Hch wrote: Transitional
I am not an academic and I am not the smartest with highbrow arguments, so bear with me. I am a working family man and SPGB member. I work hard in manual trades, swear a lot and drink beer. I read what I can and understand or try to, what I read and couple this with what I see and experience. I also speak as I find.The sentence I highlighted is the kind of thing that makes me so angry though. Why do you assume the ‘working man’ (something I assume you’re not by the way you speak of this mythical creature so abstractly) is a dumb ox to be led or pushed by yourself or others? So many of the left, the SWP, Militant etc have this insulting, derisory view that the man in the street is so stupid he needs to be guided and pushed like a cow into the right path. Join the union, smash the state, fight the cuts, down with this, up with that. Balls.I can think for myself thank you. And I also don’t like the assumption that not only are people dumb but that they cannot remember stuff. I recall the days when Militant ‘ran’ Liverpool city council and ended up sacking its staff. I remember the ‘Red Ken’ days of the GLC and the disasters that befell the employees. I remember the Poll Tax ‘struggle’ – an angry mob that had all of the left fighting like dogs to lead it when really, despite Militant’s preposterous claims to the contrary, it was been pushed along by people angry at the Tax rather than ‘led’ by anyone. And where did that end by the way? The state simply changed the name of the rates to Council Tax and imposed massive increases, so those reforms didn’t last long did they and where was Militant then? I don’t recall a mass ‘fightback’ by those brave revolutionaries against the Council Tax……perhaps they are still planning it?!I joined the SPGB precisley because they use a language that DOES make sense and does not assume to treat me like an idiot – no screaming SMASH THE TORIES! headline here followed by dumbed-down political comment and a coupon asking for cash (Fighting Fund! – my does the left like it’s exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Additionally there is genunine democracy within the Party unlike Militant/SWP et al, whereby movement in the Party only seems to work when your face fits.In short despite the replies it seems you dislike the SPGB and either cannot or will not read and think through the replies you have been given, which is sad. Read some of the more detailed replies above again, think about the arguments in a more balanced way and come back, but please don’t keep referring to the ‘working man’ like I am not here or too stupid to read. It’s insulting.