[ALB]

I don't like the term "privileged position" in relation to us. Since our Rules 12-16 concern the EC and Party Officers, a better term would be "positions of responsibility". Also Rules 29-31 are not about complainsts against members elected to responsible positions. Indeed, Rule 31 gives the EC the power to charge an individual member. The protection against abuse lies in the fact that the EC only lays the charge while it is the general membership who act as the jury and decide. Since Rule 26 (on Party Polls) has nothing to do with the voluntary participation of members in Party activity, this means that all the references to our Rulebook are either misleading or irrelevant. So I think we should drop them.And if we are going to mention the SWP's Rules I think we should quote them or provide an internet reference to them.I agree with Alan that we need a more general statement contrasting the difference between the Leninist "democratic centralism" of the SWP and others with the democratic structure we have (and some early trade unions had). Section III of this document could provide the basis for such a statement:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/study-guides/where-swp-coming

[ALB]

The difference between mouse behaviour and human behaviour depends on the different proportions in which the behaviour of each is culturally determined and which is biologically determined. Most human behaviour is culturally determined (with only a few bodily reactions being genetically determined) while most mouse behaviour is biologically determined (not all, as researchers are finding that more and more of animal behaviour has to be learned).Mice have to tunnel to survive, but there is no human equivalent of this. We have to survive in nature but our genetic make-up is such that we can adopt different behaviour-patterns depending on the environment in which we find ourselves. Which explains why our behaviour has varied so much since our species evolved, in contrast to mouse behaviour which has hardly changed since mice first evolved.Since mice have to tunnel to survive it is not a great shock that researchers have discovered that it is genetically-determined. This is what you would expect and the achievement of the researchers is to have proved this by identifying the gene involved. If, Jonathan, you think that human behaviour could be changed  by genetic engineering you need to come up with an example of what this might — in fact, conceivably could — be. What, in other words, would be the human equivalent of mouse tunnelling?So far, genetic research on humans has only found genes that influence the make-up of the body and so genetic engineering of humans would only be able to eliminate certain bodily defects, not change human behaviour (though of course eliminating these defects would allow those who might otherwise have inherited them to behave differently).

[ALB]

That's of mice not men. Since human behaviour is culturally-determined I doubt that it could be influenced by manipulating genes. The most I would think that genetic manipulation could have on human behaviour would be to change the limits of the behaviour an individual human could engage in.

[ALB]

There were also two local council by-elections yesterday in the Wirrall which TUSC contested:http://www.wirral.gov.uk/election/results/2013-01-17/all.shtmThings must be different up North if TUSC can get 31 votes and beat both the Liberals and the Greens ! Perhaps we should have a go there.(but then we'd have to persuade our Northern branches to take up local election activity).

[ALB]

Our vote corresponded to what members had speculated it might be — between 20 and 50. But we didn't contest primarily for the vote (except to avoid a derisory score, which we did) but to publicise the case for socialism. Here we exceded our expectations, thanks to a lively and very fair local on-line newspaper, the Brixtonblog (which we hadn't known about before). Here is a list of the internet publicity we got, not just for the fact that we were standing but also discussion of our ideas:http://www.brixtonblog.com/brixton-hill-by-election-danny-lambert-socialist-party-of-great-britain/9198http://www.brixtonblog.com/brixton-hill-by-election-hustings-round-up/9402http://www.brixtonblog.com/hustings-video-what-would-you-do-about-unemployment-in-brixton-hill/9336http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/brixton-hill-council-by-election.304465/http://vote-2012.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=byelection&thread=1240&page=1#46349We also leafletted the ward three times. 9 people (6 members and 3 sympathisers) took part in this. For the record, we got 1 reply.We will probably contest this ward again in the full council elections in May 2014, especially because it is covered by a lively on-line paper. In the meantime we'll add Brixton Hill to the areas we regularly leaflet with a newsletter.

[ALB]

For a short while towards the end of the 1930s Orwell held a position on war similar to ours. See:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1997/no-1113-may-1997/george-orwell-spain-and-anti-fascismBut when the War broke out he reverted to type (Old Etonian and Colonial policeman) and came out as a British Patriot and War-supporter.

[ALB]

I don't think that Hedley was doubting the wisdom of a general strike, but rather the state of preparedness for one. I got the impression that he was pissed off at being dragged across London on a freezing night to speak to 12 people and that this was his way of telling the organisers that they needed to put more work in.Actually, to tell the truth, I would think that, to the extent that austerity and the cuts can be mitigated, the only way that would have any chance of succeeding would be some kind of trade union action (as opposed to heroics by councillors, who are essentially elected civil servants who have to carry out central government policy mainly with central government money and who can be disciplined if they don't). But unfortunately the reality is, as Hedley observed, that not enough workers have the stomach for this.

[ALB]

ALB wrote:

Don't know if in view of the weather any or us (or anybody for that matter) will be going to the TUSC meeting  in the end,

In the end 3 of us did go, helping to bring the total audience up to 12, heard an SWP speaker (Paul Holborow of Anti-Nazi League fame)  urge a vote for TUSC and got denounced by the RMT London Regional Organiser, Steve Hedley, as "Mensheviks", apparently because we criticised the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917. We never mentioned this at the meeting, but he knew.  At least this shows that we are well known in militant trade union circles. In fact, the other RMT person present told us that the first socialist paper he ever bought was the Socialist Standard.

[ALB]

Don't know if in view of the weather any or us (or anybody for that matter) will be going to the TUSC meeting  in the end, but in the meantime someone has put a link to one of the three leaflets we distrubuted in the area:http://i48.tinypic.com/34h9hs3.jpghttp://i48.tinypic.com/auz1g4.jpgIncidentally, the text of this leaflet doesn't seem to be anywhere on our site if some technical bod here can find a place for it.

[ALB]

ALB wrote:

And here's what the Anti-Duhring Brigade thought of the husting. Pictures plus this comment:

Quote:

The SPGB candidate summed up his party's position and program in one perfect sentence, "There's nothing we can do." Well done comrade. That's a great message to give out to the working class. Marx & Engels and all the working class martyrs would be proud of you (not)

There's a full report on the hustings up now on the Brixtonblog:http://www.brixtonblog.com/brixton-hill-by-election-hustings-round-up/9402It records what Danny actually said:

Quote:

Socialist candidate Danny Lambert had a more radical suggestion: “In times of recession public services are the first thing that gets cut. This is the nature of capitalism and it’s time to wake up. We’re in a society that doesn’t work in our interests. There’s nothing we can do about it unless we dump the capitalist system.”

And here's what he said about the George IV pub:

Quote:

Danny Lambert said the pub’s closure was one of many symptoms of capitalist economics. “If this pub can’t be run at a profit it’ll get closed down and something else will open that can,” he said. “People come a poor second to profit. Until we get shot of capitalism we’ll have this problem over and over again.”

[ALB]

imposs1904 wrote:

is pretty much a game changer for the SWP. I'd be genuinely surprised if this time next year the SWP resembles the organisation it currently is, the organisation it has been for the last forty plus years. It's the most serious schism in the IS/SWP tradition since the IS Opposition split in the mid-seventies.

You could be right that this could be the SWP's equivalent of the effect on the CP of the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956, with people whose basic position (university-educated militant Guardian-readers in professional jobs) has long been out of sync with being in a top-down, centralised, Leninist party choosing the occasion to leave. We'll see.

[ALB]

Touché, Socialist Punk, but I think I can see where you're coming from. I am of course opposed to secret meetings and have nothing against their proceedings being leaked. Normally I'd be all in favour of this but my objection in this particular case was to the public identification of the alleged rapist. What's your take on this? Should people be free to publish the names of alleged rapists and their victims before anything has been proved? Agreed that the SWP have only themselves to blame for holding their own rape trial.. What on earth did they think they were doing?

[ALB]

And here's what the Anti-Duhring Brigade thought of the husting. Pictures plus this comment:

Quote:

NALLY AT HIS BEST! Steve speaking with passion effortlessly wiped the floor with the Tory, Labour & Liberal candidates at the hustings tonight! The SPGB candidate summed up his party's position and program in one perfect sentence, "There's nothing we can do." Well done comrade. That's a great message to give out to the working class. Marx & Engels and all the working class martyrs would be proud of you (not)

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

The few community pubs in the council estates i know were all about the local tea-leaves flogging stuff, local druggies doing deals, and sad alcoholics drowning their sorrows as the local heavies proved their machoism.

That's what they say the George IV on Brixton Hill was like except that it was also a well-known music venue. Both the Tory and the Trotskyist said they used to frequent it when they were younger.Here's Danny (and the others) on unemployment:http://www.brixtonblog.com/hustings-video-what-would-you-do-about-unemployment-in-brixton-hill/9336Another comment on the hustings message #19  here:

Quote:

The SPGB candidate's answer to every question on every issue was the it is necesssary to smash capitalism.The TUSC candidate's answer to every question was to say that he will never vote for any cuts in anything.The UKIP candidate's answer to every question was to hold a referendum to see what local people think.The Lib Dem candidate was useless.The Green candidate was grumpy and stroppy.The Conserative candidate made a few good points but kept digging himself into a hole by saying that Brixton is "an aspiration-free zone" where people don't like to live, and that the schools were rubbish.

[ALB]

It looks as if we are up against the Anti-Duhring Battalion:http://www.facebook.com/groups/78046560390/Apart from the confirmation that Trotskyists only leaflet and canvass council estates because that's where they think all workers live, they've come up with a couple of good quotes:

Quote:

"IT'S BETTER TO VOTE FOR WHAT YOU WANT AND NOT GET IT THAN VOTE FOR WHAT YOU DON'T WANT AND GET IT." Eugene Debs.

Quote:

ADDRESS TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE BY FREDERICK ENGELS 1850:"Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention!"

We have often used the Debs one, but the Engels one is good  too. They pinched our name, so we'll pinch their quote. It's more appropriate for us anyway since they are not putting the revolutionary position before the electorate, only the view that capitalism can be reformed by taxing the rich to provide jobs and pay for public services.

[Author]

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