Socialist Party Head Office
Apart from piously announcing in ex cathedra fashion that there are “absolutely” no implications for socialism, no lessons to be learnt, what actual evidence does this comrade present to back up his or her sweeping (and not a little arrogant, if I might say so) generalisation? Its irrelevant because “I should know -I do it”. Oh right, yeah – very convincing! Why “do it” in that case? Now theres a contradiction and a half. Obviously some benefit was perceived in doing it It strikes me if you are determined to set your mind against something then nothing will dissuade you from that point of view. And note the gross caricature that no doubt helps to sustain this comrade in his or her oh-so-comfortable and dogmatically smug armchair conviction that ” Providing a bit of fruit and veg free cannot lead to a free society”. Who said it could, eh? But does that mean it could not help in some way to do so? Of course not. Every bit helps. FFS, the SPGB freely and copiously cites real-life cases of people freely collaborating outside of capitalist cash nexus as direct counter evidence of claims that socialism is against our “human nature”. Yet here we have this comrade pooh poohing such evidence as having “absolutely no implications for socialism”. Really? It would be laughable were it not so tragically ironic Maybe instances of practical non-alienated collaboration under capitalism don’t carry much weight with comrade in question who, in world-weary fashion, has tried it all and knows it all but one thing you should never ever do is generalise from your own individual experience. What does not work for you might work for someone else and conversely what does not work for someone else might very well work for you. A diversity of overlapping approaches and styles is much more likely to capture a larger number of hearts and minds than just one single approach monotonously and repetitiously delivered.I don’t know much about the “Todmorden Incredible Edible” project – I don’t even know where friggin Todmodern is as I live in faraway sunny recession-hit Spain – but maybe, just maybe, some of those involved ,even if they are only a small minority in the community – might be rendered just a little more receptive to socialist ideas as a result. How would you know if you don’t approach them from that point of view sympathetically? If you are determined outright to be hostile to what they are doing then of course you are going to get a negative response. They are going to see you as a political version of the Jehovah Witnesses and quite likely your interactions with them are going to drive them even further away from socialism. But then – hey! – nothing beats the pleasure of being objectively politically soundFor all my past criticisms of SPGB I have never ever questioned the need to carry on presenting the party case in the way the party has always done – through its literature , its meeting, its audio visual material and so on . All that is absolutely essential but it is evidently not enough, is it.? I mean, seriously – as so called “scientific” socialists you would have thought this would have been more than apparent by now. When is the penny going to drop that the simplistic old fashioned ways of thinking and doing things are just not going to work. and show absolutely no signs of ever working The Party is half the size it was when I first joined and is still steadily declining by all accounts. Oblivion is theoretically quite on the cards and still we have members displaying advanced signs of the Titanic syndrome – lashing out at any signs of fresh thinking. Lets all gather around the piano, comrades, and sing the red flag rather than “god save the queen” as we slowly sink below the waves but, for gods sake, dont even think about organising the liferafts!!!. Don’t think outside the black box. Just carry on as usual. Just do what we have always done and got more oe less nowhere as a result.. What is the point of it all? It makes me despair at times when I read comments like those from the comrade from Todmorden – and, I have to say, not a little furious. What a waste.