[ALB]

I quite like the old joke "What were Trotsky's last words?" Answer : "why are they picking on me?"

[ALB]

Since staying in the tariff-less and friction-less single market is in the overall interest of the British capitalist class, there can only be two explanations for the behaviour of the Tory Breshiteers: either they are using popular prejudice to further their careers and climb further up the greasy pole or they are stupid (or both of course). Business chiefs are beginning to get fed up with them — sometimes their political representatives get out of hand and bugger things up for them. This could be a case in point.

[ALB]

Sympo wrote:

Do you think Marx and Engels were socialists during the writing of the manifesto, or did they confuse state capitalism with socialism?

Yes they were socialists by then (and had been for 3 or 4 years), no question about that, but they drafted the Communist Manifesto at a time when the material conditions for a world socialist society had not yet completely evolved. So they were prepared to support measures that they thought would hasten this evolution. The material conditions for socialism now exist and have done for a hundred years or more, so the measures they supported to hasten this are not relevant and of historical or academic interest only.

[ALB]

Part 4 has now appeared too. I think that's the whole article:http://sapiencia.eu/la-politica-del-marques-de-sade-e-4/

[ALB]

Maybe, we know what they are against, but what are the for? In any event, they give "anti-capitalism" a bad name.

[ALB]

Conference Motion just carried:

Quote:

This Conference instructs the EC to set up a committee to look into the implications of the Party becoming a national membership organisation, and to report to 2018 Conference.”  For 75  Against 25  Carried.

[ALB]

I don't think we are necessarily committed to the view that everybody's (or anybody's) individual behaviour is flexible (though this may be the case) but rather to the view that human social behaviour is, as witnessed by the great variety of behaviour patterns throughout the history of our species, and so a fixed "human nature" is not a barrier to a socialist society working.

[ALB]

We set up table right outside the BBC. Six people out leafletting. This was a pro-Corbyn Labour march, not just anti-austerity. That'll be why there were no Green Party or anarchist contingents as on previous anti-austerity marches. Every mention of Corbyn's name was greeted with loud cheers and Corbyn T-shirts abounded. What with Glastonbury and now this, he's clearly becoming a cult figure.It was also a field day for the various Trot sects. Unfortunately next to us were the maddest of them — the Spartacists and Workers Hammer, though they at least weren't "Jeremy" worshippers. Closely following them in the madness stakes must be the "Socialist Equality Party" which had a leaflet on "The political implications of the Grenfell Tower fire"  in which they said its impact as going to be like that of  "the 1912 massacre of 250 striking miners in the Lena goldfield" in Tsarist Russia:

Quote:

The massacre had a catalytic impact, arousing the latent, suppressed hostility of the Russian masses to the existing order and sparking a wave of mass strikes and a re-eruption of revolutionary sentiment.

Things are not going to be the same after the Grenfell massacre but it's not going to bring Bolshevism.

[ALB]

He's said it again:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40461726

Quote:

He also feared aggression was "inbuilt" in humans

Though I suppose it could be argued that he has downgraded his view from an assertion to a fear.

[ALB]

It has now been decided to set up the literature stall at the beginning of the march (rather than at the end in Parliament Square). So, look out for us somewhere near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House, Portland Place, Marylebone, London W1A 1AA from 12 noon on. We'll be leafletting in Parliament Square too but without a stall. A member might be stationed near the statute of Churchill with a stack of leaflets.

[ALB]

ALB wrote:

I doubt if even the Tory/DUP government will be able to hold the line on this.

Although the Labour amendment was defeated (Tories and DUP against all the others) it's clear that the government doesn't know which way to turn on this and will probably eventually abandon it:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/28/tory-austerity-policy-chaos-number-10-does-u-turn-u-turn-public/

[ALB]

It's a trade union demand which socialists as workers and trade unionists can and do support, especially as prices are now rising much faster than wages. I doubt if even the Tory/DUP government will be able to hold the line on this. Clever parliamentary manoeuvre by the Labour Party as the DUP must have the votes of quite a few public servants (these being a higher percentage of the workforce in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK)..

[ALB]

gnome wrote:

ALB wrote:

Sooner or later humanity will come to work this out. I make no prediction as to when (or, to be truthful, how), though, only that it will happen.

Providing of course that humanity doesn't destroy itself in the meantime…

I doubt humanity will destroy itself. If some strong (and unstable) ruler presses the nuclear button there'll still be some survivors, and after that socialism will (hopefully) be seen as the only way out.

[ALB]

Sympo wrote:

ALB wrote:

"Yes."

Is there any way to prove this?

I don't want to get into a philosophical discussion as to what "prove" means, but the whole of the past evolution of human society points in this direction. Why would it stop now, at capitalism?

Sympo wrote:

Why can't something be delayed forever? I mean, most people haven't become socialists yet.

Ah yes, the old one about is socialism inevitable, i.e. is it inevitable that humanity will come to want socialism? Personally, I think it is. Humans are problem-solving animals and socialism, as the common ownership of the world's natural and industrial resources, is objectively the only framework within which the problems thrown up by capitalism can be solved. Sooner or later humanity will come to work this out. I make no prediction as to when (or, to be truthful, how), though, only that it will happen. All I know is that, by propagating that socialism is the solution, we are capable of speeding this up.

[ALB]

Sympo wrote:

Isn't it a type of historical determinism to suggest that history must go forward?

Yes.

Sympo wrote:

In what way is apartheid an example of politics not being able to stop something?

Apartheid impeded the normal development of capitalism in South Africa by reserving certain jobs for certain population groups and by segregating population groups. This was against the logic of capitalism which is colour blind and is only interested in exploiting labour-power and is not interested in the characteristics of its bearers. Apartheid went against this logic. It tried to ignore this but couldn't stop the logic of capitalism getting its way in the end. It did, though, delay this for over 40 years.

[Author]

Posts