alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Quote:And there are people on this forum who want us to go soft on religion.
I am sure there is no-one on this forum who endorses religious fundamentalism whether it is from the Islamic right or the Christian right or Jewish right or Buddhist right or Hindu right, all who have exhibited the signs of fascism that Namazie and others are exposing. We cannot compare a Quaker with an evangelical extremist bombing abortion clinics and killing doctors.I am not well versed in the Islamic religion but i am sure there are schools of thought within it that are as far away from Wahhabist beliefhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Muslim_movements
I just placed a quick post on our blog before reading your commenthttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/09/our-enemys-enemy-is-not-our-friend.htmlBut your own link to another blog is much more detailed and explanative
Correction – It wasn't the university who banned Namazie, they are still to make a final decision, but the Students Union. Perhaps we could invite her to give a talk at HO as a sign of solidarity…Or would we be too cautious of a possible backlash and damage to premises and perhaps injury to members and thus follow in the footsteps of the Warwick Students Union by not inviting trouble.
Bowing and scraping to the Queen?Who can forget this clip and have a secret desire that Corbyn duplicates its climaxhttp://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1443223751.html
Rather than start a new thread, i thought i just add to an existing related one.We know all about racial profiling but what about political profiling?The Australian government now produces what makes a terrorist…and to be truthful…its seems just being an awkward teenager. But decide for yourself if one of your family fits the picture and is a potential political extremist http://www.rt.com/news/316530-radicalization-awareness-kit-australia/
I agree with Gnome, Gavin.The importance we place on our party democracy frequently results in impassioned defence of it when individuals perceive a potential threat. We tend to over-act or use hyperbole but who says that is always a fault. Always best to be vigilant. But it may have the back-fire effect of giving non-members or the casual visitor to the forum an entirely wrong impression. Despite his grievances i am sure Vin would say the bar of our democratic practices is very high for other organisations even to try to emulate and expectations upon those responsible within the party for it ,such as moderators on this forum, is very demanding.You will also be pleased that I believe JohnB has another article in this upcoming October issue.
We are often criticised for our lack of coverage or attention on such matters as these.I await your article for October's Standard to prove our critics wrong, YMS.
Apologies for re-posting this from another threadA modern historian's take on the last threatened couphttp://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/curragh-mutiny-had-dis…The SPGB takehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1920s/1929/no-294-…A related Forum discussion on this topic http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/capitalism-s…(To emphasise i boldened this bit)As we often say the most effective strike is the one that didn't happen – the threat of industrial action was sufficient. In the same way, the military can carry out their coup by simply raising the prospect of one if it changes policy. I will add that Peter Wrights autobiography proved that the British intelligence agencies conducted a smear campaign against Harold Wilson suggesting he was a Russian mole.I am also reminded of the events in the 70s with Mountbatten as a crucial player. In 1974 the Army occupied Heathrow Airport. Baroness Falkender (a senior aide and close friend of Wilson) asserted that the operation was ordered as a practice-run for a military takeover or as a show of strength, as the government itself was not informed of such an exercise based around a key point in the nation's transport infrastructure.MI5 officer James Miller claimed that the Ulster Workers Council Strike of 1974 had been promoted by MI5 to help destabilise Wilson's government. Colin Wallace, an Army press officer in Northern Ireland said it had been used in the 1970s as part of a smear campaign, codenamed Clockwork Orange, against Harold Wilson. 10 Downing St was bugged by MI5. We also at the time had a number of right-wing employers organisations active and collaborating with ex-military.I'm not a paranoid conspiracist by nature but i do think you under-play the possibilities.We don't need the majority of military to be active in a coup for it to succeed – as you say – Franco had military opposition and his earliest act was the execution of 800 loyalist officers. In Chile, the miltary was not all behind the coup against Allende and one senior ex-officer was assassinated in exile by Pinochet agents. Allende was actually convinced of Pinochet's loyalty so i think we can say your trust and faith in the loyalty of the British military just might be misplaced, too.Do i expect a coup against Prime Minister Corbyn – no – the media will ensure he will never be elected and they will be ably assisted by black-ops of the Establishment in many more imaginative ways than we can now envisage.I don't think we can make any parallels with a future socialist movement becoming dominant – different situation, different circumstances, oranges and apples
As an example of a surge, today the SOYMB cast a jaded eye over the 4th anniversary of Occupy Wall St http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/09/four-more-years-four-more-years.htmlWhich brings us to RobertS and my pet peeve, the lack of visitors to our blog by our own members.Recently, when for almost a week no new posts appeared on the blog, not one member raised any interest or curiousity in why.When the blog gets referred to on our forum such as with the recent Brighton meeting, there is a visible spike in traffic which shows many member although online aren't really interested in a daily visit to the blog to see what it says.I suggest that too is a sign of lack of activity because one thing the blog is not, is of predictable content. Somewhere Engels talks about suffrage being a thermometer of the working class…What should be our own thermometer?ALB equates the Party with a trade union in that i think BrianJ said was 116 returns, about third of the members as ALB saysIs a voluntarist orgnisation rightly ranked alongside an organisation where many union members feel (rightly or wrongly) alienated from for various reasons and only sporadically fully involved. I recall from my own experience the big turn outs for union meetings were when the meeting was about to make crucial decisions and this has been referred to in regards to the SNP referendum… people thought their own individual vote counted so the turn out was unprecedented. How many of our branches are conducted on automatic pilot and in a sense ritualistic?Maybe someone can check when they are opened and when they are closed?Of course, many branch meetings have discussions taking place so there could be a rush to get to that period. Perhaps more is achieved in the pub afterwards? We have 12 branches and if 5 turn up at each then that is 60 members who make the effort in a face-to-face meeting. And that is a generous estimate, isn't it? But i suppose we can add a few apologies to that. Which brings me again to another earlier question what proportion of meetings prove to be inquorate? I have been in new (or more accurately) resurrected organisation and there is the early halycon days of growth and hope. Maintaining that means activity that is fruitful and actually pleasurable to undertake. We see that one branch which has grown is quite active in street stalls and i guess they find it fun to do since a lot of interaction with passer-bys appear to take place in it reports, while another branch also does street stalls, but i note are only for a couple hours duration. Do they make them fun for members, i wonder? And how enticing and alluring is their stall and approach…shouldn't our politics also be about seductionBut as i have said, this debate will simply be sterile unless something is proposed and put to the Party to actually discuss and then do something about it. I think many members have thought Conference and ADM were becoming rather stale affairs about rule amendments and such like. Substance (and definitely controversy) in motions and even items for discussion put forward seem to be sadly amiss.Or is this simply a mistaken perception of my own? Because of the lack of facts and details then we will always be vulnerable to our own personal impressions which may well be in error …or can be confirmed by the relevant data… Who knows unless we hold up a mirror and have a good critical look at ourselves to appraise ourselves and also nothing like getting a third opinion – seeing us as others do.
Yes, food for thought in those discussion points even though one doesn't necessarily have to agree with them all.But how do we go about debating them?Moaning Minnies can keep carping on and on from within the party and from outside it (one thing that always pleasantly surprised me was the number of non-members we have had as "honorary" members) but how do we actually settle down to resolve those questions? We can deny that there is a problem and blame the rest of the world and carry on as we are. We can accept that there are issues to address but postpone any engagement with them to some indeterminant future because the need for change just might have to be recognised and it scares us and as someone said, better to keep our head in the sand like an ostrich.Change would mean re-directing time and resources away from our prime purpose – challenging capitalism and its promoters but it may save wasted energy in the future if we are more targetted with our tactics.You all on this forum know by now my own opinion on what has to be done….but not all members do since some claim to be not computer-savvy and some are deliberately refusing to join this forum for their own various reasons. And that puzzles me a lot. Just how contrarian are some of us. (Disclaimer: i decline to be active on either Facebook or Twitter so i too am a culprit) As Gnome correctly implies…the allegations and the accusations on the forum are worthless and self-defeating and self-destructive …but for only one very good reason…there is no-where to go with them….no end of the tunnel…nothing that we can call a conclusion…It is endless because we never reach a point where we can implement anything because no decisons are being made. Robbo has laid out 6 propositions (and i would like him to now add those he declined to include so we do have an idea ofthe scale of the debate in his opinion) It is then up to members, branches and committees to then decide what to do with them…
http://www.rt.com/uk/316286-corbyn-backed-hedgefund-manager/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11869701/Jeremy-Corbyns-QE-for-the-people-is-exactly-what-the-world-may-soon-need.htmlCorbynomics and his QE get the stamp of approval from billionaire and other business leaders.
i will also add that sections of the football fans that were once prey to the rightwing are now displaying banners of a more radical expression such as we seen over the migrant issue and Imposs will cite the Green Brigade as a welcomed example. https://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/the-green-brigade/
Quote:Most fans of international sports teams attending competitive matches are not consciously making a point about 'nationalism' or 'patriotism'You've obviously not met anybody from Scotland's Tartan Army , have you…Why has there been a constant debate for the past decade on the national anthems to be played and sung, and rugby was particularly at the centre of those. I'm with ALB who i believe was on some rugby club committee or other for a while…
