alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I tried to watch the live streaming but my limited broadband width kept stalling it to permit easy watching but it did demonstrate how useful it could be for ourselves.http://www.ustream.tv/I suppose Stuart thinks LU is now the equivalent of Dr Who's UNIT which stands for "UNified Intelligence Taskforce" out to fight the evil Daleks (i wonder who he thinks is Davros). He himself has probably gone through as many political regenerations as Dr WHO has changed. And just to continue the metaphor…the SPGB is like the Tardis…a small box from the outside but enormous in the inside
)As Dave implies the Vassall election and others show, the working class are not ready to jettison the Labour Party yet . I personally expect to see the rise in consciousness not to appear in the Left but from union militancy but i hold no great hope for that either in the immediate future. With TUSC not engaging in next years EU elections to let the NO2EU to once again stand, it will be interesting to see if LU forms an election pact or opposes them or they themselves stand down and don't participate. Perhaps they will concentrate on local elections to begin with as the relatively successful an earlier reincarnation of LU, the Independent Working Class Association.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Working_Class_Association"I never knew what happened to them in the end"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Marxist_GroupIn Edinburgh, the leading IMG activist became a leading SWP activist. There's the pics of John Lennon with the Red Mole, IMG's magazine, so those who think Russel Brand brandishing a copy of Socialist Standard will boost the circulation, should remember, Lennon's celebrity endorsement did little for it in the long term and he was more popular than Jesus at the time, so they tell me….http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/red-mole-and-john-lennon/ And his Red Mole interview is revealinghttp://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1971.0121.beatles.html I can't say i am impressed by JL's politics much. Rather uninformed and very naive, our working class hero was, IMHO, but some light peeps through the cracks. I wonder how Russel would answer to some of our questions if we had an opportunity to delve a bit deeper into his politics in an interview?
This is quite a good article on Syria. http://www.loonwatch.com/2013/11/syria-the-revolution-that-never-was/ It carries this quote Syrians “must face up to the very difficult conclusion that they have been effectively defeated, not by the horrifying repression of their own dictatorial regime which they have valiantly resisted, but rather by the international forces that are as committed as the Syrian regime itself to deny Syrians the democracy they so deserve… the struggle to overthrow Asad may very well succeed, but the struggle to bring about a democratic regime in Syria has been thoroughly defeated.”
The CPGB take on co-ops here.http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/988/co-op-scandal-labour-is-the-real-target "….The cooperative movement as a whole has become thoroughly bureaucratised and, with the partial exception of its marginally left-of-centre political wing, with its almost exclusive focus on promoting mutuals, depoliticised. The relationship with Labour is cosy, and no longer has much connection with the original attempt to serve the needs of workers. But in a sense this is a reflection of the low level of politics in the labour movement generally. Marxists, of course, support the formation of workers’ cooperatives. While not being able to escape the law of value and the dictates of capitalist accumulation, in their mode of operation they can point to the sort of society we want to create, as well as providing a buffer against the hardships constantly imposed on workers. Thanks to capitalism’s continued erosion of national borders and the global division of labour, we can easily imagine these on a European scale – a development, like EU-wide trade unions, which would be a factor in realising a very different world order, of international solidarity and democratic planning. But in its present form, the UK’s largest mutual is not much of a threat to the rule of capital…."Andi have never read such a stalwart defence of the Labour Party"…the bourgeoisie, even now, does not quite trust the Labour Party, and would rather it ceased to exist, or were at least relegated to a position of impotence. This would emphatically not be good news for the left. For many, Labour still represents some sort of independent representation of workers. Its reliance on a working class, and left-leaning voter base, is evidenced by Ed Miliband’s quiet dumping of the New Labour project and fractional moves to the left. Despite all the recent attacks by the right, Labour is still the most likely port of call for the millions outraged by austerity, not any of the ‘Labour mark two’ projects being hawked around. Genuine Marxists must engage in order to highlight the contradictions of Labour and build a pole within it – not hold their noses for the sake of ‘revolutionary purity’…"The eventual and inevitable route of the new Left [Unity] Party ?
When Left Unity does not mean unity.From the Glasgow LU grouphttp://leftunityglasgow.org/Some in Glasgow LU supports independence and the development of a separate left organisation in Scotland and others in Glasgow LU oppose independence"Left Unity as an organisation remains officially agnostic on Scottish independence and allows its members and contributors to campaign freely and openly for whichever position they support." I see Hillel Ticktin has addressed LU on what a socialist sociarty will be like. http://vimeo.com/76883435 Bit too long for my server to broadband to download
Mondragón president Txema Gisasola stated, “We receive visitors from many companies and many countries, and some come here with a magical idea of what Mondragón is. This is not magic. We are in this market, competing in the capitalist world, and the only difference is how we do things and why we do things. We have to be competitive, we have to be efficient, we have to have quality in our products and give satisfaction to our clients, and we have to be profitable. In that sense we are no different from anyone else.” Says it all, doesn't it and if he is truly honest the how they did things and why they did it isn't that much different , either
Maybe i am a philistine but this buy nothing day reminds me of those well-fed who fast in solidarity with the hungry …too many workers have too many buy nothing days for my liking …sure i understand it is a stand against consumerism…but it is tokenism…i'll buy that Ipad tomorrow…
Did you have a dog on a piece of string? "ended up kennelled being with a few of them. "…the Freudian slip , instead of kettled. But unlike Jack Ruby who took one of his dogs with him and left it in the car as he went to shoot LHO, i always desisted taking along my dogs on demos due to concern for their safety. Picket lines were different and it often ended up just me and my dog at the gate!!
This article by Hedges explains his attitude and IMHO contains valid points. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206 My own personal experience with the Black Bloc was in 2005 at the Make Poverty History demonstrations in Edinburgh and ended up kennelled being with a few of them. I keep saying it and i'll say it again, the only political statement i saw from them was a fashion statement!! Old crusties such as myself, and the stale socialist politics of the Socialist Standard were to be spurned without discussion. We were without any merit. The act was of primary importance…ye olde propaganda by deed, not by the read….Hedges makes the pertinent point that they alienate support not attract it. Give me the Rebel Clown Army anyday.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_Insurgent_Rebel_Clown_ArmyHowever, SOYMB blog, posted on the Black Bloc in Brasil where it acted more as a self-defence group, protecting protesters from police attack which i believe is a difference in tactics from the Black Bloc Hedges was criticising.http://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/10/brasils-black-bloc.html
It is indeed a wish-list of an electioneering party. Independence but same monarch, same currency and same central bank, same membership of the EU, and same membership of Nato and the same bloody BBC!The B of E will determine bank rates etc for an"independent Scotland, English trade performance will still determine the sterling exchange rates, not the periphary performance of an independent Scotland.There will be promises that some in Left Unity will latch on to…such as the no nuclear weapons…but it will in practice be a don't ask, don't tell policy concerning those, they will still be nukes in Scotland but an independent Scotland will turn blind eye. The relaxed immigration rules – a points system – still means that only the educated, with skills, who speak English will be welcome, the barrers will remain for the poor. The end of the bedroom tax , well even Thatcher saw the flaws in the Poll Tax in the end. Re-nationalise the Royal Mail…since it has doubled it profits and it is going to cost a bit more in compensation. I was always taught that the concentrated population of urban centres subsidised the delivery to the rural areas and since the % of urban and countryside is wider in Scotland , the cost of mail has to go up – and who will pay that extra…either in price of stamps or the employees will in pay freeze. The retirement age at 67 is only a promise of a review not a promise to lower it. Meanwhile corporation tax on businesses will be lowered. A guarantee that one, i am sure. But i do get two passports and my price of flights will be cheaper with a passenger tax reduction!!Hopefully, Shetland will go for some sort of Channel Island/Isle of Man status, claim most of the oil revenues, and i'll be eligible for nationality of it on my mothers side…3 passports
You are probably right but i'll still argue that the Luddites were just as part of a working class as any self-employed painter and decorator or electrician is today – sub-contracters, alienated and exploited, subject and vulnerable to the whims of the capitalist market. For instance, today the ILO estimates there are 300 million home-workers ranging from IT specialists to the more menial.
Even if it wasn't true…he now knows what many working class learn from experience about being fitted up by the police!!!
Sorry but i still disagree. Reactionary and Lumpen-proletariat are not the words ever used by Marx in this regard. Try a re-read of Capital Chapter 15 , section 5 , to read where Marx sympathies lay. He describes how “History discloses no tragedy more horrible than the gradual extinction of the English hand-loom weavers, an extinction that was spread over several decades, and finally sealed in 1838. Many of them died of starvation, many with families vegetated for a long time on 2½ d. a day.”Marx says “.. it is with the advent of machinery, that the workman for the first time brutally revolts against the instruments of labour.”And he adds that it was also “the most powerful weapon for repressing strikes, those periodical revolts of the working-class against the autocracy of capital…It would be possible to write quite a history of the inventions, made since 1830, for the sole purpose of supplying capital with weapons against the revolts of the working-class. ”http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm#S5 “It is not my intention here to go into the history of overwork in England since the invention of machinery. The fact is that as a result of these excesses there broke out epidemics whose devastating effects were equally threatening to capitalists and workers; that the state, against tremendous resistance from the capitalists, was compelled to introduce normal [working] days in the factories (later imitated in greater or lesser degree all over the Continent)” [Perhaps my reading is wrong but i think he means the “Luddite” excesses forced the hand of Parliament.] http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1861/economic/ch26.htm If you mean the Luddites were reacting then it is true but reactionary, no. To say because they were not actually factory workers as yet but owned their means of production doesn’t make them working class, it does include them in the labouring class or the toiling class. To lose your livliehood in these days meant penury and starvation so i don’t accept it was a mindless act to smash those machines that were causing the threat. Perhaps Luddism should be seen as a drastic form of collective bargaining.
