alanjjohnstone
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I thought our Capitalism Kids Stuff was excellent…I wonder why we can't re-edit and re-arrange some of it into smaller stand-alone segments and use as short advertising clips. Woud that be impossible…would some think it sacrilege to tamper with as the Party believe our Declaration of Principles is…why shouldn't we have many different versions of what can be called "Declarations of Principles" to post…
The libcom video is blocked in my country so i cannot comment on that. I have always argued that it is not one size fits all…and much to some comrades displeasure i advocate let a thousand flowers bloom so that we relate and resonate with different sections of a heterogenous audience so i actually thought the Propeller video served its purpose in presenting a non-threatening approach. For sure we can change the text but it was suffice. The video discussion chose to make a "sweet" interpretation of "pure" communism. It was a "feel good" video. It was not negative and so flawed that it was counter-productive. The thing about an ad is all about where and when it is shown, not just what it says…why do you think millions are spent on placement at certain events or particular occasions. http://www.everyoneisequal.com/theproject.htmlI don't expect everybody to like it…same as our own video attempts…same as our logo designs …same as our shop-frontage….We cannot accomodate everybody's tastes…And we still don't know who is our target audience, much less agree on how to reach them by what method. Accept that nothing we do is perfect…nothing we do will make a Earth-shattering difference or revolutionary changes on their own…merely accept it is a small contribution and part of a greater effort from all areas of life and cultural activity…(Banksy's artwork has contributed immensely to the promotion of a liberatory way of thought, imho, where as Tracey Emin has done little). I'm happy to take the rough and ready with the smooth and sophisticated…as long as there is a lot of both…after all in amount and coverage, our ads will always remain in the shadow of the mass media manipulation, even if a item goes viral…thats only temporary…the capitalist promotional campaigns are never ending…almost limitless…beginning at birth….
Vin, JDW,i think your points must feature in the debate that i keep saying we must have after the elections are over and done with, where we gather together the lessons we have learned, the mistakes we made and the positive aspects we achieved.EARB already offered a criticism of our national election address and managed to get that re-addressed (pun). But it showed to some degree our lack of advance preparation that a key document passed by the EC had to be revised. I'm not aiming criticism at anybody but drawing attention to a technical failure in coordinating and cooperating to get the best out of the party. It is not like we had no warning and got caught on the hop. This general election campaign was to build upon what we thought we had learned from the Euro-election but in retrospect, perhaps it wasn't very much in a practical sense. I think it all this is well worth a special general meeting rather than being tagged on to the ADM…but can we afford that when i think cash should be directed to a more online presence and more videos so perhaps the ADM should have an extra day added for a special discussion.
For the video address, wouldn't it have been more effective having someone hold a prompt board behind the camera for the candidates to read off, rather than notes held in the hand. Perhaps something to remember for the next time. Just a thought….Mike's version has been uploaded to our blog now…
This article brings up an interesting analysishttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/religion-isnt-growing-it-is-becoming-vigorous-in-its-demise-says-philosopher-ac-grayling-10178317.htmlWe are witnessing the death throes of religion not its growth. You are right about the state manipulation of religion to bolster war-aims…In the ex-"communist" states one of the most vivid examples is how effectively dead religions were revived in Yugoslavia/Balkans in the civil wars there.
Charley once said
Quote:In all revolutions up till now the mode of activity always remained unscathed and it was only a question of a different distribution of this activity, a new distribution of labour to other persons, whilst the communist revolution is directed against the preceding mode of activity, does away with labour, and abolishes the rule of all classes with the classes themselves, because it is carried through by the class which no longer counts as a class in society, is not recognised as a class, and is in itself the expression of the dissolution of all classes, nationalities, etc. within present societyThe tense he uses is "it is carried through"…so i think he means classless not post revolution but classless in the actual process of revolution because it is part of the revolution to rid ourselves of the shit of the past….and create the associations, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.i think part of my understanding is that during the revolution i begin to relate to my fellow workers, not as "class comrades" but to use that cliche..people…individuals…friends …and neighbours …who have come together in solidarity….we recognise one another as human beings first and foremost…that is our commonality that we come to realise …we dump all the previous identities…class ….nationality…race…gender..all the other etceteras…I know…i probably misunderstood this section…and will be corrected in my interpretation…i await my lesson
When it comes to the issue of class and individual, i always thought Murray Bookchin had a certain amount of insight to offer in his Listen Marxist
Quote:“ The Marxian doctrinaire would have us approach the worker, better still – enter the factory – and proselytize him in preference to anyone else. The purpose ? to make the worker class conscious. In the end , the worker is shrewd enough to know that he can get better results in the day-to-day class struggle through his union bureaucracy than through a Marxian party bureaucracy…the worker becomes revolutionary not by becoming more of a worker but by undoing his ‘workerness’. His ‘workerness’ is the disease he is suffering from, the worker begins to become revolutionary when he undoes his ‘workerness’, when he begins to shed exactly those features Marxists most prize him – his work ethic, his character-structure derived from industrial discipline, his respect for hierarchy, his obedience to leaders, his consumerism, his vestiges of Puritanism. In this sense, the worker becomes a revolutionary to the degree that he sheds his class status and achieves an un-class-consciousness. He degenerates and he degenerates magnificently. What he is shedding are precisely those class shackles that bind him to all systems of domination. He abandons those class interests that enslaves him to consumerism, suburbia and a book-keeping conception of life”Less people have read his reply to Jeremy Brecher's criticisms of the essay…The exchanges can be found at the link. https://libcom.org/library/listen-marxist-replyI think there are some in the party who wish to flush workerism down the toilet and concentrate our vision on the one shared by Erich Fromm that reflects thehedonistic hippie still in us …all we need is love and all we want is leisure and all we demand is luxury…The three Ls maybe hells for others in the party. I accept that it is not an universal appeal https://www.marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1961/man/index.htmPS…I have always accepted tht it has to be the working class…those with nothing to lose but their chains…who must be the agent of change…but what if the work-place does not become the centres of resistance…but communities….(or protecting the environment )….then we relate to one another not as fellow workers and comrades but as neighbours and friends…just thought i throw that in without expanding on it .
"I've never read Reich but he appears to have had all his marbles"Not quite true, unfortunately, in later life…he strikes us now as bit of the mad inventor when he developed his orgone accumulator…This socialist standard article is worth a readhttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1970s/1973/no-825-may-1973/sexual-politics-wilhelm-reichMany prefer Erich Fromm's take on socialism
Quote:Whatever the nostalgics here for using the full name all the time might think, the arguments for calling ourselves (except in legal, historial and ceremonial contexts) the Socialist Party are just as valid today as they were when the party voted for this at the end of the 1980s. "Great Britain" does have natiinalistic connotations, whatever people say.Equally, it is a strong argument for ourselves to be re-named The World Socialist Party (and add what geographical title you wish to in these brackets)…That clearly identifies us distinctly and uniquelyI'm not really intfluence by the case that it means letting SPEW having a free hand to call themselves the Socialist Party…In the world context there are plenty of Socialist Parties that aren't….and we always have to define what socialism is anyway in any of our literature or debates…Let them get cockahoop over the unchallenged ownership of the party name…because we will still be there exposing the non-socialist content of this "Socialist Party" as we do when they and other stand as "socialist" whatever. It is the idea of what socialism really means and what genuine socialists advocate which is the true battle, imho.This should i think will be part of our post-mortem post-election among many other issues that have sprung up eg logo
I took it from the Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/12/uk-one-of-worlds-least-religious-countries-survey-findsThe Secular Society also reported ithttp://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2015/04/survey–uk-is-one-of-the-least-religious-countries-in-the-worldI think we concur that 1945 was a pivotal date for the Japanese. You are right about Muslim nations…atheism is a crime.I wondered about the effect of making orthodox religions illegal or at least actively discouraging them. I'd like to see the pre and post dates for many of the ex-Communist countries …
A very good idea, OzyHe is acquainted with the party and is sympathetic to some of its views. Myself and at least one other member have in the past corresponded with him. I'm pretty sure if he has the time, he will be receptive. But i'd rather not stage a formal debate but permit him to do a presentation with a question and answer session afterwards…a more comradely approach …why go looking for an argument when there might not necessarily be one …I would suggest the relevant committee (campaigns?) to be quick of the mark and reach an early arrangement, fixing up a topic with him so that we can publicise the event among the left-wing…He has an ongoing theoretical economics polemic with SPEW on over/under consumptionism so they may be drawn to the meeting…He is also a critic of the co-op proponents Wolffe and Alperitz…so if that is chosen to be the subject of his talk, it may bring the Greens/Left Unity to the meeting…
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jTmnYgFvqzM/Tvw3vTpzhsI/AAAAAAAABuI/QJ__Z34iHho/s1500-h/Howard-Brennan-Affidavit.gifOf course, just one eye-witness account given within a couple of hours of the shooting is not suffice proof…What is required is supporting evidence for the statement. He was in a position to see what he claimed to have seen and parts of what he said are corroborated by other witnesses (eg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1AqnPYPurw4/Tvw05Jp8R-I/AAAAAAAABrw/WzeDHTVG2lc/s1200-h/Amos-Euins-Affidavit.gif and http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VT-pM3J-WNE/Tvw05sUBICI/AAAAAAAABr4/kNPBIHAEHkA/s1200-h/Arnold-Rowland-Affidavit.gif) plus physical evidence found at the scene…a rifle and three empty shells, later identified as being owned and having been used by LHO and to which can then be added the circumstantial evidence such as later shooting Tippitt and repeatedly lying during police interrogations. Now compare with the alternative scenarios ….full of ifs and maybes and a lot of hearsay, all without any hard supporting evidence to corrobate them…
Richard,Just to add to the bricks analogy can i perhaps interject here with something Wilhelm Reich tried to explain class consciousness with"A brick is not yet a house, but you use bricks to build a house" Reich in Sex-Pol describes class consciousness and explains:“Everything that contradicts the bourgeois order, everything that contains a germ of rebellion, can be regarded as an element of class – consciousness; everything that creates or maintains a bond with the bourgeois order, that supports and reinforces it, is an impediment to class consciousness”I think this is reflected in the old Solidarity Groups "As we see it"7. Meaningful action, for revolutionaries, is whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the self -activity of the masses and whatever assists in their demystification. Sterile and harmful action is whatever reinforces the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on others to do things for them and the degree to which they can therefore be manipulated by others – even by those allegedly acting on their behalf."And here again is Wilhelm Reich“Against the principle of self-denial preached by political reaction, we must set the principle of happiness and abundance…Any socialist political economist can prove that sufficient wealth exists in the world to provide a happy life for all workers. But we must prove this more thoroughly, more consistently, in greater detail than we generally do”This i believe is an echo of Sylvia Pankhurst who said:Socialism means plenty for all. We do not preach a gospel of want and scarcity, but of abundance.
Quote:Also confirmation as to use of Emblem on Ballot Paper.Is this the same emblem that the Electoral Commission said was invalid and does it mean different returning officiers now have different interpretations?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-32234567http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/149729/List-of-electoral-offences.pdfSomething to watch out for with our customary free refreshments pledge at all our meetings. I must say i think it is a bit selective accusing the UKIP. Who remembers any complaints when Red Wedge was campaigning by providing free entertainment and a platform for the Labour Party?
