alanjjohnstone
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When there is a power vacuum and a gap in providing the requisites of survival, there arises such things as workers councils to fulfil that role. Hungary 56, Argentine.. Perhaps this is what we are witnessing…the necessary self-organisation of people in face of Syria's failed state (at least in that region). Syrian withdrawal from the area provided the space to organise and the Turkish hesitance to start another conflict in a volatile atmoshere. But the people did have a choice to make …the authoritarian route others have chosen or the one which is pluralist/inclusive which they appear to have opted for…Might be a mistake to make too many comparisons with Iraqi Kurdistan…at the bottom of their autonomist movement is the oil wells. I recall there were indeed two Kurdish political parties and armies vying for control.Nor should we ignore the PKK and Ocalan's influence. But they are only part of the ingredients and a whole lot of other actors are involved but the fact that they aren't at eachothers throats does perhaps reflect the difference in politics that has occurred and the steps forward being taken. The sources describing the libertarian nature of the region seem to be wider than the Left Communist/ICC and there does appear to be an overlap of ideas with the Zapatista political approach.A work in progress is how i see the situation, i think. But still of sufficient interest and importance for further study and to acquire lessons from, such as implementing various models of democratic structures different, that have been created voluntarily and not imposed.. Broadly speaking, though, we shouldn't be too dismissive of what has been achieved and we certainly should be vocal in defending it in print and speech…I doubt many party members would be willing to volunteer to go and defend them in an International-style Brigade…we can't get them even to branch meetings!But we should be clearly and vocally expressing where our sympathies lie…with fellow workers trying to protect what limited liberties they have successfully managed to obtain and seeingly have expanded upon even if the sad reality is the prospect of eventual defeat, not by ISIS, but the Syrian and Turkish states once they feel ready to re-assert their state power in the region. A editorial in the Standard would not go amiss, once the situation in Kobane is settled, one way or another…an editorial of solidarity and hope if the Kurds prevail…one of sadness and condemnation if ISIS wins out. Should we be calling for Cameron's Tornadoes to act as the Kurd's airforce..demand Turkish troop intervention…CIA weapons….an alliance with the FSA or Syrian government army.? I have serious doubts about that….Graeber's parallel with Spain is perhaps too close…"Stalinisation" of the Republic …but in this context…the Kurdish resistance again being betrayed by so-called allies "helping" out.
Anyways my admitted shortage of knowledge hasn't stopped me from throwing together a SOYMB blog post using those sources cited and a title inspired by ALB original post.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/10/barbarians-at-gates.html
Another article that is worth a read from Zaher Baher of Haringey Solidarity Group, another personal account of a visit.http://libcom.org/news/experiment-west-kurdistan-syrian-kurdistan-has-proved-people-can-make-changes-zaher-baher-2?page=1
Quote:what happened in West Kurdistan was not Ocallan’s Idea, as many people want to tell us. In fact this idea is very old and Ocallan developed these thoughts in prison, familiarizing himself with them through reading hundreds and hundreds of books, non-stop thinking and analyzing the experiences of nationalist movements, communist movements and their governments in the region and the world and why all of them failed and could not deliver what they claimed. The basis of all this is that he is convinced that the state, whatever its name and form, is a state and cannot disappear when replaced by another state. For this, Abdulla Ocallan deserves credit.Are you within travelling distance of any party branch, Lbird.The reason i ask is that i think a face-to-face encounter with YMS would be both educational and entertaining and an extremely worthwhile venture.How we advertise and promote such an event i leave to others' imagination.
Hallblithe, i found the article very interesting and noted that in some ways their democracy is the twin-track parliamentary and extra-parliamentary road that we suggest may happen in practice.
Quote:This problem has been solved in Rojava through a dual structure. On one hand a parliament is chosen, to which free elections under international supervision are to take place as soon as possible. This parliament forms a parallel structure to the councils; it forms a transitional government, in which all political and social groups are represented, while the council system forms a kind of parallel parliament. The structuring and rules of this collaboration are at the moment under discussion.Again i must plead mea culpa in not having followed this development and as Graeber says it is to be seen in the perspective of other and past events such as Spain and Chiapas.To hark on about other threads, i treat this lapse as another failure of myself and of the Party to appreciate a changing consciousness in world politics that leaves us a marginal influence (such as with our interaction or lack of it with Occupy). Something positive was taking place (no matter its flaws) and we were not able to make useful comparisons to indicate an alternative way forward can be practicable and feasible and not idealistic wishing. It is no compensation that other libertarian groups also suffered from this failure. I have to still follow up all the links in the Libcom thread but a few appear to question the PKK sincerity or at least offer criticisms of them.
Libcom has a thread that may be of interest http://libcom.org/news/anarchists-join-fight-against-isis-defend-kurdish-autonomous-areas-03102014
David Graeber makes comparison with Spanish civil war.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis
Quote:the PKK itself is no longer anything remotely like the old, top-down Leninist party it once was. Its own internal evolution, and the intellectual conversion of its own founder, Abdullah Ocalan, held in a Turkish island prison since 1999, have led it to entirely change its aims and tactics.The PKK has declared that it no longer even seeks to create a Kurdish state. Instead, inspired in part by the vision of social ecologist and anarchist Murray Bookchin, it has adopted the vision of “libertarian municipalism”, calling for Kurds to create free, self-governing communities, based on principles of direct democracy, that would then come together across national borders – that it is hoped would over time become increasingly meaningless. In this way, they proposed, the Kurdish struggle could become a model for a wordwide movement towards genuine democracy, co-operative economy, and the gradual dissolution of the bureaucratic nation-state.Since 2005 the PKK, inspired by the strategy of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, declared a unilateral ceasefire with the Turkish state and began concentrating their efforts in developing democratic structures in the territories they already controlled…the Syrian revolution gave Kurdish radicals the chance to carry out such experiments in a large, contiguous territory, suggests this is anything but window dressing. Councils, assemblies and popular militias have been formed, regime property has been turned over to worker-managed co-operatives – and all despite continual attacks by the extreme rightwing forces of Isis. The results meet any definition of a social revolution.As with ALB i have to confess my ignorance about all this. I hope it is true. I do recall reading about Ocalan's Road to Damascus conversion (pun intended) in prison but didn't know if this was followed up by the organisation. I would welcome a few links to read further.
A thread that has an important far-reaching title as this one about the identity of the SPGB (and the SPC who are still to comment, i believe) and it has become bogged down on the technicalities of the wording and interpretation of a 30 year old decision. Is this symptomatic of our party? Is this the impression we wish to convey to people albeit it some will argue it demonsrates our committment to democratic procedures? Others will say its an inflexibility to adjust to changing and shifting circumstances.Someone somewhere at sometime commented that a look at Conference and ADM agendas over the past number of years indicate a predominance of rule amendments and internal affairs motions rather than current political affair topics. It is as if everything tht can be said about th world has been said and we no longer need to debate and discuss real political issues or the political situations facing workers around the world and our response to them regardless of whatever name or label we do it under.
Quote:I see no difficulty in producing literature specifically aimed at people in such organisations as OXFAM that would set out such practical proposals. This more engaged approach would be to acknowledge that they are doing what they can to lessen world hunger but the problem is getting worse, and then say, "The action to solve this problem must include action to bring about a society where you will have the freedom to act more effectively and this is how it could actually work. The work of solving the problem and the work of creating the conditions in which it can be solved go together."And of course the same approach could be directed at other organisations, for example, the many environmentalist groups.To summarise then: I am suggesting that we should build on our economic and political analysis and apply its logic to the fantastic development of all the socially useful factors of modern world society in setting out how socialism could operate. Then armed with this set of practical proposals we make every attempt to be more positively engaged with the many non socialists with whom we share common ground of concern and indignation and the need to establish a world of equality, democracy and co-operation." – the late Pieter LawrenceOnce again and i'll keep being persistent, something i'm rather good at and make no apologies for…We have to devise a whole new approach, not merely re-labeling ourselves. The above suggestion may seem to have us appearing as some sort of socialist think-tank but lets be honest as an effective political party we have been impotent. There is no debate, no discussion about this, it is a statement of fact. The only speculation is whether we can reverse our decline before it is too late and the Laws of Nature takes its course.We, however, could begin changing our strategy by re-galvanising the Production For Use Committee and placing more urgency into collating our evidence (something Pathfinders column has been good at) and producing reports which we can then engage others with to initiate political exchanges which will draw people to our party…and with numbers and some influence we can then begin to act as a functioning political party. Simply a suggestion. I'm open to other ideas. Actually, i insist upon hearing them.
Just to repeat…there exists a tendency to concentrate on the label on the can, rather than the can's contents.A re-brand of the Party image has to go alongside a new recipe of what socialism actually is. A new packaging, by all means, but also a new improved flavour to go with it.Why was the 60s politically optimistic…because socialism started to include the questions of everyday changes to our lives as it did when socialism was first discussed in the 19thC. ALB may well be right that some do know of us by name …but how many of those actually really know what we are made of – a helluva lot less. Our ideas are misunderstood, misinterpreted, misrepresented and on occasion deliberately maliciouslly misled about.We do carry the burden as JonWhite indicates…of an Edwardian image…i'm all for respecting our past and our history but we have to incorporate the present, however, most of all, we must be viewed as a viable future.We require to develop a continuous sustained strategy of promoting ourselves as the party with revolutionary ideas that inspires the imagination. A new shop-front, a new emblem, a new variant of our name are merely bits of the process that we need to adopt.
I have a soft spot for Naomi Klein and there appears to be much of value in her new book on the environment which has one of its basic tenets that the ecology movement cannot be isolated and seperate from the anti-capitalism, For sure she has failings in recognising just what capitalism fully encapsulates and recommends battleing for improvements…but so do we in the class struggle and Klein does accept the environmentalists must be part of the broader class struggle….the rise of socialist consciousness doesn't have to start in the workplace.Klein i recall is quite anti-carbon offsetting and exposes the capitalist greenwash promoted by corporations and governments…but i will stand corrected by someone more informed.I keep saying, if we aren't there in the actual debate and discussion, out and out tinkerers like Jones won't be challenged about the necessity of revolution.
Genuinely, the SPGB are nothing like the left wing in our ideas and our approach which is often why the Left try to ostracise us by accusations of utopianism,sectarianism, but they often have to ackowledge that we do represent the authentic voice of Marxism hence their need to claim that Lenin and Trotsky updated and improved Marxism, something that can be re-phrased to say changed and corrupted Marxism!In regards to immigration, there is no doubt that an over-supply of workers can cut employment opportunities and hold back wages hence the reason a section of the bosses support less immigration control…but always remember they also use women and younger single workers to effect labour demand as well…and those who support stopping immigration are they also going to demand the return to the home and kitchens for all women and the return of pay differentials for younger workers…i recall when i first started work i think it was 25 yr old before a person reached the top pay scale of wages (and earlier it was 30). Capitalism always makes worker compete with worker for work…whether its the guy in the next street , the next town… or the next country. That won't change by having stricter immigration…the target will simply shift to someone closer to be excluded. The SPGB has tried to engage the Mosley's BUF, the NF, the BNP in actual debate, much to the chagrin of the No Platformists (and by effect No Democracy, too, ) We have also tried to engage the Islamic radicals too…Our fight is not one of fists and boots on the streets but a battle of ideas in the head. That is a much bigger task.
Isn't it par for the course to be slightly deceptive in not providing John Rees' political party affiliation, Counterfire, rather than the general description "activist" which i think would apply to all those named. Just what is it that he and Lindsay German fear from Marx's dictum that communists do not distain from openly declaring their politics. Maybe you should pose that question to the panel!!
If the unions can jettison their Labour Party baggage and then have to create a new political party this will (as you often say) result in a space for ourselves to inject socialist ideas.It means returning to the fundamental debates and discussions on principles and purposes that we peripherally engaged with when Left Unity began but on a wider scale hopefully. It means another challenge for us to raise the bar in the poitical exchanges. An opportunity for us to make our case when there is an audience in a receptive mood to listen and attract attention from those already on the well-trod path of rejecting the status-quo.I agree with you in the end that it will be some sort of variant of the existing Labour Party being formed in the end.. but if some unions seek to raise the question of what is a working class party and how it should act in workers interests they open a Pandora's Box which may well be to our advantage if we respond with a bit more than a short leaflet and occasional Standard article or Blog post. It is as always a matter of getting our voice heard even if most turn a deaf ear. Not everybody will. That is why i looked upon the report a bit positively…and it is a change for me to see the glass half full
The first thing i would say is that we fully understand how many workers drift into the BNP and other nationalist orientated organisations and have over the years had a few members who are ex-BNP. We have heard of TUSC and have criticised them for their own version of British nationalism/Little Englander regards the support for NO2EU.We also have a number of members who are disabled and been involved personally with disability groups.We make a vital difference between supporting particular reforms as people and workers on an individual basis and support for political reformISM as a party organiseation.
