ALB
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This twitter account of another Party member has 15.9k followers:https://twitter.com/rafaelstepanian?lang=en
You mean the other Official SPGB tweet that compared Corbyn to Thatcher (with a photo to fit) that got us a mention in the Sun? I didn't like that either.
Here is another attempt by a member of the "Bitcoin community" to claim that Marx would have supported bitcoins:https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-marxs-theory-history-1406321399/And here is a refutation from the same time (2014):http://www.marxist.com/bitcoin-utopian-reflection-of-capitalist-nightmare.htmAs Trotskyists their politics are crap but this article is rather good as is its conclusion
Quote:Bitcoin represents little more than an anarcho-capitalist pipe-dream and a speculator’s playgroundNot sure that calling the capitalist class "wealthy scume" is us, is it?Anyway, it wasn't Marx as this is what he wrote in the Preface to Das Kapital:
Quote:To prevent possible misunderstanding, a word. I paint the capitalist and the landlord in no sense couleur de rose. But here individuals are dealt with only in so far as they are the personifications of economic categories, embodiments of particular class-relations and class-interests. My standpoint, from which the evolution of the economic formation of society is viewed as a process of natural history, can less than any other make the individual responsible for relations whose creature he socially remains, however much he may subjectively raise himself above them.I see the chief exec of the Financial Conduct Authority expresses this view:
Quote:Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the FCA, has said bitcoin is not a really currency but more like a commodity.If so, then those who designed Bitcoin will have got their wish — to have created a digital equivalent of gold (hence their "mining" analogy) — since the price of gold too is subject to speculative swings.Bitcoins and other so-called "cryptocurrencies" (Bitcoin's only one of many, there's another called "ether", which would be an appropriate name for money conjured up "out of thin air" if that's what they were) are tokens that have to be used to pay for the services offered by computer networks practising blockchain technology (see the Pathfinders column in this month's Socialist Standard). Bitcoin offers ultra-secure electronic payments but the technology can be used to offer as yet undeveloped services. So buying these tokens is a speculative investment in what might turn out to be a profitable venture. It's like the dot-com boom of the 1990s and should perhaps be called the blockchain boom.
Thanks, Robbo, for what happened to "Common Voice". This part struck me as particularly significant
robbo203 wrote:…WiC was almost entirely an internet-based phenomenon, meaning that there was a very limited and narrow range of interactions between members.I see this as a warning that we should not follow the view that has been expressed here that we too should become "an internet-based phenomenon" without physical meetings between members. That would be the way to prove the Private Frasers right.
Brian wrote:You also seem to be thinking that if the post is paid the EC does the selection. Not so under the present party rules. Nonetheless, if such a post does become our new reality it will by necessity mean quite a few changes in the rules.If a change in the Party Rulebook is going to be required nothing will be able to be done until at least the second half of 2019 when the votes on the motions discussed at 2019 Conference are counted. It's not clear what you are proposing anyway. You seem to be suggesting that it's one of the existing Party officers, presumably the General Secretary, who should be paid as someone not selected by the EC, but the General Secretary is subject to annual re-election so any employment contract would have to be temporary…One of the remits of the Ad Hoc Committee of which you are a member (not the only one) is to propose any changes of rule that may be necessary to implement their recommendations. Which are going to have to be a lot more precise than the brainstorming going on here.As to the salary, when we discussed this at our branch £1000 a month was suggested as reasonable to do the present, part-time work at Head Office. If converted into a full time post that gives a figure nearer Robbo's, which is also roughly Lenin's famous "workers average wage" which I assume is what the SWP and SPEW's full-timers get.
That banks couldn't lend more than they had, as had once been generally understood, and that the old bankers' saying that "every bank loan creates a deposit" had been misunderstood. All it meant was that a bank loan would encourage an expansion of business activity, which would bring in more deposits.Judge for yourself:http://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/meaning-bank-deposits-edwin-cannan-1921It wouldn't be surprising since Cannan was one of Hardy's professors at the LSE.
Oh no, not amending Terms of Reference again. When I was on the EC a couple of years ago we discussed amending terms of reference month after month after month. It was one reason why I decided not to stand again and maybe why there's a shortage of EC candidates.Anyway, what's there seems flexible enough. It allows what you want. The Pamphlets Committee has an idea for a pamphlet. All they need do is put it to the EC, no need to wait for Conference. If it's a reasonable proposition it will be okayed. If it's a proposal to print poetry it will be turned down.
robbo203 wrote:Incidentally, I have never quite understood why the old "World Socialist" journal was discontinued. Can anyone enlighten me?Seven issues were produced between 1984 and 1987. It stopped, basically, because not even active members were buying it let alone non-members. Also, we were having difficulties getting good quality articles from the Companion parties. I can't remember exactly but I don't think more than a few hundred per issue were printed. There's good stuff in them and there are still copies of some of the issues left at Head Office if anyone wants one. Just ask.It was set up in accordance with a resolution passed at 1983 Conference:
Quote:That this Conference favours the publication (in addition to present publications) and instructs the EC to act accordingly.But, can I put a similar question to you, why did the publication "Common Voice" stop being produced. For similar reasons?
Janet, here it is;
Quote:Publications Committee1. To edit and produce pamphlets and leaflets on subjects decided by Conference or approved by the EC. 2. To report to the EC annually in January on the results of work done and money spent in the previous calendar year. This is intended to be part of the EC report to Annual Conference. 3. To report to the EC annually in July on future plans and financial requirements for the coming calendar year. This is intended to be part of the EC report to the Annual Delegate Meeting. 4. To be composed of at least 2 members appointed annually by the EC from nominations branches.Not much. Do you want to be nominated for next year's committee?
