work continues." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/22/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-epstein-files-trump
#patriarchy #crime #violence #RacketTheory #RadicalInequality #nature #EnvironmentalDestruction #HumanRights #movements #transformation

Image: "Smash Patriarchy" graffiti seen in Bellingen

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing." - Rebecca Solnit

"The work continues." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/22/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-epstein-files-trump
#patriarchy #crime #violence #RacketTheory #RadicalInequality #nature #EnvironmentalDestruction #HumanRights #movements #transformation

Image: "Smash Patriarchy" graffiti seen in Bellingen

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing." - Rebecca Solnit

"The work continues." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/22/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-epstein-files-trump
#patriarchy #crime #violence #RacketTheory #RadicalInequality #nature #EnvironmentalDestruction #HumanRights #movements #transformation

Image: "Smash Patriarchy" graffiti seen in Bellingen

Decades of feminism paved the road to Andrew’s arrest

"Without feminism, the sequence of events that led to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest would never have happened. It’s a reminder that feminism is powerful and important and even transformative, which is why there’s so much pushback from those who benefit from the old inequalities and the old silences, which are pretty much the same thing." - Rebecca Solnit

"The work continues." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/22/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-epstein-files-trump
#patriarchy #crime #violence #RacketTheory #RadicalInequality #nature #EnvironmentalDestruction #HumanRights #movements #transformation

Image: "Smash Patriarchy" graffiti seen in Bellingen

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

"The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts
#misogyny #crime #dehumanisation #commodification #racism #supremacy #corruption #UltraRich #RacketTheory
Image: Darkness

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

"The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts
#misogyny #crime #dehumanisation #commodification #racism #supremacy #corruption #UltraRich #RacketTheory
Image: Darkness

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

"The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts
#misogyny #crime #dehumanisation #commodification #racism #supremacy #corruption #UltraRich #RacketTheory
Image: Darkness

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

"The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts
#misogyny #crime #dehumanisation #commodification #racism #supremacy #corruption #UltraRich #RacketTheory
Image: Darkness

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

"The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts
#misogyny #crime #dehumanisation #commodification #racism #supremacy #corruption #UltraRich #RacketTheory
Image: Darkness

"Bunnings sells timber sourced from NSW Forestry Corporation via a number of local suppliers."

"The state-owned forestry corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences and is facing charges on dozens more. A judgment in the land and environment court last year found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation."

"But The Wilderness Society (TWS) complaint raises concerns that the agency has retained this certification, despite its convictions for environmental offences."

"Prof David Heilpern, a former magistrate and the dean of law at Southern Cross University who has likened the NSW forestry agency to a “criminal organisation”, said he hoped the TWS complaint would be taken seriously."

“It arises from the unprecedented situation where a government supplier of a product has been convicted of a series of offences relating to illegal activities on public land."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/bunnings-accused-of-greenwashing-timber-amid-concerns-about-suppliers-logging
#FCNSW #NSWLogging #timber #greenwashing #certification #SupplyChain #crime #regulation #RacketTheory #governance #PublicLand #BellingenLogging

"Bunnings sells timber sourced from NSW Forestry Corporation via a number of local suppliers."

"The state-owned forestry corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences and is facing charges on dozens more. A judgment in the land and environment court last year found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation."

"But The Wilderness Society (TWS) complaint raises concerns that the agency has retained this certification, despite its convictions for environmental offences."

"Prof David Heilpern, a former magistrate and the dean of law at Southern Cross University who has likened the NSW forestry agency to a “criminal organisation”, said he hoped the TWS complaint would be taken seriously."

“It arises from the unprecedented situation where a government supplier of a product has been convicted of a series of offences relating to illegal activities on public land."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/bunnings-accused-of-greenwashing-timber-amid-concerns-about-suppliers-logging
#FCNSW #NSWLogging #timber #greenwashing #certification #SupplyChain #crime #regulation #RacketTheory #governance #PublicLand #BellingenLogging

"Bunnings sells timber sourced from NSW Forestry Corporation via a number of local suppliers."

"The state-owned forestry corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences and is facing charges on dozens more. A judgment in the land and environment court last year found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation."

"But The Wilderness Society (TWS) complaint raises concerns that the agency has retained this certification, despite its convictions for environmental offences."

"Prof David Heilpern, a former magistrate and the dean of law at Southern Cross University who has likened the NSW forestry agency to a “criminal organisation”, said he hoped the TWS complaint would be taken seriously."

“It arises from the unprecedented situation where a government supplier of a product has been convicted of a series of offences relating to illegal activities on public land."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/bunnings-accused-of-greenwashing-timber-amid-concerns-about-suppliers-logging
#FCNSW #NSWLogging #timber #greenwashing #certification #SupplyChain #crime #regulation #RacketTheory #governance #PublicLand #BellingenLogging

"Bunnings sells timber sourced from NSW Forestry Corporation via a number of local suppliers."

"The state-owned forestry corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences and is facing charges on dozens more. A judgment in the land and environment court last year found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation."

"But The Wilderness Society (TWS) complaint raises concerns that the agency has retained this certification, despite its convictions for environmental offences."

"Prof David Heilpern, a former magistrate and the dean of law at Southern Cross University who has likened the NSW forestry agency to a “criminal organisation”, said he hoped the TWS complaint would be taken seriously."

“It arises from the unprecedented situation where a government supplier of a product has been convicted of a series of offences relating to illegal activities on public land."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/bunnings-accused-of-greenwashing-timber-amid-concerns-about-suppliers-logging
#FCNSW #NSWLogging #timber #greenwashing #certification #SupplyChain #crime #regulation #RacketTheory #governance #PublicLand #BellingenLogging

"Bunnings sells timber sourced from NSW Forestry Corporation via a number of local suppliers."

"The state-owned forestry corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences and is facing charges on dozens more. A judgment in the land and environment court last year found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation."

"But The Wilderness Society (TWS) complaint raises concerns that the agency has retained this certification, despite its convictions for environmental offences."

"Prof David Heilpern, a former magistrate and the dean of law at Southern Cross University who has likened the NSW forestry agency to a “criminal organisation”, said he hoped the TWS complaint would be taken seriously."

“It arises from the unprecedented situation where a government supplier of a product has been convicted of a series of offences relating to illegal activities on public land."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/bunnings-accused-of-greenwashing-timber-amid-concerns-about-suppliers-logging
#FCNSW #NSWLogging #timber #greenwashing #certification #SupplyChain #crime #regulation #RacketTheory #governance #PublicLand #BellingenLogging

"Bourgeois economists are incapable of confronting the falsity of their understanding of competition: For the bourgeoisie, the fall of serfdom and mercantilism seemed to have abolished class distinctions, producing what they understand as the natural order of competition among free individuals. This order is supposed to be the correct way for human society to be organized, the realization of our innate propensity to truck and barter. In this vision of bourgeois society, every subject is both producer and consumer; there is no class. Anything that disrupts this picture is an intrusion of the non-economic into the sphere of the economic. To the extent that they are willing to acknowledge it, monopolization compels the bourgeoisie to admit that the unequal distribution of power continues to exist under their rule. Rather than accepting the falsity of their understanding of competition, however, the bourgeoisie understands monopolization solely as a regression to a prior mode of direct class rule. They admit that competition, as they understand it, no longer exists, but they believe that it once did, and that what exists today is no longer genuine competition.

Against this, Horkheimer understands pre-monopoly capitalism as characterized both by competition that reached all members of the population and by the unresolved problem of power. Whether by “birth or deceit, brutality or shrewdness, expertness in engineering machinery or human relations, by marriage or adulation,” there have always been groups that have managed the competitive processes within capitalism. Racketization is a reversion to more direct forms of domination, but these forms were always present, hidden behind the apparently rational market system, and this “was already clear to everyone except for the professors in the times of so-called liberalism.”"

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Competition/

#FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #CriticalTheory #PoliticalEconomy #Monopolies #Competition #Horkheimer #Capitalism

"Bourgeois economists are incapable of confronting the falsity of their understanding of competition: For the bourgeoisie, the fall of serfdom and mercantilism seemed to have abolished class distinctions, producing what they understand as the natural order of competition among free individuals. This order is supposed to be the correct way for human society to be organized, the realization of our innate propensity to truck and barter. In this vision of bourgeois society, every subject is both producer and consumer; there is no class. Anything that disrupts this picture is an intrusion of the non-economic into the sphere of the economic. To the extent that they are willing to acknowledge it, monopolization compels the bourgeoisie to admit that the unequal distribution of power continues to exist under their rule. Rather than accepting the falsity of their understanding of competition, however, the bourgeoisie understands monopolization solely as a regression to a prior mode of direct class rule. They admit that competition, as they understand it, no longer exists, but they believe that it once did, and that what exists today is no longer genuine competition.

Against this, Horkheimer understands pre-monopoly capitalism as characterized both by competition that reached all members of the population and by the unresolved problem of power. Whether by “birth or deceit, brutality or shrewdness, expertness in engineering machinery or human relations, by marriage or adulation,” there have always been groups that have managed the competitive processes within capitalism. Racketization is a reversion to more direct forms of domination, but these forms were always present, hidden behind the apparently rational market system, and this “was already clear to everyone except for the professors in the times of so-called liberalism.”"

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Competition/

#FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #CriticalTheory #PoliticalEconomy #Monopolies #Competition #Horkheimer #Capitalism

"Bourgeois economists are incapable of confronting the falsity of their understanding of competition: For the bourgeoisie, the fall of serfdom and mercantilism seemed to have abolished class distinctions, producing what they understand as the natural order of competition among free individuals. This order is supposed to be the correct way for human society to be organized, the realization of our innate propensity to truck and barter. In this vision of bourgeois society, every subject is both producer and consumer; there is no class. Anything that disrupts this picture is an intrusion of the non-economic into the sphere of the economic. To the extent that they are willing to acknowledge it, monopolization compels the bourgeoisie to admit that the unequal distribution of power continues to exist under their rule. Rather than accepting the falsity of their understanding of competition, however, the bourgeoisie understands monopolization solely as a regression to a prior mode of direct class rule. They admit that competition, as they understand it, no longer exists, but they believe that it once did, and that what exists today is no longer genuine competition.

Against this, Horkheimer understands pre-monopoly capitalism as characterized both by competition that reached all members of the population and by the unresolved problem of power. Whether by “birth or deceit, brutality or shrewdness, expertness in engineering machinery or human relations, by marriage or adulation,” there have always been groups that have managed the competitive processes within capitalism. Racketization is a reversion to more direct forms of domination, but these forms were always present, hidden behind the apparently rational market system, and this “was already clear to everyone except for the professors in the times of so-called liberalism.”"

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Competition/

#FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #CriticalTheory #PoliticalEconomy #Monopolies #Competition #Horkheimer #Capitalism

"Bourgeois economists are incapable of confronting the falsity of their understanding of competition: For the bourgeoisie, the fall of serfdom and mercantilism seemed to have abolished class distinctions, producing what they understand as the natural order of competition among free individuals. This order is supposed to be the correct way for human society to be organized, the realization of our innate propensity to truck and barter. In this vision of bourgeois society, every subject is both producer and consumer; there is no class. Anything that disrupts this picture is an intrusion of the non-economic into the sphere of the economic. To the extent that they are willing to acknowledge it, monopolization compels the bourgeoisie to admit that the unequal distribution of power continues to exist under their rule. Rather than accepting the falsity of their understanding of competition, however, the bourgeoisie understands monopolization solely as a regression to a prior mode of direct class rule. They admit that competition, as they understand it, no longer exists, but they believe that it once did, and that what exists today is no longer genuine competition.

Against this, Horkheimer understands pre-monopoly capitalism as characterized both by competition that reached all members of the population and by the unresolved problem of power. Whether by “birth or deceit, brutality or shrewdness, expertness in engineering machinery or human relations, by marriage or adulation,” there have always been groups that have managed the competitive processes within capitalism. Racketization is a reversion to more direct forms of domination, but these forms were always present, hidden behind the apparently rational market system, and this “was already clear to everyone except for the professors in the times of so-called liberalism.”"

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Competition/

#FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #CriticalTheory #PoliticalEconomy #Monopolies #Competition #Horkheimer #Capitalism

"Bourgeois economists are incapable of confronting the falsity of their understanding of competition: For the bourgeoisie, the fall of serfdom and mercantilism seemed to have abolished class distinctions, producing what they understand as the natural order of competition among free individuals. This order is supposed to be the correct way for human society to be organized, the realization of our innate propensity to truck and barter. In this vision of bourgeois society, every subject is both producer and consumer; there is no class. Anything that disrupts this picture is an intrusion of the non-economic into the sphere of the economic. To the extent that they are willing to acknowledge it, monopolization compels the bourgeoisie to admit that the unequal distribution of power continues to exist under their rule. Rather than accepting the falsity of their understanding of competition, however, the bourgeoisie understands monopolization solely as a regression to a prior mode of direct class rule. They admit that competition, as they understand it, no longer exists, but they believe that it once did, and that what exists today is no longer genuine competition.

Against this, Horkheimer understands pre-monopoly capitalism as characterized both by competition that reached all members of the population and by the unresolved problem of power. Whether by “birth or deceit, brutality or shrewdness, expertness in engineering machinery or human relations, by marriage or adulation,” there have always been groups that have managed the competitive processes within capitalism. Racketization is a reversion to more direct forms of domination, but these forms were always present, hidden behind the apparently rational market system, and this “was already clear to everyone except for the professors in the times of so-called liberalism.”"

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/Competition/

#FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #CriticalTheory #PoliticalEconomy #Monopolies #Competition #Horkheimer #Capitalism

"The texts collected here belong to the materials on ‘racket theory’ composed by members of the Institute for Social Research between 1941 and 1944. More specifically, they were mostly (probably) written by Max Horkheimer, albeit with considerable input from Theodor W. Adorno and occasional feedback from others.
(...)
The history of the ‘racket theory’ corpus is difficult to reconstruct. We have found it helpful to divide our subsequent analysis of the racket theory project into three major sections, which are not exclusive in terms of content. Our narrative starts with the earliest use of the term in Max Horkheimer’s essay “The End of Reason” (1942). After this, we turn to analyzing the stream of texts which were explicitly composed for or about publication(s), mostly written between spring 1942 and fall 1943. Then we treat the topic of reflexivity and the specific character of the racket theory project that flows from its particular form of reflexivity. Finally, we briefly discuss some particularities of the core racket theory texts before concluding. Translations from additional German sources are our own."

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/RacketIntro/

#CriticalTheory #FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #StateCapitalism

"The texts collected here belong to the materials on ‘racket theory’ composed by members of the Institute for Social Research between 1941 and 1944. More specifically, they were mostly (probably) written by Max Horkheimer, albeit with considerable input from Theodor W. Adorno and occasional feedback from others.
(...)
The history of the ‘racket theory’ corpus is difficult to reconstruct. We have found it helpful to divide our subsequent analysis of the racket theory project into three major sections, which are not exclusive in terms of content. Our narrative starts with the earliest use of the term in Max Horkheimer’s essay “The End of Reason” (1942). After this, we turn to analyzing the stream of texts which were explicitly composed for or about publication(s), mostly written between spring 1942 and fall 1943. Then we treat the topic of reflexivity and the specific character of the racket theory project that flows from its particular form of reflexivity. Finally, we briefly discuss some particularities of the core racket theory texts before concluding. Translations from additional German sources are our own."

https://ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/2025/RacketIntro/

#CriticalTheory #FrankfurtSchool #RacketTheory #StateCapitalism