alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
If i was a psycho-analysist i would say you were hearing them project their own flaws at the SPGB, JDW Both groups seemed to have suffered in the past, justifiedd criticism of placing their own party before any unity in common-front struggles. Anyone acquainted will know of the internecine squabbles with SPEW for union or campaign controlling positions they engage in, often to the detriment of the organisations they were supposed to be supporting. As an aside, I was in the pub once when UNISON was electing their secretary and what a disgraceful display of partisanship i witnessed in the lobbying for their respective protegees As a striker in the past, i do accept that the SWP (cannot talk for AWL, for they had no presence in my locality and i think even our Edinburgh SPGB branch would be bigger than their membership) were frequently on the picket lines, trying to engage us with their advice on tactics but never once did i ever receive a free Socialist Worker from them. In fact, we receive zero material assistance, no can of beer, no sandwiches, just their words of wisdom which were not the SWP members own but the Party-line handed down to them…and we all knew it. They were very rarely welcomed by my fellow postal workers and they appeared blind to the indifference, if not outright contempt shown.No, i was not raising the issues of those "mis-understandings" but the problem of being viewed as a pure and simple parliamentarian party who oppose any class struggle as reformist. Nor is our more technical Marxist case about the causes of recessions, for instance, is very well understood.As Howard implies, no-one hears us because we are often not where the audience is. Out of sight, out of mind, as it were. When we do attend protests and demonstrations we have to be noticed to have an opportunity to be listened to and from frequent past experience, we are lost in anonimity in those marches.
Matt, they simply don't understand our case for socialism because few are actually informed of it in its full clarity and with all our nuances and caveats so if they are shying away from the 'potency of our analysis' as you say, it is an analysis they have not got a clue about. They are opposing and denouncing an imaginary SPGB ideologyAs ALB says
Quote:They would have a distorted view of what we stood for, e,g the anarchists that we want to form a "socialist government" and the trots and "Communists" that we are anti-trade union (these misconceptions are still in circulation of courseThe Socialist Standard view on Zionismhttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2006/no-1226-october-2006/zionism-myth-and-realityhttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2007/no-1229-january-2007/zionism-and-anti-semitismhttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1910s/1918/no-166-june-1918/futility-zionismAnd many more but which can be summarised as
Quote:The truth is that those who saw a solution in Zionist nationalism—in having their own laws, prisons, borders, army and weapons of destruction—were naive. Their form of nationalism is no less aggressive or bigoted than is ever the case under a system of society where the laws of the jungle are presented as being the rules of civilised conduct. Every nation's flag is dripping with the blood of its enemies; every ruling class pays for its power in other people's lives. Nationalism can never be a solution to the problems of oppression: it was not for the Jews; it would not be for the Palestinians. The problem is class, not national, racial, or religious origins.Quote:If we were to obtain such a windfall…We imagine the money would be spent on doing what we do now better and on a bigger scale. We could obtain our own printing press and perhaps bring out a weekly paper as well as a glossy monthly. We could pay socialists to work full-time as journalists, designers, printers and experts in distribution. We could put organisers in the field. We could start a publishing house to bring out books and pamphlets, both reprints and new material. We could contest more seats at elections and run a more high-profile campaign: if we put up more than 50 candidates we could have party election broadcasts which we would have the money to do well. We could help our companion parties and socialist groups in other parts of the world expand their activities too. We could step up our advertising and publicity.http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2018/03/letters-back-to-land-1997.html
I this extract an acknowledgment that we are best known as the Socialist Party of Great Britain – the SPGB?And perhaps we should stick to the acronym much more.
I usually recommend as an introduction to Marxian economics the shorter pieces by Marx such as Value, Price and ProfitI believe it is recognised as possessing short-comings but Wage Labour and Capital is easily digested.https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/study-guides/guide-value-price-and-profithttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2004/no-1194-february-2004/marxs-wage-labour-and-capitalAnd i think i may well have transgressed the good advice by adding those links
In case we have forgotten, the UBI advocates are still active in the mediahttp://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/opinions/2018/03/24/lets-lift-all-canadians-out-of-poverty/
Another of our unwelcomed bed-fellows from the right on over-population mythhttps://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/the-lefts-prophet-of-doom-is-still-wrong/
Quote:just what would have had to have happened in order for Ehrlich to announce that he had been wrong? There is really nothing. Ehrlich is one of a long line of failed Malthusians who will never accept they are wrong, just that their prediction has been put off for a few more years…It is a shame that Ehrlich can’t see his original thesis as the failure it is and learn from it.https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/23/then-they-came-for-the-globalists/According to the the Anti-Defamation League words like “globalist” and “globalism” don’t really mean anything. They are simply Nazi code words for “the Jews.” There is actually no such thing as “globalism,” or “global capitalism,” or “transnational capitalism,” or “supranational quasi-governmental entities” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, verified that “the term ‘globalist’ was developed and originated in extremist circles populated by white supremacists”Peter Beinart, writing in The Atlantic, explained that “globalist” is “an epithet … a modern-day vessel for a slur” against the Jews.CNN’s Don Lemon, explained that “it is shorthand for a worldview based on racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism” … the worldview of “far right conspiracy theorists obsessed with prominent Jews like George Soros.”
The death of a 14-year-old rape victim in Paraguay during childbirth has put the spotlight on the country's high levels of sexual violence against girls and its strict abortion law, campaigners said.A United Nations study raised the alarm about rising numbers of girls under 15 falling pregnant in the region, adding that complications during pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for teenage girls.In Paraguay, two births a day occur among girls aged 10 to 14 in the country of 6.8 million, and many are the result of sexual abuse by relatives. But abortion in the majority Catholic nation is only allowed when the mother's life is in danger otherwise it is a crime. Paraguay's stringent abortion law made world headlines in 2015 when authorities denied a pregnant 10-year-old an abortion after she was allegedly raped by her stepfather.Latin America and the Caribbean has some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws, including six countries that have an outright ban.http://news.trust.org/item/20180323140303-jsduj/
http://www.dw.com/en/thousands-in-poland-protest-stricter-abortion-laws/a-43110497Poland still has some of the most stringent abortion laws in the European Union (EU). Currently, they allow abortion only in the case of risk to the mother's life or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Protesters spoke out in opposition to the proposed legislation changes, which would ban abortions for irreparably sick or impaired fetus, or those with Down Syndrome with some carrying signs reading, "I will not give birth to a dead baby.""Stop tightening abortion laws," read the signs as they marched through the streets of Warsaw and other Polish cities to protest the ruling conservative government's initiative to tighten the country's already strict laws against abortion.The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, expressed his worries about the draft law and called on the parliament to reject the proposed changes. "Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe," Muiznieks said in a statement posted to social media. "This step would be at variance with Poland's obligations under human rights law."Last year, the PiS government launched a campaign urging Poles to "breed like rabbits" in order to up the country's declining birth rate. Additionally, in a program called "Family 500+," the state pays out around 500 zloty (€118, $146) per child per month to families with two or more children. The government has also cut funding for in-vitro fertilization.
Analysis of information in Psychological Science from more than 16,000 participants from two studies has revealed links between challenging behaviour in childhood and political discontent. Naughty children are more likely to be left-wing.https://www.indy100.com/article/left-wing-naughty-children-politics-childhood-8270661?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100
Quote:Everybody active on "the far Left" since 1956 will know of the SPGB.Out of interest, ALB, why 1956?… Hungary?Anyway, my point is that very few know about us in 2018. Some will know the name and of those most will have a caricature picture of us.I doubt there will be a couple of a thousand in the world (and that is a generous estimate) who hold a reasonable grasp of our ideas and many of those people also actually reject it, unfortunately.
Quote:It was a deliberate decision not to have an article on us.Why did they omit our existence? Why can they ignore the SPGB and get away with it? I doubt any review of the book has referenced this lapse, and why is that? We keep blaming our political enemies for not doing our work. It is up to us to offer our fellow workers the SPGB case for socialism and if we are not getting the message across when comparable groups have better success than us then as we are doing, we must ask ourselves, is our strategy and tactics the most effective means.
The US plans to impose tariffs on up to $60bn (£42.5bn) in Chinese imports and limit the country's investment in the US in retaliation for years of alleged intellectual property theft.http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43494001China said it was ready to retaliate with "necessary measures". Beijing also said it would "fight to the end" in any trade war with the US.China was the third largest market for US exports in 2016 and among the biggest buyers of American soybeans, corn, pork and aircraft. However, the US imports billions more goods from China each year than it exports, creating a deficit of about $375bn last year.
Unfortunately, Matt our other ally in combatting the over-population myth isn't just some free-marketeers but the Roman Catholic Church and a few conspiracists who think the Illumanti-types have a policy of race genocide (albeit there is an undertone of racism in the eugenic social engineering of population control policies that gives rise to that belief)Matt, i will grant Ehrlich that we have an urbanisation problem, an ageing population problem, a consumer society problem, a globally skewed consumption problem ….but never that we have a problem of too many people or a problem that the planet cannot potentially sustain many more extra people if it was planned properly for those peoples needs. As you say we live in a throw away system….and the thing Ehrlich most wants to be thrown away is people.On my cyber travels i encounter numerus otherwise well-informed commentators who ascribe fully to the over-population myth and it shows the truth in the statement — tell a lie often enough and it will be accepted as true
