imposs1904
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“. . . and especially in political theory circles”
Sorry, I think there’s an element of busman’s holiday to your post.
As much as I get annoyed sometimes with how ‘introductory’ the SPGB is with its propaganda, it’s to its eternal credit that it has always aimed to propagate socialism – sorry, I prefer the s-word – to as wide an audience as possible, and that goes well beyond academic conferences, symposiums and other assorted circle-jerk events.
Apologies, for the inverted snobbery. I think I’ve been inundated with one too many spam emails from Jacobin, Cosmonaut and Verso Books this morning.
Still one of my favourite political tunes. The beauty of it is that works both pre-July 4th and post-July 4th:
DJP wrote:
“Most people that understand socialism in the non-market sense will not have learnt it from the SPGB and most likely never even heard of it.”
I’m not sure how you can measure this and, if put on the spot, I’d say more people have learnt/heard of ‘non-market socialism’ via the SPGB than you’d think.
I’m dismissing your anecdotal evidence . . . and replacing it with my own anecdotal evidence. (Where’s the emoticons in this place? I want to insert a cheeky, winky face.)
With regards to Corbyn standing as a left of Labour candidate (or, rather, the Labour Party left him) in his Islington patch, it looks like his Labour opponent, Praful Nargund, is avoiding all the local hustings meetings.
Can Young Master Smeet confirm this is the case?
Some articles and book reviews relating to Chomsky from old Socialist Standards:
February 1970: American Power and the New Mandarins. Noam Chomsky:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2019/11/uncle-sam-is-wicked-1970.htmlFebruary 1994:Book Review: Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. Noam Chomsky
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2017/08/necessary-illusions-1994.htmlAugust 1995: Noam Chomsky – Rights and Lefties
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/02/noam-chomsky-rights-and-lefties.htmlAugust 1998: Chomsky’s Weakness
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2006/05/chomskys-weakness.htmlMarch 2001: Book Review: Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs. Noam Chomsky
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-biggest-rogue-2001.htmlJuly 2004: Book Review: Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance. Noam Chomsky.
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2010/01/chomsky-on-global-super-power.htmlAugust 2006 Book Review: Wolfgang Sperlich: Noam Chomsky. Reaktion Books.
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2006/07/chomsky.htmlAugust 2010: Book Review: Hopes and Prospects. Noam Chomsky.
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/common-sense-raised-to-genius.htmlAugust 2014: Book Review: On Anarchism. Noam Chomsky:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/08/against-state-but-not-quite-yet.htmlMay 2020: Book Review: Internationalism or Extinction. Noam Chomsky:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/05/fixing-system-2020.htmlOctober 2020: US elections: The lesser-evil fallacy:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2023/10/us-elections-lesser-evil-fallacy-2020.htmlI hope that the editors of the Standard consider publishing a critical obituary of Chomsky and his politics, as they have done in the past with such political figures as Tony Cliff, Ted Grant, Michael Foot, etc.
Local voter Ronnie O’Sullivan has just endorsed Faiza Shaheen in Chingford & Woodford:
https://x.com/faizashaheen/status/1802723206328959402
That’s sorted out next month’s Action Replay column, then.
I’m sorry but this is just bloody weird at this point. Has a Labour Party SPAD told him that he needs to reach out to floating voters in 1953 Tunbridge Wells?
There was also a book written in the early 2000s by an SWPer, entitled ‘Tressell, the Real Story of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’.
There was critical review of said book in the December 2003 issue of the Socialist Standard:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2006/02/robert-tressell-and-ragged-trousered.html
Phil BC (A Very Public Sociologist) just resigned his Labour Party membership after 14/15 years:
https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/06/leaving-labour.html
I remember him originally when he was in the CPGB/Weekly Worker group – he wrote a short piece on the SPGB in 2004 wittily entitled ‘100 Years of Solitude’ – and was, I believe, a member of SPEW for a couple of years after CPGB/Weekly Worker before eventually joining the Labour Party.
I wonder where he will go next?
Just scanned this in. A wee poem that appeared in the June 1955 Socialist Standard in the aftermath of the May 1955 General Election.
Spring Song after the Election (1955)
Another Election has come and gone.
The tumult’s ended, the shouting’s done.
Tweedledum’s lost, and Tweedledee’s won.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Lib., Lab., Con.,—and C.P. too,
Made up a right reformist crew,
Dispensing the usual vote-catching brew.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Liberal and Tory, C.P. and Lab.,
All full of promises, all full of gab.
Labour with ’Erbie, Tories with Rab,
Loud sing cuckoo!
Sugar and soft soap again the rule.
Kissing the babies, playing the fool,
Nice glossy photos to make the girls drool.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Candidates handsome, candidates plain,
Candidates pleasing with might and main,
All to keep capitalism running again.
Loud sing cuckoo!
All the old catchcries out once more,
Canvassers knocking at every front door,
First they’d been seen since the barney before,
Loud sing cuckoo!
Street-comer meetings, things of the past,
Democracy’s symbol’s a radio mast.
Now its the “ telly ’’—with all star cast.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Millions of workers put down their crosses,
Applauded the “gains,” regretted the “losses,”
Fine difference it made, they still work for bosses,
Loud sing cuckoo!
So the farcical game goes on.
Tweedledum’s lost and Tweedledee’s won.
Another Election has come and gone,
Loud sing cuckoo!Stan Hampson
The Revolutionary Communist Party (formerly known as Socialist Appeal) are putting up a candidate in Stratford and Bow in the East End of London.
Their candidate, Fiona Lali, is listed as an independent but that’s only because they probably didn’t register in time as a political party with the electoral commission:
https://communist.red/this-election-punish-the-warmongers-vote-for-the-rcp/
Their candidate was recently in the news when she debated the issue of Palestine with Suella Braverman on GB News:
Damn, I didn’t spot that book review.
Hilarious how the term “ultra-leftists” is thrown around willy-nilly against all and sundry. It brings to mind that famous Princess Bride meme.
Funny how the reviewer of the book thinks yourself and John Crump were “follow”[ing] on from Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski.
I’m presuming the reviewer, Richard Barbrook, is this guy:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/richard-barbrook-man-war-gaming-corbyn-governmentSome people in Left Trainspotting circles have suggested that though Starmer wasn’t formally a member of Militant, he did sell the paper as a young man in the LPYS in either Leeds or Oxford.
He then went on his Pabloite excursion in his mid to late 20s.
Here’s a link to an issue of the short-lived Socialist Alternatives magazine when Starmer was on its Editorial Board. In this issue he has an article on Wapping and its aftermath, and he interviews Hilary Wainwright and Tony Benn about the direction of the Labour Party.
I’m genuinely surprised that the Tories haven’t made more of his Trot past. Britain’s very own Lionel Jospin. You also know that if the press weren’t so over this Tory government, and now think it’s Labour’s turn as the Capitalist B Team, they would have been all over this like a rash. By July 3rd the Sun would be doing centre spreads on ‘What is Pabloism?’ and ‘Do you know your Fourth Internationals from your Fifth Internationals?’
