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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

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Richard Cooper's August 1984 Socialist Standard article, 'Becoming a Socialist':Link: 'Becoming a Socialist'

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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)

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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

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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'.    

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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.

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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.

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alanjjohnstone wrote:

Surely the Sparts must win the most boring. 

The Sparts are many things. They are never boring.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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Some more recent addtions to the blog. Thanks to Graham and ALB for the scans: Socialist Standard September 1954Link: The Sterility of Labourism by Ted WilmottSocialist Standard January 1996Link: Ecology & SocialismSocialist Standard February 1996Link: Ecology and ScienceSocialist Standard March 1980Link: Book Review about the average soldier in World War One.Socialist Standard September 1954Link: Those were the daysSocialist Standard December 1968Link: Book Review Marxism in the USASocialist Standard March 1919Link: Labour unrest by Jack FitzgeraldSocialist Standard January 1996Link: They say, we saySocialist Standard December 1968Link: Book Review Middle Class RadicalsWorld Socialist Number 2 (1985)Link: State capitalism in Russia

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More additions to the blog. Once again, cheers to Graham in Denmark for all the hard graft: Socialist Standard July 1988Link: Review of a biography of the famous ILPer James MaxtonSocialist Standard June 1928Link: An editorial on the aforementioned James MaxtonSocialist Standard November 1983Link: A bourgeoisie in waitingSocialist Standard February 1929Link: The Family Allowances fraudSocialist Standard November 1980Link: Labour's power struggleWorld Socialist Winter 1985-6 issueLink: D. H. Lawrence and the abolition of moneyWorld Socialist Winter 1984 issueLink: Spanish Social Democracy – how it became reformistWorld Socialist '69Link: Primitive Communism reassessedSocialist Standard April 1980Link: The economics of capitalismSocialist Standard February 1982Link: Selling the Standard 

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Fingers crossed Gwynn will provide a transcript of the talk for inclusion on the website.

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Jonathan Neale's resigned.Viv Smith's resigned.David Renton's resigned.Pete Gilliard's resigned.And, as previously mentioned, Ian Birchall's resigned.These were all prominent longstanding members of the SWP. Strange to watch it all unravel.

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