ALB

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  • in reply to: Burning Pink #217116
    ALB
    Keymaster

    She does seem to be only one of 16 candidates standing to talk of “class” and “revolution”. But I think she has some link with XR.

    But otherwise what a bunch of self-publicists who have up to £20,000 to spend (£10,000 deposit and up to another £10,000 to pay for the election booklet delivered free to all households).

    Then there’s Piers Corbyn. I wonder if he will pick up votes intended for his brother. As a one-time member of the IMG he may be the only ex-Trot standing.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by ALB.
    in reply to: Climate Crisis: Our Last Chance #217111
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Imposs1904 has just put this item from 2001 on his blog.

    It’s taken those in charge of capitalist states twenty years to realise this and begin to try to do something about.

    Whatever we think of what they are doing we can no longer say that they are not doing anything at all about it. The “worst case” scenarios that are given such publicity are not going to happen.

    in reply to: Football and the Pandemic #217109
    ALB
    Keymaster

    It wasn’t even a nine-day wonder and we’ve arranged for this to be the theme of next month’s editorial in the Standard.

    in reply to: Football and the Pandemic #217087
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Maybe because they calculate that this is a way of retaining the votes they got in the red wall constituencies as they think everybody Oop North is a football fan.

    Or maybe it’s because the super league reflects monopoly capitalism while the other clubs reflect competitive capitalism.

    in reply to: Football and the Pandemic #217064
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Actually I can’t see anything wrong in principle with a league without relegation. That was the situation with rugby in South Wales before it went or was preparing to go professional. The top 16 clubs played against other clubs as well as against each other. There wasn’t really a league table with points. They were just obliged to play each other twice, once at home and once away. All games were friendlies and all that counted was whether a club won or lost that particular game.

    It is the league system with points and promotion and relegation that is part of the problem as in the end it’s a question of more money if you get promoted and less if you get relegated. It’s a reflection of competition between businesses in the market place where there are also winners and losers. In fact it is a competition for money between businesses for that’s what football clubs are.

    Of course the proposed super league is also about money, a means of stabilising the income stream of the clubs involved by eliminating the risk of it being reduced through being relegated to a less money-making league. But that wasn’t the case with pre-professional rugby in South Wales.

    Since then rugby has, sadly but I suppose inevitably given capitalism, gone the way of soccer

    That fans don’t count for much and can be dispensed with was demonstrated by matches continuing during the pandemic without the crowd. The businesses that are football clubs continued playing for the income they got from television and advertising.

    Professional sport is completely corrupted by money but what do you expect under capitalism?

    in reply to: WSPUS and Transgender #216987
    ALB
    Keymaster
    in reply to: George Galloway to vote Tory #216814
    ALB
    Keymaster

    His Workers Party of Britain is standing candidates in the local and regional elections on 6 May. On a programme of petty reforms of course.

    in reply to: CWI and Seattle #216767
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Interesting that the recall procedure seems to be alive and kicking in some parts of the US, though this one seems to be harassment.

    I can’t see how she (or us) can object to the principle and, if she has the support of those who elected her, she should be able to get them to vote down the recall. If not, that would mean she had lost their confidence and was no longer representative of their views.

    The same thing could happen in socialism, where the right of recall is likely to be a feature of the democratic electoral system, if a delegate loses the confidence of a certain number of those who delegated them.

    in reply to: Coronavirus #216752
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Revealing item in today’s Times about AstraZeneca’s supposed philanthropy in selling its vaccine at cost price;

    The vaccine is being sold on a non-profit basis during the pandemic but the business is entitled to royalty and milestone payments, which could become lucrative if the virus remains active in the population over the long term.

    Which no doubt is what they are banking on.

    Meanwhile the compensation culture lawyers are circling, as another page reports “Bereaved may sue over jab”:

    At least four of the families of people who have died after having the Covid-19 vaccine are taking advice in potential legal claims.

    Lovely system capitalism, isn’t it?

    in reply to: Climate Crisis: Our Last Chance #216751
    ALB
    Keymaster

    There is an interview in the current New Scientist with Mark Carney, ex Governor of the Bank of England and of the Bank of Canada, headed “Rethink capitalism to solve the climate crisis.”

    His proposal is for governments to make investing in CO2-causing businesses unprofitable through taxes and other restrictions so that capital will flow out of them and, he hopes, into profitable climate-friendly businesses.

    I suppose this would have some effect, but “solve” the climate crisis, I doubt it.

    in reply to: Gnostic Marxist #216730
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Someone tell him to consult an encyclopaedia.

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equivocal%20generation

    https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-the-difference-between-spontaneous-generation-and-biogenesis

    Writing before Darwin and Pasteur, Marx was of course wrong but at the time (1844) it seemed the only materialist explanation.

    in reply to: Gnostic Marxist #216725
    ALB
    Keymaster

    “The creation of the earth has received a mighty blow from geognosy – i.e., from the science which presents the formation of the earth, the development of the earth, as a process, as a self-generation. Generatio aequivoca is the only practical refutation of the theory of creation.” (K. Marx, 1844).

    in reply to: SPEW and elections #216722
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Laurence Fox is standing for Mayor of London. So is Piers Corbyn. So there’s s at least one ex-Trotskyist candidate though he was in the IMG rather than the Militant Tendency which later spawned SPEW.

    in reply to: Gnostic Marxist #216721
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Good stuff Robbo. It’s the same argument that Marx used against the creationist in that quote our feathered friend is always bringing up. But that’s not surprising as our feathered friend is a creationist. He too thinks the world has been created, only he calls the creator “Social Mind” rather than “God”.

    in reply to: Coronavirus #216695
    ALB
    Keymaster

    After trumpeting it as a “world beating” British achievement and accusing European governments of “vaccine nationalism” for raising questions about the AstraZenenica vaccine, now they have been forced to tell us and reveal the numbers of deaths associated with it. I bet that Oxford University regret teaming up with a dodgy pharma company to rush out a cheapo vaccine.

    Competition has once again shown that it leads to cutting corners and fiddling results.

Viewing 15 posts - 2,926 through 2,940 (of 10,406 total)