ALB
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Bring back Edith Summerskill (hope you're ancient enough to remember her):http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/inside-lines-in-the-blue-corner-is-leslie-the-mp-who-packs-a-punch-2299683.htmlThat was one reform within capitalism I always thought worth supporting but it's never going to hsppen (too much money involved in the "sport").
alanjjohnstone wrote:Did, or has, your contact visited the protest and talked with the some of the participants involved with it and come to any conclusions about the potential that it may have, ALB?Yes he has and here is what we has to report (SEL schemes are LETS schemes):
Quote:I did have a look round but it was the day of the big demonstration. I didn’t see anything very interesting except the usual stuff on minority rights, SEL schemes, and all kinds of bright suggestions for saving the planet. Not very interesting. I imagine that the situation is different in the smaller towns of France where things can get quite lively.Confirms the passage that YMS's machine translated.
The famous election booklet which allows candidates for Mayor to state their case, and which would have been one of the main reasons for us putting up a candidate for Mayor, is now published on the London Election website here:https://www.londonelects.org.uk/download/file/fid/744To have taken advantage of this we would have had to have collected 332 signatures, put down a deposit of £10,000 and paid a further £10,000 for a statement in the booklet (this last is not obligatory and 2 of the 12 candidates for Mayor have not done so).That we are contesting three constituencies is featured in the booklet as it lists all candidates and their parties.The booklet will be distributed to all London electors in the coming weeks.
Our man in Paris replies:
Quote:Less interesting than Occupy. Started by a guy called Frédéric Lordon who is a very interesting Marxist (though a bit difficult to follow)More on Frédéric Lordon here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_LordonHe's also the author of a book translated into English as Willing Slaves of Capital:https://www.bookdepository.com/Willing-Slaves-Capital-Frederic-Lordon/9781781681602Reviewed here, for instance:http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2133-frederic-lordon-s-willing-slaves-of-capital-a-review
Russian State, student union tinpot censors, same struggle. Someone in Russia risks a year in prison for offending the sensibilities of christians by saying "there is no god":http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35715325Where will it end if these student activists go in for politics?
Actually, we've got 2 members and at least one sympathiser in France. I've emailed the sympathiser, who lives in Paris, to ask what he knows about this group and for his opinion of it. This might save a useless trip to Paris and taking the risk of being blown up there by some fanatical suicide bomber.
There's a full page interview with George Galloway as one of the London mayor candidates in this week's Richmond and Twickenham Times in which he comments on Khan's pro-business stance:
Quote:Mr Galloway highlighted Sadiq Khan's pledges to be "the most pro-business Mayor ever", and said this is the last thing London needs. He said: "Big business doesn't need a Mayor, it's the people who work for businesses who do. Landlords don't need a Mayor, the tenants do. It is not the Mayor's duty to tell the banks what to do. I will be the most pro-worker, the most pro-tenant".So it seems I'm wrong. There is a candidate using traditional leftwing (but not socialist) language.
alanjjohnstone wrote:I know I'm not going to be popular saying this but a couple of hours around noon is simply not long enough on a SaturdayNo you're not going to be ! This is just the time period when we guarantee to any other members and sympathisers who may want to turn up that there will be a stall there. We may well stay longer and, if we don't, we'll be distributing leaflets door to door nearby.
Also, of course, on the weekend before socialism is established we'll have to spend all our money since it will be worthless on Monday ….
Which the Labour Party now openly accepts, in other words, capitalism. We knew that of course but these days they are not even ashamed to admit it themselves.
Out leafletting this morning in Isleworth in West London I came across two leaflets promoting Sadiq Khan as the Labour candidate for mayor of London.In one of them he promises to be
Quote:The most pro-business Mayor ever.He said the same thing in last Friday's Evening Standard which reported it under the headline:
Quote:100 business leaders back Mayor contender Khan to be their 'friend at City Hall'.. He was reported as saying:
Quote:I will be the most pro-business Mayor London has ever had. I am delighted to receive the backing today of some of our city's most influential business figures. Before entering politics I helped to manage my own business, so I understand the challenges that our business leaders face.By which he presumably means the "challenge" of how to make a profit.And this is the party and candidate that the Left have bitten their tongue to support, and some of them to go out canvassing for.In case you're wondering what business he ran this is revealed in the other leaflet:
Quote:Sadiq knows what it's like to run a small business. He helped run a law firm employing 50 people, before he became an MP.A lawyers' firm. Hardly what most people would regard as a business, though his experience here should allow him to give his business friends a few tips on how to fleece people.
I expect that London comrades will be too busy leafletting for the GLA elections to hobnob with anti-election anarchists.
He was also in Celebrity Big Brother. So if he'd stood, with George Galloway there'd have been two of them standing for mayor of London.
Apparently, according to this report in Friday's London Evening Standard, there was going to be a 13th candidate for Mayor:
Quote:TWELVE candidates will stand to be the next Mayor of London, but former boxer Winston McKenzie was knocked out due to incorrect papers, officials have confirmed. Former Ukip member Mr McKenzie planned to stand for the English Democrats, but his nomination forms were found to contain "duplicate signatures" and were incomplete. Lesser-known contenders include Lee Eli Harris of Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol, Ankit Love of the One Love Party, and Prince Zylinski, who has challenged Ukip's leader Nigel Farage to a duel.We had been considering putting up a candidate but the cost (£20,000) was the deciding against factor, though obtaining 332 signatures (10 from each of the 32 London boroughs) would have been a formidable task. But if the cannabis party was able to do it, so could we even though there will be many more cannabis users in London than socialists (with no doubt some overlap).Not yet worked out what the One Love Party is: whether an Eastern mystical sect or someone seeking publicity for their business.
Quote:So I kindly ask you to take the publication down as it cases offense to socialists and Buddhists alike.What a whinger and what a cheek. Poor sensitive soul offended by a criticism of his view, so offended that he wants it taken down, i.e suppressed. He sounds like one of those safe-spacers who want to restrict freedom of speech, especially criticism of religion, in universities.
