alanjjohnstone
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ALB, i recall that one reason you explained the Standard does not publish poetry and passed on poetry submission to the blog is that the editors were not qualified to decide on the quality of them.
Quote:And any frustrated poets wanting to compete for the Mcgonagle Prize.I think you are crossing the line and appear to be denigrating a comrade's consistent contribution to current affairs expressed in his weekly poem to the blog. Your regretful attempt at humour, has misfired, imo.
Quote:I see this as a warning that we should not follow the view that has been expressed here that we too should become "an internet-based phenomenon" without physical meetings between members.Without the chore of quoting chapter and verse, i don't think i ever suggested the end of face-to-face interaction and recall repeatedly posting that we should become, as i phrased it, a more "SOCIAList" Party, now echoed by Robbo in his more precise descriptionI think it can also be said that i frequently proposed to the chagrin of some that we make a much more physical presence at political events.I have proposed that organisationally we can do without an HO. I have suggested that we use the tools of the internet such as Skype-type to draw in more involvement in our meetings and decision-making. And i have suggested that our priority in publicity and propaganda should no longer be hard-copy print but indeed increase activity on the internet – such as Vin responded by advocating video rather than a new magazine.Nor have i ever said that we no longer do printed material but that it is limited to "on-demand", special issues of the Standard being printed to circulate at public political gatherings, for instance, and pamphlets to stock lit stalls.I make no apologies for my pessimistic prognosis for the Party but let it be noted, i want to be proved wrong and i, myself have been suggesting means of remedying the situation and not given up hope that our decline can be reversed by taking appropriate action. When i walk away from the problem, will be when i walk away from the Party, and that is not going to happen in the near future. The little i do, i will continue to do.
The drift to the right in Austria and its influence discussed herehttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42433667
Can i remind all those frustrated writers, both members and non-member sympathisers, that our blog is receptive to posting articles, both long and short. You are all very welcome to submit your writing to spgb.blog@worldsocialism.org
Quote:Actually , offering a temporary contract to the person concerned would, if anything, incentivise that person to make a big impact in order to secure the contract for the following year.I have a worry that we may well have a number of applicants for the job and that the rejected will feel aggrieved.There might be office politicking (for a better word), in the competition for the job, especially if it is only on a yearly contract. Complaints and protests about how the duty is carried out by the incumbent by those hoping to replace him or her, in the coming yearThere may well be a lot of lobbying for the job by the applicants and their respective supporters. In fact, it may well be a motive in some members standing for the EC if it is the selection committee for the job applicants.And these are not hypothetical concerns for anyone who has been active in his or her trade union and seen the jockeying for the full-time release and well-rewarded union jobs with generous honoraria – i am not talking about those Party politics interference. Plus my query on those from outside London and the need for accommodation has not been addressed. Or is it to be assumed that only Londoners are eligible for the job?
Quote:If it's a reasonable proposition it will be okayed. If it's a proposal to print poetry it will be turned down.Hmmm…not sure i accept the implication that a proposal to publish a comrade's poetic observations on current affairs was not a reasonable proposition. In the past the Socialist Standard regularly printed poetry.
Since the Guardian had none of their reporters operating in the rebel-held territory where the White Helmets were located since journalists tended to be killed, their information was through media-outlets that were tolerated by Jihadists.There was certainly a concerted campaign by Assadists to discredit the organisation and some allegations against the White Helmets were shown to be false. Others were upheldThe White Helmets were very vocal in supporting the No Fly Zone proposal and therefore cannot be seen as non-political which was a much more serious attempt to destabilise the region and escalate the Civil War into an openly international conflict. If the Russians/Assadists spread disinformation on the White Helmets, the anti-Assadists equally used the White Helmets as a conduit for their own campaign to increase interventionI read the wiki article particularly the section on the sources of funding and i was minded of the saying…he who pays the piper calls the tune. I saw no info of fire engines or ambulances or rescue equipment being sent to Assad by the "humanitarian" west.In all propaganda wars, there is no black and white but large areas of grey
Some may find this lengthy WW article of interest in regards this threadhttp://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1184/supplement-after-king-jesus/
"Orders have been very low anyway", JDW, despite you taking the time to digitalise and upload there has been no publicity for these even aiming at members and branches. They should be advertised on our web and in the Standard.
Quote:There you are. Easy and flexible.How many are stocked by the Party, how many copies in HO, how many held by branches? Where has the Party advertised their availabilityI doubt the Party has ordered even one copy much less a bulk order. But i would love to e proved wrong.Something must be wrong with the system that needs fixing, surely?But kudos to the comrade that has set this up on Lulu.
This article seems to e of interest even though it still supports the idea of capitalism's existence as the only alternativehttps://www.buzzfeed.com/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway?utm_term=.hxzyAbYZG#.bkjDNAJkK
Quote:I realized that we are already surrounded by machines that demonstrate a complete lack of insight, we just call them corporations. Corporations don’t operate autonomously, of course, and the humans in charge of them are presumably capable of insight, but capitalism doesn’t reward them for using it. On the contrary, capitalism actively erodes this capacity in people by demanding that they replace their own judgment of what “good” means with “whatever the market decides.”I first joined i think in 1971 and it was when the Edinburgh Br were running 7 Days for Socialism, a series of public meetings with that title.There was no door-to-door selling of the Standard, AFAIK.
I came across this quote on my daily news trawl.
Quote:"We're not speaking in language that everyone understands. The language of environmentalists has been boring, so uninspiring … If we just speak a technical language, with many acronyms and politically-correct phrases, no one will listen…You cannot bore people into action. They need to be excited and inspired to take action and change their behaviour."http://news.trust.org/item/20171219194959-ac14a/I have to plead guilty to using hackneyed cliched expressions but one thing i have learned from my copying and pasting from Marxist Archive to post on our logs is that the way of describing capitalism and socialism at one time was much more emotional and more frequently from the heart than just from the head.I sometimes see criticisms from members that an article or comment is too moralistic, strays from our materialist interpretation of the world and i wonder if that might be a mistake in how we present our case.
Oh, also on my wish-list, i would also like to see a pamphlet of selected poems of Richard Layton that are published weekly by SOYMB blog.This has already been formally suggested to publications committee but in their wisdom, they considered it not appropriate for the party to publish.In fact, i think this pamphlet should be an annual anthology, as long as he keeps producing his poems.ALB, I have suggested in the past when topics arise in the media, we can very quickly bring together relevant articles from our archives, re-edit and re-format and add them to our educational section on the website with a brief intro.When some things become news, we often have already discussed it but the references are frequently dispersed through our online archives. It would not be a serious challenge to cut and paste and collate them into one section.So i do see it as a parallel process. Pamphlets can be printed on demand, no need for a large stock gathering dust, enough to supply HO shelves, members demand and branches lit stalls. And then when we have requests, print it up extra.
