ALB
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Isn't that a bit like saying that German voters in the 1920s and 1930s would have been unable to tell the difference between "The German National Socialist Workers Party" and the "Social Democratic Party of Germany"?Anyway, we are on the ballot paper at elections as "The Socialist Party (GB)" and on our leaflets as "The Socialist Party".
The (expected) difficulties of one of the other candidates:http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f378-Royal-Mail-refuses-to-deliver-fascist-BF-election-leaflet#.VFYUNGd6GhoI think it means that Royal Mail have refused the draft they submitted. I wouldn't have thought that they would have printed 50,000 without having first got Royal Mail. But you never know. After all, they are boneheads.
So he's not going to stand for mayor of London (in May 2016):http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/russell-brand-i-dont-want-to-be-mayor-of-london/But, judging from the discussion at our autumn delegate meeting last weekend neither are we.
I think the part of the quote you give about the women of Kobani being betrayed is unfair as far as the Iraqi Kurds Peshmerga are concerned as they too have women fighters:http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/oct/09/kurdish-peshmerga-fighters-women-on-the-frontline-in-pictures
Comment from a member who is not on this forum:
Quote:Also, this point of his about the future being co-ops/collectivised communities etc; obviously he has to be put straight on production for use NOT sale, BUT might we not share his description of the actual living arrangements? Presumably socialism WILL mean collective, co-operative communities/networks/towns/regions etc… (as opposed to nation-states and companies/corporations etc)Perhaps, Gnome, she'll be organising one in this by-election too for you to leaflet unless it clashes with the meeting organised by People before Profit:https://twitter.com/rosiekinchen/status/517254179937853440
More on this oxymoronic party here:http://www.patriotic-socialist.org.uk/I think they chose the word "Patriotic" as "National" would have made it immediately obvious what they are.
Actually, I think his position on money would be that if some "autonomous, collectivised communities" wanted to abolish it, they could. But, also, that if other communities wanted to keep it or use labour-time vouchers they, too, could. He's impressed by what happened briefly in parts of Spain in 1936-7 where some agricultural communes used money and some didn't. He writes highly of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which is a good book well worth reading.
I finished reading his book Revolution last night. A bit disappointing in some respects as a large part of it deals with his personal "spiritual revolution" that has led him to his present political position. So there's a lot about "God" and New Age mysticism. The second part, where he outlines what he means by "revolution", is better For instance:
Quote:The answer to the quandry of how to reorganise society isn't new leaders within the same system, the answer isn't leaders at all. The answer is, of course, simple: we can run our own lives and our own communities. We're not idiots, we need to establish a few immutable, non-negotiable principles, mostly to respect the planet and individual freedom, then look at who is benefiting from things being the way they are now and, using no violence when we approach them and not titles when we address them, politely insist they give us our planet back. [Chapter 23, opening paragraph)Not so sure about the "politely" or that he'd be capable of being polite !And in answer to the question "What would this Revolution look like?" (from the opening paragraphs of chapter 29):
Quote:It is defined and achieved by a sustained, mass-supported attack on the hegemony of corporations and the regulations that allow them to dominate us. It is the radical decentralisation of power, whether private or state. It is the return of power to us, the people at the level of community. It is the assertion of spirituality, of whatever form, to the heart of our social structures.Quote:The nation state may have served its purpose and have to be dissolved (….) State power to dissolve wherever possible to empower autonomous, democratic communities.Basically, he sees the world as becoming
Quote:a federation of fully autonomous, interconnected collectivities led by elected local jurors from the community that followed a central edict built on respecting the way of life of others and ecological responsibility.These will be based on direct democracy and can vary according to their members wishes. Some might be religious. Some not. The sort he personally favours would be "secular, mixed, ecologically responsible, electronically democratic".As to any workplaces now owned by corporations "we could collective it and run it as a worker-owned co-operative":
Quote:The people that run the factories, design the cars, work in the canteens, do the admin, all that (I'm not an expert, who knows what they get up to), will own and run the company. Each region will be autonomous and fully self-supporting except in matters that affect other areas of the organisation or the planet or humanity as a whole. They can democratically elect a board from the workforce who will serve for a limited period and are kicked off if they fuck about.The trouble, from our point of view, is that he envisages these worker-run co-operatives still producing for sale. We've met this before and have criticised it when put forward by Richard Woolf of the "Capitalism Hits the Fan" film. Even so, the book will still bring basic anti-capitalist and alternative ideas we share to many people we don't reach.If he is to be categorised, it will have to be as being in some strand of anarchism (though he doesn't do this himself). In any event, Robin Black of the Black Bloc is wrong to accuse him of not being opposed to the state and capitalism and accusing him of reformism. In one passage, discussing a Swedish proposal for "employee investment funds", he dismisses it as "a piece of pipsqueak reformism". Pity we didn't think of that description when Peter Thatchell proposed this as one of his "baby steps" in our debate with him.
I see that Ian Bone and Class War were bluffing when they announced they were going to contest this by-election. Perhaps this is the shape of things to come, i.e. most of the candidates they have announced for the next year's general election won't materialise either.TUSC too are not standing, no doubt not wanting to repeat their humiliation in the Eastleigh by-election last year where they finished 13th out of 14 with a mere 62 votes being beaten by various joke candidates. We learned that lesson years ago when we got beaten by Mr Blobby in the Little and Sad by-election and why we have adopted a policy of not contesting parliamentary by-elections.Left Unity are nowhere to be seen either. Also the shape of things to come?That leaves the only "left of Labour" candidate (apart from the Greens) as Nick Long of "People Before Profit" from Lewisham. It appears they are running a serious campaign, printing 55,000 leaflets for free distribution by the post office:http://peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk/rochester-strood/people-profit-stand-rochester-and-stroodThey are also holding a public meeting on Tuesday 18 November at 7.30pm at Strood Methodist Church, Cliffe Rd.Be interesting to see how they do, even though we want "People Not Profit" rather than "People Before Profit". With the large number of candidates I don't think they will do very well.
An article on Piketty by someone in the tradition of non-market socialism which she defines as:
Quote:non-market socialists are defined as advocates and activists for a money-free, market-free, wage-free, class-free and state-free society where everyone’s basic needs are met — and power, responsibility and uses of the Earth are shared in fair, i.e. just, and sustainable ways.Cintemporary article from the Socialist Standard on the transformation of the SDP (as the SDF had become by then) into the BSP in 1911:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1910s/1911/no-88-december-1911/british-socialist-party
It gets even better. Apparently one of the 2% of Anglican clergy is a bishop ! From today's Times under the headline "God may be just in our heads, say clergy":
Quote:You might expect to hear talk of God as a figment of human thought around the dinner tables of eminent sociobiologists, but not at the heart of the Church of England. You would be wrong.A bishop is among the 2 per cent of British Anglican clergy who are "not sure 'God' is more than a human construct", a poll has found.While 83 per cent believe in a personal God, some are vaguer, including 3 per cent who said "there is a some sort of spirit or life force". Almost one in ten think it is impossible to define the nature of God, following the example of the 9th-century Irish theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena, who wrote. "God himself does not know what he is because he is not anything."Some 1500 clergy were polled, so if 2 per cent think that God is a "human construct", that's 30 such Anglican clergymen or women.
Robin, the Black Blobber, writes to Brand:
Quote:You do not call for the abolition of the state or capital. You want a "reduction" of the profit motive, "heavily taxing" corporations and putting extra "responsibility" on them to be green. The substance of your critique of the political class is not structural but is aimed at the fact that many of them went to public school. You say nothing that suggests you are a revolutionary in anything other than a Fabian reformist viewpoint. This is just populism. No doubt, that populism sells you books.Actually, Brand does call for the abolition of the state and of capitalism. It's true that he does also advocate the other measures but, as far as I can see, as palliatives — just as, as far as I can also see, does the Black Blob which participates (and attempts to disrupt) demonstrations called to demand them.What I see as different in Brand's approach is that he has realised that such campaigns are only attempts to make things less bad under capitalism and that only a "revolution" against capitalism to establish a new society based on something different can ensure that the problems they address will be solved or won't arise. Most of the others involved in such campaigns don't realise this.Having said this, I'm now over a third way through his book Revolution and so far it is disappointing as it's mainly about his own "spiritual revolution". Maybe it will get better. I'll let you know.Incidentally, Gnome has misunderstood what Brand's show the Messiah Complex (to give it its full title is about). It's not about him being a Messiah. He's actually against Messiahs and Leaders and is not putting himself forward as one. See, for instance this:.
Quote:Messiah Complex is a mental disorder where you think you might be the messiah
