alanjjohnstone
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Ozy, if all you say is true, what is there to do?I think every member and sympathiser of the SPGB has at some low point in their lives expressed the same sentiments as yourself. But as Dave said there still remains a glimpse of light and a glimmer of hope that things can change for the better.What is the alternative? Joining in the dog-eat-dog society and turning upon one another? Most of us cannot be become a capitalist so the choice is to enrol as one of their lackeys and sycophants. Or perhaps hide away in some dark cubby-hole, fearing capitalism, too frightened to resist?Even if we ourselves do not live to enjoy socialism (and at my advancing years that is becoming more a reality), is the legacy we leave for our children and grand-children to be that we did not even try to fight for a better world? That we chose to be apathetic and desert the class war?Because at the moment we are so few, isolation can bring on despair. The Socialist Party of Great Britain and the World Socialist Movement cannot ignore the social in our name and should provide solidarity and fellowship to one another. At times, we should encourage the partying.
And another article by Michael Albert who has debated the SPGB in the pasthttp://www.zcommunications.org/rebranding-brand-by-michael-albert.html
Having originally and mistakenly assumed the Brand interview was part of the passing show [business] i have indeed been forced to eat my words with humble pie.Another article in the Guardian today by a columnist based on the Paxman/Brand interview which includes a very familiar phrase to ourselves – "Demand the Impossible" (plus a reference to Rosa Luxemburg.)http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/06/dont-vilify-russell-brand-right-revolutionHe certainly hit a chord with journnalists and political commentators if not with the general public !!
A possible potential problem perhaps but a "grave danger" – no, and certainly not an unsurmountable one for society and socialists
As i pointed out on another thread Brand's Form A for membership would be turned down on the grounds of his religious belief in God that he has made public. I think my initial guarded scepticism was due to some on the lists overly and totally unrealisable hope ,IMHO, of the party establishing some sort of relationship (political, that is) with Brand when much more viable and achievable ambitions are being procrastinated about. A swallow does not make a summer but it is surely an indication of its imminent arrival. We have been witnessing many early signs of the incipent re-surgence of political radicalism, from Occupy to all those left unity talks. Our socialist task is to join the dots.
Conventicle – another new word for me that i had to look up. Certainly not in every labouring men's vocabulary so who did Hobsbawn write for? At last we try to aim our propaganda and share our knowledge with our fellow workers in language they understand.
"when I say that no worker could possibly understand DM, I do not intend to demean them, since I also claim that no one could possibly understand this theory " Phewwww… am i pleased to read that bit by Rosa. I always thought myself as an ignoramus when dialects is raised…(as also when quantum physics is talked about).
In regards to remote-viewing and ESP by the military i can link you to this.http://www.skepdic.com/remotevw.html The fact that the military can be as fooled by woo-woo, as Randi calls it, as anybody else, is clearly demonstrated in the recent fraud case and imprisonment of the guy who made millions from selling armies absolutely useless divining rods (with LED lights to make it look more technological) to detect mines. But i think you are repeating in another way the 19thC American Robber Baron, Jay Gould's, claim that in the event of a revolution he can afford to pay one half of the working class to kill the other half. Some Marxists have a certain amount of sympathy for this idea especially when they talk of the reactionary role of the lumpenproletariat.
In addition to the video i linked to above, he is also in the Guardian and in particular draws attention to voting tactics"…my friend's 15-year-old son wrote an essay for his politics class after he read my New Statesman piece. He didn't agree with everything I said, he prefers the idea of spoiling ballots to not voting "to show we do care" maybe he's right, I don't know. The reason not voting could be effective is that if we starve them of our consent we could force them to acknowledge that they operate on behalf of The City and Wall Street; that the financing of political parties and lobbying is where the true influence lies; not in the ballot box… A system that serves the planet and the people. I'd vote for that." http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/russell-brand-democratic-system-newsnight Also in connection to other threads he talks of his meeting and discussions with some soldiers and some Muslim women. "…Our differences irrelevant. With no one to impose separation we are united. I realised then that our treasured concepts of tribe and nation are not valued by those who govern except when it is to divide us from each other." Yes, i am beginning to soften in my criticism of Brand and respect the fact that he is hitting a number of spots in the flabby belly of capitalism and it is getting plenty of media coverage.
More video from Brand on politics. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/04/russell-brand-revolution-_n_4213849.html Assessing previous Marxist revolutions, the 38-year-old said that in its "traditional form" revolution was ok but it "went a bit genocidal, it was just a bit of sharing, then it got spoilt." Brand insisted that he wanted a peaceful revolution. "Once you are violent you'd get nicked. If you're disobeying without being violent they can't nick you, it's a paradigm breaker." Again he has many insights tht many will agree with . VBut, I'm still not impressed by his humour and still find it distracts from the ideas he presents. Brand said: "I'm not saying lets go smash people up and certainly not kill people. Just for the record, I'm not in on the old death camps… I'm double, double against genocide. I am talking about a revolution of consciousness."Brand added: "Definitely no killing. I'm against that; I'm a vegetarian, I think we're all equal. I'm not saying smash people's stuff up, and definitely no killing."
It seems Paxman may be more our wave-length than Brand. "…the person who chooses not to vote – cannot even be bothered to write 'none of the above' on a ballot paper – disqualifies himself from passing any comment at all." He warned: "We ignore the democratic process at our peril … People died for the right to choose their government, because otherwise power is wielded by the rich and strong for the benefit of the rich and strong."(my emph)http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/05/paxman-politics-russell-brand-voting The SPGB does not commend voter abstention but spoiling the ballot paper, in our case a pro-socialist slogan writen on it……Paxman even recognises that the choice is sometimes simply between the rich and strong. "At the next election we shall have a choice between the people who've given us five years of austerity, the people who left us this mess, and the people who signed public pledges that they wouldn't raise student fees, and then did so – the most blatant lie in recent political history," wrote Paxman. "It won't be a bombshell if very large numbers of the electorate simply don't bother to vote. People are sick of the tawdry pretences,"
Dave , you might be interested in Chris Hedges quoting the anarchist Alexander Berkman in a recent article that our blog thought worthy of re-posting. "…“Did you ever ask yourself how it happens that government and capitalism continue to exist in spite of all the evil and trouble they are causing in the world?” the anarchist Alexander Berkman wrote in his essay “The Idea Is the Thing.” “If you did, then your answer must have been that it is because the people support those institutions, and that they support them because they believe in them.”Berkman was right. As long as most citizens believe in the ideas that justify global capitalism, the private and state institutions that serve our corporate masters are unassailable. When these ideas are shattered, the institutions that buttress the ruling class deflate and collapse…" http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/10/no-fence-sitting-for-hedges.html
Nor will every cretin in your local factory or super-store will join the class war on our side. But there will be a sufficient majority of non-cretins who will determine the outcome of events. There will be enough socialist soldiers who will ensure a rogue squaddie or maverick unit cannot be a military threat. Worth a readhttp://libcom.org/library/mutinies-dave-lamb-solidarity "The mutinies we have described cannot be separated from the revolutionary events that were sweeping across the industrialised world. There is no doubt that they represent a significant chapter in working class history. The evidence presented shows that for a while the power of the armed forces had slipped out of the control of the ruling classes." We often talk of the right-wing military coups but forget all about the revolts. Many will counter that these took place within the time of conscripts and the draft but we sometimes overlook the police strikes throughout modern history. Our case is that class consciousness is contagious, no section of the working class is immune to its spread. (During the Winnipeg general strike the local city police were willing to come out but it was the strike committee who told them to stay at work and the State who sacked them for showing sympathy and solidarity.)
The CBI again on the EU http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/eu-worth-3000-a-year-to-every-uk-family-cbi-1-3172088 Mind you , i'm still waiting for my three grand.
