alanjjohnstone
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Tim, I think the position has been correctly elaborated by others.We already have precedents from the past and we have guest speakers and my suggestion was indeed nuanced to those we share much the same politics with. I simply seek to increase the frequency.Note i said my "ideal" was a regular guest column and that would probably arise from trial and error using the experience we gain by increasing the number and frequency of non-member writers. There are aspects of Marxism where i think is up for acceptable legitimate disagreement and giving space for debate. That hoary old hot chestnut the Declining Rate of Profit and the countervailing influences, for one. We have our position, others have another. It doesn't make us political enemies (but may have an effect upon the direction of propaganda practice) As an aside, I am intriqued by ALB's caveat "(and that the writer has not acquired notoriety over something we wouldn't want to be associated with)"Who does he have in mind, i wondered?Sadly, i also note that no-one came up with any suggestions of who to commission (or bring to attention specific topics). Are we saying there are no socialists out there who are not already members of the party? Surely not. But i confess i am having my own difficulty in imagining who to ask – but i a not the most widely read of members, so that isn't surprising. Nor do i think we need to accept a non-members full position. Merely agree with and accept a particular aspect of it, as we often do and express in book reviews. It may mean adding the condition that we do make clear differences on other issues. I always thought that our interview with Tony Benn was a great capture.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1980/no-905-january-1980/socialists-confront-mr-tony-bennAlso the imaginary "interview" with Marx. For those who forgothttp://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2007/07/talking-with-marx.htmlMaybe we should do Engels, Kautsky…even Lenin… If we choose not to do living people, we could do the dead in a similar style…maybe even imaginary people…Jack London's character Ernest Everhard, for instance.
Always one to be Devils Advocate…new research questions the healthiness of vegetarianism.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12206669/Long-term-vegetarian-diet-changes-human-DNA-raising-risk-of-cancer-and-heart-disease.html
Quote:Long term vegetarianism can lead to genetic mutations which raise the risk of heart disease and cancer, scientists have found. Populations who have had a primarily vegetarian diet for generations were found to be far more likely to carry DNA which makes them susceptible.I thought this from today's Independent might be of interest to this threadhttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/depression-not-governed-by-genes-and-environment-is-a-major-factor-when-it-comes-to-being-happy-a6958686.html
Quote:Depression is not governed by genes, according to a new study that says our environment is a major factor when it comes to being happy and that nurture can override nature.I read the link and although Pilger makes those observations on Trump, revealing the hypocris of the much of the "liberal" media, he stops short of actually recommending a lesser evil vote for him. Who knows, he may well be supporting Jill Stein of the Green Party. I have no idea from reading the link. However, a related article by Pilger on how he was censored for his views on Clinton places the article in more context. Raher than a pro-Trump piece, it is very much an anti-Clinton critiquehttps://www.rt.com/op-edge/337590-trump-clinton-censoring-pilger/
A lot of progressive liberals also supported Ron Paul for much the same reasons – his foreign policies.
A recent poll showed that more than nine in 10 Americans said they would vote for a qualified presidential candidate who is Catholic, a woman, Black, Hispanic or Jewish, but less than half said they would vote for a candidate who is a socialist. Why is socialism still a taboo in this country (although one must admit that socialism seems to be dead virtually everywhere else today in the Western world)?Noam Chomsky A difficult question to discuss, because the word "socialism" (like most terms of political discourse) has been so vulgarized and politicized that it is not very useful. The essence of traditional socialism was workers' control over production, along with popular democratic control of other components of social, economic and political life. There was hardly a society in the world more remote from socialism than Russia, which is presented as the leading "socialist" society. If that's what "socialism" is, then we ought to oppose it. In other uses, the post office, national health programs and others are called "socialist," but they are not opposed by the public — including national health, supported, often by large majorities, for many years in the US, and still today. The term "socialist" became taboo for reasons of Cold War ideology, which divorced the term from any useful meaning.There are significant elements of something like authentic socialism in the Western world, notably worker-owned (and sometimes managed) enterprises, cooperatives with real participation, and much else. I think they can be thought of in Bakunin's terms, as creating the institutions of a more free and just society within the present one.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35402-noam-chomsky-the-republican-base-is-out-of-control
Phewww…that's a relief ….i thought i was going senile and losing my marbles…ummm…some mayhowever still think i am …
This should be in the appropriate section of the forum devoted to party business of the WSM, not General Discussion I decline to speak up in any debate that maligns other comrades with such labels as "internet nerds", not only inaccurate and unhelpful. Sorry, comrade.
Another recently published short interview that you may find of interest.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35379-animal-rights-a-very-noble-cause-or-terrorism-the-state-just-can-t-decide
Quote:in addition to showing solidarity with the animals — we have to show each other love and support in the face of state repression. One of the best ways to fight back against government and corporate efforts to stop activism is to show them that we will unite in struggle and never back down from the fight for animal liberation. We must keep organizing, keep protesting, keep resisting and keep fighting.Here is a list of Sanders acts that makes him guilty of hypocrisyhttp://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/24/notes-from-an-ultra-radical-perfectionist/Bernie Sanders – who:*Calls Edward Snowden a criminal and Hugo Chavez (a social democrat) a “dead communist dictator.*Embraces Barack Obama’s arch-terrorist drone war.*Falsely claims to have been independent of the Democratic Party prior to the current presidential campaign.*Supports the reckless U.S. provocation of Russia in Eastern Europe.*Calls for the arch-reactionary and fundamentalist Islam-sponsoring state of Saudi Arabia to step up its already mass- murderous military role in the Middle East*Helped rationalize Israel’ criminal mass killings of Palestinian children in Gaza (over the opposition of properly nauseated peace activists in his home town of Burlington, Vermont).*Backed the Clinton administration’s criminal and unnecessary bombing of Serbia.*Has worked to undermine third party politics in Vermont.*Called police to arrest activists occupying his Burlington, Vermont Congressional office to protest “Bomber Bernie’s” Serbia policy.*Called police (when Sanders was Burlington’s mayor and at the leftmost stage of his political career) to arrest peace activists occupying an industrial plant owned by the leading, blood-soaked military contractor General Electric.*Pushed and voted for the mass-murderous and wasteful F-35 jet program (a classic Pentagon boondoggle) because it meant “jobs for Vermont.”*Calls the racist British imperialist Winston Churchill (who embraced the racist gassing of Arabs) his favorite non-American leader in world history (he could at least have said Nelson Mandela).*Backs the standardized testing mania that has wreaked such terrible havoc on schools and children.*Dilutes the radical tradition, mocking his purported hero Eugene Debs by (among other things) calling himself a socialist while embracing private, for-profit ownership of the means of production and distribution.*Voted for the racist-mass-incarcerationist 1994 federal crime bill – a reactionary $30 billion measure that “created dozens of new federal capital crimes, mandated life sentences for some three-time offenders, and authorized more than $16 billion for state prison grants and the expansion of police forces” (Michelle Alexander).*Fails to call for the giant rollback of the United States’ gargantuan “defense” (Empire) budget his progressive domestic social agenda requires.*Leaves the Pentagon system almost completely without criticism when asked how he would pay for good things like single-payer health insurance.*Says that we should learn from Denmark and other significantly social-democratic Scandinavian countries without bothering to note that those nations have tiny military budgets.*Has repeatedly referred to the cynical corporatist and arch-imperial war hawk Hillary Clinton as his “good friend.”*Dismisses Black calls for reparations as “as ‘divisive,’ as though centuries of slavery, segregation, discrimination, ghettoization, and stigmatization aren’t worthy of any specific acknowledgement or remedy” (Michelle Alexander).*Absurdly refers to the arch-corporatist and ridiculously complicated Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) as a good first step on the path to single payer (to Medicare for All).*Aligns himself with the National Rifle Association against the parents of children murdered by an assault weapon-wielding maniac in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.*Fails to advance a serious and substantive attack on the longstanding racism, corporate-neoliberalism, and imperialism of the Clintons, thereby calling into question the sincerity and resoluteness of his claim to represent a left-progressive challenge to the long rightward drift of the Democratic party.*Repeatedly and absurdly suggests that the U.S. wasn’t a corporate- and high finance-ruled plutocracy until the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.*Badly over-focuses on plutocratic campaign funding (a very real anti-democratic problem, of course) as the source of the nation’s ongoing subservience to big capital.*Fails to exploit Hillary Clinton’s very real e-mail and Benghazi scandals, leaving them to the Republican right and questioning thereby the seriousness of his declared goal of capturing the Democratic nomination.*Promises in advance to back the “eventual Democratic Party presidential nominee” (Hillary) without conditions, without demanding anything as the price of his Lesser Evilist loyalty.
Surely we can do away with the formalities and have Tim simply co-opted by the IC and immediately start moderating. Any requirement that he requires being nominated by NERB can be completed at the later date, espcially since we acknowledge the difficulty of NERB meeting and achieving quorums. I don't recall any moderator being "proposed" by a branch but i may well be wrong. If Tim is willing then give him the keys to the forum and let him get started. You and he can exchange private e-mails for consultation purposes. I also hope that if any rule changes are being suggested that it will not only be the IC who will discuss them but that the forum members have some in-put too.
Republican Socialist Alliance“The RSA agrees to adopt and promote the following slogans during the EU referendum.Recognising that both the EU and UK are undemocratic we will stand for a “European democratic revolution”, consistent with the idea of democratic revolution within the UK.Promote the idea of a new democratic constitution for Europe as a secular, democratic and federal social republic including the constitutional right of self determination for all nations including England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Catalunya.Recognising that RSA members are not united on the call for Remain, Leave, Abstain or Boycott, the RSA will take no official position on how to vote. Individual members and supporting organisations will be free to recommend any of these options…."http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2016/03/18/report-of-republican-socialist-alliance-meeting-stockport-12th-march/
Poor conclusion from GG about the Brussels attack. https://www.rt.com/uk/336752-brussels-attacks-schengen-galloway/
Quote:Free movement between European states should have been abandoned after the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) attacks in Paris last November, former MP George Galloway said in the wake of Tuesday’s bombings inBrussels. The Respect Party’s candidate for mayor of London argued that suspending the right to free movement could have prevented attacks on European soil.Using the atrocity as part of his anti-EU campaign?
There is one concern about GM foods.Africa is experiencing their worse drought in decades and crop harvests have failed across the continent. Imports of corn, the staple food of the poor, is now urgently required. However, many of the countries in Africa prohibit the importation of GM corn, which limits availability particularly from the USA for the aid NGOs to distribute.
