ALB
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
In today’s i paper Patrick Cockburn makes an interesting points. After pointing out that the old Ottoman province of Palestine has a population today of 14 million, 7 million of whom are “Jews” and 7 million are “Arabs”, he suggests that:
“The best strategy for the Palestinians should be to use their great numbers in a peaceful mass campaign demanding civil rights and an end to discriminatory restrictions.”
That makes some sense but is unlikely to happen but one thing is clear that the Zionists won’t be able to hold down by force half the population for ever.
There is a talk this evening by a Socialist Party member denouncing “identity politics” as a dangerous diversion.
Identity politics: the new communalism
7:30pm, Thursday 13 MayYou can listen by going to
http://www.communistcorrespondingsociety.org/audio.html
The talk will be posted there at 7.30 BST (GMT + 1) and remain there for seven days.
The whole of the contents of the Socialist Standards of the 1920s are now online on this site, here:
This is the decade of the post-WW1 industrial discontent, the first Labour government and the Geneal Strike. Also, the developmen of state capitalism in Russia and the antics of the early “Communist” Party. Fascinating.
No-one reading these can conclude that the Party is against trade union action. There are many detailed articles urging wokers to resist and not trust union leaders. That lie/myth must date from a later decade.
How about tweeting the link to this article, James?
I see Biden has followed the tradition of previous US Presidents in declaring 1 May “Loyalty Day”.
It enrages us too that the day of international working class solidarity should be hi-jacked in the name of anti-socialism as:
“A day set aside for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.”
Report from Kent & Sussex Branch:
Results and Activity
We have substantially increased our vote compared to the last (first!) time we contested the same County Council seats:
Folkestone East = 89 (2017 = 48)
Folkestone West = 55 (2017 = 23)We also stood in a town council by-election in Folkestone Central (which covers just over half of Folkestone West) and got 61 votes, which suggests some tactical voting may have taken place. And we didn’t come last.
In total this means that at least 150 people voted for an SPGB candidate in these two county divisions that cover one third of Folkestone & Hythe. In absolute terms, this is the best we have done since we started standing in 2014… including when we have contested the whole area such as for the UK or EU parliaments.
As previously reported two separate leaflets were printed for distribution during the campaign, delivered using a mixture of commercial and membership distribution.
The first was distributed across the whole of both County divisions (approximately 17,500 dwellings), before the postal votes were issued.
A second reminder leaflet was distributed in the last few days of the campaign. About 9,000 were delivered, mainly in the Harbour and some other areas of Folkestone East and in Central ward in Folkestone West.
Both leaflets contained local contact details and the first an ad for the Socialist Standard with a QR code. At least 3 people replied so far ordering a free trial sub.
Just noticed that the link to the Cardiff candidates’ photos has a link to our website via this (as well as to Brian’s class war record):
Here are the results for Folkestone East and West.
And the Folkestone Town Council by-election in Central Ward.
They said on the news that the last time Hartlepool had a Tory MP was in 1964 but I don’t know whether that was before or after the General Election in October that year which retuned Labour to power under Harold Wilson after what they called “14 years of Tory misrule”. In any event if Hartlepool was that much of a “red wall” constituency how come it had a Tory MP until 1964?
“…decided that the creation of an elite vanguard party was not the way to build towards socialism.
Yes, that rather would invoke the ire of orthodox trots. It seem to be true, according to this interview he gave last year (scroll down to his last few answers).
Ironically, he seems to have reached the same sort of conclusion as those who were expelled from the SLL in 1960 who set up Solidarity
I remember him. He was one of the leading theoreticians of the old Socialist Labour League where quite a few CP intellectuals went after leaving the CP over Hungary. Out of the frying pan into the fire. The SLL was notorious for defending Russia’s nuclear weapons as the “workers’ bomb”.
I thought I had debated him once but it turned out to have been with TomKemp, his fellow editor of the SLL’s theoretical magazine “Labour Review”. In any event, both of them defended the absurd view that Russia was a “degenerate workers state” while its puppet states in Eastern Europe were “deformed workers states”, the difference being that the latter never degenerated from once having been the outcome of a proletarian revolution that had established a genuine workers state.
I didn’t follow what he did later but he was obviously in a different Trotskyist sect than the WSWS lot and their website.
But it’s also half full. Even if the Paris target would not be met if all the planned reductions were successfully implemented, the worst case scenarios of 3 to 4 percent wouldn’t be either.
Capitalist states do seem to be doing something about the threat of global overwarmimg, as was predictable since they were never really going to let Rome burn. That would not be in the overall capitalist interest.
Kent & Sussex branch report:
On Sunday we distributed about 1800 leaflets, across three areas including the East and West Folkestone County divisions and the Central ward where the town council by-election is taking place.
In all we must have managed to have got out at least at least 9,000 of the 10,000 reminder leaflets printed.
Polling takes place today but the votes won’t be counted until tomorrow morning.
Kent and Sussex branch members are meeting in central Folkestone tomorrow, Sunday 2 May, at 10.30 to distribute the remaining second leaflet door to door. Local council wards are small enough to leaflet the area twice.
For exact details of where to meet phone or text Rob (scroll up for the number).
