alanjjohnstone
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The mention of myself is in error. I am not involved on Facebook but it does appear to extensively use the SOYMB blog for material
Graeber in the Guardian seiing on the reporthttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity The actual report can be read herehttp://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/2014/qb14q102.pdf “A bank’s business model relies on receiving a higher interest rate on the loans (or other assets) than the rate it pays out on its deposits (or other liabilities). Interest rates on both banks’ assets and liabilities depend on the policy rate set by the Bank of England, which acts as the ultimate constraint on money creation…But whether through deposits or other liabilities, the bank would need to make sure it was attracting and retaining some kind of funds in order to keep expanding lending…Competition for loans and deposits, and the desire to make a profit, therefore limit money creation by banks. Banks also need to manage the risks associated with making new loans. One way in which they do this is by making sure that they attract relatively stable deposits to match their newloans, that is, deposits that are unlikely or unable to be withdrawn in large amounts. ”
—And of course they overlook the explanation that QE was not free money given to banks or that it is used for commercial lending – “the new reserves are not mechanically multiplied up into new loans and new deposits as predicted by the money multiplier theory. QE boosts broad money without directly leading to, or requiring, an increase in lending.” Those banks can use them to make payments to each other, but they cannot ‘lend’ them on to consumers in the economy, who do not hold reserves accounts. When banks make additional loans they are matched by extra deposits — the amount of reserves does not change.”The list of signatories are growingAre we scared to add our own organisation rom fear of guilt by association? http://libcom.org/news/internationalists-issue-declaration-against-war-ukraine-02032014
i have no idea of the answer.Individually, i think we tend to rationalise our reasons for our own particular political positions and forget and ignore all the personal and idiosyncratic reasons for them.. . In specific regard to the SPGB, it is very much by accident that we came across its existence and whether we would have reached our current thought without doing so, who can say? It was the Party that led me to read Kropotkin which led to exploring anarchism…for others it may well be vice versa One AF anarchist mentioned to me that it always surprises him how many ex-members eventually re-join years later. I have often described how we acquire our political consciousness as our search for the Holy Grail…and it is the basis of the many disputes amongst socialists. The workers council debate is an example, but it extends much wider and involves those who describe themselves as revolutionaries and those who do not. Is an explanation lacking the selfish survival of the " individual" and the need to seek out others to achieve it – One of the land-mark publications for me after the Right to be Lazy is the situationist the Right to be Greedy. acknowleding we cannot all be altruistic angels. The class struggle after all is based on ones interests being best protected by our class interests…on the long term…but on the short term…i guess the song the working class can kiss my arse, i got the foreman's job at last, expresses one section of the workers movement's sentiments as representing its best interests. I guess this is where the fight is – between these conflicting views on how best advance oneself and family. Old lit talk about missions, even duty, and the working class historic role in abolitishing capitalism…i think that has gradually disappearedMarx had similar questions and trying to answer spent pages and pages and pages dissecting Stirner's Ego and It Own…until he got his approach sorted.
Still not very clear on the whys and the whos for the split and the fusion and the relationship with the ICT. Most of the leaflet sounded alright and its good we are singing from the same hymn -book on the Ukraine.
Ouch! Being a cynic i think there may be a well orchestrated campaign against the co-op by the establishment business world but on the otherhand , they are exposing the myth of the co-op, for example the supposed democratic model – which isn't. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/14/extent-co-op-shambles-laid-bare-by-lord-myners http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/14/lord-myners-coop-pull-punches ……"The Co-op is controlled by less than 100 people – ordinary members have no votes at all," said Myners. The ethos, he said, was that the management was meant to be "on tap but not on top" – reflecting the views of the members. "There's been self-serving delusion that the current model has the members in control when for the last decade or so the executive had run circles around the board."
Thanks for that story. Now blogged. http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-they-see-us.html
Very interesting. Have blogged the story . http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/03/are-we-all-doomed.html
i read one obituary that calls Benn one of Labour Party's "hard left" …i wondered what they mean by someone who is "soft left"…a wet paper bag left? …Blairite left? …How i have come to hate the mainstream media hacks for their vacuous analysis. 88…a better inings that Crow had , though…
Just read the thread on Rev Left…i say No Platform for any apologists of the suppression of the Kronstadt Commune !! As it is, i have had a reply to my letter on immigration in this week's WW, which is summed up as darn all those selfish foreigners coming to our country, calling us lazy and stealing our jobs…we got to protect our own communities, first and foremost…. I have, of course replied. but not my best letter since i was being pestered for school pocket-money at the time. Perhaps i should have chided CPGB for permitting anti-immigrant proponents a platform but left nationalists get a bye , it seems as Adam points out with NO2EUhttp://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/1001/letters
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honourAnother pro-nationalist article by him in advance of meetings he will hold in Glasgow and Edinburgh universities.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-independence-1707-honourI have cut certain comments i originally had here and re-posted on SPOPEN which may be more apporopriate.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26558288"Kiev's parliament is voting on Thursday to establish a National Guard of 20,000 people – recruited from activists involved in the recent pro-Western protests as well as from military academies – to strengthen Ukraine's defences.Ukraine's national security chief Andriy Parubiy said the Guard would be deployed to "protect state borders, general security and prevent "terrorist activities". Reading the above report i foresee that the neo-nazi nationalists will now be legitimised and given weapons. to reinforce their influence against any liberal elements. Official Brownshirts. We now await the SS to be established.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26541545Vigilantes Versus Vigilantes
Indeed a riveting read. Also very illumnating in these times of migration and the issue of open borders. 'As one could in those days travel right across the whole European Continent without let or hindrance, without passports or labour permits,''As I have mentioned before, in 1902 there was no thought or fear of war that was to come; you could travel across Europe without passports, you could work in any country without labour permits. In all my wanderings in Germany, Switzerland, France and England, the first time I ever had to report my presence to a police office was in London at the outbreak of the first war. What a change indeed has come over all this! Today people are hedged in everywhere by frontiers, barriers and police guards, exacting and scrutinizing your personal documents…'
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26525590The lingering drawn out death of the co-op continues. In his resignation letter Mr Sutherland said the governance structure of Co-op limited the reforms he wanted to implement."Until the group adopts professional and commercial governance it will be impossible to implement what my team and I believe are the necessary changes and reforms to renew the Group and give it a relevant and sustainable future." John Thanassoulis, professor of financial economics at Warwick Business School, told the BBC that Mr Sutherland's resignation underlined a "clash of cultures" about the way forward for Co-op Group."This is a comment on how viable the Co-operative Group's business model is – can it survive or does it not work?," he said.
