alanjjohnstone
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Nathan Schneider, author of the just-published Thank You Anarchy, Notes From the Occupy Apocalypse http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/19479-the-occupy-movement-continues-in-its-legacy-of-ongoing-resistance MK: What are your thoughts, in retrospect, on how to actively engage the working class in the struggle for economic justice? NS: I think the answer has to begin with more questions: What does “working class” even mean anymore, and who is part of it? Gone are the days of factory workers ready and waiting to be turned into union members en masse. Today we have the not-working-enough class (the main constituency of Occupy), and the working-too-much class (who had to choose between going to the General Assembly and putting food on the table), and the working-under-the-table-with-threat-of-deportation class (who couldn’t risk being arrested at an Occupy march), and the hoping-these-loans-will-pay-off class (who risked financial ruin if they let Occupy distract them from getting good grades) and many more. Gender and race operate in ways that conventional class theory doesn’t take into account. The power of the “99%” meme was in that it elided the unspoken forms of alienation that prevent us from organizing against capitalism today. It was convenient for conveying a sense of unity. But as people doing deep grassroots organizing know, reality is more complicated than that. Strange how Schneider strikes such a “revolutionary” and “progressive” attitude repeating ideas that are 40-50 year old and that are periodically over the years proved wrong. IMHO, the failure of Occupy was the lack of participation of organised wage-workers in the unions and despite Mayday attempts to involve them, they didn’t succeed. I’m not attaching any blame. There were a lot of reasons for this. But there is no point in re-classifying and re-defining what a worker is to explain this failing. (as an aside, i had to look up the dictionary for the meaning of “elided”) The legacy of Occupy according to Schneider – a return to single issue campaigning and perhaps “good neighbourlyness” regards weather disasters. But perhaps i am being unfair from such a limited interview and not having read his book – but his comments echo other Occupy’s “leading” participants conclusions.
Regret with weasel words, i am afraid YMS. 'Had I foreseen a failure of this magnitude, I would have withheld my support. Even then, I would not have been able to bring myself to oppose the war.' Nor should it be forgotten about all those Blairites (including Robin Cook) who found the tragedies of the sanctions pre-war an acceptable price.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girobank They were the bank most to thank for the free and widespread access to ATMs through LINK Originally sold to Alliance and Leicester for 350 million if i recall, and with their following year's accounts A and L valued it at a billion. Another example of how the Royal Mail being sold off cheap and below value.
There is still the Unity Trust bank which is trade union owned.http://www.unity.co.uk/Not meant for individual customers though. I think perhaps the party should investigate setting up an account with them for some of our own cash.
A Ukrainian student has pleaded guilty to trying to incite a race war by launching a terrorist campaign in which he stabbed a 82-yr old Muslim grandfather to death and exploded bombs near mosques in an attempt to murder and maim worshippers.Pavlo Lapshyn, admitted to police that he hated anyone who was not white and that he wanted to carry out a series of violent attacks to convulse community relations.Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale said "His motivation was that the white man was better than anyone else."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24614280
Another nail in the Cooperative banks coffin. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/21/coop-group-bank-us-hedge-funds American hedge funds have forced the Co-operative Group to relinquish control. to stave off nationalisation of the bank means that the group, formed by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844, will be left with a 30% stake when the bank is floated on the stock market rather than the 75% it had originally hoped for. The hedge funds that have scuppered the Co-op's original plans are known for their activism at troubled companies. Aurelius Capital Management, best known for forcing Argentina to pay out on its debts, and Silver Point Capital, linked to distressed groups such as Lehman, are thought to have amassed their stakes in the bank's bonds after it was downgraded to junk in May. Led by Mark Brodsky, Aurelius has been involved in debt restructurings as diverse as port owner Dubai World and the US publisher Tribune, owner of the Los Angeles Times. Silver Point Capital is run by two former Goldman Sachs employees, Edward Mulé and Robert O'Shea, and has a wide range of investments covering broadcasting – it bought two US TV stations out of bankruptcy – as well as car-makers and financial services and was involved in the bankruptcy of Hostess, the US food company best known for its Twinkies cakes. The Co-op said "This bank will remain the Co-operative Bank. We are embedding the co-operative principles in the constitution of the bank to guarantee this," However, Andre Spicer, professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School, doubted that the bank would maintain its ethical stance in the long term. "History suggests that once a mutual bank is privatised it drops the focus on doing good to focus on doing well for shareholders. Many ex-mutuals became some of the worst offenders in the lead-up to the financial crisis . The number of staff the Co-op employs is likely to drop as management search for efficiencies. Staff who remain are likely to find themselves loaded down with various restructuring efforts. Despite assurances by the new owners, the Co-op is likely to have a more commercially focused culture." Back to stuffing our money under the mattress for some?
"Did someone say that the revolution will only come when the last investment bank trader is hung by the guts of the last hedge-fund manager Nobody here did. But some currency crank or funny money merchant might have." – ALB Are you sure there isn't a slightly vindictive ex-postal worker who feels that the banks have used the small-print to escape paying the promised returns on his redundancy/retirement money fund while they are guaranteeing their own golden handshake pay-offs, who wouldn't be averse to happily stringing them up, given a half a chance and that chance would only be when some sort of revolution has arrived? ….not that i am one to hold grudges against bankers but i may just have a little black book of who will be up against the wall…
Actually part of the sticking point with this lates JPMorgan fine is that they were not granted legal immunity from prosecution. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/72a0044c-39ab-11e3-a3a4-00144feab7de.html#axzz2iLF4opMX But i wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an arrest, much less a successful prosecution. A few middle ranking bankers particularly in the smaller US banks have been prosecuted and found guilty but i don't think any got jail time. While i understand ALB i would love to see a few suffer the same fate of some of the Enron directors and Conrad Black. Did someone say that the revolution will only come when the last investment bank trader is hung by the guts of the last hedge-fund manager? As an aside, i read that one of the main lobbyists against public sector pensions happens to be an ex-Enron executive who escaped prosecution. They are unrepentent.
The president's brain is missing! After Mr Kennedy's autopsy, his brain was placed in a container and temporarily stored in a Secret Service filing cabinet. It was then put in a footlocker with other medical evidence in the National Archives. In October 1966 it was discovered that the brain and other autopsy materials were missing. Some claim that the brain was stolen to hide the fact that JFK was shot from the front instead of the official version of events – that it was from behind. In End Of Days: The Assassination Of John F Kennedy, James Swanson rejects conspiracy theories that the brain vanished as part of a plot to hide the facts of the assassination. "My conclusion is that Robert Kennedy did take his brother's brain – not to conceal evidence of a conspiracy, but perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy's illnesses, or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking." I have previously read it was for the very simple reason to inter with the rest of JFK. Also to ensure that it does not end up being a macabre momento as what happened to Einstein's brain. An investigation ordered by then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark, uncovered "compelling evidence suggesting that former Attorney General Robert Kennedy, aided by his assistant Angie Novello, had stolen the locker. Unless RFK was part of 'the conspiracy' there is nothing conspiratorial about it's disappearance. Unexplained events aren't evidence of anything, no matter what suspicion tells you.http://uk.news.yahoo.com/jfks-brother-may-stolen-brain-193705974.html
“…we are setting out sensible and practical policies, instead of the Tory government approach of resorting to ineffective and offensive ad vans, gimmicks or incorrect text messages. At a time when there is real pressure from a cost-of-living crisis, people are really concerned that low-skilled immigration is being exploited to undercut wages.” – says shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper. I think we can safely say that the capitalist motive for a flexible mobility of labour is to create a larger reserve army of unemployed to reduce or contain wage levels. Our response is that immigration controls are not the way to resist the tactics of the bosses but by integrating migrant workers in the general class struggle for better conditions. I see a few positive elements within the Labour Party proposals such as the tightening up and extensions of gang-master legislation and ending employers deductions from wages for accommodation. That’s the honey, the bitter poison comes with the curtailments on student visas. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/20/labour-foreigner-only-immigration
Bono's collaborator , geldof, has been adding his tuppence worth promoting capitalism. " You do need massive inward investment from the Chinese and the West. And you do need a social glue. In Africa's case, that's the mobile phone. "There's very little infrastructure here; this became a virtual infrastructure. Once you had the money available to trade, they began trading through this and you got lift-off on the African continent so that seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world today are on this continent." Geldof may cite growth as evidence of capitalism's success but our African blog Socialist Banner has over the years exposed the growing inequalities and the lack of benefit to the poor of those supposed growing economies. However as a gloom and doom merchant, Geldof is on the ball. "if you seriously think you will escape this century without horrendous wars, without awful plagues, without deadly famines, if you think you'll escape that, forget it." [about the perils caused by climate change.] "There's no avoiding it now, so now you have to offset the effects. The poorest people, the most vulnerable, those who contributed the least to this, they will be affected the most. Some of the countries out there won't even be here in 20 years." Yet he keeps going on about the same old failed solutions…DUh!!http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/2013/10/bob-geldof-this-generation-too-will-fail-2013101882354584340.html
ALB message 149I wonder if he's a redhead:http://www.eupedia.com/genetics/origins_of_red_hair.shtmlIf so, maybe he should join this group so he can associate with people sharing some of the same genes as him (easier to tell at first glance than blood group):http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/redheads-rally-for-ginger-pride-in-edin…Oh, I forgot, on his theory, he would already have naturally gravitated towards them. Just came across this story of red-head racism
A number of red-headed schoolchildren have been injured in attacks by fellow pupils at a school in Rotherham. South Park cartoon tv series episode "Kick A Ginger" day has been cited as the reason for a number of assaults across the world in recent years. Eastenders actress Patsy Palmer has compared the attacks to racism and said she was bullied at school because of her appearance. She said the abuse had got so bad she cut all of her hair off and went to therapy.http://uk.news.yahoo.com/south-park-inspired-ginger-attacks-school-184113285.html#MMqm4osThe quote is from Eugene Debs, the SPof A presidential candidate from the early 20thC.I find his writings to be quite inspiring and my own sign-off signature is another of his well-known quotes. Others being "I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition"… …"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs His writings can be found herehttp://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/
Ex-member and critic, Andrew Northall, has a letter in WW concerning the SPGB unity position, more or less accusing ourselves of insincerity. The latest EC minutes appear to refute such a claim. http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/982/letters
A labor union that lost its way? An American union owned bank bailed out by billionaires after real estate investment disasters. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/how-wilbur-ross-and-ron-burkle-rescued-union-owned-amalgamated-bank “It was clear to me we couldn’t just rely on labor. We needed to branch out…” That’s meant clashing with some union ideals…"…our job is to protect the assets of the bank, and that’s what we do… One of the unfortunate things in today’s society is capitalism has become to many people a dirty word,” he says. For Amalgamated, “the only way it will ultimately fulfill the original dream and the original mission is to be a profitable and healthy bank.” A lesson for those who advocate a Occupy Co-op Bank. Reformists never learn from experience or history !!
