imposs1904
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Just posted on the Socialist Standard Past and Present blog, another from the Socialist Standard's mid seventies series of article, entitled 'Why I Joined the SPGB'.This time, it's Harry Young's ('Horatio') turn and, to put it mildly, he had quite a colourful political past before joining the SPGB. Btw, Harry Young is the SPGBer who was featured on the front cover of Robert Barltrop's history of the SPGB, The Monument.Link: February 1976 – Why I Joined The SPGB
Just a wee update with regards to the Socialist Standard Past & Present blog. It's been out of action for the past month because of a kaput laptop and personal commitments, but it is now up and running again.Once again, I invite list members to bookmark and/or subscribe to the blog. The overwhelming majority of articles, book reviews and sundry other stuff will eventually turn up on this website but if you subscribe to the blog you can steal a march on other interested parties, and be the hypest socialist in your branch, group or that dark corner in the Starbucks where you make a coffee last an hour whilst you keep refreshing the forum page to see if there any new messages on the 'rebranding the spgb in the 21st century' thread. Some recent – and not so recent additions – to the blog:LINK: July 1997 Review of Steve Coleman's Stilled TonguesLINK: October 1982 Review of Alan Parker's Pink Floyd filmLINK: March 1977 'Carrying the platform ten thousand miles'LINK: January 1976 Why I joined the SPGBLINK: October 1973 Obituary for Sam OrnerLINK: October 1997 Book Review 'Communist Kids'LINK: World Socialist short story from the late, great Richard MontagueLink: World Socialist article Socialism and uneven developmentLink: John Crump article: Japan – the other side of the miracleLINK: June 1978 Sociology or Socialism?LINK: December 1980 Book Review of Anton PannokoekLINK: April 1973 Glasgow in the 19th Century
Another in the Why I Joined The SPGB series from the mid 1970s. This one by Laurie Weidberg, who by all accounts – including that of his nephew, Colin Shindler, in his football fan memoir, 'Manchester United Ruined My Life' – was a bit of a character:Link: Why I Joined the SPGB
Here's an early 'Why I Joined the S.P.G.B' article that appeared in the September 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard: Link: Why I Joined the S.P.G.B I'm not 100% sure but I'm guessing the author of the article was Sid Rubin, who gets a mention in Barltrop's unofficial history of the SPGB, The Monument, as the author of the novel 'My Time, My Place', under the pen name of George Camden. I read the novel not that long ago and it's actually not a bad read.
The Socialist Standard ran a series of articles in the mid-70s, entitled 'Why I joined the SPGB'. I'll post the links as they become available on the net. Here's Robert Barltrop's 'Why I joined the SPGB' from the September 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard:Link: Why I joined the SPGB
Richard Cooper's August 1984 Socialist Standard article, 'Becoming a Socialist':Link: 'Becoming a Socialist'
Just posted on the blog, a two-part article from the November and December 1964 Socialist Standards, where an old Austrian comrade reminiscences about the early history of the SPGB. I thought some list members might find it of interest, especially the titbit about interned 'alien' comrades during the First World War holding socialist meetings in the internment camp where they were imprisoned:Link 1: Reminiscences of an old member (part 1)Link 2: Reminiscences of an old member (part 2)
How that's for a coincidence? The March Socialist Standard that has just been posted on the website contains Steve Clayton's review of John Pilger's Utopia, and just the day before i posted on the Socialist Standard Past and Present Blog, Steve Coleman's March 1988 tv review of John Pilger's tv documentary series, The Last Dream. If you click on the link, you'll find that I've actually found the links to the videos of Pilger's documentary:March 1988 Socialist Standard link: From the land which gave us Rupert Murdoch . . . Cheers
Recent additions to the Socialist Standard Past & Present blog includes a series of write-ups of SPGB Public Meetings that appeared in the Hackney Gazette in the mid-1960s. The write-ups were penned by Israel Renson, who was a longstanding SPGB sympathiser in the London area from the 1920 onwards. Some list members may know of him because he co-authored the pamphlet, 'Money Must Go' in the 1940s. A very early attempt to explain revolutionary socialism in language not weighed down with jargon and terminology. Renson and Phillips were basically doing in pamphlet form what Capitalism and Other Kids Stuff was trying to do fifty years later in video form.With regards to the meetings themselves, if nothing else, they are a curio of the sort of meetings the SPGB were holding during this period, and give a flavour of language employed and the SPGB speakers who were doing the propaganda rounds during that period.Cheers to ALB for providing the clippings, and for transcribing the majority of the reports.Adam Buick speaking on The SPGB and the Unions (May 24th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/spgb-and-unions.htmlHarry Baldwin speaking on 'The "Money" System" (August 12th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-money-system.htmlJohn Crump speaking on Lenin and the Russian Revolution (September 6th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenin-and-russian-revolution.htmlAnne Waite speaking on 'America through Socialist eyes' (September 27th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/america-through-socialist-eyes.htmlSolomon Goldstein speaking on The Economics of Capitalism (October 11th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-economics-of-capitalism.htmlF. C. Manning speaking on War, Waste and Want (October 26th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/war-waste-and-want.htmlHarry Baldwin speaking on Labour Government's failure (November 8th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/labour-governments-failure.htmlEddie Grant speaking on Spain and Democracy (December 6th 1966)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/spain-and-democracy.htmlJoe McGuinness speaking on Trade Unions and the Public Interest (April 7th 1967)Link: http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/01/trade-unions-and-public-interests.html From the World Socialist number four, Link: an excerpt from Philoren's 'Money Must Go'.
alanjjohnstone wrote:i thought it looked like an older version of you !!Well, he's bald, without a beard and he's wearing a shirt. Mmm, spitting image. Uncanny.
I thought this had already spotted. I saw it at the time on facebook. I thought it was a funny cartoon – one of many – but I wish the 'SPGBer' didn't look like a cartoon version of Peter Taaffe. That kind of spoiled it for me.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Surely the Sparts must win the most boring.The Sparts are many things. They are never boring.
jondwhite wrote:Funny how the SPGB is always left out, while organisations much smaller (AWL, Workers Power, CPGB-ML, AMM, SR, ISN-Nelson, ISN-Seymour, Counterfire etc.) always get name checked.Be careful what you wish for.We were recently referred to on facebook as the most boring socialist organisation in the world. The bloke who wrote it is a public school trot prick but it still stung.
gnome wrote:imposs1904 wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Darren, you are doing a great job and there has been quite a few gems in what you have posted. I hope you can keep the momentum going and don't burn yourself out.Of course I will burn out and fade away. Just enjoy it while it's here.
Before that time comes would you like to join the Internet Committee?
Thanks for the kind offer of the posioned chalice but I'll have to politely decline.
