alanjjohnstone
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It is interesting that you place political motives ahead of economic ones. Can they be separated as easily as you seem to believe.That "chance" election of a particular US president was because of his economic promises and the changes for the better he said he would make for particular sections of the population to acquire votes. Some he is currently carrying out despite the knock-on effects and risks to other parts of the constituencies. Political parties as socialists are forever pointing out, is merely a difference between vested interests, rather than differences in personalities. But as someone who knows his Marx inside out, you are aware that occasionally a maverick politician acts independently – The 18th Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte indicates the occasional hiccup that sometimes arises (whoever accused Marx of economic determinism and failing to take into account human individuality is very wrong)When a CEO chooses one business strategy over another, this can be described as a switch in power-relations but the business plan is ultimately based on economic laws that are inherent in the form of social relations that exist within capitalism…bosses want to increase the extraction of labour (-time) from their employees for the least cost and the workers seek to demand the maximum remuneration for the least work. [Sales and marketing ploys are not as fundamental to profitability as presented in the text books.] And, as Marx said, it does all come down to the respective economic/political power of both camps – who is prevailing in the class struggle. And to paraphrase that quote from Buffet, there is a class war and his side is winning it.
Trouble is that anarchism and anarchists suffer from the same flaw as you accuse Marxists of possessing…no agreement or consensus on what anarchism means, hence the same need to always hyphenate themselves to identify their ideas.I think we can differentiate Proudhon from various anarchist writers an proponents by describing him as a mutualist.
Being an international tourist city, Edinburgh branch always had a copy or two Imagine on hand and a selection of foreign-language leaflets.Well done to those who leafleted the Suffragette. Maybe we should have targetted all of their rallies across the country with a themed leaflet on the vote and the SPGB's stance on the issueOur Scottish branch blog posted this.https://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2018/06/votes-for-women-commemorated.html
The Zionist Jews look at the fate of most of the Bundists – the death camps – and ascribe to it the failure of the Bundist ideas of fighting alongside their fellow-worker in the working class rather than fleeing. It was not a failure of principles, imho, but an unprecedented and unforeseen consequence of the war.
"The U.S. is officially in a trade war with Canada"https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/09/us-officially-trade-war-canada-trump-doubles-down-reckless-tariffs
Pope Francis has told oil company chiefs that the world must switch to clean energy because climate change risks destroying humanity…The world needed to come up with an energy mix that combatted pollution, eliminated poverty and promoted social justice.“Civilisation requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilisation,” he said "If we are to eliminate poverty and hunger … the more than one billion people without electricity today need to gain access to it,” Francis told them. “But that energy should also be clean, by a reduction in the systematic use of fossil fuels. Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments and increased levels of poverty.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/09/pope-francis-tells-oil-bosses-world-must-wean-itself-off-fossil-fuels
Quote:This is a public forum, and I link here as verifiable evidence whenever I need to convince someone that I'm not tryint to sell them lenninism or socialism or marxism or whatever is is they're afraid of. Criticism and intollerance received from here has infromation value I can resell elsewhere.The fact that you are indeed permitted to frequently post your views on this forum (albeit within certain understandable guidelines) demonstrates that this political party does not censor or impose restrictions on the expression of one's political views. If as you claim their exits intolerance then it is not sanctioned but debate, discussion and disagreement is encouraged and this forum is the medium we hope that fosters the exchanges of thought. Even before the advent of these discussion lists, the SPGB had a policy of inviting critics to take the platform in our always open-to-all public meetings.As a chair at one of our conferences, i recall someone who looked through the window, came in to have a listen to the proceedings and then getting the opportunity to offer a contribution to conference, since time was available. Tell me any other organisation that would let a complete stranger address their conference. Mind you, if he had as much as either of you two to say, i am sure, i would have needed to invite him to quickly make his point.
http://www.dw.com/en/vollgeld-switzerlands-sovereign-money-initiative/a-44132924
Quote:What is the "Vollgeld" (sovereign money) proposal voted on in Switzerland on June 10? It is commercial banks, in fact, that create money and bank debt in equal measure, through double-entry bookkeeping operations, whenever they make loans to borrowers. Currently, more than 90 percent of all money in circulation worldwide is created as electronic "book money" recorded in commercial bank spreadsheets as a consequence of the banks' making loans. This "book money" is not created by the central bank, and it is not central bank money. You probably think that banks only make loans to borrowers after first taking in money as "deposits" from "savers," to whom the banks pay a modest interest rate for entrusting them with their savings. In this model, banks subsequently "lend out" those saved deposits at a somewhat higher interest rate to "borrowers." This is actually what the proponents of the Swiss "Vollgeld Initiative" want. They say only the government, through the publicly-owned Swiss central bank (SNB), should be able to create money and put it into circulation.Money is created by commercial banks whenever someone signs a mortgage loan agreement, runs up a credit-card debt, or borrows to buy a new car. New loans create new deposits by means of double-entry bookkeeping entries in the banks' ledgers…the banking system is part of the state apparatus — but its core function of making loans, including the privilege and responsibility of deciding for what purposes, and to whom, to make loans, has been left in the hands of private-sector bankers. Deposits are what you and I think of as "money in the bank." The more loans the commercial banks make on a net basis each year (i.e. the difference between new loans made and old loans repaid), the more deposits they create in exactly equal measure. That's how the money supply grows.The "Vollgeld Initiative," want to end commercial banks' privilege of creating new money because, they say, this privilege is often abused, with banks lending far too much money into existence for non-productive purposes, leading to enormous debt bubbles and consequent financial crises — which result in taxpayers' having to bail out irresponsible banks.Instead, the Vollgeld Initiative says, commercial banks should only be allowed to lend out money that is already in existence. That money would be created by the central bank, and then deposited by savers in savings accounts, or lent to commercial banks by the central bank for on-lending to borrowers. Since the Vollgeld proponents want all money to be created exclusively by the publicly owned Swiss National Bank, there would be some scope for the SNB to create some money to fund government projects, or for distribution to citizens, whenever the SNB deems that the money supply needs to be expanded to enable economic growth. The money supply would no longer expand due to commercial bank lending.Under the existing banking system, banks are especially prone to mortgage over-lending, because houses are seen as "safe" collateral for loans. This leads to bidding wars between people looking to buy houses, with steep rises in house prices, or "housing bubbles." Eventually, over-indebtedness gets too extreme. Real estate prices to stall and then fall. The bubble pops. When that happens, many borrowers go "underwater," as they owe more in mortgage debt than what they can get by selling their house. Construction of new houses goes down, unemployment goes up, and many people stop being able to keep up with credit card payments or other debt. Since the loan-books of most banks in most countries are freighted very heavily with mortgage loans, a downturn in housing prices can threaten the solvency of the entire banking system. That's the essence of what happened on the eve of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and it could happen again.The Vollgeld Initiative proponents believe that if commercial banks were no longer be allowed to create money, or lend money into existence, as they do now, then they would not be in a position to fuel housing bubbles or other such inflationary phenomena. Moreover, insolvent banks could safely be allowed to go bust, rather than have to be rescued with taxpayers' money. Spanish banking giant Bankia had to be bailed out with billions of euros of taxpayers' money after the country's property market bubble bust in 2012. The Sovereign Money proponents argue this could have been prevented and the struggling lender could have been allowed to go bust safely, rather than be rescued.Any comments from our more astute banking system experts?
Of over a hundred murders by its troops, Israel has chosen to release a video to discredit its killing of Razan al Najjar, a volunteer first-aider. They say Razan al Najjar is not the angel of mercy and that Hamas used her as a human shield and of course the video footage was edited to back this allegation up. Israel asks “Do medical personnel around the world throw bombs and participate in disturbances and call themselves human shields?“In the full clip, however, the young woman goes on to say she was present at the protests to “save the wounded at the front lines”. She does not mention Hamas. In footage that has emerged since, she can be seen throwing a tear gas canister away from people lying on the ground. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-protests-latest-idf-condemned-edited-video-angel-of-mercy-medic-razan-al-najjar-a8389611.html
"a young man, 10 to 12 years old" – Chicago Police SuperintendentI'm always confused with reporting…sometimes they are youths, sometimes they are children, sometimes they are young men…all depends on how much bias is expectedhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chicago-police-handcuff-unarmed-black-boy-video-10-year-old-michael-thomas-jr-a8388696.html
Some useful background reading for the School on intersectionality from Weekly Workerhttps://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1206/intersectionality-is-a-dead-end/
"these *tankies*"An interesting overlap on topicshttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/world-socialist-movement/tankie-cririques-spgb "Maybe try a Lenin thread… you can talk about how bolshevism is still relevant and not totalitarian."And there was members of the SPGB opposing Lenin and the Bolsheviks when many anarchists were fawning over them and actually cooperating with those authoritarian totalitarians."authoritarian totalitarianists"Not even our harshest critics in the British anarchist movement who know us intimately would ever describe us as such and would distance themselves from any such accusation."I know my Marx, Inside And Out"Goodness me….i've never met anyone who has read everything Marx has ever written and actually understood it all. That is a first. But, i am genuinely disappointed that in these last couple of posts you reveal that your knowledge of the SPGB is minimal and that you still have to learn basic facts before reaching your conclusions.Is Marx out of date…an irrelevancy for today's times and that we are now in a post-Marx era?Time will no doubt tell, but it is claims that have been made from the late 19th C. and one that has been repeated by every up-coming philosopher and political thinker seeking a reputation…but it is usually they who in due course are forgotten and sink into obscurity.
The New York Times accused of conflating criticism of Israel with anti-semitismhttps://www.truthdig.com/articles/with-literal-nazis-running-for-office-nyt-suggests-candidates-israel-criticism-is-antisemitic/
As an opponent of BDS Netanyahu certainly knows the power of trade tacticsHe said the Iranian nuclear deal was “effectively defunct” regardless of European support for it, since the weight of the US sanctions was forcing firms to make a choice about whether to do business with Iran or the US. Companies were having the choose between an economy that was 3% of the size of the US economy or forgo a multi-trillion market, he said. “It is a no-brainer,” he said, “and everyone is choosing effectively as we speak. Companies are pulling out of Iran.”By removing an incentive to do business with Iran, the US had smashed Iran’s cash machine, he claimed.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/07/tories-michael-howard-confronts-israel-over-gaza-protesters-deaths
Israel has accused Iran of fuelling recent violence on the Gaza border that has seen more than 100 Palestinians killed amid protests against Israel.Leaflets dropped by them state "Behind this agenda is Shia Iran, which has made it its mission to inflame tensions in the region for the sake of its religious and sectarian interests."I notice it says "Shia Iran" just to appeal to the Sunni muslims in a bigoted divide and rule attempthttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44401541
