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rodmanlewis wrote:Apart from lumping us in with the left, it's not surprising that there are so few so-described parties contesting what is a flash election.
I don't think that's the reason. It's more political. Both TUSC and the CPB, which normally stand candidates even if usually in safe Labour seats, took a deliberate decision this time not to stand against any Labour candidate as a show of support for Corbyn.
One of the advantages of keeping Head Office open during the campaign is that on one day (10 May) we were interviewed on Corbyn by a journalist on the leading Danish newspaper Berlingske. Here is the article that appeared on 14 May:https://www.b.dk/globalt/labour-leder-holder-fast-i-den-umulige-flirt-med-magtenAlso reproduced here:https://www.pressreader.com/denmark/berlingske-tidende/20170515/281663959933652Anybody here who can read Danish to tell us what it says?
Political advertising is not allowed in Britain so we've asked if they want to interview our candidate.Incidentally, "Anti-Duhring Batallion" is (or was) a member of SPEW:http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/16798/29-05-2013/socialist-party-youth-organisers-meeting-sunday-30-june-1030am-430pm-londonMaybe, since then, he's made the breakthrough into the big time, following in the footsteps of Mark Steel.
An attempt to hold an undemocratic hustings was made last Tuesday. Luckily it was cancelled due to the Manchester massacre: http://www.klsettlement.org.uk/battersea-hustings-on-23rd-may-open-invitation/ The organisers have been sent the following email:
Quote:I see you had arranged a hustings for Tuesday 23 May to which you invited only 4 of the 7 candidates in Battersea. This is undemocratic. If the hustings is being rearranged simple democracy requires you to invite Danny Lambert, the Socialist Party candidate, the UKP camdidate, and the Independent candidate, Chris Coghlan. Otherwise electors are not being offered a full choice. In any event, please let me know of any new date for the hustings.Thanks.Adam Buick, Election Agent for Danny Lambert, Socialist Party candidatefor Battersea.Even if we are not invited we'll be there, to insist that our candidate be heard.
Proof, from the same source, that Fresco was once a member of the Technocracy Movement:http://teslacommunity.com/page/technocratic-party#.WSgCGzeJhdiInteresting that one of the things he fell out with them, or vice versa, seems to over "Technocracy in One Country (especially America)". It is true, though, that his plan to establish a "circular city" somewhere, isolated from capitalism, was a fantasy.
A follower of this forum has drawn our attention to this obituary in the New York Times:https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/jacque-fresco-futurist-who-envisioned-a-society-without-money-dies-at-101.html?referer=https://www.google.com/
It wasn't actually an election donation but a legacy that happened to be paid into our account during the election period and so has to be recorded as having been received during this period. It is much more than our election campaign will be costing. Not that this will stop the media misinterpreting it of course.
I see the Green Party is promising to introduce a Universal Basic Income. Here's the Daily Wail's typical (and unintentionally amusing) report on this:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4530322/Green-Party-manifesto-plans-universal-basic-income.html
Quote:Green Party unveils manifesto plans to bring in a four day working week and give cash handouts to millionaires by introducing a universal basic incomeGreens want to introduce universal basic income – cash payments for all citizensLeader Caroline Lucas did not say how much the plan would costExperts warned the plan would be expensive and could be a disincentive to work Party also wants to introduce a four day working week and scrap Trident The Green Party wants to give cash hand-outs to millionaires and introduce a four day week, according to their manifesto. The party today laid out plans to to take steps towards introducing a universal basic income – although did not say how much this would cost.If rolled out the radical plan would see every British citizen get money from the state – no matter how rich they are.Some countries have eyed up the plans to introduce a universal basic income in order to deal with fears the rise of robots will lead to mass unemployment and poverty.But the policy would be massively expensive and some experts have warned that it is simply unworkable.It's not just "some experts" who say it's unworkable. So do Socialists or rather that it wouldn't work as intended but would be a subsidy to employers that would lead to wages being reduced all round.
Quite clever. Don't know if it will work, though, i.e. bring in votes for the Green Party. It could be interpreted as an appeal to vote anything but Labour or Tory or, in fact, to not bother to vote at all.
Something interesting in the Jacobin magazine for once, an article on Stephen Jay Gould, author of The Mismeasure of Man which refuted genetic determinism:https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/stephen-jay-gould-science-race-evolution-climate-change
Yes, he was an interesting person who must be given credit for the spread of the idea of a moneyless world of abundance since the turn of the century (though this is of course an idea whose time has come) via his influence on Peter Joseph and the Zeitgeist Movement. I think the two fell out when Joseph was moving more towards political action of some sort while Fresco was more into technology (promoting "circular cities", etc) and in fact opposed to politics. I've not seen a full obituary of him but I suspect he must have been involved in the 1930s (when he would have been in his 20s — he was 101 when he died) in or around the Technocracy movement which wanted society to be run by qualified engineers not elected politicians, an idea which Zeitgeist used to promote and which still survives to a certain extent in what they argue.He expresses his views on a moneyless world of abundance clearly and succinctly here:http://thezeitgeistmovement.se/files/Books/The-Best-That-Money-Cant-Buy.pdf
