ALB
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duncan lucas wrote:If you dont know big business rules the UK/US government well I cant help you.
But we do know that, or at least that all governments rule in the interest of profit-seeking businesses because in the end the economic forces of capitalism force them to adopt policies that give priority to profits and profitmaking. Sometimes a party arises that wants to favour smaller rather than bigger businesses. UKIP in Britain and the SNP in Scotland are examples. If you think that the SNP is socialist, we can help you if you like.
duncan lucas wrote:What you are doing is playing into the hands of the NWO /Banksters of divide and conquer and it works .He's just exposed himself here as a conspiracy theorist nutter. I wonder who he thinks are behind the "New World Order" these "banksters" are conspiring to bring about? Is it the Illuminati, the Elders of Zion or who?
No need to tell us that the Labour Party is no good. We've been saying that since they came into being in 1906. We've been saying the same thing about the SNP and the other parties too — because they all support capitalism in one form or another and think they can make it work in the interest of the majority class of wage and salary workers, But they can't. Neither (to stay on thread) can Syriza.
Can't remember if this was the thread where people were arguing whether or not the SPGB was known, but here's an anecdote on the subject.On Thursday four of us went to Oxford in the context of our election campaign there. Having a couple of hours to spend before a political meeting we were going to attend started we were looking for a confortable place fo spend the time. As we passed one pub there was someone outside who I recognised from the Burford Levellers Day event where we've had a stall over the years. It turned out that he had voted for us in the euroelections instead of for the Greens as he normally does. As we beat the BNP in Oxford by one vote he claimed the credit for this. He was drinking with someone else who knew the party from the activities of comrades in Cumbria. As we were drinking and talking with them someone came in with a hammer-and-sickle on his bobble hat. None of us knew him. He turned out to have met Harry Young. Who says no one has heard of us?I think we sometimes beat ourselves up too much. In other words, the answer to the question in the article in this month's Socialist Standard "Are Socialists Sadists?" is "No, we are Masochists" or at least some here are.
Here's what the Council of ex-Muslims of Britain has to say about this:http://ex-muslim.org.uk/2015/01/after-the-charlie-hebdo-massacre-support-those-fighting-the-religious-right/Here's a quote from their statement:
Quote:What is needed is a straightforward analysis of the political nature of armed Islamists: they are an extreme-Right political force, working under the guise of religion and they aim at political power. They should be combated by political means and mass mobilisation, not by giving extra privileges to any religion.Not sure about that but the State is certainly mightier than the Kalashnikov as those wielding one are about to find out.
Just looked at the facebook page of their society at Oxford (in the context of our election campaign there) and noticed that
Quote:Next term some of us at the Oxford Marxist Society will be reading Trotsky's Transitional Programme and other great Marxist classics. Although it's from 1938, the Transitional Programme could have been written today:Actually it reads as if it was written in 1838, so I sent this comment:
Quote:"The world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat." "The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership." Is that really true, ie that's what lacking is the right leadership? I'd have thought it was rather a lack of socialist consciousness. The answer to which would be "making socialists" rather than offering a programme of reform ("transitional demands") for non-socialist workers to follow.I still can't believe that there are people who proclaim that "The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership." Talk about delusions of grandeur
Vin wrote:http://news.sky.com/story/1403662/gunmen-hunted-after-11-killed-at-paris-magazine Is this magazine similar to Private eye?Yes, but much cruder. Not like the BBC who are so polite that they were referring to him this evening as "the prophet" mohammed.
Young Master Smeet wrote:I assume they could be contacted and asked for their source…I emailed them and just got this reply:
Quote:Thanks very much for your email – this page was put together from script notes for the 'Ladies and Gents' episode of QI Series L. The information came from an article in History Today’s ‘History Review' (1997, issue 27) “The Women’s Movement” by Martin Pugh.Have you got east access to the HIstory Today article to see what it said?
I don't agree. Having been an election agent on numerous occasions and having just read through the rules and regulations for the coming general election I would say that the procedures for nominations, voting and counting the votes are scrupulous and fair to all candidates. The only areas where there can be abuse are electoral registration and postal voting. The latter is not only open to abuse (and no doubt frequenty is abused) but also undemocratic as it allows some voters to vote before the campaign is over, i.e before voting day. In my opinion, this possibility should be abolished except for those who are genuinely unable to get to a polling station. Apart from this, I can't see why these procedures couldn't continue into socialism. They will certainly ensure that any majority vote for socialism will truly reflect what voters want.On postal voting, you do have a point: the tuling class gets its legitimacy through its representatives being elected. The less people that vote the less legitimacy they can claim. This no doubt is why they have allowed and encouraged postal voting, despite its laxness, to grow as it boosts the number of voters.
But so will our younger members. In fact everybody in the world will be. I'll go further and make a prediction: everyone alive on Earth today is going to die.
Later written up and published in the Socialist Standard:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2013/no-1311-november-2013/karl-marx-anthropologist
Since we've got one, I'ive done a comment on the separate thread on him:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/ian-bone-stand-parliament
Darren redstar wrote:I would love to think of my old comrade ian bone as an election advisor, if it wasn't for the rather dismal reformist sludge th class war party has adopted.I don't think Alan was being that serious, but you are right they are miles away from us in practice:OK, this is partly a take-off on the Trotskyists demands (which are just as unrealistic) but this is not how it's going to be seen except perhaps by us.What will be interesting will be to see how they do compared with us, the Money Free Party, TUSC and Left Unity. I suspect we'll all be playing in the same league.
