jondwhite
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Can't say I have much sympathy for the Trots. I'm not impressed with their strategy document either. I wonder if this is supposed to be a secret document Weekly Worker have uncovered and are responsible for having made public?
Festival Films as follows Big Society The Musical EUROPEAN FILM PREMIERE Plus Q&A with director and actors Monday 28th April 2014 18:00 Dir: Lynn Harwood 90 minutes Big Society, the musical, gives a voice to thousands of people struggling to be heard in the face of the government’s punitive cuts. It does so by telling an untold story through music. Linda (Paula Simms) works with young offenders in Liverpool. Facing unemployment, pending the closure of her Youth Centre, Linda thinks only of Connor, a defiant 14-year-old who has no one apart from her. She risks everything to help him. But as she fights for control, she realizes she has none. When no one hears you shout… Sing! Big Society is brought to us by Liverpool’s, First Take – an award-winning non profit filmmaking organisation, specialising in working with diverse communities and producing edgy, authentic, untold and often complex stories. Big Society, the musical, is no exception.— Rosetta Monday 28th April 2014 20:15 Dir: Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 95 minutes A deserving winner of the Palme D’or at Cannes in 1999, Rosetta was written and directed by the Belgian film-making team of brothers, Luc and Jean Pierre Dardenne. It is an uncompromising tale of poverty, closely following the life of a young woman struggling to shake free of her dead-end background. Living on a Belgian caravan site with her alcoholic mother, Rosetta burns with a desire for the things most of us take for granted — a regular job and a regular life. This is a truly moving and commanding classic that justifiably earned its lead, Émilie Dequenne, the best actress prize at Cannes.— Kinky Boots Tuesday 29th April 2014 18:00 Dir: Julian Jarrold 107 minutes Kinky Boots tells the story of a traditional Northampton shoemaker who’s family business is in trouble. After a chance meeting he sees a business opportunity by diversifying into the market of fetish shoes (or Kinky Boots) — an opportunity that could save his family business and the jobs of his workers. The award-winning actor, Chiwetel Ejifor, plays the drag queen, Lola, who advises and helps the shoemaker Charlie (Joel Edgerton) in his new venture. Based on a true story, this is riotous comedy is a truly heart-warming tale.— Silent Running Tuesday 29th April 2014 20:00 Dir: Douglas Trumbull 89 minutes This 1970’s environmentally themed sci-fi classic had an enormous influence on the whole Sci-Fi genre and so is of significant importance. Set in the future when plant life on earth has become extinct. Only a few specimens have been preserved in enormous, greenhouse-like domes attached to a fleet of space freighters, outside the orbit of Saturn. Freeman Lowell (the recently Oscar nominated Bruce Dern) is one of four crewmen aboard the Valley Forge and is the resident botanist and ecologist who carefully preserves a variety of plants for their eventual return to Earth. Lowell lovingly cultivates the crops and attends to the animal life. After he’s given the order to jettison his beloved crops, Freeman Lowell goes rogue in a bid to protect the flora. As one of the first true eco-warriors, Lowell takes matters into his own hands and the action really begins— Burgos EUROPEAN film premiere Wednesday 30th April 2014 18:00 Dir: Joel Lamangan 90 minutes Written and directed by two of the Philippines’ cinema’s leading lights, Ricardo Lee and Joel C Lamangan, Burgos is a film about a mother’s desperate search for her missing son. In April 2007 Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist and a member of the Farmers Alliance of Bulacan, was abducted by seven armed men and a woman at a restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall, Quezon City, Philippines. Seven years later, Mrs Edita Burgos’s tireless crusade to search for his son still goes on. The human rights group, Desaparecidos (Families of the Disappeared), supports her. They have found direct links of the abduction and detention with the Phillippine military, though they deny it repeatedly. The Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines UK (CHRP-UK), in co-operation with the London Labour Film Festival, is proud to screen Burgos at the London Film Festival.— Monsieur Verdoux Wednesday 30th April 2014 20:30 Dir: Charlie Chaplin 124 minutes In this brilliant black comedy we see Charlie Chaplin as we’ve rarely seen him before. Chaplin plays Henri Verdoux, a loyal bank teller who is laid off after thirty years of exemplary service. To continue to support his beloved wife and child, he turns to crime. He marries and murders a series of wealthy widows. He is eventually caught and convicted. But before being led to his death, he dismisses his killing of a few, as no worse than the killing of many in war, for which others are honored. This philosophical film was originally received far better in Europe than in America — and has become something of a cult movie.— Trash Dance EUROPEAN film premiere Thursday 1st May 2014 18:00 Dir: Andrew Garrison 68 minutes Trash Dance is a film that finds beauty and grace in a completely unexpected place – garbage trucks and in the unseen men and women who pick up our trash. American filmmaker, Andrew Garrison follows choreographer Allison Orr as she rides along with Austin sanitation workers on their daily routes to observe and later convince them to perform a most unlikely spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen trash collectors and their trucks deliver — for one night only — a stunningly beautiful and moving performance, in front of an audience of thousands, who are awed to discover how in the world a garbage truck can “dance.”— Still The Enemy Within Thursday 1st May 2014 19:30 Still The Enemy Within is a hotly anticipated union and crowd funded documentary due to be revealed later this year. In an exclusive London Labour Film Festival event, Producer Sinead Kirwan will discuss plans for the film and present some excerpts from the film, which goes to the heart of the Labour movement. In a film that tells the story of the strike from the frontline, this story examines and celebrates 30 years since the miners strike.— Le Capital Thursday 1st May 2014 20:30 Dir: Costa Gavras 114 minutes The financial thriller, Le Capital by the Greek-French film director Costa Gavras takes an unflinching look at the world of greed and high finance. It follows the story of an executive Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh) who becomes the CEO of a large bank, only to upset the bank’s board of directors when he begins to take unilateral control of the bank. We witness his ruthless ambition, power struggles, greed and deception. However, his brutal ascent is jeopardized by a hostile takeover attempt from a large American hedge fund led by Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne). Le Capital is fast-paced, darkly comic and a suspenseful drama well worth the many accolades it has received.— Women’s Day FILM PREMIERE Plus Q&A with Maria Sadowska Friday 2nd May 2014 18:00 Dir: Maria Sadowska 90 minutes Described by many as a Polish ‘Erin Brockovich’, Women’s Day follows the troubles and dilemmas of the heroine, Halina Radwan (Katarzyna Kwiatkowska) in her fight for justice against an unscrupulous, low-cost supermarket-chain, ‘Motylek’ (Butterfly). The plot is based on the true story of a former manageress of a cut-price supermarket chain in Poland. She took the chain to court for twenty-six thousand złoty (over five thousand euro) for two-and-a-half thousand hours of unpaid overtime. The film is an indictment of what Poles call ‘dziki’ (wild) capitalism in which employees are compelled to work semi-legally. Such capitalism is a result of Poland’s comparative poverty by European Union standards, with minimum wages as little as (one euro) an hour, and chronic unemployment which forces workers to fight to keep almost any kind of employment. We are delighted to be welcoming Maria Sadowska to the event.— Burn Friday 2nd May 2014 18:00 Dir: Tom Putnam/Brenda Sanchez 86 minutes Burn is a feature documentary about Detroit, told through the eyes of Detroit firefighters, who are charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead. Burn follows the crew of Engine Company 50: one of the busiest firehouses in America. Located on Detroit’s blighted east side, E50 stands at ground zero of the city’s problems. Every day, these firefighters face injury, disablement, and death. But they come back, day after day, resolved to make a difference. They’re certainly not here for the money: their starting salary is $30,000 and they haven’t seen a raise in 10 years. BURN tells the story of these exceptional individuals who, despite the challenges and dysfunction, believe in their city and are attempting to make a difference every day.
Instances of market failure and distorted prices are more obvious under market monopolies (as the energy market is accused of) but they also occur under competitive markets. The language I'm not sure about.
what is "….. party of …. …."? Where did a Militant member (who has their logo as his profile picture) call you this?
I think what you are saying is SWP membership is like having a paper round, and the SPEW are workerist and even less interested in debate or intellectual thought. On those points, I can agree. I'm not sure if what I posted is a duplicate of topic on this site's forum, I'm happy for this to be pointed out if so.
Nothing against the ILP, Left Unity or WIC in particular. I don't have the personal animosity some seem to have here.I agree with making a bigger impact, but watering down the socialist case just doesn't work. A lot of the case is interlocking so you can't admit religious members without compromising materialism. To some extent, supporting syndicalism compromises the political road. That's not to say there aren't things outside the party that the party supports or that revolutionary socialist consciousness cannot arise outside of the party. It's probably a myth that the party is one of no compromise, one pernicious myth among members that led to a split in 1911 and also that contributed to one in 1991.
I don't think Left Unity, the ILP or WIC stand for what the SPGB stands for, but also don't believe in one true party and I do believe ideas can overlap in some respects.
Because trade unions are sectional for the interests of their members. You are not going to get One Big Union.
It gets worse for the SWPhttp://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/swp-stall-turned-over-by-autonomist-police/
DJP wrote:jondwhite wrote:Thanks for your reply, its the 'unity' aspect I'm interested in establishing.But unity with whom and for what purpose?You don't even have to scratch below the surface to find that most of these 'left unity' people are not communists or socialists.Leftists are as much a part of the problem as those on the right.
Unity with socialists for socialism. I don't agree with the unortho-Trot rhetorical emotive outbursts about 'unity' and its flipside 'sectarianism', I think Engels warning about those that cry loudest for unity is most appropriate there. Nor do I agree with the left theorists like Weekly Worker that lack of unity is the elephant in the room and the overweening obstacle for socialists achieving socialism.However the way socialists organise is political. Why wouldn't an organisation be subject to a social science study like the rest of society? Simply saying we're correct and outsiders are wrong doesn't seem scientific or useful. I think the term 'sectarian', despite its misuse, has useful meaning about what approach to avoid. I also think the SPGB case has always been that workers can achieve socialist consciousness without the party, but the party is organised to hasten such consciousness. Its one thing to say Left Unity are not socialists and the SPGB are, its another to believe socialist consciousness cannot be achieved without the SPGB.
Thanks for your reply, its the 'unity' aspect I'm interested in establishing.I feel the stale debate between your political party (whether Left Unity or the SPGB) and outsider political parties has been done.Marx said 'The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat 'William Morris' last public lecture was for unity.The question is how do we achieve it without going for substitutionism or size at any cost?
