ALB
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Hopefully this will be out as a leaflet, as decided by the August EC, in time both for this and the TUC demonstration at the Tory Conference the following week:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2015/no-1332-august-2015/problem-not-tories-%E2%80%A6-its-capitalism
Just seen he refused to sing the National Anthem at a Battle of Britain commemoration in St Pauls bCathedral. Got to given that. Better than Michael Foot's dufflecoat.
That's good. It sounds as if Pannekoek's replies might be there too. I'll contact the Instituut to see I can obtain copies. I did it before for something, an article from 1853 by Marx in Afrikaans for his brother-in-law for a South African publication. Not a lot of people know that Marx knew Afrikaans but then his mother was Dutch (not a lot of people know that either).
You are probably right. He will have got in contact with Pannekoek via the WSPUS. It's Pannekoek's replies that are missing. Melvin's letters to him may well be amongst the Pannekoek papers at the IISH in Amsterdam. I found searching their archives too complicated but may be you have more patience and a higher degree of computer literacy?
Interesting times. Labour leader saying that Labour is the workers' party again and Labour shadow Chancellor saying he wants to overthrow capitalism. Our kind of language. We can't miss this opportunity.
To return to Corbyn, here's his message today to Daily Mirror readers:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-expose-toriesbluster-boldly-6437112including
Quote:We are back as the party standing up for working peopleBe interesting to see how this message goes down.
All the media are recording that
Quote:his Who's Who entry includes his pastime as "generally fermenting the overthrow of capitalism."I ask him about whether or not Ocolan's scheme for moneyless self-governing communes was being implemented. Here's his reply:
Quote:I am not that well read on Ocalon I must admit, but my time in villages and towns the dollar is very much king as is the Syrian pound, believe it or not, but you need a small wad of them to buy a coke. From what I saw there is no monopoly on goods, from the basics to smart phones prices are affordable and reasonable even in a state of war when it would be easy to exploit the situation for profit, this to me though is a speaks more of the character of the people rather then the policies, while I am sure there is a black market I was never offered anything illicit even as a "rich Westerner". Civil projects are raised on their merits rather then their profit margin such as agriculture and small industry, construction, machine works ect, all positions of power in these companies are granted on election of the workers so the best people to perform given tasks are not promoted past their ability and can resign or be replaced if needed.Report from comrade who happens to be in (former East) Germany at the moment:
Quote:Just found a refugee welcome centre at Rostock Station. Clothes and food. Also offer place to stay. 1000 to 1500 dealt with at weekend. Young people (30 to 40), mostly students. No older people (one guy thought there ought to be sympathy from post war expellees). No lefty bandwagoning but most probably in groups as were reluctant to talk of this. Organised by facebook.SocialistPunk wrote:This discussion is essentially about more than Corbyn, it's about SPGB strategy.The SPGB doesn't have a strategy and all attempts to adopt one have failed (eg over the name we call ourselves by). Members argue the case in their own way. Some emphasise what's wrong with capitalism; others what a nice society socialism would be. Not being a "democratic centralist" party, they can't be forced to argue the case for socialism in a way they don't want to. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, that's the way it is.
The last Labour Conference we went to in Brighton was a sad affair. Too much security (they were in government then) so you couldn't get near the delegates and hardly anybody else there apart from somebody selling the Morning Star. I imagine this time it will be like the good old days with all the usual paper sellers back there as well. In the past Jeremy used to buy them all, including the Standard.
Melvin Harris was the first Party member I met. We were both born in Newport, Mon. At the time I was living in Newbridge in one valley and he was living in Cwmbran in the next one. He was working as a night telephonist (in those days women weren't allowed to work at night).The obituary is inaccurate about his relationship with the Party. He first became associated with it as a schoolboy and was one of a number who formed the Newport branch of the party just after the War (the Second World War, that is). During this period he engaged in a lengthy correspondence with Anton Pannekoek which unfortunately has been lost. He did later leave and lectured for the old National Council of Labour Colleges not the Labour Party. I don't think he ever joined the Labour Party or ever had any illusions about it. He was also an expert on the DeLeonist SLP of America (there's an article somewhere about "socialist industrial unionism").He remained a member after he moved to London and wrote a few articles for the Standard but eventually dropped out.
Interesting statistic from a YOuGov poll reported in today's Times:
Quote:About 70,000 people who voted in the leadership election did not vote Labour in the general election. About 40,000 voted Green and 96 per cent of these Green voters backed Mr Corbyn. We estimate that the other non-Labour voters were: Liberal Democrats, 10,000; Conservatives, 3,000; Ukip, 3,000; other parties, 6,000; did not vote, 8,000.(These are voters not party members). Doesn't bode well for the Greens. Corbyn seems to being taking back from them Old Labour's clothes which they stole.
Today's Times quotes Sanders as commenting on Corbyn's election:
Quote:At a time of mass income and wealth inequality throughout the world, I am delighted that the British Labour party has elected Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader. We need leadership in every country in the world which tells the billionaire class that they cannot have it all. We need economies that work for working families, not just the people on top.That front cover is aimed at saying that we shouldn't rely on any politician to do anything for us (subtext: but should act for ourselves). And, anyway, textual deconstruction shows that Corbyn isn't criticised as much as the other two. Look at it again …Anyway, discussions as to whether a particular politician is sincere or not are irrelevant. It's not a question of what they want to do. It's a question of what they can do. Not even a saint can make capitalism work in the interests of the working class.We have never denied that some politicians are sincere (I'm sure Corbyn does sincerely want to improve the lot of the working class and the poor within capitalism) or that some are not (I'm equally convinced that Duncan Smith is a sanctimonious bastard), but so what? And we have always said that political democracy is important to the working class. So why this "no different from Stalin" crap?
