alanjjohnstone
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Podemos show popularity in local electionshttp://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Left-Candidate-Wins-in-Barcelona-as-Main-Parties-Lose-Support-20150524-0020.html
Liz Kendall pins her colours (very pale pinkish) to the mast"I want Labour not just to ‘understand’ business but be the champion of people who take a risk, create something, build it up and make a success of it …"
Depend where you live, ALB, what is considered normal food and insist on authentic Indian. Thalis are traditionally vegetarian and they are very regional. ….It is a lunchtime meal, not an evening or breakfast oneRestaurants are usually described as Pure Veg to meet with the requirements of Jain religion, all others are Non-Veg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country#IndiaMy Thai partner had ants-eggs, today and relished it, freshly obtained from a tree-top ant-nest…I passed on it …but what's "normal?"…a vegan omelette?http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/how-to-make-a-vegan-omelette/
We pick our battles and we try and choose the time and place…It is the only way we have a chance of making an impression as The Socialist Party with intervention…. which may well be a unique event in our history, if we actually did make a stand with others. However, is this issue right now the appropriate moment, or do we wait for another? Personally, when the Marines go into action to sink the migrants boats (albeit disguised as some humanitarian act against people traffickers) is when i would unfurl our banners and demonstrate our opposition and signal our sympathy with fellow workers from all lands. A socialist hand of solidarity being extended. And when the TUC eventually launches a "Defend the Unions" protest, i'm very happy for the Party to march alongside trade unionists plus, inevitably, all the factions of the Left, to oppose anti-union and anti-strike laws, a necessary and integral component of the class staggle and the extraction of the workers' share of surplus value. On this issue of civil liberties being eroded in the alleged "war against terror", i 'll be content with a Party statement signed by the EC explaining our position and highlighting the possible (or as Vin correctly indicated the probable) abuse of the legislation. This circulated as a press release. ( even an Socialist Standard editorial would satisfy me….at the moment …to be perfectly honest)But as a Party, i think we should take the precaution of sleeping with one eye open – so to speak – and monitor the situation closely (as Robbo correctly warns us of the consequences that may happen to our general freedoms)
How did the Outsource meeting go?How many turned up?Briefly because i know a full report will be getting made, what was the overall conclusion about standing 10 candidates? Did the people at the meeting consider our vote and media exposure worth the cost and energy and recommend repeating the venture?
Let us remind ourselves once again of that "bastion" of democracy, the USA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_syndicalismThis law is frequently cited as partly the reason for the decline of the IWWYet, on the otherhand, the SLP often quotes Article V of the American Constitution as a safeguard for a peaceful socialist revolution.
Here's one i have not heard of before…nuclear power and nuclear weapons don't exist…it is all a hoax…Nagasaki and Hiroshima was the result of conventional fire-bombing…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sULjMjK5lCIhttp://www.big-lies.org/NUKE-LIES/www.nukelies.com/forum/index.html
All I have to add to this debate on means and methods is that given all our different histories over widely different geographical areas plus the varying make-up of the working class, we will have different conceptions of our immediate needs and interests, and of which problems it is most urgent to solve. We will also disagree over the best ways to organise decision-making at workplaces, in localities, and globally. All these disagreements will lead to political disputes within the working-class that we hope and expect through intelligent engagement and exchanges will become united in solidarity across the world.I tend to be now fairly flexible and elastic these days in my socialist “principles” and again to paraphrase Howard Pilott on the Daily Politics Show I welcome diversity as it spurs discussion and debate, firstly within our own party and then further afield on the Left. I possess a strong confidence in the strength of our Party's theory even if i may have less conviction in it actually prevailing. I have emailed a tentative proposal to the campaigns committee that we try to act as a catalyst for all the vying "cases for socialism" to be brought together and presented to the public for them to choose from….which i believe is a practical way of putting LBird's "democracy of truth" to an actual vote.
I think many charities can be seen as protective organisations of an individual's personal interests. Various prisoner welfare organisations such as the Howard League, for instance. I know of one party member who would correspond with Death Row prisoners and assist in campaigns for clemency for them.As Debs said, being in prison is a class issue.
Quote:Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.I see even the Tories are now at logger-heads themselves over the crack-down on liberties, with one department accusing the other of introducing censorshiphttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/21/mays-plan-to-censor-tv-programmes-condemned-by-tory-cabinet-colleagueAnd now freed of the LibDems, Cameron is apportioning all the blame for rising immigration upon their reluctance to support his "strong" stance…
Not too many participating in this thread, SP.Perhaps discussing attitudes to reform campaigns being different from accepting reformism as a principle for our politics is not so easily defined but i think we should try to differentiate the both of them.Opposing immigration controls and voicing sympathy for organisations that may well be advocating repeal of those laws i don't believe to be a heresy. One very pragmatic reason why i don't think we should be engaging in changing laws is that others are much better at it than we are. I vaguely remember ALB saying that the case for secularism against Islam is performed better by those already involved in it…the apostates and ex-muslims, than we ever could, despite our command of the theory.Anyways a bit more to consider.Surely a sign of a genuine social movement is that it tries to move people into action and interacts with every other positive strain of activism, no matter its origins. It does not try to dissuade people from undertaking important campaigns out of fear that they will “steal” its activists away.People are right enough in thinking the Socialist Party barely touches the great majority of fellow workers. If we don’t have a presence in both elections and reform campaigns they aren’t going to be all that many motivated to find out about us either.We shouldn’texpect everyone in the movement to be just like us – it will never grow large if they actually were.The only way a movement grows is by doing more and that takes logistics and people. As for your question, in proportion to the growth of population and the numbers now entered into the working class, the membership of the SPGB is very much less than the original founders.In actual members, i think it was post-WW2 that we achieved the highest membership level, the 60s/70s saw a modest revival and growth but a gradual decline since then shows little sign of reversing, imho.
Vin, I was suspended on the 15th if i recall correctly (perhaps the 14th, depending on time zones)I really have no beef with the moderator, he permitted the discourse to stray for quite a while and i was well aware that we were off topic.No, i think there was warnings in advance which i believe i ignored.I think it may be helpful if the moderator actually set up new threads where and when he believed the discussion meritedit but i am sure he may then be accused of interference and over-stepping his remit…no win…I have been a moderator so i do have a lot of sympathy for the judgment calls it sometimes requires…i know i didn't please everybody but i also know we need a strong-willed moderator who can't be swayed or influenced.I'll let him get on with it and pay the price when i disregard the forum rules.
If you are referring to myself as one of those, i was suspended for about a week, Vin…Or didn't you notice my absence and my subsequent references when the ban was lifted to an enforced silence? Apologies if it was not me you were intending to mean. But i just thought i highlight my own punishment for ignoring warnings and continuing to engage with StuartW off-topic
