jondwhite
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Assuming the motion is the Great War was "a noble and just cause" defending freedom and liberal democracy? Or was it a slaughter that killed over 15 million people waged by imperial powers competing to carve up the world and its resources?What will John Blake, history teacher and editor of Labour Teachers be arguing?
Weekly Worker comment on Tony Benn that "his view of political change was in a certain sense broader and more inspiring, thanks to its democratic aspect, than the stodgy syndicalism of the Trotskyist groups to his left. He tried to think, which is a dying habit in our faddish, philistine era."
Yep good point UKIP is isolationist in common terminology. Although the logic of this seems to be me to be an argument for Scottish independence (as more isolationist) – which UKIP oppose. Perhaps a better term would be protectionist as they are protective of the status quo whether the existing UK or as I would speculate the British Empire when it existed. Wouldn't the League of Empire Loyalists have come across as isolationist in respect of conflicts where they saw no British interest or thought Britain would not profit from?
'One world' is not exactly a good argument against UKIP, since the British Empire also sought and went a good way (at its peak) to achieving 'one world'. I'm sure UKIP supporters might look fondly back to when the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time and covered more than 33,700,000 km2 (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area.
Haven't read the PDF yet but doesn't 'essentialist' in this context mean when groups claiming they are the true definition of anything essentially semantic?
The SPGB would have more freedom to organise under a state governed by the Labour party (with the exception of World War 2 and similar), but I have my doubts about such civil liberties under even a peacetime state governed by SPEW. That's not to say anyone of Labour or SPEW is supportable as the SPGB ought to organise regardless of what the state says, does or tries to prohibit.As for RIP I think it has passed from any religious connotations into common parlance.As for Tony Benn, the common feeling seems to be he was a conviction politician. His critics Shirley Williams dismissed his politics as out-of-date, maybe she means politicians with convictions are out-of-date, and Dennis Healy said he was an 'artificial lefty' trying to make up for his background.There was a short discussion on BBC the Big Questions on Sunday morning entitled Has Trade Unionism had its day. Its a question very rarely asked on TV at all. I thought it very superficially touched on some of the issues but the question definitely poses deeper questions which could be discussed.
I was disappointed to hear Shirley Williams tried to link him to the Militant Tendency on Newsnight.
CPGB-PCC don't support 'the principle of no platform' (except in certain rare circumstances as a tactic) hence why they printed a letter from a self-proclaimed fascist a few weeks ago. It's mainly Trots and Bakuninists harping on about 'no platform' because they've got nothing else to say or do.
The word that comes to mind is avuncular which may be a consequence of only ever knowing of him long since after his challenges for leadership of the Labour Party. He was a good advocate for the type of Keynesianism that you don't hear of anymore and a contrast to other politicians whenever he appeared on BBC Question Time. There is an extended interview with him from Michael Moore's film Sickohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-2h0o3uZ-8Also unlike other politicians, Benn was not shy about talking about his politicsA critical obituary appears herehttp://redsouthpawpunch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/tony-benn-man-of-misremembered-yesterday.html
Yes, the screening this Sunday at head office is definitely not one to miss!I also came acrosshttp://eastkentagainstfracking.blogspot.co.uk/
Has the more pertinent debate generated more media excitement? Any newspaper (Guardian – John Harris videos), press (New Statesman podcast, Total Politics), radio (Resonance FM) or television (Russia Today) been approached?
Occupied Times of London Issue 24 – March 2014 on the theme of madness is now outhttp://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12750
