[ALB]

This article from the New York Times explains the background to the "Greek problem" quite well, i.e without the sensationalisation of most media reports at the moment:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/international/greece-debt-crisis-euro.html?_r=0

[ALB]

There's another Syriza government official who once understood things differently: Manousos Manousakis. See his current position here.Under the name of "Manos" and "Woland" he was active in a "communisation group". Since, according to wikipedia, this is what "communisers" stand for, he's certainly changed his views for the worse: 

Quote:

In communist political theory, communization is the process of abolishing ownership of the means of production, which, in societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production, are owned by individual capitalists, states, or other collective bodies. In some versions of communist theory, communization is understood as the transfer of ownership from private capitalist hands to the collective hands of producers, whether in the form of co-operative enterprises or communes, or through the mediation of a state or federation of workers' councils on a local, national, or global scale. In other programs, such as those of some left communists (e.g. Gilles Dauvé), autonomists (e.g., Mario Tronti), and libertarian communists (e.g. Peter Kropotkin), communization means the abolition of property itself along with any state-like institutions claiming to represent a given subset of humanity. In these accounts humanity as a whole, directly or indirectly, would take over the task of the production of goods for use (and not for exchange). People would then have free access to those goods rather than exchanging labor for money, and distribution would take place according to the maxim "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The definition on the French facebook page of the group he was a member of says:

Quote:

"Communization" is the concept of the abolition of capital, the State, classes and the proletariat by itself in a communist revolution, without a "socialist" or worker-controlled [autogestion] transition.

His defection is causing a  bit of a stir in anarchist and ultra-left circles.

[ALB]

DJP wrote:

As a warm up for Sundayhttp://zero-books.net/blogs/zero/james-heartfield-and-me-debating-marx-on-facebook/

James Heartfield's article can be found here:http://platypus1917.org/2014/10/26/the-failure-of-the-capitalist-class-and-the-retreat-from-production/More on Andrew Kliman's views here on this other thread, about the meeting he did at our Head Office:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/events-and-announcements/andrew-kliman-speaking-uk?page=1#comment-24159

[ALB]

He spoke for an hour mostly on, as we had asked, why underconsumption theories of capitalism and capitalist crises (and how to get out of them) are wrong.  He did say explicitly that, as there was no economic tendency for capitalism to collapse economically, it could in theory continue for ever though he hastened to add that that didn't mean that it would. This follows from what we say too, though of course it's not what many critics of capitalism like to hear and makes us appear to being saying that capitalism is not as bad, or flawed, as they say (nor is it a good motivator for people to engage in urgent socialist activity).He also developed his argument that the oft-repeated view (sometimes by some of us) that real wages in the US have been stagnant since 1970 is a myth. According to him and the statistical evidence he has marshalled, labour costs in the US have gone up ( I think he said, but am not sure, more or less in line with labour productivity there). This was challenged by a non-member in the audience. Personally I think Kliman is right: just like here living standards in the US will have gone up not stagnated since 1970 (even if "labour costs", which include employer contributions to pensions, health care, etc for workers as well as taxes they deduct from wages, are not the same as "take-home" pay). I suppose that accepting this is once again seen as undermining the case for socialism, but I don't see why, though it might be one explanation why most workers are prepared to put up with capitalism. Anyway, Kliman took our view that you have to keep raising the issue of an alternative society (without wages, money, finance, value, etc) as the way-out for the working class and not get bogged down in defensive struggles to survive under capitalism or imagine that these by themselves will lead to an understanding of the need for an alternative society.The issue of how precisely the long-run tendency of the rate of profit to fall is linked to the capitalist boom/slump cycle, another of Kliman's theories, did not come up.  A pamphlet of his he had for sale at the meeting (a debate with David Harvey) suggests that he doesn't think that there is any direct link, only an indirect one by making overproduction and/or financial crises more likely. But then, of course, there are other reasons for these (not that he would deny this either)  ….

[ALB]

Just finished reading a 2015 reprint of his 2011 book The Global Minotaur. He understands quite a bit about how capitalism works and isn't a currency crank but has written elsewhere that he wants to save capitalism from its present Crisis (with a capital C, as opposed to normal crises) so it can be overthrown later when it's in better health.  His  argument is that when capitalism is in a Crisis workers just seek and need relief not a revolution which has a better chance of succeeding when capitalism is not in one of its big Crises. He himself has described himself as "an erratic Marxist". Still, he's showing that he's a man of principle. Got to give him that.

[ALB]

I don't think many people were expecting a 61% No vote but it's pretty decisive. It looks as if the Greek government's gamble has paid off and it's now up to its creditor states in North Europe to decide whether or not to risk provoking a world financial crisis in which they would stand to lose more than they would by granting Greece some debt relief. Interesting times. But the issue is still not ending austerity (that's not possible) but the degree of further austerity. People in Greece are saying enough is enough. At least they're not taking it lying down.

[ALB]

robbo203 wrote:

9) Not having your ID Spaniards who are asked to show their ID card and do not have it on their person could be in trouble under the new law. If they cannot immediately locate it at home and have failed to report it missing, they are liable to be fined.

When i lived and worked in Belgium that had long been the law there (I remember seeing Marx's in the Marx museum in Trier in the name of "Dr. Ch. Marx") and I never went out without my ID card. I'm surprised that this didn't already exist in Spain but then Spain wasn't conquered long enough by Napoleon. ID cards are of course a step towards a police state (in Belgium you also have to register with the police every time you move house). It's significant that it was the last Labour government wanted to bring them in here in the UK.

[ALB]

Here is what I imagine will be a widespread criticism by the rest of the Left of the KKE's position:

Quote:

The Communist Party, betraying all the communist traditions in Greece, declared that it will put in the ballot box its own ticket. Practically, this means that is suggests an invalid vote and it implicitly helps the YES campaign.

Of course they'd say the same as our traditional position of saying write "Σοσιαλισμός" across the ballot paper..If you want to go down the "lesser evil" road (which we don't) the problem is which — YES or NO? — is the lesser evil (in terms of short-term living standards).  It's not clear. It might even be YES. But then no class-conscious worker will an ounce of dignity is going to vote that. The only possible case for voting NO would be one of working class dignity. Tsipras, however, is appealing to Greek national dignity. Which of course is why Golden Dawn is supporting him on this.

[ALB]

Couldn't find the reference in the article to "free access". Pity because that's what he did stand for. I notice that it also fails to mention Kropotkin's support for the First World Slaughter. And I thought the IWW was more influenced by anarcho-syndicalism rather than anarcho-communism (which, in the anarchist tradition, have seen themselves as rivals). Enough pedanticism as he was basically a good guy who influenced William Morris and demolished the idea of "labour-time vouchers" (in, in fact, chapter 13 of The Conquest of Bread).Review of a book about his Mutual Aid  and TH Huxley here:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1279-march-2011/book-reviews-crude-world-mutual-aid-introduction-an

[ALB]

No.  It will be back next month.

[ALB]

The KKE is urging abstention in the referendum or rather voting neither yes nor no but saying workers should put their proposals in the ballot box:http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-referendum-on-the-5th-of-July-and-the-stance-of-the-KKE/

Quote:

The people, through their activity and their choice in the referendum, must respond to the deception of the false question posed by the government and reject the proposal of the EU-IMF-ECB and also the proposal of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Both contain barbaric anti-people measures, which will be added to the memoranda and application laws of the previous ND-PASOK governments. Both serve the interests of capital and capitalist profits.The KKE stresses that the people must not choose between Scylla and Charybdis, but must express, with all means available and in every way, their opposition to the EU and its permanent memoranda in the referendum. They must “cancel out” this dilemma by casting the proposal of the KKE as their vote into the ballot box.

This could affect the outcome as the KKE got 5.5% of the votes, and 15 seats, in the general election earlier this year.

[ALB]

I agree it's basically a good leaflet but it will need a bit of editing. For instance, the first paragraph opens:

Quote:

The problem is not Austerity … it's POVERTY.

but then goes on to talk about "Soup Kitchens" and "Food Banks" but these are signs of destitution rather than what we usually mean by the word "poverty", non-ownership, i.e exclusion from ownership, of the means of production. Leaving it as it is would give the impression that we want to do something only for "the poor". In any event, most workers do not have to resort to food banks and don't regard themselves as poor in that sense (and in fact aren't).There are various ways this could be edited, eg. The Problem is not Austerity … it's That We Have to Work for Wages ( a bit unwieldy) or The Problem is not Austerity … it's the Wages System" (shorter, but less immediately understable by non-socialists). Since the leaflet uses "it's Wage-Slavety" later, perhaps it should be The Prolem is Not Austerity … it's Employment. And then go on to say something like:

Quote:

As long as we work for wages what we get to meet our needs is rationed while the rich get richer. We can't hope to end this and inequality , etc

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

There was the Iceland option

Almost forgot about that. There's a sort of precedent in that they held a referendum that rejected an international debt deal. The economy seems to be doing ok now, i.e growing, but I don't think they avoided austerity, did they?

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

SNP's Nicola Sturgeon on Greece.

She's got another admirer. Today the Times interviewed Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos in Spain which is organising rallies in support of the Greek government.:

Quote:

During the interview with The Times in Catalonia, Mr Iglesias expressed his support for Sinn Fein and the Scottish National party. "For me the fundamental element has to do with the defense of social rights, as with Sinn Fein, defending the rights of the working class," he said. "I admire the story of the Labour Party and the unions in Britain but I am not optimistic. What happened in the last British elections was not the victory of the Tories but the failure of Labour."

If Scotland has been an independent country in 2008 she would have had a chance to put her money where her mouth is. An independent Scottish government would have been unable to bail out the two big failed banks in Scotland (RBS and HBOS) and would, like Ireland, have had to rely on loans from the EU to do this. Which would have come with strings attached. She could have organised a referendum to reject them ….

[ALB]

We know that most of the money the Greek government owes is owed to German and other European banks, but is what that Guardian economics correspondent, Philip Inman, says below correct? It sounds odd:

Guardian wrote:

Unlike most of Europe, which ran up large budget deficits to protect pensioners and welfare recipients,

Is that what really happened in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain, even in Germany and France or Britain. That's not my recollection. I wonder what his source is.

[Author]

Posts