alanjjohnstone
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AAANNYYWAYS, sticking to the thread, i sent Paresh the following e-mail.
Quote:Apologies for filling your mail in-box with an unsolicited message but once again i must express my admiration for your recent article in Mainstream Weekly http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article5252.html I think i was a devastating take down of Alan Woods and you should be congratulated on your consistent criticism of Leninism from a Marxist position. You will be glad to know that many share your opinion and have done for many years. I myself am a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain who were among the earliest critics of the Bolshevik Revolution and among the first to describe it the USSR as state-capitalist (long before Tony Cliff and the “Johnson-Forest” tendency.) You may find this article by one of our members of interest which may be reflective of your views on Marx and revolution. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/study-guides/myth-transitional-society Our whole website is worth a perusal whenever you have the time in your busy schedule. in comradeship and solidarity alan johnstoneAnd just received the following reply from him
Quote:Dear Friend,Many thanks for your kind message. I had sent this link to Adam B.I will surely have a look with interest at your organ.In solidarityParesh C.It seems ALB is once again ahead of the game in establishing contact with likeminded people. Comrade Stefan Shenfield also has translated an article, the Economy of Freedom, that is i think also very insightful and should be read, too. http://aitrus.info/node/2595
The discussion on the future development of the WSM is a positive that the other Companion Parties are yet to take up. However, i do have some reservations concerning the proposed structure.The very first is going to have an immediate effect of the SPGB…the deployment of "idle" funds. We already had a debate on the party finances and investment of "idle" funds appeared to be agreed for sustained support of the party and its premises. But these decisions are not irreversible. I would prefer a much more participatory democracy using the means of internet rather than a world council, secretariat, and 4 year conferences. I'm sure we are capable of each respective EC engaging directly with one another via Skype (or equivalent), that an annual WSM conference is possible also via the web with many more participants registered to take part that specified quotas. I have suggested that the World Socialist become also an e-zine and i see no problem having it as a quarterly issue rather than twice a year.But i am vocing only my personal opinions and many will disagree. But once again WSP(India) is to be congratulated on bring this issue to the table for us to comment upon.
I'm always right (or so all my co-workers accused me of thinking)..and I'm a worker ….so….I'm not so sure i fully agree with YMS… always thought education along with organisation and agitation were the three legs the socialist movement stood on. If we are merely trying to persuade the already convinced, i suggest we need a totally new way of going about it because we aren't doing too well trying to catch them…perhaps we need to cast our nets a lot wider…or introduce more tempting bait.
Quote:It's more a case of if we're right then capitalism will begin to generate socialistically minded workers…Those who knew him and talked to him may be better qualified to comment but wasn't part of the reason John Crump studied the history of socialism of Japan was that if the above was true then it would have spawned its indigenous socialist movement with the development of capitalism. But didn't he find that there was no naturally arising socialist movement from the material conditions but that Japanese socialist thought was an import (as it may have been in Tsarist Russia too) – which takes us back to the importance of education and communication of ideas.
It is indeed a devastating article by Paresh and to be recommended.Once more it reinforces my earlier readings and orginal opinion of Paresh as a very worthy Marxist.
Nothing is black and white.When i was working, one of my co-workers was ex-Scots Guard and when he was based in Northern Ireland he was shooting at IRA…when on leave, he was at Celtic Park singing pro-IRA songs. Another co-worker, an ex-RSM, the highest NCO rank and perhaps the most influential in any regiment, once told me that come the Russian invasion he and i shouldn't really worry …for all that will happen would be instead of a crown on our posties caps, there would be a red star…and we still be doing the same fucking job. But i understand the tenet of your post…a job can dehumanise. I recall a union official responsible for the butchers at Halls of Aberdeen telling me he was always terrified of those slaughtermen and again the co-workers i knew who had worked in abattoirs were all a bit psycho from becoming immune to the sounds and sights of suffering sentient animals.
There already exists a book-fair whinge thread and i intended to simply update it.My original whinge on Libcom resulted is surprising amount of sympathy for us (and the other non-statist groups excluded).You sound like Millwall supporter, ALB, "Nobody likes us – we don't care"
Quote:Despite the determined efforts of the organisers of this year's Anarchist Bookfair to not only deny the Party a stall inside the building but to ensure it did not have one anywhere near the fair's entrance, comrades finally decided to move off the Queen Mary's University premises entirely and set up the stall on Mile End Road outside its west entrance.Could you elaborate on this so i can whinge on Libcom Was it the university building authorities who asked you to move or the actual bookfair "anarchist" organisers? What did they say and what did they say they'd do if you didn't comply?
An AlJazeera article that pricks the PKK bubblehttp://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/17/pkk-s-rise-in-iraqikurdistan.html
My sister used to work for the Department of Employment and part of her job was to ensure that companies fulfilled their requirement to employ a quota of registered disabled…She visited the Hibernian Football Club to check if they were employing any…the answer she got:" We employ eleven – we call them our first team. " Sorry to derail such a serious issue with frivolity…but i couldn't resist.
The review you all been waiting for – the world's richest man on Pikettyhttp://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Why-Inequality-Matters-Capital-in-21st-Century-Review(And do you know, he doesn't even understand that it is only through his wealth and power he gets a personal one on one Skype interview with Piketty – the SPGB certainly wouldn't have that privilege of access)Of course Gates doesn't see himself as a problem since he invests his wealth in productive industry and philanthropy…not like those other capitalist parasites.
From the Rojava Social Contract [consitution]
Quote:Article 39: All mineral resources and natural resources belong to the society as a whole. Their exploitation, processing, and use is regulated by law. Article 40: In the democratically-autonomous administrations any property and land is owned by the population. Use and distribution are regulated by law.I would be interested in knowing a little bit more on how regulation is administered in practice and how the conflicting claims to use of land and resources is resolved.
Quote:Article 2: a) The source of power is the population, the population rules. The administration is ensured by institutions and elections. All hierarchies, which are directed against the social contract of the democratic autonomous administration, are illegitimate. b) The owner of the democratically created councils and executive bodies is the population. The monopolization by a group or class will not be tolerated.Much has been said in labour history of various workers' and social movements around the world and if it transpires that the claims and aspirations of the Rojava region is substantiated and as widespread as they say, then surely too this trial should also enter the annals of working class history, whether it survives or not, to be studied in greater detail for lessons to be learned. We can all pick faults with movements such as this and also with the Zapatistas but they are qualitatively different from the usual national liberation resistance movements in that they do seem to genuinely reflect and act in the interests of the grassroots and endeavour to implement ways of administration that are expressing a democratic desire. They go beyond workers councils/soviets/industrial union model in that they are experiments in community control, transforming already existing institutions and creating new ones to extend responsibilities and management something people within the party discuss regard to local government and councils being adapted and turned into structure more fit for use. Regards to democratic confederation, eventually it cannot avoid coming up against the capitalist state and the corporations.
Quote:under certain circumstances, a peaceful coexistence is possible as long as the nation-state does not interfere in central issues of self-government.The two examples are a resource-scarce economic backward rural region in Mexico and an area where a power vacuum arose due to war conditions that permits non-interference. How applicable is it elseswhere? Is it merely a re-phrasing of what the Bolsheviks call dual-power and inevitably a contest for primacy breaks out?
Quote:Democratic confederalism is not at war with any nation-state, but will be vigilant against assimilation efforts. A violent revolution or the founding of a new nation will not create sustainable change. In the long term freedom and justice can only be achieved within a dynamic democratic confederal process.As we always say, you cannot build the foundations of a new society on the ruined rubble of the old one, (well, not as easily)Much food for thoughtful digestion, nevertheless.
Gnome is correct that it has often been discussed and you are also correct that one objection has been to be efficient it would require financial recompense to those who make a fixed commitment to turn up on time, to open shop and to do all the prep work and the actual serving…The outlay is minimum to set up …we have the kitchen that copes with conference…As i usually do, i suggest a gradualist approach …opening perhaps on the Saturday (and Sunday) to begin with, limited menu, and as for the books, if i recall we already had a fair collection and the Library Commitee was often declining donations for lack of space and duplication.I may again be wrong but a few extra quid under the table in the form of expenses for that day (or two) for some of our out of work members who surely would volunteer in these times of austerity (or rumours of our members personal wealth actually well-founded!) and wouldn't break our treasurers heart. And the security of other parts of HO can be assured with some thought.It merely requires a sandwich board (pun intended) placed outside to say we are open and what is on offer…(We could be discreet to avoid the competition of other cafes and describe ourselves as a reading room with refreshments available which we usually do have for visitors)Ambitiously, we could also offer the use of our internet facilities and photo-copying and printing (once we get the present small snag in that department fixed). Some community groups could use HO for their meetings but we would need to be careful in vetting them but i think a chess club, for instance, asking to meet wouldn't compromise our hostility clause. The more we use the HO, the more the HOO also has to become a party employee…and that too is a debate we had had and also experience of doing so we have learned some lessons on how to do it properly. We have a presence in Clapham High St, we can become more of a feature of it and interact with the community more. The knock-on political effect will be the increased awareness of who we actually are when we stand locally in council elections. We do become The SOCIAList Party.Even though this is all been argued over before and not acted upon for various valid reasons, it needs to be something we continually return to and go over again and always re-discuss because one day, one year, it is going to be possible…even if today it might seem impossible…
Quote:now looks likely that the new HO fascia sign will be installed on Sunday, 2nd November.Look forwrd to your photos of it once it is done. To all of us who remember and carped on about the bunker-image of HO, its taken a few years but we have managed to transform what passer-bys see. Maybe a coffee shop/drop-in cafe and book-shop as our next ambitious target….or am i being an impossiblist again?
This article on the LU website has a very jaundiced and probably accurate view of the Green Partyhttp://leftunity.org/whats-wrong-with-the-greens-a-response-from-the-left/
Quote:When the Greens let people down, Left Unity should stand against them if the local branch have the resources to do so. We should be aware that should the Greens continue to gain support from those disillusioned by mainstream politicians, eventually genuine socialists will end up on a collision course with them as they subsequently repeat the betrayals seen in Brighton, Bristol and Leeds. Additionally whenever Green Party members act in unacceptable ways by espousing reactionary attitudes or sharing a platform with reactionary organisations they need to be called on it – and should their local Green Party branch not take appropriate action they too should be criticised. This is why we need to continue to work to make Left Unity a genuine party of the left, and not rely on the Greens or any of the mainstream parties to oppose austerity and the erosion of workers’ rights. In the long term we need to make sure that should Left Unity come anywhere near controlling a council that we avoid the pitfalls the Brighton Greens were all too eager to sleepwalk into, and when the Greens prove they are no better than any of the other mainstream parties, all bets are off. Left Unity’s rallying cry should be that when we say we stand for the people, we mean it.
