ALB
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I think there is a danger here of mixing up the situation under capitalism and in socialism. Of course there are many jobs that will disappear in socialism but we don’t call for their abolition today. For instance, there will be no banks in socialism but we don’t call for banks to be closed and so for bank workers to lose their jobs.
Nor have we any illusions about swords being changed into ploughshares under capitalism. In fact near where I am living is the site of an aircraft factory that is now a housing estate. At one time a prominent shop steward there was a party member and also served on our executive committee. I don’t think he was campaigning for the factory to be closed because it was producing warplanes.
If he had he wouldn’t have been a shop steward for long. The old Communist Party faced this problem in 1932 when it tried to force one of its leading members who was a shop steward in a munitions factory in Sheffield to popularise the slogan “Stop the Transport of Munitions”. He refused and was expelled. The incident is recorded here.
I think our Canadian comrades were only making the point that this was another example of workers losing their jobs which of course they are dependent on to have a regular above poverty line income. I don’t think that they were supporting the project.
But this shows why eco-campaigners have a problem when they are in effect campaigning that workers should lose their jobs. Understandably the workers involved are unsympathetic and their employers use this as an argument for keeping their project going even though their real reason is to make profits not provide jobs.
The real lesson is that it shows how under capitalism workers are dependent on finding a buyer for their mental and physical energies to live. The only alternatives are stealing, begging or minimal state handouts.
Until I read that SPC piece I hadn’t realised that Biden is trying to out-Trump on this issue, probably in a bid to win over his voters. But then this was a point on which even Sanders agreed with Trump.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Biden-tightens-Buy-American-rules-with-executive-order
From the Socialist Party of Canada’s February Newsletter:
Most of you who read this will have seen Joe Biden’s swearing in after he won most of the electoral college votes in America’s sham-democracy. Lady Gaga did a fine job singing the anthem, but what an anthem, the very lyrics speak of violence, which is symptomatic of America’s violent history. JLo sang, “This Land is Your Land,” by Woodie Guthrie. The incongruity being Guthrie, as a member of the so-called Communist Party, was an advocate of state capitalism and his song was banned from being sung in concerts in the 1950’s and early 60’s.
Though none of the above is a big deal, what is big, down and dirty deal is that in his first day in office Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, much to Trudeau’s dismay. This will mean job losses for Canadian workers, though, however, much workers may suffer, it’s the way of the world under capitalism.
Biden’s decision to cancel the XL pipeline, which was designed to carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil, from Alberta to Nebraska, brought fierce reaction in Canada. TC Energy Corp. is going to eliminate 1,000 construction jobs. Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney, called Biden’s decision, “A gut punch and an insult,” and suggested that if Biden doesn’t change his mind, the federal government should impose trade sanctions. On the same day Biden was talking of “Buy American” – implying there will be less trade with Canada – which would cause more lay-offs in Canada. Under capitalism, if workers do well at all in one area they will do badly in another, and as a class, workers will always be worse off.
We might still have one of one of them at Head Office as they get recycled when members bequeath their library to the party. If you want a copy check first with Head Office.
The World Socialist Party in the US still has some. Did you want a copy of his two books? If so, email Head Office and we can put you in touch with their literature Secretary in Boston or order them for you. Or anyone else who does.
There’s an article on Anton Pannekoek in the latest edition of the US left wing magazine Jacobin. It’s quite a good assessment of his theoretical views and political positions:
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/anton-pannekoek-socialist-history-lenin
I expect YouTube will be doing the same to groups at the opposite end of the political spectrum. I read somewhere that Facebook and that lot were thinking of getting out of the business of fact-checking and the hassle for them that it involves to concentrate instead on people using them to post photos and personal rather than political messages.
I didn’t know how you can make money from YouTube either so looked it up. Here’s what they say. We wouldn’t qualify (not enough followers, at least not yet) and wouldn’t accept the condition to carry advertising as well ( would we?).
The rulers of Qatar and of Turkey are both sympathisers, maybe even members, of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you are right that Al Jazeera will have to be biased in favour of the Turkish regime.
Even so, the Kurdish nationalists of the PKK have decided to become the tools of American imperialist interests in the Middle East, maybe to try to protect themselves against Turkish expansionism, but that’s what they have ended up as. So it is not surprising that former US Secretary of State Clinton should be writing a book glorifying them. It can be seen as part of their reward.
Just remembered where I heard of it. It was in this reprint of an article by Plekhanov in the Socialist Standard in 1926. Seems to be more Darwin than Marx.
This argument is silly. Nobody is saying you can’t be “permitted to enjoy the beautiful”. How could you not be even under capitalism let alone in socialism? But expect a bit (or even a lot) of twitting if you label yourself an “aesthete” with the connotation that your conception of “beauty” is superior to that of the common herd.
I believe Morris once write of not liking having to cater to the “tastes of the swinish rich” or “swinish tastes of the rich”. I can’t remember which but I am guessing you would find both unfair to swine.
ps. I have heard that there is such a thing as “Marxist aesthetics”. No idea what it is or might be.
He forgot to mention one advantage for the CBI — that during that time strikes were illegal and that the government (Labour) used this power to prosecute strikers.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/alevelstudies/1951-cabinet-memorandum.htm
The religious who will and do always oppose socialism are not the moderates who enjoy liturgical forms, rites and art, but the fanatics, like the fundamentalists, who reject history and are proud of their ignorance of it.
Are you sure that that’s the case? I thought Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, Orthodox, Copts, Armenians and the various Middle Eastern churches, that go in for elaborate rituals, icons and incense swinging do not regard women as equal to men which is a basic socialist principle.
Ok, you like chants and incense as opposed to happy crappy stuff. Nothing wrong with that but why do you have to defend the those who practise it? (I hate to think what the words mean in Latin, Church Slavonic, Coptic or whatever)?
I remember at a Party social Steve Coleman once reciting the Declaration of Principles as a Gregorian chant. Sounded alright, as did the contents. I think there may also have been joss sticks burning.
